Charlie Bingham Gets Serious

By Maggie M. Larche

Hilarious Charlie Bingham is back, and this time, he's got his sights set on joining the elite hall monitor squad. But Owen, head hall monitor, tells him he's not serious enough for the job! Charlie sets out to prove that he can handle the responsibility and only runs into more trouble than ever. After several fiascoes involving locked closets, glitter, and total class crashes, Charlie must decide if he's really cut out to be a hall monitor after all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maggie M. Larche
• Release date: Oct 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311757142

Maggie M. Larche

Maggie M. Larche loves to sing, read, and swing right alongside her kids. All of her stories feature courageous, smart, funny kids, because that's who her readers are!She is the author of the award-winning Striker Jones series, a groundbreaking approach to teach economics to children through mystery stories. She lives on the beautiful Gulf Coast with her family.Sign up for her mailing list at www.maggiemlarche.com and get a free download of one of her newest books!

Book preview

Charlie Bingham Gets Serious

By Maggie M. Larche

Smashwords Edition

Leopold Press

Copyright © 2015 Maggie M. Larche

Cover illustration by Bojan Radovanovic

Chapter 1

Sorry, Charlie. You’re just not hall monitor material.

My mouth dropped open. Not hall monitor material! He must be joking.

Why not? I asked. I’d be great.

Owen, the head hall monitor, looked at me with a grave expression. His bright orange Hall Monitor sash blazed in the morning sunlight streaming through the school windows. He was surrounded by five other kids, two boys and three girls, all wearing similar sashes.

Because, said Owen, you’re a goofball.

A goofball? I said. What do you mean?

Sorry. You’re not serious enough for this position. The principal has put a lot of faith in me, and you’re just not ready for the responsibility.

I thought that was taking it a little too far. Did I sometimes get into scrapes? Sure. But who doesn’t? I thought I could still handle the responsibility of telling kids not to run in the hallway. It’s not like the hall monitors were all keeping world peace.

When I said as much to Owen, he stood. Two grades older than me, he towered over me.

That only shows me you’re not ready. When I turn in my nominations this afternoon, I’m not including you. Sorry. He gestured to his cronies. Come on, guys.

The group all followed Owen down the hallway. I turned and trudged toward my classroom.

To think, I’d even come early today just for this. I could have had five extra minutes on the playground. What a waste.

Not serious enough? Me, Charlie Bingham, a goofball? No way.

I wanted to be a hall monitor. I wanted one of those sashes. I wanted to be able to leave class ten minutes early before lunch and the final bell.

I’d just have to prove to Owen that I was as serious as he was. No prob.

Have you ever noticed that some days in school are so ho hum boring that you don’t even notice them pass? The hours slide by, all tangled up in a pile of writing assignments and math tests. But other days are exciting. Something out of the ordinary happens – a competition, a theft, a clown on a unicycle – and all of a sudden you’re swept up in events bigger than your next book report or science project.

Days like this are attracted to me like a homing pigeon to his nest.

But if I really wanted to make the elite hall monitor squad, I was going to have to outsmart the tendency of the universe to throw me nothing but curveballs. I needed to have a quiet, normal day full of serious, good behavior.

I walked into the classroom,