Learn English with a Book | 1+ Hour Deep Work Session | Part 1
A2
Hello everyone and welcome back to
English is Easy with Connor. I'm going
to be reading a little bit of this book
to you guys. One of my favorite books
called Flipped. The language used in
this book is going to be perfect for
learning English. It is written in a
very understandable way, a very
comprehensible way.
But even so, as we go along, I will stop
and explain and paraphrase. So, here's
the very first page. Chapter 1 is called
Diving Under.
And let's just jump in. Here we go. I'll
go line by line explaining as we go.
diving under. All I've ever wanted is
for Julie Baker to leave me alone.
For her to back off,
you know, just give me some space. Okay,
already we have some fantastic language.
Very colloquial
colloquial, very spoken English, natural
real English. That's why I picked this
book because of the tone
in which it's written. The
[clears throat] tone is very natural.
Sounds like real people talking, just
telling a story.
So first we can see this chapter is told
from Bryce's perspective,
from his perspective,
from his POV,
his point of view, right? And he's
saying all he's ever wanted is for this
girl, Julie, to back off. I love this
expression, back off. Give me space.
Leave me alone. Back off. They all mean
the same thing. Get away from me. All
right. He does not like this Julie.
It all started the summer before second
grade when our moving van pulled into
her neighborhood. Ah, okay. His moving
van. Seems like Bryce is moving. Moving
to a new house. moving into Julie's
neighborhood.
Neighborhood.
The place where Julie lives. Right? So,
his moving van pulls in. In other words,
it arrives. It drives in. Right?
And since we're now about done with the
eighth grade, that my friend makes more
than half a decade of strategic
avoidance and social discomfort.
So he's saying right the summer before
second grade he met Julie. Now they're
almost done with 8th grade. So he's
saying more than half a decade. Remember
a decade is 10 years divided by two
equals five. Right? So it's been more
than five years of what is this?
Strategic avoidance
and social discomfort.
Strategic avoidance.
He's trying to avoid her, right? in a
strategic way, in a smart way, with a
strategy, with a plan,
right? With a plan. He doesn't want to
be around her because socially
she makes him uncomfortable.
He experiences
a lot of discomfort.
discomfort
when he interacts with her socially,
right? In social situations,
right? When he's talking with her, etc.,
right? So, he clearly is not a big fan
of [clears throat] Julie.
She didn't just barge
into my life. She barged and shoved and
wedged her way into my life. Did we
invite her to get into our moving van
and start climbing all over boxes? No.
But that's exactly what she did. Taking
over and showing off like only Julie
Baker can. Okay, great word here. Barge.
Barge. We say you barge in somewhere. If
you barge in, for example, you barge
into a room, then you don't knock
politely.
You don't open the door slowly and
carefully. No, no, no. You burst into
the room. Shove. Here's shove, right?
Push.
without giving any warning in a very
rude way. Right? So, he's saying that
Julie barged her way into his life.
He really didn't want this girl to be a
part of his life. But here she is. She
barged her way in.
She started climbing all over the boxes
as they're trying to move. Right. My dad
tried to stop her. Hey, he says as she's
catapulting herself on board.
Catapulting.
Catapulting herself just means throwing
herself right. What are you doing?
You're getting mud everywhere.
So true, too. Her shoes were like caked
with the stuff. Great. So, his dad is
upset. Bryce's dad is upset that this
little girl is climbing all over their
boxes as they're trying to move. Her
shoes were like caked with mud. Caked,
in other words, covered.
Totally covered. Maybe even with a thick
layer of mud. So, this little girl, her
shoes are covered in mud, and here she
comes climbing all over their boxes and
the moving van.
Dad isn't happy, right?
She didn't hop out, though. Instead, she
planted her rear end
her rear end on the floor and started
pushing a big box with her feet.
Don't you want some help? She glanced my
way.
My way? It sure looks like you need it.
This is an interesting
uh piece of language here. She didn't
hop out. So, she's still in the moving
van. And what did she do? She planted
her rear end. Rear end means your butt
or your bottom if we want to say it a
little more politely. Planted. That just
means sit down. If you plant yourself
down, then you sit down. Right? So, she
planted herself down. We can also say
plant your butt down. Sit your butt
down. Plant your rear end down. All
right. And she says, "Come on. Don't you
guys want some help?" She glanced or
took a quick look. Okay, that's a
glance. She glanced my way. So, in my
direction, right? She says, "It sure
looks like you need it.
