Judy Moody and the Bad Luck Charm

by Megan McDonald

  Who’s Who

  The Lucky Penny

  Good Luck x 3

  Planet Lucky

  The Bad-Luck Charm

  Uck Bluck Luck

  The District of Cool

  Finch-Face Freakout

  Judy Moody, Pig Sitter

  Pig in the City

  E-M-A-N-C-I-P-A-T-E

  She, Judy Moody, had a penny. Not just any penny. Not a regular old Abe Lincoln penny.

  A lucky penny. No lie!

  Judy and her family took Grandma Lou out to breakfast at the Two Chicks on a Raft Diner. Stink ordered — what else? — silver-dollar pancakes. Judy said, “I’ll have the special — two chicks on a raft. And some moo juice.”

  “Moo juice?” asked Stink, sitting up.

  Judy pointed to all the funny names for food on the menu. “Two eggs on toast. And milk to drink.”

  “Chocolate moo for me, please,” said Stink.

  “So anyway,” Judy told her family, “Grandma Lou took me roller-skating at Mount Trashmore, right?”

  “And we rolled right past one of those penny machines,” said Grandma Lou.

  “And she gave me this way-old penny she had from the 1970s —”

  “Waayy old,” said Grandma Lou, smiling.

  “And we put it in the machine and — check it out!” Judy held up a penny with a four-leaf clover inside a horseshoe that said MY LUCKY PENNY. MT. TRASHMORE, VA.

  “That’s not a lucky penny,” said Stink. “That’s a squished penny. Weird. It looks like it got run over.”

  “It’s still a lucky penny, Stink,” said Judy. “Says so right on it, see?”

  “How much did you pay for that?” Stink asked.

  “Fifty-one cents,” said Judy.

  “Fifty-one cents! You paid fifty-one cents for a penny?”

  “A lucky penny,” said Judy.

  “It’s a special penny,” said Mom. “A keepsake.”

  “A souvenir,” said Dad.

  “I’m so going to start collecting these,” said Judy, rubbing her penny. “It’ll be my new thing.”

  “I thought your new thing was collecting banana stickers,” said Stink. “And Popsicle sticks with jokes on them.”

  “Stink? Do you have to know everything about me?”

  “Kids,” Dad warned. “Don’t start.”

  While they waited for their food, Judy got an idea. She had seen a machine in the front lobby. A way-cool machine full of something else she collected. Stuffed animals!

  “Grandma Lou?” Judy asked. “Do you have any quarters?”

  Grandma Lou dug down to the bottom of her purse. “Four. Will that do?”

  “Yes. Thanks, Grandma Lou!”

  “Are you gonna smash quarters, too?” Stink asked.

  “No, I just want to play the Super Claw,” said Judy. She pointed to the glass case.

  “Forget it,” said Stink. “It’s super-impossible. Nobody beats The Claw!”

  “Yah-huh,” said Judy. “People do. Or else the glass case would be full. Besides, it’s fun to try. What’s there to lose?”

  “Duh! Money!”

  Judy scooped up the quarters. “C’mon, Stink-o. Before the food gets here.”

  She dashed away from the table and headed for the lobby.

  “Wait for me!” said Stink.

  “One, two, three . . .” Judy said. “We have exactly four quarters.”

  “It costs a dollar a turn!” said Stink. “That’s four quarters.”

  “I’ll go first,” said Judy.

  “But then I get to go never,” said Stink.

  “Not if I win. If I win, we get a free turn,” said Judy.

  “Like I said. Never,” said Stink.

  “C’mon, Stink,” said Judy, pressing her nose to the glass. “Which one should we go for?”

  “The yellow elephant,” said Stink. “His ear’s sticking up. No, wait. The blue monkey! No, wait! The green lion.”

  “Purple rhino it is!” said Judy. Clinkety-clink-clink-clink! The four quarters landed in the machine. Whirr! The thirty seconds began ticking away. Judy grabbed the joystick. She moved the giant arm until the claw dangled right over the purple rhino.

  “Hurry up!” said Stink, standing on tiptoes to see better. “You only have twenty-three more seconds.”

  She, Judy Moody, went in for the big grab.

  Stink leaned in closer. “Six seconds!” he said.

  The open tentacles of the claw came down around the rhino’s snout. “Gotcha!” Judy whispered. She pressed the big green button on the joystick to lock the claw in place.

