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    Vin and the Dorky Duet
    Vin and the Dorky Duet
    Vin and the Dorky Duet
    Ebook76 pages1 hour

    Vin and the Dorky Duet

    By Maggie Lyons

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    The moment he walks through the door and sees the sharky grin on his older sister’s face, Vin suspects Meg is hatching a plot. He’s right. Worse still, he’s central to the outcome. Meg tells him that their music teachers, parents—everyone—expect him to play her duet for trumpet and piano at the upcoming student concert. Vin is horrified.
    Meg insists that his only escape route is to persuade another trumpet player to take his place. She has the hunky Brad Stewart in mind and challenges Vin to introduce her to him. Vin doesn’t know Brad any better than Meg does, but she points out that Vin is in two classes with Brad’s nerdy brother. Eyeballs Stewart is the last person Vin wants to befriend until Meg’s promise of a David Beckham autographed soccer jersey changes the seventh-grader’s mind. He has five days to accomplish his mission—Operation BS—before the concert practice schedule kicks in.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMuseItYoung
    Release dateJul 23, 2014
    ISBN9781771270731
    Vin and the Dorky Duet

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    • 5/5
      If your sister wanted you to set her up on a date with the brother of one of your classmates whom you really didn’t like, would you do it? Bevyn (Vin) is a seventh-grade boy who plays the trumpet and lives with his Dad, Mom, and older sister Meg who plays the piano. Meg asks Vin to perform with her at the Halloween concert in what he considers a “dorky duet” which she has composed for trumpet and piano. However, her real plan is to let Vin off the hook if he will get dreamy Brad Stewart, who also plays trumpet and is the brother of Vin’s nerdy classmate Binkley (Eyeballs) Stewart, to perfirn the duet with her because she has a crush on Brad. Vin at first refuses, but he finally succumbs when Meg offers him a David Beckham autographed soccer jersey. Vin has five days to accomplish the job—operation BS (Brad Stewart)--or the deal is off and he has to play the duet. He gets lucky when he and Eyeballs are assigned do work on a science project about whales together. His hope is to go to the Stewart house to study with Eyeballs and talk to Brad about Meg’s proposal. However, a number of situations arise which interfere with Vin’s achieving his goal. He is waylaid by an exploding fish tank. He is attacked by a neighbor’s compost heap. He is almost drowned in an ever-expanding bubble bath. And he is captured by a giant plastic duck. Will Vin succeed in his goal? Will he ever find an opportunity to talk with Brad? And even if he does, what will Brad say about playing the duet? Vin and the Dorky Duet, which is identified as a “middle grade adventure novella,” is a madcap romp through one week in the life of a hapless but always ingenious seventh-grader. Some parents might wish to know that there are a few childish slang terms. Vin sees “a stone statue of a boy taking a whiz—water actually came out.” He also explains why his friend “Cheeky had to pee in a lilac bush in his yard.” And he describes a scene in which things “smelled of mouse turds.” And Vin ends up telling some rather tall stories along the way in the process of trying to help his sister. However, there is nothing overtly objectionable. Tweens who appreciate a wacky, zany type of humor will enjoy this rollicking story.

    Book preview

    Vin and the Dorky Duet - Maggie Lyons

    Back Cover

    A Middle Grade Adventure Novella by Maggie Lyons

    The moment he walks through the door and sees the sharky grin on his older sister’s face, Vin suspects Meg is hatching a plot. He’s right. Worse still, he’s central to the outcome. Meg tells him that their music teachers, parents—everyone—expect him to play her duet for trumpet and piano at the upcoming student concert. Vin is horrified.

    Meg insists that his only escape route is to persuade another trumpet player to take his place. She has the hunky Brad Stewart in mind and challenges Vin to introduce her to him. Vin doesn’t know Brad any better than Meg does, but she points out that Vin is in two classes with Brad’s nerdy brother. Eyeballs Stewart is the last person Vin wants to befriend until Meg’s promise of a David Beckham autographed soccer jersey changes the seventh-grader’s mind. He has five days to accomplish his mission—Operation BS—before the concert practice schedule kicks in.

