Summary

Part 1, Chapter 1, Why My Life Really Stinks – Eleven-year-old Elise is best friends with her eleven-year-old neighbor, Franklin White. Elise lives with her Uncle Hugh and Aunt Bessie. Elise and Franklin love to play Knights together in the woods. The day before sixth grade begins, a game of Knights results in Elise slipping and falling down a hill, cutting up her legs. She worries about how she will look at school, even though there will be hundreds of new kids Elise has never met before.

At the bus stop the next morning, Diana, the weird cat-obsessed girl in the neighborhood says good morning to Elise. Elise returns the greeting. As school gets underway, Elise’s lockermate, a mean girl named Amanda Betterman makes fun of Elise’s legs, calling her the “Bloody Queen of Scabs”. Amanda has stylish, streaked hair and a very short...