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Back The Copycat Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Chapter One
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Chapter Two
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Chapter Three
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Chapter Four
  19. Twelve
  20. Thirteen
  21. Fourteen
  22. Chapter Five
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Chapter Six
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Chapter Seven
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Chapter Eight
  34. Twenty-Three
  35. Twenty-Four
  36. Twenty-Five
  37. Chapter Nine
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Chapter Ten
  41. Twenty-Eight
  42. Twenty-Nine
  43. Thirty
  44. Thirty-One
  45. Chapter Eleven
  46. Thirty-Two
  47. Thirty-Three
  48. Thirty-Four
  49. Thirty-Five
  50. Chapter Twelve
  51. Thirty-Six
  52. Thirty-Seven
  53. Thirty-Eight
  54. Chapter Thirteen
  55. Thirty-Nine
  56. Forty
  57. Forty-One
  58. Forty-Two
  59. Chapter Fourteen
  60. Forty-Three
  61. Forty-Four
  62. Forty-Five
  63. Forty-Six
  64. Forty-Seven
  65. Chapter Fifteen
  66. The Following Summer
  67. About the Author
  68. About the Publisher

Ali liked rules. In third grade, she’d discovered there were scientific laws for things like gravity, time, and the orbit of planets, which helped people understand the world around them and create order from chaos. Ali decided she needed her own laws to make sense of things she couldn’t control, like Digger’s Copycat powers and her family’s constant moving. Laws sounded too fancy, so Ali called them rules, and copied each one into a tattered green notebook in her spidery cursive handwriting. Gigi said cursive writing was a dying art, but that Ali should master it, because someday she might have to write a thank-you note to a king or queen. Over time, there were so many rules she was forced to put them into categories, like New School Rules or Digger Rules, which pleased her because the laws of nature were categorized, too.

The most important new school rule was: Sit at a table closest to the teachers when you don’t know anyone. That way no one could try any monkey business. She’d learned that at Milltown Elementary School in grade three, when a boy covered in freckles named Carl stole her lunch. Which wasn’t a big deal because that was the year her family was on welfare, and all Carl got was half a peanut-butter sandwich on stale rye bread. He never bothered her again. Ali scanned the cafeteria, spotted the teachers’ table, and dodged her way through the crowd until she reached the table next to it. She was pleased when her homeroom teacher, Ms. Ryder, smiled and waved.

ALI’S NEW SCHOOL RULES

  1. Sit at a table closest to the teachers when you don’t know anyone.
  2. Sit between groups of kids.
  3. First day outfit: T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.
  4. Get the lay of the land before you make friends.
  5. Always carry a book.
  6. Try not to tell people that you don’t own a television or a computer.
  7. Always act like the popular kids. They’re popular for a reason.
  8. Join a club to meet people. Ideally, a swim team, except there never is one.
  9. FIT IN!

The next thing was to snag a seat in the center of the table between two groups of kids. This was a trick learned at Port Elgin Regional School in grade four, when she’d realized that sitting at the end of a table by yourself was a recipe for unwanted attention. And not just of the bullying kind, but of the look-it’s-a-new-kid-let’s-be-her-friend kind, which led to: Get the lay of the land before you make friends. It had taken her months in Port Elgin to extricate herself from a group of girls who talked about nothing except their favorite TV shows, something Ali couldn’t do because her family didn’t own a TV.