Mindy Kim and the Big Pizza Challenge

My name is Mindy Kim. I am nine years old, and I’m now in fourth grade!

Ms. Harris, our teacher, is really nice. She tell us fun stories and encourages us to read every day. In fourth grade, we’re doing lots of cool projects like learning about the different Native American tribes in Florida and a bunch of other fun stuff too!

One day, Ms. Harris had a big announcement for the entire class.

“In two and a half weeks, our school is going to have a family trivia night for the fourth and fifth grader to help the PTA! The grand prize is a year’s worth of pizza from Signor Morelli’s Pizza, one of our PTA’s sponsors!”

“Free pizza!” exclaimed Brandon, one of the boys in our  class. “Free unlimited pizza!”

“I’m gong to win the pizza!” yelled another boy.

“No, I am!” shouted someone else.

“It’s technically only a year’s worth,” interrupted my friend Sally, pushing up her glasses with one hand. “But that’s still a lot of pizza!”

Everyone was really excited. And I was too! I love pizza, and Signor Morelli’s has the best pepperoni and stuffed-crust pizzas! My mouth drooled just thinking about them.

Ms. Harris waited for the class to settle down before continuing. “I sent our an e-mail about buying tickets for the event. You and your parents are all invited to participate!”

All my excitement fizzled out when Ms. Harris said “parents.” I just had Dad, and I wasn’t sure if he and I could compete with everyone else’s parents.

“My family won Trivia Night on both the years when my sisters were at Wishbone,” said Sally. We’re really good at trivia!”

She smiled at me, but then she frowned when she saw the look on my face “Mindy, are you okay?”

I looked down at my feet. “I don’t know how much of a chance Dad and I will have. It’s just the two of us, and neither of us is good at trivia.”

Sally looked sorry for me. But then she perked up. “You and your dad could join our team! If it’s anything like the way things were when my sisters went to school here, they group people into teams based on the table they’re sitting at, not just by family.”

“Really?” I asked. “Your family wouldn’t mind?”

“Nope! The more the merrier! And you should also invite Julie!” she exclaimed, waggling her eyebrows “It’d be an awesome opportunity for some more family bonding time.”

Julie is my dad’s girlfriend. She isn’t an official part of the family yet, but she is really nice, and I like her a lot. From the beginning, Sally was Dad and Julie’s number one fan. She really likes romance.

‘You guys should still study really hard, though,” continued Sally. “And there’s a chance they might do things differently this year. I can ask my sisters to tell us what kind of questions they usually ask!”

Sally’s enthusiasm was contagious, and soon I was excited all over again.

“That’d be awesome!” I said. “Thanks, Sally!”

“No problem! Just be sure to work as hard as you can. We want to win that pizza for sure!”

Sally and I shook hands. There was no way I was going to let my best friend down!