    His game plan, thwarted by exploding fish tanks, magnetic compost heaps, man-eating bubble baths, and other disasters ultimately succeeds, but not exactly as Vin expects .

    Vin and the Dorky Duet © 2012 by Maggie Lyons

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

    MuseItUp Publishing

    14878 James, Pierrefonds, Quebec, Canada, H9H 1P5

    http://www.museituppublishing.com

    Cover Art © 2012 by Suzannah Safi

    Edited by Nancy Bell

    Copyedited by Anita Nolan

    Layout and Book Production by Lea Schizas

    eBook ISBN: 978-1-77127-073-1

    First eBook Edition *June 2012

    Production by MuseItUp Publishing

    Copyright Registration:Txu 1-782-845

    Acknowledgements

    I am deeply grateful to the MuseitUp Publishing family and members of my critique group, Carina, Cathie, Ellynn, and Lisa, for their generous support and priceless advice; Matt, for helping me grasp the intricacies of kidspeak; and Robert, for his encouragement and never-failing sense of humor.

    Vin and the Dorky Duet

    Maggie Lyons

    MuseItUp Publishing

    www.museituppublishing.com

    Chapter One

    I knew as soon as I walked through the door they’d hatched some kind of plot. My mother and sister sat at the kitchen table, grinning all over. My sister’s mouth stretched as wide as a shark’s jaws in a feeding frenzy.

    Vin, Meg has the greatest idea for you both, Mom said.

    Right. Meg’s great ideas are good for one person—Meg.

    My sister responded to my frown. Seriously, Vin, you’re going to love it.

    Vin? Trouble lurked around the corner when Meg called me Vin. She only called me that when she wanted something. Most of the time she called me Bev—short for Bevyn—because I hated it.

    Why don’t you two talk while you set the dining-room table for dinner? Mom said. She clearly didn’t plan to be the first to spill the beans about their plot. The dining room was across the hall from the kitchen, so she wouldn’t be in the middle of the world war that was on its way.

    Someone coming to dinner, Mom? Meg asked. We only used the dining-room table when we had guests.

    Yes. Uncle Jack.

    Uncle Jack was a marine biologist and pretty cool for an old guy. He knew a lot about deadly jelly fish, why eels are slimy, and stuff like that.

    I grabbed some of Mom’s ginger cookies and lemonade and followed Meg into the dining room. As Meg pulled the napkins and silverware out of the sideboard drawer, I turned a chair around and sat so that the back of the chair came between Meg and me.

    Here’s the deal. Meg slid the napkins across the table like a dealer throwing out cards to players at a poker game. We’re supposed to play in the Halloween concert, right?

    I’m trying to forget the concert. Blowing my lips off in front of a bunch of klutzy kids and parents who have no idea how hard it is to play a trumpet is tough. Messing up makes it even harder.

    Well, instead of us playing solos, I want you to play a duet with me.

    Oh no, not again.

    I’ve finished writing my piece for trumpet and piano and I think it’s really cool. We’d give the first public performance of it and I’d have a chance to win the composition prize. Meg gave me a phony-sweet smile that made me want to puke.

    I’ve heard you composing that ‘really cool piece’ and it stinks. The trumpet part is impossible. I know that sounds like a rotten thing to say, but you had to hit Meg hard because she was so dumb.

    You’re always so mean.

    Amazing how quickly Meg could forget her meanness to me.

    We don’t make a good team. Remember the last duet we tried to play in public? Totally pathetic. I hoped that argument would stop the whole crazy idea, but no, Meg came right back at me.

    Mrs. Stein wants us to do it. Mom thinks it’s a great idea and you know Dad will agree with her.

    Mrs. Stein was Meg’s piano teacher.

    Besides, you play much better now. Meg emphasized the now to rub in the fact I was the one who goofed up the duet the other time.

    "Mr. Morgan thinks I should concentrate

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