  “Don’t drop him!” shouted Stink.

  Judy held her breath. She tried not to itch. She tried not to twitch. Steady, steady. Careful, careful. With the joystick, she eased the rhino over to the chute and wa la! She let go. He slid down the chute into the hatch.

  Judy opened the prize door and pulled out the purple rhino. “Mine, all mine!” she cooed, hugging it to her.

  “Free turn,” said Stink. “I’m next.”

  “No way, Stinker.”

  “But you said —”

  “Stink, I won! I beat The Claw! I’m on a roll. Do you really want to mess with that kind of luck?”

  Stink shook his head no.

  Judy reached into her pocket and rubbed her lucky penny. “Ready?” she asked.

  Stink nodded. “Ready, Freddy,” he said.

  Judy took hold of the joystick. Her hand was sweating. She took a deep breath.

  “Orange cow,” said Stink, pointing. “Go for the orange cow!”

  In just under seventeen seconds, Judy managed to nab the orange cow, keep it in the grip of the claw, and send it down the chute to the prize door.

  “We won,” said Stink, reaching in first to grab the orange cow. “You did it. You beat The Claw two times in a row!”

  “Free turn,” said the machine. “Free turn.”

  “Should we go for three?” Judy asked.

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah,” said Stink. He was so excited his cheeks flushed bright red.

  “Okay, Stinker. Your turn. The pressure is on.”

  “No way!” said Stink. “You’re on a crazy good winning streak.”

  Judy took out her lucky penny and set it on the machine. “C’mon, lucky penny,” she whispered. She clutched the joystick one more time.

  This time, she grabbed a blue monkey — barely — by the tip of the tippy tail. She pulled back on the joystick, slowly, slowly.

  “Don’t drop it!” said Stink. “You’re going to drop it.”

  Blue Monkey’s head bumped into Pink Crab’s claw!

  “Watch out!” said Stink.

  At last, Judy let go of the button and Blue Monkey dropped down into the prize chute. Music went off. Lights blinked and flashed. “Game o-ver!” said the machine.

  Judy and Stink rushed back to their table, clutching Purple Rhino, Orange Cow, and Blue Monkey.

  “Whoa,” said Stink. “You beat The Claw three times in a row! That’s like some kind of record.”

  Judy held up her shiny coin and smiled. “It’s all because of my lucky penny, of course!” she said.

  The next day, three things happened to Judy. Three good-luck things.

  Judy woke up just like she did on any other normal old day. She ran downstairs to eat breakfast just like she did on any other normal old day.

  “Stink, pass the Lucky Os, please.”

  Stink passed the cereal. Judy poured Lucky Os into her bowl. She added milk.

  That’s when it happened. Good-Luck Thing Number One.

  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven fun-shaped marshmallows floated in her cereal. “Stink! Check it out! How m
any marshmallows do you see?”

  Stink counted. “Seven?”

  “Exactly! Seven is a lucky number. In fact, seven is the luckiest number of all.”

  “Can I eat a lucky marshmallow?” Stink reached his spoon toward her bowl. Judy swatted his hand away. “No! I have to see if any of these are purple horseshoes. Horseshoes are super lucky.”

  Judy reached in and plucked out a purple horseshoe. “It’s a double!” she squealed. “Two purple horseshoes stuck together. Double stuff is lucky, too.”

  Stink looked in his bowl. He looked in the box. But he did not see any more double lucky marshmallows. “You have all the luck,” said Stink.

  He put a spoonful of un-lucky cereal in his mouth. He slumped down in his chair to chew. Suddenly, his eyes stopped blinking and his whole body froze.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Judy asked.

  “My lucky ketchup packet!” said Stink, with a mouthful of half-chewed cereal. “I sat on it!”

  “Huh?”

  “Yesterday at the diner, when you had a lucky penny in your pocket, I wanted a lucky thing, too. So I put a ketchup packet in my back pocket for my lucky thing. But I forgot about it and I think I just smooshed it.” Stink made a scrunched-up, I-just-sat-on-ketchup face.

  “Ooh, ick. Let me see!” said Judy.

  Stink stood up and wiped at his pants with his hands. Sure enough, there was ketchup smeared all over his pants. There was ketchup smooshed all over the chair.

