That does it! I said to myself. I've had about half a dozen chances for this moment and they're always ruined. No matter whom it was or for what reason, I'm going to murder him! I turned around and…..wouldn't you know it?

"LARRY!"

He burped. A long, repulsive, rumbling belch. I rolled my eyes and the air hissed out of my lungs. Really, I was so mad I really convinced myself that I could actually kill Larry. And that says a lot. I mean, we're talking about Larry.

Lilia blushed from embarrassment and looked down at the ground, but didn't take arms off me. I'm kinda glad. Her embrace felt nice.

"Well, I just…" Larry stammered. "Could you come in the Palace for a minute?"

I sighed. I was too angry to be embarrassed. I turned back to Lilia. "I gotta go."

She nodded. "Yeah, okay."

She took her arms off me and stepped back. "See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I might go to school tomorrow."

She smiled. "All right. See you then. Bye." She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek then ran inside her house. I stood there for a while, feeling myself smiling. My heart started skipping beats.

Larry hit me on the side of my head. Hard. "Ow! What's that for?"

"You look very stupid when you're lovesick and icky like that!"

I punched him right in the face. "Shut up, you low-down, good-for-nothing lizard!"

After I calmed down, I said, "Well, what excuse do you have for this occasion?"

"Excuse? Do I make excuses for bothering you?" he said innocently.

"Every single day since I've known you."

"Now, wait a minute! I know I've interrupted you other times for somewhat less important reasons but this time I've got a good excuse."

I crossed my arms and stared at him. "All right. Go ahead. What's your alleged valid excuse for this time?"

He opened his mouth, as if he was going to say something, but he just closed it again. "Well, I, that is, I…um…uh, uh, uh, oh yeah, I….what was the question?" He looked at me with a stupid innocent look. This was no surprise, because that's how he looks most of the time.

I nodded. "Yeah, just as I thought. Once again, Mr. Snoopy-and-Always-Messing-Things-Up, you have official ruined my life. I hope you're satisfied!"

"Oh, I am, I am," he said, plainly. As he had done nothing in the world.

"You're happy?! How can you be happy?"

"Well, you said you hoped I was happy. And that shows that you care about your friends. And that makes me happy."

I covered my face with my hand. "Ay yay yay." Then I looked at him. "Larry, would you please do me a tremendous favor? Stop acting like a darn fool!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself."

I flinched at that. "I was talking about you, you brickhead!"

"I told you not to insult yourself."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Oh, whatever. I didn't have to time to…oh well. I had much more important things on my mind: my job as King, my schoolwork, my apparent new music career, finding a cure for cancer, expanding our space colonies, etc.

And of course, Lilia.

Next day was Friday, February 27, 2015. I went to school that day. We were in science and we were discussing natural science. We'd been talking about animals and how they're classified, their diets, etc. We were reviewing because we were going to have a big exam on the subject.

As you might or might not know, exams and tests are not exactly my favorite thing about school, but I take them seriously and I do everything I can to study hard in order to pass. I mean, you study hard, research your topic, and review the notes and memorize the words in Latin and Greek. And when the test comes, you give it your best shot and get the grade you deserve.

You might say that the whole study period is exercise and receiving a good grade is your reward for being good.

Dimetroodon, Darla, Patty, Lilia, and I were the only ones who actually had a history of getting excellent grades. Most of the others usually get B-'s or C+'s. As for Kylie, Tyrone and the popular kids…well, let's just say that you won't see their parents or teachers too happy on Graduation Day.

Anyways, the teacher waited for the bell to ring, and then he said, "Very well. Boys and girls please put away your pencils and books and clear your desks of everything." Right away, everyone started to do so. But as usual, Larry started acting like a wise-guy. Not only did he clear his desk of school material, he also took out that spray used to clean wooden objects and sprayed it all over. Then with a cloth towel, he scrubbed it off.

The rest of us all stared at him, then at each other, and then at him again. We all knew Larry took things literally. And on purpose. He doesn't do it because he doesn't have a brain. He does it because he knows it annoys others and he enjoys it. He's a first-degree comedian with second-degree material and last-degree results.

So, he's there supposedly clearing his desk, when he takes out a bottle of bleach. Clorox bleach. What's he going to do with that? He's not going to…Oh no! Before he could do anything, I snatched the bottle out of his hand and said, "What are you doing?"

"He told us to clear our desks. I'm clearing away the dirt and germs."