It sure looks like you need it. So, in
other words, it really looks like you
need it. I didn't like the implication.
Say that out loud with me. Implication.
Implication.
Okay. I don't like, we could also say
the
insinuation.
I didn't like what she was insinuating
or maybe we could say hinting at. If you
are hinting at something you want, for
example, you are implying you want
something, insinuating you want
something.
Okay. Uh, so he doesn't like that. She's
saying it looks like he needs help. He's
feeling a little bit defensive,
right? He's saying, "Hey, what are you
trying to say?
What's the big idea?
I don't need help. I especially don't
need help from you, a little girl,
right? [snorts]
And even though my dad had been tossing
me the same sort of look all week, I
could tell he didn't like this girl
either. Okay, so we can use a good
English expression here, a useful
English expression. Bryce and his dad
are on the
What do you think I'm gonna say? Do you
Do you guys know this one? on the same
what?
If two people
agree about something, we can say they
are on the same page.
Bryce and his dad are on the same page
about Julie,
right?
Okay.
There are some really valuable things in
that box. So, he's warning Julie. He's
saying, "Hey, hey, hey, be careful with
that. Don't kick that. Don't push that
with your feet." There are some really
valuable things, valuable, right? Things
with uh lots of value
things that cost a lot of money,
expensive things.
Oh, well, how about this one? She scoots
over to a box labeled Linux and looks my
way. We should push it together. If you
scoot, that's kind of like slide.
If you are on your butt, sitting on your
rear end. If your rear end is planted
down and you slide on your butt, we call
that scoot. She scoots, right? No, no,
no. my dad says, then pulls her up by
the arm. Why don't you run along home?
Run along. Get out of here. Run along
home.
Your mother's probably wondering where
you are. In other words, your mom is
probably feeling what?
Worried about you. She's wondering,
"Hey, where's my daughter?"
This was the beginning of my
soontobecome
acute awareness
that the girl cannot take a hint. Okay,
this sentence might be a little hard to
understand.
Basically, what Bryce is saying is that
this was the first time he realized
Julie doesn't really pick up on these
hints.
>> [laughter]
>> socially, right? Uh his dad is trying to
be nice, trying to say, "Come on, go. We
really don't want you here. We're trying
to move." Right? You are making this
more difficult for us. You're kind of a
pain in the butt. Get out of here.
Right. But does Julie pick up on it? No.
She doesn't take the hint, right? Dad is
trying to tell her something in a polite
way. She doesn't really get it. She
doesn't really take the hint. Okay.
Of any kind. Okay. Does she zip on home
like a kid should when they've been
invited to leave? No. She says, "Oh, my
mom knows where I am. She said it was
fine."
Then she points across the street and
says, "We just live right over there."
My father looks to where she's pointing
and mutters. He mutters, says in a low
voice,
kind of like mumble,
mutter, right? You are talking to
yourself in a low or quiet voice.
Oh boy. Dad mutters. Right. Then he
looks at me and winks as he says,
"Bryce, isn't it time for you to go
inside and help your mother?"
I knew right off that this was a ditch
play, and I didn't think about it until
later. But ditch wasn't a play I'd run
with my dad before.
Face it, pulling a ditch is not
something discussed with dads.
It's like against paternal law to tell
your kid it's okay to ditch someone, no
matter how annoying or muddy they might
be. Great word getting used over and
over here. Ditch. Ditch. Now, as a noun,
ditch means when a part of land goes
down. For example, maybe this is the
ground, right? And it goes down like
that, it comes back up. The part where
it goes down, that's the ditch. Okay?
But as a verb,
ditch means something else.
Okay? If you ditch somebody,
then you leave them behind. Maybe we
could even say, you can use a stronger
word here,
abandon.
All right. Uh, basically, Bryce's dad is
saying, "Go inside.
Maybe if you leave, she will finally
leave, too." Okay. And Bryce is saying,
"You know what? It's like against
paternal law to tell your kid it's okay
to ditch someone. Paternal meaning a
father, a dad, right? It's against dad
code to do that. Paternal is for dad.
What about maternal?
Do you guys know maternal mom? Paternal
about being a father, being a dad.
maternal about being a mom. Something
related to being a mother, right? Okay.
