Alexander and the Mixed-Up, Unpredictable, Pretty Awesome Day

(a spin on the original story, a correction of negative paradigms)

        Alexander woke up, rubbed his eyes, and felt something sticky in his hair.

        “Whoa, there’s the piece of gum I lost last night,” he thought. “Good thing I didn’t choke on it when I was sleeping!” He ran downstairs and asked his mom to do her magic peanut butter trick and help him get it out. They laughed together, while he ate his cereal and checked out the cool toy his brother found in the bottom of the box. Maybe he’d get the prize next time! Alexander could tell that this was going to be a Mixed up, Unpredictable, Pretty Awesome day. He raced his brother to the car for school pickup and just missed claiming shotgun by a second.

        “Ha! I’m faster than I was last time!” he thought. He stretched out in the very back seat, happy that he would get the first look at the sports cars as they passed.

        "Hey, check out that Corvette!” he yelled.

        Alexander knew he wasn’t as good as his buddy Paul in art class, but he did his best anyway. He even made his teacher laugh when he showed her the back of his paper and said that he had drawn an invisible castle. Pretty clever, huh?

        Next came singing. Alexander loved to sing and could be heard loud and clear when his favorite song from Forrest Frank came on the radio. “I'm 'bout to have a good day! No matter what they saaay…”

        He was still thinking about the lyrics when it was his turn to count.

        "14, 15, 17..." Somehow, he missed the number 16. Ha! Oh well. Not a big deal...

        When lunchtime rolled around, Alexander noticed that his buddy Paul was sitting by himself and looking upset.

        When Alexander asked him what the trouble was, Paul just sniffed and said, “Why would you care? You aren’t my best friend anymore…” 

        Alexander’s face felt hot, and he was tempted to tell Paul to go sit on a tack. Instead, he took a deep breath, put his arm around his shoulder, and listened to Paul’s story about a sad visit to the vet. Paul's family had to say goodbye to his old, golden retriever, Buck. Alexander told Paul he was really sorry, and the two of them shared Paul’s jelly roll since Alexander’s mom had forgotten to pack him a dessert. 

        “That’s what best friends are for!” said Paul with a grin.

        The day kept getting more and more crazy. Poor Alexander found out he had a cavity from chewing gum in bed, but his mom surprised him with a cool electric toothbrush to cheer him up. When they stopped at the store to buy shoes, Alexander was kind of bummed that the ones he liked were out of stock. Then he saw the coolest sneakers EVER! His mom said he could have them because they were on clearance! Alexander couldn’t wait to show his dad, so they stopped by the office on the way home. He was careful not to play with the copy machine or fool around with his dad’s work phone.

        Alexander wasn’t crazy about the kissy TV show his sister was watching when they got home or the lima beans his mom served him for dinner, so he decided to build a castle with them on his plate – a lima bean castle.

        “I might draw this in art class tomorrow!” 

        After dinner, his mom said it was time for bed and handed him his weird railroad track PJ’s. Ugh. He started to remind her that these were his least favorite, but then he saw the mountain of clothes she had to fold and decided not to complain. He could just pretend he was boarding the Polar Express, right? Hey, he could even plug in his Christmas night light because his Mickey Mouse one had burned out. Alexander laid down in his cozy bed, spat out his gum, and smiled as he remembered all the adventures he had had during that Mixed up, Unpredictable, Pretty Awesome day! He could hardly wait to see what would happen tomorrow.