I hit him on the head with the bottle. "Behave will you?" I put the bottle in my backpack and turned back to the teacher. He'd been waiting. "Yes, well, anyways," he said. "Now we'll see how well you've studied this unit. Let's start with animals."

Larry punched Tyrone in the shoulder, who was sitting in front of him. "They're calling you, Tyrone!" The whole class started laughing. Tyrone's eyes popped open. "I what?!"

"Ignore him, Tyrone. He's only trying to get you mad," I said to him.

"Anyways," said the teacher, "we're going to start by physical characteristics and diets. Larry, give me an example of a toothless mammal."

"Eh…my grandma?"

WHAT? Was that the best he could do? Some of the students started snickering. Now, the teacher got mad. "You've got a zero for being funny, and you've got detention for a week for trying to make me look like a fool."

Larry rolled his eyes around. "That doesn't require much effort."

"WHAT?!"

"I mean…can I have one more chance?"

The teacher sighed. "All right. But if you get funny and mock me again, I'll give you detention for a whole month!" Then he stood up from his seat. "Now, what is the biggest animal in the world outside of dinosaurs?"

"The biggest animal in the world?" Larry asked.

"Yes."

"No, I can't say. If I answer you're going to give me detention all year."

Yipes! He was calling the teacher an animal?! Boy, you should've seen the teacher's reaction. His eyes bulged, his teeth showed, his jaws clenched and he growled. I automatically raised my hand.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"The blue whale. Can reach 98 feet long and weighs 210 short tons. The scientific name is Balaenoptera musculus."

"Very good. And of land animals outside of dinosaurs, which is the biggest and heaviest?"

Lilia raised her hand. "Ms. Woods?"

"It's the African bush elephant which can weigh 12.7 tons and measure 18 feet in length. It's scientific name is Loxodonta africana. It was originally thought to be the same as the African elephant but has recently been confirmed to be a different subspecies. It lives in across southern Africa and is Vulnerable on the Conservation Status."

The teacher—sorry I forgot his name—seemed very impressed. I was too. See what I mean? Lilia was very smart. Why would anyone not like her? I turned to look at her and smiled. She smiled at me.

"Nerd," I heard a voice whisper. I looked behind me. It was Kylie. I scowled at her. "Be quiet," I whispered back. She got the message, because she looked back down at her nails. But I think I sent the message too loud, because…agh! What is his name?

Mills. Mills….Mr. Mills. That's it!

Anyway, I whispered too loud because Mr. Mills said, "Is there a problem over there?"

I quickly turned back to the teacher. "No, sir. Nothing."

He nodded. "Very well. I hope not." He went back to the blackboard. "Anyways, now let's move on to something else. Diets. Kylie, what is the name given to meat-eating animals? Aside from carnivores?"

Kylie wasn't paying attention. As usual. She was still polishing her nails. "Huh? I mean, my dog's name is Lady Gaga."

We all started laughing. I mean, please! Who likes her music? And who would be foolish enough to stick a poor dog with that name.

Mr. Mills quieted us down then he said, with a disapproving tone, "I asked what is the scientific term in Latin for meat-eating animals?"

"I don't know! I mean, have you heard of a dog who could speak Latin?"

Well, long-story short, Kylie ended up in study hall while we went off to lunch. As I grabbed my tray from the buffet, Larry kept up his weird behavior. He bragged a celery stick with his bare fingers and ate it right there before we even sat down.

We sat at our usual table. Dimetroodon was there doing…I don't know what. He was stirring something in a large blue, plastic container. It didn't look like food. I sat beside him and Lilia sat beside me. Larry sat at the end of the table to the other side of Dimetroodon.

Now I saw what Dimetroodon was mixing. It was white, sticky and basically…yuck!

"Now, don't tell me that's your lunch," I said to him.

"Of course not! This is for Sophrana."

We all stared at him. "For who?" said Kathy.

"Sophrana. My lab rat."

It figures. Every middle-school nerd must have at least one weird and/or creepy animal. It's kind of a rule.

"Your rat?" said Lilia.

"Yeah. It's kind of an experiment. Too see what food they like best, what flavors, how thick, things like that."

"Sounds interesting," said Patty.

"Sounds nerdy," said Darla.

Ignoring both, he turned to grab the container. "Hey, it's gone! Sophrana's food is gone!" Then we saw…Larry was munching something. He had white on his mouth and his right hand. "Hey, this is very good. It ought to be on a menu at a gourmet restaurant or something. I mean, it's good."

"You….you…." Wow, Dimetroodon looked like he was going to explode. "You idiot! You ate Sophrana's food! Now what am I going to fed her?"

