1 The Birthday Chicken Me and Bradley We’d always been best friends We loved all the same things from orange Creamsicles to comic books especially the non-stop non-stop action-packed adventures of Cat And we did everything together from back-to-school shoe shopping to swashbuckling It’s a pirate thing Our Halloween costumes last year Notice our matching sneakers and peg legs 10
But ever since that spring when my best friend had appeared on Smarty Pants a televised quiz show for fourth graders he’d changed Mostly it was good With his newfound confidence Bradley had started raising his hand more in Ms Smith’s class He’d even volunteered to be the emcee at the end-of-year school barbecue announcing the winners of the egg-on-a-spoon race right into the microphone But things took a turn for the worse when we began building the Kitten Caboodle and if I’m being honest I should have seen it coming as far back as the day of Bradley’s tenth birthday party an afternoon that was supposed to be fun-filled but that ended up seriously sucking literally at least for me It was the second Sunday of July and we were in Bradley’s backyard where the party was in full swing Hiiiiii-yaaaah our friend Abby yelled She was wearing a blindfold and waving a baseball bat around wildly Even though she was only about four feet tall and had a teeny-tiny mouse-squeak of a voice Abby had surprising strength and 11
stamina I didn’t envy the pig-shaped piñata she was attacking On her third hit the swine exploded showering candy onto the grass All the party guests rushed to pick some up all the guests that is except for Bradley’s new friend Nelson Nelson Bradley called My best friend was kneeling on the lawn with two huge handfuls of packaged gumballs Jolly Ranchers and Fizz poppers Come get some Nelson just smiled and shrugged Thanks but candy gets stuck in my braces He went back to flipping through his magazine or actually Bradley’s magazine Nelson had given it to Bradley for his birthday along with a METAL DETECTORIST MONTHLY FOUND 12
monthly subscription It looked pretty boring at least compared with my gift a genuine sno-cone machine that could do six different flavors but Bradley had made a huge deal about how much he loved it and I guess it was a thoughtful present Plus it went well with what Bradley’s mom got him his very own X-2000 metal detector which according to Nelson was professional grade and super-lightweight and even had an ultrasensitive DD coil whatever that was Who was this Nelson kid anyway you might be wondering Bradley had met him just the week before at JTT Camp JTT’s short for Junior Treasure Trackers And they got along so well that he’d scored a last-minute invite to the party In summers past Bradley and I had always gone to the same camps but that year as school ended and it came time to choose we just couldn’t agree JTT will be a different treasure-hunting adventure every day Bradley had said butt-bouncing on his couch with excitement And it did sound fun until you looked more closely Local history lessons Three-hour treasure treks Geocaching excursions and a rust-removal 13
