Benedict glanced over at the professor. “Who asked you?”

Oh no.

The professor raised his dusty old book and took a deep breath.

Here we go again, I thought, expecting Benedict to get punished. I wondered if he’d get the same three quests or have to find something completely different.

Instead of blowing the dust, the professor winked at me, put the book down, and went back to reading.

“Come on,” I said, tugging Benedict by the arm. “I’ll tell you all about it on the way to the pizzeria.”

We walked out of the library, back into the warm weather.

“I’ll share mine with you when I win it,” Benedict said.

“Thanks.”

“I know I messed up for May. But June’s a short month. It’ll be easy. Especially when I turn in a great paper.”

“Did you figure out a topic?” I asked.

Benedict nodded. “I’ve got something Mr. Vernack will love. Ms. Glott, too. I’m going to write about words and stuff.”

“Oxymorons and anagrams?”

“Those are okay. But I really want to write about puns. I know they make people groan, but there’s also something sort of cool about them.”

“Yeah.They are kind of cool,” I said. “Ready for pizza?”

“Sure, Pete’s-a great guy,” Benedict said.

“Yeah, Pete’s-a great guy.” I groaned. And then I laughed. And then I said, “Since we have a coupon, we don’t knead any dough.” I didn’t have to make the pun, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. It was nice having the choice.

“I never sausage a nice pizza,” Benedict said when we reached the window outside the pizzeria.

“I read about one in the news-pepper,” I said as I opened the door.

And we walked inside—two groan boys.

About the Author

DAVID LUBAR is a writer and video-game designer. He's written a variety of books for teens and young readers. His novel Hidden Talents was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Dunk, a wildly funny young adult novel set on the boardwalk of the Jersey Shore, won the 2004 Young Adult Book Award from the Keystone State Reading Association and appeared on the Texas Lone Star Reading List. His other books include Dog Days, Wizards of the Game, Flip, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, In the Land of the Lawn Weenies, and his latest short-story collection, Invasion of the Road Weenies. His short stories have appeared in Boys’ Life, READ magazine, Nickelodeon magazine, and in various anthologies, including Sports Shorts (Darby Creek Publishing).

David has designed and programmed many video games,including Home Alone and Frogger 2 for the Nintendo GameBoy,Fantastic Voyage for the Atari 2600, and Swamp Thing for the Nintendo Entertainment System. His most recent game work has been for Nabisco's Candystand and Nabisco World Web sites.