  Judy handed Stink a dish towel. “Here, wipe up the ketchup volcano.”

  She closed up the cereal box. Ouch! Paper cut! (Bad luck.) But a paper cut meant she got to wear a Band-Aid! (Good luck.)

  Judy ran upstairs and took out her Crazy Strips collection. She had eyeball bandages, zombies, and crime-scene tape ones. Rainbows, sushi, nesting dolls. Toast!

  She shook out all the toast-shaped bandages and wrapped one around her finger. Wait just a peanut-butter-and-jelly minute! What’s this? A folded-up wad of . . . dollar bills!

  Ten whole dollars! What were they doing in the box of Crazy Strips? Maybe Stink hid them and forgot about them.

  Who cares! She was rich!

  Judy origami-folded each dollar bill into a ring. A money ring! One for each finger. Good-Luck Thing Number Two.

  That afternoon, Judy Moody, Blue Monkey, Purple Rhino, and ten lucky dollars got dropped off at Jessica Finch’s birthday bowling party at Starlight Lanes. When she got inside, she raced around the lobby looking for a Super Claw machine.

  “Are you looking for us?” asked Frank and Rocky, coming up beside her. Frank pointed to a lane in the far corner where the Finches were bowling. Jessica Finch waved. “We’re over there.”

  “First I was looking for a Super Claw machine,” Judy told her friends. She showed them Purple Rhino and Blue Monkey. She told them about her good-luck streak. She held out her hands. Each finger had a money ring. Ten dollars = ten tries to beat the Super Claw! “I could win ten tons of stuffed animals.”

  Rocky and Frank raced around after her, looking too.

  “No Super Claw machine,” said Rocky.

  “No Super Claw machine,” said Frank.

  Bummeroo.

  Jessica Finch ran up to them. “Hi, Judy! Can you believe I get a bowling party for my birthday? C’mon, guys! The Xtreme Bowling Challenge is about to begin!” The kids rushed back to the far lane.

  “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Finch,” said Judy.

  “Hey, kiddo,” said Mr. Finch. “Glad you could make it.”

  “Love your bowling-pin pajama bottoms,” said Mrs. Finch, smiling.

  “Thanks!” said Judy.

  All of a sudden, the lights went down. Music came over the loudspeakers. Neon-bright colored lights flickered and flashed on the bowling lanes.

  “Rare!” said Judy.

  A voice came over the sound system. “It’s time — Xtreme Bowling time — for people who like to knock stuff down!”

  Everybody cheered.

  “As you know, each bowler gets three balls. And the goal is to get not one, not two, but three strikes in a row.”

  “Whoa,” said Frank.

  A guy dressed as a bowling pin came over to their lane. “Are you, Birthday Girl Jessica Finch, ready to rock the Xtreme Challenge?” he yelled into the mike.

  “Yes!” she screamed.

  “Let’s get this par-tee star-ted!” said the human bowling pin.

  Other bowlers gathered around to watch. “Go, Jessica!” everybody yelled.

  Jessica Finch rolled her first ball down the lane. “Baby Ball!” said the human bowling pin. He used funny names like Big Ears and Snake Eyes for bowling moves.

  “Try again,” the guy said. Jessica rolled the second ball.

  “Powder Puff! Sorry. Not hard enough. Once more for the B-day girl.”

  Jessica rolled a third ball.

  “A 3-6-10 split. That’s what we call a Poison Ivy. Not bad, but sorry, no cigar.”

  Rocky took the Xtreme Challenge next.

  “Will he choke?” asked the human bowling pin. Rocky’s first ball hit three pins. His second ball hit five pins. On Rocky’s third try, the guy yelled, “Blowout! All but one. So close.”

  Frank Pearl took the Xtreme Challenge next.

  “Try Number One. Creeper! Try Number Two. Sleeper! Try Number Three. Floater in the Moater! That means gutter ball, folks. Next!”

  At last it was Judy’s turn. She stepped up to the lane. She rubbed her lucky penny. She rubbed the bowling ball. She held it in front of her, lining it up. She squinted one eye, pulled back her arm, and let it fly.

  “Lookin’ good, lookin’ good, lookin’ — STEE-rike!” yelled the human bowling pin. “We have a winner! But can she do it again?”

  Judy bowled a second ball.

