“No worries,” she told us. “Let’s talk about something else. How about—”

But she didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence. You’ll never believe who ran into the door at that moment.

Nobody! It would hurt if you ran into a door. I thought we covered that in chapter 1. But you’ll never believe who ran into the doorway.

It was Mr. Macky, the reading specialist!

“Darling!” Mr. Macky shouted.

“Sweetheart!” Miss Daisy shouted.

Then the two of them ran toward each other and started hugging and kissing.

Ewww, gross! I thought I was gonna throw up.

“Isn’t that cute?” said Andrea. “They’re in love!”

Ugh. Andrea said that four-letter L word.

“Do you think Jackie Macky is going to be okay at day care?” Mr. Macky asked Miss Daisy.

“I just called the day care center on the phone,” she replied. “Jackie Macky is fine.”

“I’m still worried,” Mr. Macky said. “Until today she’s never been away from us for so long.”

“I’m worried, too,” said Miss Daisy. “I hope nothing happens to her.”

Sheesh! Those two need to take a chill pill.

“As long as I’m here,” said Mr. Macky, “does anybody have any questions about reading?”

Little Miss Perfect raised her hand and started waving it around like she was cleaning a giant window.

“Yes, Andrea?”

“I was reading the encyclopedia on my new smartphone,” said Andrea, who actually reads the encyclopedia for fun, “and some of the words were hard to pronounce. What do I do when that happens?”

“Oh, it’s simple,” Mr. Macky told Andrea. “If you don’t understand a word, all you need to do is sound it out. English is a very easy language.”

“I tried sounding them out,” Andrea said. “But it doesn’t always work. Like the word ‘right’ is spelled R-I-G-H-T, but there’s also W-R-I-T-E. And when I sound it out, I spell it R-I-T-E. And that’s wrong. So I’m confused.”

“Hmmm,” said Mr. Macky as he stroked his chin. Grown-ups always say “Hmmm” and stroke their chin when they’re thinking. It’s the first rule of being a grown-up.

“And what about the word ‘through’?” asked Andrea. “If I sound it out, it’s spelled T-H-R-U. And that’s wrong, too.”

“Uh, yes,” said Mr. Macky. “That’s an excellent point. I’ll have to get back to you with the answer, Andrea. Does anybody else have a question?”

Everybody started shouting out all kinds of questions.

“How come vegetarians eat vegetables, but humanitarians don’t eat humans?” asked Ryan.

“How come it’s the same thing when an alarm goes off or when an alarm goes on?” asked Michael.

“If the plural of ‘tooth’ is ‘teeth,’” asked Alexia, “how come the plural of ‘moose’ isn’t ‘meese’?”