Larry looked at him curiously. Obviously, he had been so busy helping himself to unknown laboratory food that he hadn't even paid the lightest of attention to our conversation. "Who's Sophrana?"

"It's Dimetroodon's lab rat," Lilia explained.

Larry's eyes got as big as saucers and his expression changed to one of horror. "You mean…I ate rat food?!"

We all nodded.

"Well, it's tasty!" he said, grabbing more of the stuff. And he, "Buuuuuuuuuuuuurpp!" Yech! He let out a long, disgusting, loud, rumbling burp. I tell you, I even saw green fumes coming out of his mouth.

Well I tell you, Dimetroodon wasn't too happy about the results. He muttered to himself. Something about there being no difference whatsoever between a stupid lab rat and Larry. Which I can agree on.

When lunch period ended, Dimetroodon, Larry, and I went to soccer practice while Patty and Darla went to Art class. Kathy and Lilia had their break during our soccer practice so they usually sat on the bleachers and watched us practice.

Yeah, I'm on the soccer team, too. I'm actually the captain of the soccer team. But I never practice after school. I do it all during the day to manage time for my other many duties. The only bad thing is that the cheerleaders also get to be there. They're considered "essential" in our mental preparation. If you ask me, it's more like mental breakdown.

A whole hour and a half of girls chanting, jumping, screaming, and of course Kylie throwing me flirtatious looks. Let me tell you something. As far as I'm concerned, there hasn't been a single cheerleader who ever believed that appearances don't matter. And all of the cheerleaders are in the Top 50 Most Popular Kids at school. Not really a good thing always.

And that means that she can also throw mean looks at Lilia and Kathy from the other side. Kinds sad, because all the cheerleaders are mean to Lilia, because she's the least popular girl. Of course, I don't care about that. I like her the way she is. I don't care what others think.

Anyways, we were doing penalty practices. It was Larry's turn. Dimetroodon was the goalkeeper. I turned to Larry. "You sure you can handle this?"

"I think that if I focus my total potential energy and convert it into kinetic energy whilst surging my left foot at 35 miles per hour towards the direction of the goal…I think I can make it."

Who cares what he said, as long as he'll make the goal? He got in front of the ball and started concentrating. I put my hands on my waist and waited patiently. I looked to my right. Kylie, and the rest of her…militant group either winked at me, waved at me, or blew kisses at me. Kylie did them all. Yech!

Then I looked to my left, and saw Lilia with Kathy sitting to my right. Kathy had a mischievous grin on her face and kept looking at me then at Lilia. She seemed to be playfully nudging Lilia on the shoulder. Lilia had a small smile and seemed to be blushing. She looked at me briefly. I blinked and smiled at her. She smiled back, still blushing.

Larry seemed to be now ready to shoot the ball. "Well, here goes." He ran like a cheetah towards the ball. Only thing was that he lost his footing. His feet slid forward on the slippery wood-laminated floor and he fell backward on his head. Ouch! But that wasn't the worst of it. He kicked the ball hard all right, but in the wrong direction.

Instead of going straight ahead, it went upwards and the ball went CRASH! Right against one of the windows. We all looked at each other. The cheerleaders had disappeared. Then we looked at Lilia and Kathy. "Let's get out of here!" Dimetroodon said. The five of us ran out the gym and to the farthest possible hallway.

"Phew! That was close," said Kathy, gasping for air.

"I just hope they didn't install security cameras in the gym," said Larry.

"If they did, start writing out your will," I said.

By now, we'd all caught our breath. "Hopefully they didn't."

"Well, just in case, let's get back to our classes. I have no intention spending any more time in detention," said Kathy.

"Yeah, besides we….wait, what do you mean any more time? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, suddenly very interested in what Kathy had to say.

She fidgeted and stammered. "Um, um, well, I, I, I, did I say any more? Well, what I meant to say was…well, the reason is that…well, I got scared because of…kinda slipped out…I mean stuff slips out of me all the time, honest. Especially when I don't have anything to do with it or you know…" she started laughing nervously.

I certainly wasn't laughing. "Kathy!" I stepped closer to her.

"Come on, Spiny," said Larry. "It wasn't her fault completely when she was caught passing notes to boys in class."

"AHA!"

Kathy flinched with anger, embarrassment, and I don't know what else. "Thanks a lot, stool pigeon!"

Sometimes it pays to have a snoopy, nosy, and utterly annoying little pest like Larry as your right-hand and best friend and constant companion.