  “Double-double! Super strike!” yelled the guy. “This one’s on a lucky streak. Can the girl in the I ATE A SHARK shirt make it three in a row? Or will it be a dead apple in the gutter?”

  Judy bowled a third ball. It leaned left. It leaned right. It picked up speed, straightened up, and KA-BOOM! All ten pins toppled like a house of sugar packets.

  Neon lights flashed. A horn blared. Everybody crowded around went cuckoo.

  “And we have a Turkey!” yelled the guy.

  “A Turkey? But I knocked down all the pins!” said Judy. Mr. and Mrs. Finch laughed.

  “A turkey means three strikes in a row!” The human bowling pin took Judy’s arm and held it in the air like a prizefighter. “Didn’t this girl just BOWL you over, folks?” The crowd went wild. The human bowling pin bobbed his head in a turkey dance. “Gobble, gobble, gobble.” The human bowling pin turned a cartwheel across three lanes. “Congrats, Shark Girl. Your name goes on the Bowling Pin Wall of Fame.”

  “Wow!” said Jessica.

  “Double wow!” said Rocky.

  “Triple wow!” said Frank.

  “That was really something,” said Mrs. Finch.

  “Glow sticks for everyone at the birthday girl’s party!” said the guy. “And a blow-up bowling pin for the birthday girl!”

  “Thanks!” said Jessica.

  “Let’s get those birthday treats up here. And don’t forget the cake!”

  While they munched on mac-and-cheese bites and pretzel dippers, Jessica said, “Judy? Will you sign my bowling pin?”

  Judy signed her autograph on Jessica’s bowling pin. In cursive.

  “You sure are lucky,” said Jessica.

  “All we got was one Christmas Tree, a Poison Ivy, and a bunch of gutter balls,” said Frank. “I mean Poodle Puffs. I mean Powder Puffs.”

  “Huh?” said Rocky.

  “Whatever. You know. Funny names, like the bowling pin guy uses. Poison Ivy is a 3-6-10 split. And Christmas Tree is a 3-7-10 split.”

  “I owe it all to my lucky penny,” said Judy. She held it up and kissed it.

  “Lucky is your middle name,” said Frank.

  “Just call me Judy ‘Lucky’ Moody,” said Judy.


  At inside recess on Monday morning, Frank asked Judy, “Do you think something lucky will happen to you at school today?”

  “Sure. Why not?” said Judy.

  “Like what?” asked Rocky.

  “Like . . . maybe I’ll find my missing Clue of the Broken Locket library book or Frank will give me back my Grouchy pencil.”

  “Oops,” said Frank, fishing around inside his desk.

  “Or I’ll get picked to take Peanut home this weekend. Or Mr. Todd will cancel our spelling test.”

  “Yeah, right,” said Rocky. “The only thing that would cancel a spelling test is if lightning struck the school, it caught on fire, and we all had to run out of the building.”

  Just then, Mr. Todd blinked the lights. “Settle down, class. Let’s get back to work.”

  Mr. Todd leaned against his desk. “Instead of a spelling test today —”

  “I knew it!” Judy blurted.

  “Whoa. This is your lucky day!” whispered Frank.

  “Excuse me?” said Mr. Todd. “Am I going to have to get out the Interrupting Jar again?”

  “Sorry,” said Judy, zipping her lips.

  “As I was saying, instead of a spelling test today, we’re going to have a practice spelling bee. As you all know, our class spelling bee is coming up in a week. Whoever wins will get to go with the winners from the other third-grade classes at Virginia Dare School to take part in the Great Third-Grade Spelling Bee at the end of the month.”

  “Everybody knows Jessica Finch is the WBS,” said Judy.

  “WBS?” said Mr. Todd, wrinkling his forehead.

  “World’s Best Speller,” said Judy.

  “You never know,” said Mr. Todd. “If you try hard enough, you could be the lucky speller who gets to represent Class 3T in Washington, D.C.”

  Washington, D.C.! As in home of the president and the Museum of Doctor Stuff and the giant giant’s head sticking up out of the ground? As in the same exact place where Stink got to go to the White House and she didn’t?

  She, Judy Moody, could not believe her lucky-ducky ears. She could not bite her un-interrupting tongue for one more second.

  Judy raised her hand. “Excuse me, Mr. Todd. Did you say Washington, D.C.?”