Set the Record Straight! (Volume 2) (Dear Know-It-All, Band 2) - Softcover

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Rachel Wise loves to give advice. When she’s not editing or writing children’s books, which she does full-time at a publisher in New York, she’s reading advice columns in newspapers, magazines, and blogs—and is always sure her advice would be better! Her dream is to someday have her own talk show, where she could share her wisdom with millions of people at once, but for now she’s happy to dole out advice in small portions in Dear Know-It-All books.

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Set the Record Straight!

Chapter 1

KIDS TIRED OF TERRIBLE FOOD, BEG FOR MERCY

Can you keep a secret? I can’t! I’m a journalist, and journalists are all about making secrets public.

Anyway, it kills me that I have to keep a major secret from almost everyone I know. Even my best friend, Hailey Jones. But I will tell you, if you promise not to tell anyone, okay?

Here it is: I am Dear Know-It-All.

Dear Know-It-All is the advice column in our school newspaper, the Cherry Valley Voice. Kids write in with questions about everything from homework to love lives to troubles at home. And each year one of the kids on the newspaper staff is chosen to anonymously write the answers, and this year it’s me! Can you believe it? I myself was shocked when Mr. Trigg, our faculty advisor, called me at home to ask me to do it. But it’s pretty fun, and an honor, even if it’s a lot of responsibility.

In my first column, I answered a letter from someone asking what they should do if they liked their best friend’s crush. Then I discovered by accident that it was Hailey writing in about liking my crush, Michael Lawrence! So after lots of angst, and a lot of thinking on my part, I wrote a column telling her to go for it—all’s fair in love and war and all that—and then I held my breath to see what would happen. Hailey ended up confessing to me that she’d written the letter to Dear Know-It-All, and I had to pretend I didn’t already know. The good thing was, in the end, she decided she didn’t really like Michael, anyway. Phew! ’Cause I still do! But that’s kind of another secret, okay?

So, as you can see, it’s crazy stuff. If I wrote it up as a story for the Cherry Valley Voice, the headline would be Advice Columnist Caught in Love Triangle. I love writing headlines, by the way. It’s one of my greatest strengths as a journalist.

Our new issue comes out today, and I can’t wait to see what people think of my latest column! Part of my job as Dear Know-It-All is to make my columns “jazzy.” This one is jazzy all right! I really went all out and gave some pretty rad advice, if I do say so myself. I think it will have everyone talking. Here’s what it was: A girl (who called herself Tired of Waiting) had written in to say she had had a crush on a guy for a long time and was tired of waiting for him to notice or to ask her out. She wasn’t sure he even knew she walked on the planet, let alone liked him.

I had (anonymously, of course) replied that in this day and age, it wasn’t all up to the guy. She should be a modern girl and just take charge and ask him out herself. I was pretty proud of that answer. It was sassy and modern and brave, not to mention well-written, if I do say so myself. The funny thing is, I’ve been in the same situation for years and I would never dare to ask Michael out, but that’s because I’m such a chicken. I’ve learned that I can give pretty good advice. Following it is a whole other story!

Anyway, we always have a newspaper staff meeting in the afternoon, either on the day of or the day after the new issue of the Cherry Valley Voice comes out. Mr. Trigg likes everyone to have a chance to read it and get a sense of what our readership thinks of it. Then we all get together with him and our editor in chief (the job I want next year, if Michael doesn’t get it!), and share info and brainstorm about our next issue, which we have to start on right away.

A couple of issues ago Michael and I coreported and cowrote a really big article on our school’s new curriculum, and the article was a huge success. Mr. Trigg decided Michael and I are a great team—love that!—and he asked us to come up with another “blockbuster example of investigative journalism” for the meeting today. Mr. Trigg has a pretty funny way of talking sometimes. But it’s pretty cool he chose us for another feature story. The only thing was, we were stumped for a topic.

Michael and I had made a plan to meet for lunch in the cafeteria to brainstorm. We started hanging out more after we wrote our last article together, but it’s still pretty major for me to be going to lunch with Michael Lawrence, love of my life. The weird thing is, though, it’s kind of like there are two Michael Lawrences. There’s Michael my crush, whom I’ve loved since I was six (even though he caught me eating paste in kindergarten—I swear, I thought it was frosting—and has called me Pasty ever since) and who is just the cutest, coolest guy on the planet who makes my stomach go swoosh. Then there’s Michael my writing partner, with whom I fight and negotiate with for assignments and about fact-checking, and stress over sources and all kinds of unromantic stuff. Then he’s just kind of a friend. It’s hard to believe that those two Michaels are the same guy.

Anyway, lunch. We got on the cafeteria line and were brainstorming the whole way, stopping occasionally to eavesdrop on people who were talking about the new issue of the Voice.

“What about something on allergy medication and how suddenly everyone has allergies? We could interview the school nurse and my pediatrician.” Michael’s dark eyebrows were bunched in thought, and his bright blue eyes narrowed as he considered the story’s angles.

“Hm. That could be good,” I said, distracted as I searched hopelessly for something to put on my tray. Now, I am a big eater. I’m tall, but I’m pretty thin. I am not picky, and I love food and need to eat often to keep my stomach full, otherwise it grumbles noisily and embarrasses me. But lately I’ve just been stumped by or grossed out with the cafeteria. Like today, here were the choices: a limp iceberg lettuce salad, orange JELL-O, crunchy Rice Krispies Treats, dry-looking mac and cheese, and tofu dogs—yuck! Kitchen Staff Poisons School Kids with Barfy Lunch!

I looked to see what Michael was getting and saw that he was taking one of everything.

“Hungry?” I asked.

“Why? You want me to share this food with you too, Snacky?” His eyes twinkled as he teased me. Michael comes up with new nicknames for me all the time. It used to really bother me, but Hailey said that he does it because he likes me. If that’s true then I don’t mind being called things like Snacky. Well, not too much.

Michael has had to share his snacks with me on a few occasions when I got hungry and my stomach growled. I still get embarrassed by it.

“No, I am perfectly capable of supplying myself with the appropriate amount of nutrition that my growing body needs, thank you. I’m just not finding anything that appeals to me, and I’m surprised that you’re finding so much.”

“Well, the thing to do is take one of everything, then take two bites until it grosses you out, and move on to the next thing. You can get pretty full doing that.” He grinned.

“Okaaay,” I said. I wasn’t convinced I should take gross food at all, but if it worked for Michael . . .

After loading up my tray with one of everything, I looked around for a good place to sit while Michael got milk. It would have to be close by, because the tray was very heavy. Across the room I spied Hailey waving at me to join her. By the way, I still feel a little nervous when Hailey and...