Almost Starring Skinnybones Read Online Free Page A

for his cat.”
    I buried my face in my hands and groaned.
    “A love so great,” she rambled on, “that even when he ran away from home, he thought not of himself, oh no, but of his little kitten whom he knew he would have to care for on the road. And to show that great love he sacrificed his own nutritional needs by loading a giant-size bag of fritters on board for the kitty cat. And nothing, mind you, not one little crumb, for himself.”
    My father and I stared at her, hoping for a sign that she had been kidding. She hadn’t been. It was scary.
    But at least she was trying to make me feel better. And I have to admit, some of it helped a little bit. After all, there’s nothing really
wrong
with playing a younger character. They do it in Hollywood all the time. And besides, it
was
sort of a nice story, about the kid loving his cat and everything. Not as nice as my mother made it sound maybe. But still, nothing to have nightmares over. Nothing to be ashamed of.

    Two months. That’s how long it took before the commercial finally appeared on TV. I was sitting inthe family room watching
Gilligan’s Island
with my best friend, Brian Dunlop, when all of a sudden it just popped onto the screen. It really took me by surprise!
    “Hey! Look! There I am! There I am!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Look, Brian! My commercial!
    “Mom!” I called. “Come quick! My commercial!” I was jumping up and down. My heart was pounding a million times a minute.
    I thought Brian would be excited too. Not as excited as I was maybe. Not hysterical, but at least mildly excited. Moderately excited. I mean, how many kids get to sit in the same room with a guy that’s on the screen right in front of them?
    Not Brian though. He didn’t even jump up and give me a high five. He just sat and watched the commercial without saying a word.
    After it was over, he took a deep breath. Then he turned slowly and looked up at me. You could tell he was fighting to keep a straight face.
    “Nice,” he said quietly. Then this sort of muffled pig noise escaped from his throat, and he exploded. He started rolling around on the floor in wild, uncontrolled laughter, until he was practically crying. Even when my mother ran into the room, he didn’t stop.
    As the two of us watched him circle the floor, a sick, nervous feeling creeped over my skin and settled inside me.
    “You missed it,” I informed Mom, suddenly joyless. “It’s all over.”
    She thought I meant the commercial. I meant my life.
    My mother left the room. I could tell by the look on her face that she felt bad for me. But she’s not the type to yell at my friends and embarrass everyone. When someone’s acting up, she likes to let me embarrass him myself.
    I sat down on the couch and waited for Brian to finish rolling. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by his behavior. This isn’t the first time that Brian has been a disappointment to me. I’ve known him since first grade and in the past six years, Brian Dunlop has let me down a lot.
    Sometimes I think he’s the kind of friend that grownups call a “fair-weather friend.” That means when everything’s going smoothly, he’s the best friend a guy could want. But as soon as something goes wrong, Brian sort of turns on you. Like if he and I are at a boring movie, and I start trying to hit people in the head with Raisinets, when the manager comes Brian practically jumps out of his seat and starts spelling my name out for the guy.
    Anyway, even though Brian may not have lovedthe commercial, he still shouldn’t have started laughing at it. Not right in front of me like that. I finally had to slug him two times to get him to stop.
    Besides, what was so darned funny? It’s not like I hadn’t told him about how I’d be playing the role of a younger kid. I’d even told him about the hat and the wagon. So what was the big deal?
    “The big deal is that you fell flat on your face trying to pick up the cat food bag!” he