So, basically Bryce is saying he's very
surprised his dad is talking like this,
but there he was putting the play in
motion. And man, he didn't have to wink
twice. So, Bryce took the hint, right?
He understands what his dad is trying to
do.
I smiled and said, "Sure thing."
[clears throat]
Then jumped off the lift gate and headed
for my new front door. So, he jumps off
the part of the moving van where you uh
are loading and unloading the boxes,
right?
He's going inside. I heard her coming
after me, but I couldn't believe it.
Maybe it just sounded like she was
chasing me. Maybe she was really going
the other way. But before I got up,
got up the nerve to look, she blasted
right past me, grabbing my arm and
yanking me along.
Here's a good expression. If you get the
nerve or sometimes we say work up the
nerve to do something. [snorts]
For example,
this book is all about these middle
school kids, right? Right here in this
scene, they're very, very young. That's
when they first met. But later in the
story, they become middle school age.
So, you know, 13, 14 years old. [snorts]
And it makes me remember when I was that
age. And when I was that age, we would
have school dances.
I don't know about you guys listening.
Did you have school dances when you were
in middle school? But I remember at
these dances,
if this is the uh the room, right, all
of the girls would be on this side and
all of the boys would be on this side
and they would not interact.
All right. The girls were nervous about
talking to the boys. The boys were, of
course, feeling the same way. Nervous to
speak with the girls. And so they would
separate and stand at opposite corners
or opposite sides of the room.
Now
slowly some very brave boys would work
up the nerve to walk across and talk to
the girls. It's kind of like get the
confidence to do something, right? So,
in this scene, Bryce is working up the
nerve to look. He doesn't even want to
look, [snorts] right? He's worried about
what he's going to see that Julie is
chasing after him, right? Uh before he
can even do that though, she blasted
right past me. Ran fast. Blasted
like a rocket, right? Grabbed his arm.
She's yanking him or pulling hard. Do
you guys know this word yanking?
Pull hard.
Yanking him. Pulling him hard along.
This was too much.
So Julie has crossed
the line.
She's gone too far, right? She's crossed
the line. I planted myself. Here's this
word again. Remember when she planted
her butt down, planted her rear end
down? Well, now he is planting his feet.
He's not going to move, right?
And was about to tell her to get lost.
Great expression, get lost. That means
get out of here.
Get lost. Go home.
when the weirdest thing happened. I was
making this big windmill motion to break
away from her, but somehow on the down
swing, my hand wound up tangling into
hers. I couldn't believe it. There I was
holding the mud monkeykey's hand. This
part's really cute, right? He's
windmilling his arms, kind of swinging
his arms around in a circle like a
windmill will do. But when his hand
swings down, he accidentally holds her
hand. His hand gets tangled up. Tangled
up with Julie's hand, right? And he
can't believe it. Of course, this is the
last thing that he wants, right?
[laughter]
I tried to shake her off, but she just
clamped on tight and yanked me along,
saying, "Come on." So, she kind of takes
advantage of this moment. She clamps on
tight. She's holding on tight. Clamp,
right? If you grab something and you're
you're you're clamped on, you're holding
on really tight.
My mom came out of the house and
immediately
immediately
right away got the world's sappiest look
on her face. H interesting. We'll talk
about that in a second.
Well, hello. She says to Julie.
Hi. Okay. So, I think his mom likes what
she sees. All right. She sees two little
kids holding hands. She thinks it's
very, very cute. So, she makes a sappy
face.
If something is sappy, maybe we can say
it's overly cheesy,
maybe overly romantic.
Romantic.
All right. Like if uh two people in a
movie hug each other, kiss each other.
All right. There's there's romantic
music playing. We can say, "Wow, this is
a really sappy scene."
scene or part of a movie, right? Okay.
Well, hello. So, mom is saying hi to
Julie. Hi. I'm still trying to pull
free, but the girls got me in a death
grip.
Really great expression here. In a death
grip.
So no matter how hard he tries to wrigle
away or get free, get away from her, he
can't. She's got him clamped
clamped in a death grip. My mom is
grinning. So there's a smile on her
face. And remember, if you grin, you
show your teeth when you smile, right?
You don't just smile with your lips, you
smile with your teeth. It's a big smile.
My mom's grinning, looking at our hands
in my fiery red face.
