Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin

1
   Welcome to Time-Out

2
   Something You Should Know Before We Get Started

3
   Something Else You Should Know Before We Get Started

4
   Buzillions, Katrillions, and Other Cool Numbers

5
   Ladders and Luck

6
   How Big Is That Pumpkin in the Window?

7
   Hello, Kitty!

8
   Guesstimating

9
   The Bad-Luck Magnet

10
   Leaves Dropping

11
   And the Winner Is…

12
   Good-Bye from Time-Out

About the Author

Other Books by Katherine Applegate

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

Hey, friend! Over here, in the time-out corner.

It's me, Roscoe.

I'm pretty sure I only have to stay in time-out for about three more minutes.

That should be plenty of time for me to tell you how I ended up here.

Oops.

Mom checked the clock. Turns out I have
seven
more minutes.

I thought seven was supposed to be a lucky number!

My teacher says when you think a number is lucky, that's called a
superstition
.

She says there's no such thing as a lucky number.

And that seven is just like eight and forty-seven and a gazillion.

A plain, old, everyday number.

I used to think lots of things were lucky.

Things like numbers and four-leaf clovers and horseshoes.

I used to think lots of things were unlucky, too.

That's sort of how I ended up in time-out.

One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was being chased down the street by a humongous pumpkin.

And let me tell you, those guys can MOVE.

You've been chased by a giant piece of food before, haven't you?

No?

How about normal-size food?

Not even a little bitty grape?

Oh.

I guess being chased by food doesn't come up all that often.

But I can explain everything.

Have you got seven minutes to spare?

When a kitty rubs her face on your leg, she is just saying hello.

It does not mean she is wondering how you will taste for dinner.

A pumpkin is a fruit. Not a vegetable.

It's a true fact. I learned it at school.

But take it from me. When the biggest pumpkin in town is about to smush you into a pumpkin-boy pie, you don't really care if it's a fruit or a vegetable.

You just want to get out of its way.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't gone to the school library last week.

Then I never would have seen the giant pumpkin that got me into so much trouble.

Don't get me wrong. I
love
our school library.

It's the most fun place in my school.

Except maybe for the playground.

Our library has maps. And DVDs. And CDs. And computers.

But most of all, it has tons of books.

My class goes there twice a week for story time.

Our story-time area is shaped like a little pirate ship. On the deck are lots of squishy pillows.

Mr. Page is the library helper who reads to us.

He has the best name for a library guy, I think.

Although
Mr. Shhh
would be good too.

When Mr. Page reads, he wears a black eye patch like a real pirate.

Also, he says, “ARGHH, me hearties!”

Which is Pirate for
Hello, kids!

This time Mr. Page was wearing an orange eye patch, though.

On account of the book he was going to read to us was about pumpkins.

“Okay, folks,” said Mr. Page. “Today's book is called
Pumpkin Power
. It's full of fun facts about pumpkins.”

He held up the book. The cover had a picture of a giant pumpkin on it.

“Before we start reading,” said Mr. Page, “I want to tell you about an even bigger pumpkin!”

He unrolled a poster.

There was a photo of a boy and a girl on it.

They were each holding a book. And smiling.

And next to them was the most gigantic pumpkin I had ever seen. It looked huge!

It was as tall as my dad.

Almost.

And as big as our car.

Almost.

“That's got to be the world's biggest pumpkin,” I cried.

“Actually, giant pumpkins can reach over one thousand six hundred pounds,” said Mr. Page. “This one is gigantic, all right. But it's not
that
big.”

“Any kind of gigantic is good, if you ask me,” I said.

“This poster is from Hilltop Bookstore,” Mr. Page said. “They're having a contest. If you guess the weight of the giant pumpkin in their window, you win books for the school library. Enough to fill that giant pumpkin!”

“That's a lot of books!” said Emma.

“You're right, Emma. And we sure could use them,” said Mr. Page. “You can make a guess when you visit the bookstore. The winner will be announced at the Fall Festival on Saturday.”

“I'll bet that pumpkin weighs two hundred buzillion pounds!” Hassan said.

“Nunh-uh,” said Gus. “Seven thousand katrillion pounds, at least.”

Emma said, “I'm not sure if buzillion and katrillion are for-real numbers. But googol is a real number, right, Ms. Diz?”

Ms. Diz is our first-grade teacher.

She knows lots of math and spelling.

And also how to wiggle her ears.

“Googol
is
a number, Emma,” Ms. Diz said. “A very big number. It has one hundred zeros in it!”

“That pumpkin is for sure a googol
pounds then,” I said.

“Children,” said Ms. Diz, “maybe we should work on estimating how much things weigh. It could be a wonderful learning opportunity.”

When Ms. Diz says
learning opportunity,
she gets very excited.

She is a brand-new teacher, so she likes to try out new ideas on us. Mostly that is a good thing.

But once she let us make marshmallow crispies so we could learn about measuring.

After that Learning Opportunity, she had to send home a letter to all the parents about How to Wash Marshmallow Goo out of Your Child's Hair.

“Kids, I forgot to mention that the contest winner also gets a prize,” added
Mr. Page. “Candy. Lots of it. Enough to fill the pumpkin.”

“A googol pounds of candy!” said Gus.

He had a goofy smile on his face.

I probably did too.

“ARGHH, me hearties!” said Mr. Page in his pirate voice. “It's time to read!”

He held up the book so we could see the first page.

“‘You may think that a pumpkin is a vegetable,' he read. “‘But it's really a fruit, because it has seeds inside of it.'”

Hmm
, I thought. It was a very interesting fact.

But not nearly as interesting as the news about the contest.

Mr. Page kept on reading about pumpkins. He talked about giant pumpkins, tiny
pumpkins, pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin pie.

My ears tried to pay attention.

But my brain kept thinking how nice it would be to win books for the library.

And candy for me.