There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

At recess, Bradley asks Mrs. Ebbel if he can use the hall pass, and, sensing something different about him, she lets him, though she warns him that if he misbehaves, she’ll never permit a hall pass again. Bradley says thank you, and Mrs. Ebbel says you’re welcome, not to Bradley but to herself.

In Carla’s office, Bradley admits he ripped up his math homework and doesn’t know why. Carla isn’t mad. What matters is he did his homework. Bradley vows to continue to do his homework.

There’s a book report for next week, but Mrs. Wilcott won’t let him take out a book, so Carla gives him a book—a novel, My Parents Didn’t Steal an Elephant, by Uriah C. Lasso. In the book’s first sentence, the unnamed narrator announces his hatred of tomato juice, though his Aunt Ruth gives it to him every morning. The unnamed narrator lives with his quirky aunt and Uncle Boris because his parents are in jail for allegedly stealing an elephant. The narrator thinks the elephant ran away from its abusive master.

At home, Bartholomew mocks Bradley for reading, but Ronnie encourages him. In the book, the narrator says his Uncle Boris and Aunt Ruth met after his parents went to jail.