And what's [clears throat] your name,
honey? Juliana Baker. I live right over
there, she says, pointing with her
unoccupied
hand.
So, one hand is free, right?
It's unoccupied.
If something is occupied, then it's
being used. It's busy. Right? One hand
is clamped on Bryce, but the other one
is free. So, we call that her unoccupied
hand.
Well, I see you've met my son, she says,
still grinning away. Grinning away.
Grinning away. Great phrase here. You
can grin, but if you're grinning away,
that means you are still grinning.
You are continuing to grin. Grin. Grin.
Grinning away. Uh-huh. That means yes.
Finally, I break free and do the only
manly thing available when you're seven
years old. I dive behind my mother.
Okay, so he rushes behind his mom to get
away from this Julie, right? Or maybe we
can say he ducks
behind his mom. Maybe hides
behind his mom. Okay. Mom puts her arm
around me and says, "Bryce, honey, why
don't you show Juliana around the
house?" Oh, no. Mom didn't get the memo.
Mom didn't get the message
[laughter]
about this little girl, right? Mom
doesn't know that dad and Bryce are
trying to get away from her.
I flash her help and warning signals
with every part of my body, but she's
not receiving.
Then she shakes me off and says, "Go
on." So, mom doesn't get it. He tries to
signal to her, right? Signal. Tries to
send her a message like, "Mom, help. I
need help." But she doesn't receive the
message. She doesn't get the message.
She doesn't pick up on what he's trying
to tell her.
Julie,
continuing on here, Julie would have
tramped right in if my mother hadn't
noticed her shoes and told her to take
them off. And after those were off, my
mom told her that her dirty socks had to
go, too. Julie wasn't embarrassed. Not a
bit. She just peeled them off and left
them in a crusty heap on our porch. Oo,
some great words to talk about here.
Yeah. Okay. So, she would have just
tramped right in.
Walk. She would have just walked right
in. Kind of like barge. This word, it's
maybe closer to barge. If you your
way in, you barge your way in. You're
being a bit impolite.
right
now. She would have done that, but
Bryce's mom notices or realizes that
she's got, of course, mud
caked all over her shoes, right? Caked
all over a thick layer of mud, right?
So, she tells Julie, "You need to take
those off." Julie wasn't embarrassed
about it. Not a bit. That means not even
a little bit.
She peeled them off. Imagine if you're
peeling a banana kind of like this,
right? This motion
peel. That's what she does to her shoes
and socks, right? She peeled off her
dirty socks
and she left them in a crusty heap.
Heap. A heap is like a big pile of
something, right? Here's a a pile of
dirty socks over here. You can see
they're very smelly. [snorts] A pile. A
heap. Okay. Where did she leave these
crusty [snorts]
socks that she's peeled off? crusty,
meaning they're dirty and the dirt has
hardened. You know, the mud is not wet
mud.
It has crusted over. It's become hard,
right?
And uh Julie left these crusty hard
socks on the porch. Okay. Um, I don't
know about the you the listener and uh
your your living situation where you
live, but in America
uh and especially in the Midwest, a lot
of houses have a front porch or a back
porch. It's kind of like a little space
outside the house where maybe you can
sit in a chair, have a cup of coffee,
you know, take your shoes off. A lot of
people have a swing on the front porch
where you can sit and swing. How about
you? What about the area where you live?
Can you see houses with porches? I
didn't exactly give her a tour.
Okay. He didn't really show her around
the house that thoroughly,
right? He didn't show her around inepth
with a lot of detail. I locked myself in
the bathroom instead. So, he didn't give
her a tour at all. He did not show her
around the house.
And after about 10 minutes of yelling
back at her that no, I wasn't coming out
anytime soon, things got quiet out in
the hall. Another 10 minutes went by
before I got the nerve. Remember this.
Work up the nerve. Build up the
confidence to peek out the door. Peek.
Just a little look.
A quick peek, right? A quick small look.
A peak. He peaks out. No, Julie.
I snuck out and looked around. And yes,
she was gone.
Not a very sophisticated ditch, but hey,
I was only seven, so he managed to ditch
her or get rid of her, but it wasn't
very sophisticated.
Hm. [clears throat]
How could we paraphrase that? What's a
synonym for sophisticated? Maybe
advanced
or maybe highlevel, right? It wasn't a
very advanced way to get rid of her. It
wasn't a very highlevel way to get her
to leave, go away. But hey, I was only
seven. In other words, give me a break.
