Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life: Chapters 33–76

by James Patterson
Rafe Khatchadorian and his friend Leonardo come up with a game in which they earn points for breaking middle school rules. But a school bully discovers their journal full of the game's details and threatens to turn them in.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–32, Chapters 33–76
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words only definitions & notes
  1. amnesia
    partial or total loss of memory
    “Sure,” Leo said. “Right after you win the lottery, and Jules turns into a famous artist, and Georgia has a personality transplant, and Bear gets amnesia and never comes home. Forget it, dude. You’re living in a fantasy world.”
  2. abstract
    not representing or imitating external reality
    The English assignment was a vocabulary exercise. It was all about abstract nouns, or “things that aren’t things,” as Donatello called them.
  3. contentment
    happiness with one's situation in life
    The list had words like contentment, prosperity, fortitude, vastness, and stuff like that. We were supposed to work in groups to find pictures that represented what the words meant to us.
  4. prosperity
    the condition of having good fortune
    The list had words like contentment, prosperity, fortitude, vastness, and stuff like that. We were supposed to work in groups to find pictures that represented what the words meant to us.
  5. fortitude
    strength of mind that enables one to endure adversity
    The list had words like contentment, prosperity, fortitude, vastness, and stuff like that. We were supposed to work in groups to find pictures that represented what the words meant to us.
  6. collage
    a paste-up of pieces to form an artistic image
    Matt Baumgarten and Melinda Truitt printed pictures from the computer, and Chance Freeman looked through a bunch of magazines Donatello had brought in. I cut out the stuff they found and put it all together in a big collage kind of thing.
  7. paranoid
    suffering from delusions of persecution or grandeur
    Then there was Miller. You’d think he’d give me some credit for the whole break-every-rule-in-the-book thing, but no. He just thought I was trying to prove I was a bigger criminal than he was. Talk about paranoid.
  8. charity
    an institution set up to provide help to the needy
    Nobody in the history of Rafe Khatchadorian had ever asked me to help out at a charity thing before.
  9. doom
    an unpleasant or disastrous destiny
    On the third day, we got an envelope with an HVMS return address in the corner and the smell of doom all over it.
  10. incinerate
    cause to burn
    I’m not usually supposed to do anything with fire when Mom’s not around but, then again, I’m not usually supposed to incinerate my report card either.
  11. scuff
    mar or wear away by rubbing or scraping
    Then I scuffed up the ground so there wouldn’t be any footprints, untied Ditka, and let him drag me home the long way around the block, just in case anyone was watching.
  12. recruit
    register formally as a participant or member
    Seriously, they should recruit him for Drama Club.
  13. penitentiary
    a correctional institution for those convicted of crimes
    “That’s right. Your potential to be the youngest little hoodlum I ever sent up to the federal penitentiary.” She laughs in my face, but there’s no smile to go with it.
  14. frank
    characterized by directness in manner or speech
    “We take fighting very seriously here at Hills Village. Tomorrow, you’ll have a one-day in-school suspension and, frankly, it’s the least you deserve.”
  15. peer
    a person who is of equal standing with another in a group
    “You’ll also have a peer tutor,” Mrs. Stricker said. “Somebody your own age, to help you out with math and science once a week. We have an excellent program here at school, and I know just the student for the job.”
  16. reactivate
    put in motion again
    “You got into trouble for fighting, so you get the points for fighting,” Leo said. “Plus another seventy-five thousand for the suspension. Not bad, right? Now all you have to do is earn another twenty thousand by the end of the day tomorrow, and you can consider yourself fully reactivated.”
  17. documented
    furnished with or supported by written information
    It’s a documented fact that in-school suspension is the most insanely boring thing that can happen to a person at Hills Village Middle School.
  18. sanction
    official permission or approval
    Section 5, Rule 9: SLEEPING in class during school-sanctioned activities is PROHIBITED
  19. masterpiece
    the most outstanding work of a creative artist or craftsman
    Mom says every masterpiece comes at the end of a long line of failures.
  20. numerator
    the dividend of a fraction
    She took out a pencil and started pointing at a bunch of fractions on the page. “So, you see these top numbers?” she said. “That’s called the numerator. And then these bottom ones are—”
  21. tolerate
    put up with something or somebody unpleasant
    No disruptions to the teaching process will be tolerated.
  22. dissect
    cut open or cut apart
    Supposed to be dissected later that day.
  23. stealth
    the act of moving in a quiet or secretive way to avoid being noticed
    But first there was one other thing I wanted to do. This wasn’t for points. Or for Leo. It was just for me, and it was going to take all my skills to pull it off, everything I’d used in the game so far—art, stealth, and bravery. The Big Three.
  24. reign
    a period during which something or somebody is dominant
    Even better, my school year was now officially headed into the homestretch, and Miller’s reign of terror was over.
  25. chisel
    an edge tool with a flat steel blade with a cutting edge
    I got the kind with the chisel tip that can make thick or thin lines with the same pen.
  26. blindside
    attack someone whose view of the attack is obstructed
    It was like getting blindsided by an aircraft carrier—
    AND WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOESN’T SEE AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER COMING?
  27. mandatory
    required by rule
    “A very important rule was broken the moment you went into that restroom,” Mrs. Stricker said. “I’m afraid after-school detention is mandatory in this case.”
  28. mural
    a painting that is applied to a wall surface
    Let me put it this way: Everything that happened that morning, with the mural and getting arrested, was just the beginning of the best and worst day of my life, all in one.
  29. rustle
    make a dry crackling sound
    “I’m not sure,” Mom said. Her voice was all faraway, like she was thinking about something else. I heard papers rustling.
  30. bawl
    cry loudly
    All of a sudden, there were tears coming out of my eyes, and my face was all scrunched up, and I was bawling like a baby.
  31. gawk
    look with amazement
    The weirdest part was that I wasn’t even embarrassed. Not even with Georgia sitting there gawking at me.
  32. easel
    an upright tripod for displaying something
    I was looking over her shoulder at the brochure, and there were pictures of kids standing at easels and making sculptures and some stuff I didn’t even know what it was.
  33. portfolio
    a set of pieces of creative work shown as a sample
    “There’s no question we’d have to work a bit on the academics,” Donatello said. “But again, Airbrook is for students at all levels. If Rafe’s portfolio shows promise, we might even be able to get him a needs-based scholarship.”
  34. delinquent
    a young offender
    Now everyone could see exactly how much of a juvenile delinquent I was.
  35. pudgy
    short and plump
    His hair was lighter than mine, and he was—let’s face it—kind of pudgy.
Created on Wed Dec 11 16:06:51 EST 2019 (updated Mon May 02 15:32:07 EDT 2022)

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