One day, Barley decided that he wanted to get his ear pierced for some reason.
"I wonder where I should go to get that done," he said to himself.
Ian overheard and laughed.
"How about the girly store at the mall?"
"Boys, what are you two talking about?" Laurel asked.
"Barley wants to get his ear pierced!" Ian said.
"Ew!" Laurel said.
"W-w-what? Why did you say 'ew'?" Barley whined.
"You shouldn't get your ear pierced," Laurel said.
"Why not?" Barley asked.
"Your body is perfect the way it is! You don't need to add anything to it! You'll ruin it!" Laurel said.
"His body was ruined about 20 pounds ago," Ian said.
Barley ran away, crying.
"IAN! You upset him!" Laurel scolded.
Barley came back, a few minutes later.
"I found a good place to get my ear pierced!" he said. "It's somewhere I've been before."
"What? Why? How?" Laurel sputtered. "Have you secretly gotten a piercing before?"
Barley winked at her and walked away.
"BARLEY!' Laurel screeched.
The next day, Laurel asked Colt where Barley was.
"He went to his ear piercing appointment," Colt said.
"AND YOU JUST LET HIM GO?!"
"Of course. He's not breaking any laws."
"I need to stop him. You can go faster than me. Can you give me a ride?"
"No."
"WAAH! You're so mean!" Laurel cried. "Fine! I'll just go after him on my own."
She got into her car and sped away, but lost control and skidded off the road
"NO! NO! NO!"
Unfortunately, it was now too late for her to stop him.
Barley screamed and cried while getting his ear pierced.
Later that day, he asked his mom if she liked his earring. It was a small golden hoop.
"No! I hate it! It's so ugly!" she said.
"Well," he said. "I like it."
Then, he walked away.
Laurel had a plan!
"I'm gonna take that stupid earring out while he's sleeping tonight!" she said.
Barley was sleeping very deeply that night. He didn't even notice his mom taking the earring.
Unfortunately, there was a hole in Laurel's pocket. The earring fell out!
The next morning, Barley was panicking.
"Oh, no! Where is my earring?"
He crawled around on the floor until he found it.
"Ah! There it is!"
Then, he immediately put it back into his ear for some reason.
A few days later, his ear became infected.
"How could this happen to me?" he cried.