Give me a break. I was only 7 years old.
My troubles were far from over, though.
H My troubles were far from over.
Troubles were far from over. He's not
out of the dog house yet. Let me try a
different color pen here. See if this
looks a little bit better.
Every day she came back over and over
again.
Can Bryce play? I could hear her asking
from my hiding place behind the couch.
So, he's behind the couch. [snorts] He's
hiding. She wants to know where he is.
She's looking for him, right? Is he
ready yet?
One time she even cut across the yard
and looked through my window.
I spotted her in the nick of time. Great
expression. In the nick of time.
In other words,
just in time. All right. At the perfect
moment, without any time to spare, in
the nick of time, I spotted her and dove
under my bed. But man, that right there
tells you something about Julie Baker,
right? That tells you something about
her. She has a lot of audacity.
Big word. She has a lot of audacity.
Uh, a lot of people wouldn't go that
far. All right. But not Julie. Julie
definitely would go that far.
She's got no concept of personal space.
Concept. No real idea of personal space.
Uh, in other words, she violates other
people's space. This is my space. This
is your space. She violates other
people's space. No respect for privacy.
The world is her playground.
And watch out below. Julie's on the
slide.
[laughter]
Lucky for me, my dad was willing to run
block.
And he did it over and over again. So
run block. Dad is willing to block Julie
or stop her from harassing Bryce,
harassing him, bothering him. Right? And
he did it over and over again. He told
her, "I was busy or sleeping or just
plain gone." What about this just plain?
Maybe we could paraphrase and say
simply. I was simply gone. He was a
lifaver.
A lifaver. Right? I think that's pretty
obvious what that means. A lifesaver.
Someone who will save your life. My
sister, on the other hand, tried to
sabotage me. Any chance she got? Oh,
okay. Bryce has a sister. Lanetta.
Letta.
See these T's? They kind of sound like
D's, right? Letta.
Lanetta. Lanetta.
Uh, Lanetta tried to sabotage me. Any
chance she got? What is sabotage?
Maybe we could say betray,
maybe backstab,
work against someone.
Lanetta's like that. She's 4 years older
than me. And buddy, I've learned from
watching her how not to run your life.
She's got antagonize
written all over her. Just look at her.
Not crosseyed or with your or with your
tongue sticking out or anything. Just
look at her and you started an argument.
Okay, what does that mean? This might be
a little hard to understand. If you
antagonize somebody,
then maybe you're trying to pick
a fight with them. All right? You're
trying to start something with them in a
negative way, right? So basically, if
you
just look at Lanetta the wrong way, it's
really easy to start an argument. In
other words, she is looking,
searching for any excuse to fight, to
argue, right?
I used to knock down, drag out with her,
but it's just not worth it. So, I used
to get down and dirty and maybe we could
say play her little games, right? But
it's just not worth it. Why? Girls don't
fight fair. They pull your hair and
gouge you and pinch you and then they
run off gasping.
[gasps]
Gasping to mommy when you try and defend
yourself with a fist.
A fist. A closed fist. So if you fight
back, they'll go tell mom. Right. Then
you get locked into time out. You get in
trouble. And for what? No, my friend.
The secret is don't snap at the bait.
Don't snap at the bait. kind of making a
fishing analogy,
an analogy or a comparison, right?
This uh Lanetta,
she wants you to take the bait. If
you're trying to catch a fish, you use
some bait, right? He's saying, "Don't
snap at the bait." If [snorts] you snap
at something, you're trying to bite it.
trying to bite it, trying to snap at it,
right? Don't bite the bait. Instead, let
it dangle.
Swim around it. Dangle just means let it
just hang there.
Right?
Laugh it off.
After a while, they'll give up and try
to lure someone else. Okay? Lure. maybe
attract.
Okay, at least that's the way it is with
Lanetta.
And the bonus of having her as a pain in
the rear sister was figuring out that
this method works on everyone.
Okay, so she's actually taught him
something. Okay, that's the bonus of
having her as a sister. That's kind of
the payoff or
the reward. All right. It's all worth it
because he realized after having Lanetta
as a sister, don't take the bait, right?
In other words, he learned what?
Self-control.
Teachers, jerks at school. A jerk is
someone who's rude or mean, right?
Even mom and dad, seriously,
there's no winning arguments with your
parents. So, why get all pumped up over
them? It is way better to dive down and
get out of the way than it is to get
clobbered by some parental tidal wave.
Okay? He's saying it's good to avoid
conflict,
right? Don't get caught up in conflict.
Don't get involved
in arguments because if you do, you will
get clobbered or beaten up, hit very
hard,
hit hard, right, by some parental title
wave. parents big wave. So, your parents
will get [clears throat] uh really mad
at you. Maybe you'll get in trouble.
Don't take the bait. Right? The funny
thing is Lanetta's still clueless when
it comes to dealing with mom and dad.
Still clueless.
Doesn't have a clue. Doesn't know what
she's doing. Basically, she goes
straight into thrash mode and is too
busy drowning in the argument to take a
deep breath and dive for calmer water.
So, still using this tidal wave analogy,
this comparison,
he's comparing arguing with mom and dad
like you're sort of like you are out in
the ocean struggling to deal with a
tidal wave, right? He's saying the best
way to deal with it is take a deep
breath. Go down where the water is calm
and not so crazy. But what does Lanetta
do? She goes into thrash mode.
Thrash. What is that? That's kind of
when you are moving your body in a very
fast, jerky, violent way. Like imagine
if someone couldn't swim, right? If
someone couldn't swim and you threw them
into the water, they would start
thrashing around.
Okay, it's kind of like panicking.
Panicking.
And she thinks I'm stupid. Anyway, true
to form, Lanetta tried to bait me with
Julie those first few days.
She even snuck her past dad once and
marched her all around the house,
hunting me down. Hunting me down. So
Lanetta snuck Julie past Bryce's dad
into the house, started looking for
Bryce. Right. I wedged myself up on the
top shelf of my closet. And lucky for
me, neither of them looked up. That's so
funny. Here's his closet, right? And he
[snorts]
wedged himself or stuck himself
way up at the top part of the closet.
You know, uh Lanetta and Julie are down
here looking, looking, looking. They
can't find him. Right.
A few minutes later, I heard Dad yell at
Julie
to get off the antique furniture
and once again she got booted. Man, this
is such a great great book for learning
English. Uh there are so many fantastic
expressions. [gasps]
I heard dad yell at Julie. So, dad
really doesn't like Julie. So, get off
the antique furniture.
Antique.
Antique.
The furniture, the couches, the chairs,
whatever are very old and maybe
valuable. Maybe a collector's item.
Okay. Antique furniture. She got booted.
She got the boot. She got kicked out.
Right.
I don't think I went outside that whole
first week. I helped unpack stuff and
watched TV and just kind of hung around
while my mom and dad arranged and
rearranged the furniture,
debating whether empire
satiso
tables should even be put in the same
room. Okay. So, basically what this is
telling us is Bryce, the main character
here, is is not really helping out with
the unpacking.
Well, I helped unpack stuff and watch
TV. I guess he did help a little bit,
right? But it sounds like mom and dad
are doing most of the
heavy
lifting,
doing most of the hard work.
Heavy lifting
means hard work, [snorts] right? They
are arranging, rearranging the
furniture. They are debating,
having debates about where stuff should
go, where you should put things. So,
believe me, I was dying to go outside.
But every time I checked through the
window, I could see Julie showing off in
her yard. She'd be heading a soccer
ball, hitting it with her head, right?
Or doing high kicks with it or dribbling
it up and down their driveway.
And when she wasn't busy showing off,
she would just sit on the curb with the
ball between her feet staring at our
house. I think she's showing off to try
and attract Bryce's attention,
right? She's trying to get his
attention. When she's not doing that,
she's sitting on the curb. Let's say
your house is right here. Here's the
road where cars drive, right? Here's the
sidewalk. The curb is where the sidewalk
meets the road. Okay?
And she would just stare at the house.
My mom didn't understand why it was so
awful that that cute little girl had
held my hand. Mom doesn't really get it,
right? She thought I should make friends
with her.
I thought you liked soccer, honey. Why
don't you go out there and kick the ball
around?
So, mom doesn't really comprehend. She
doesn't really understand.
It's not really
clicking
with mom. Okay. It's not clicking with
her. She's not really understanding.
She's not really getting it. Well, the
reason is because I didn't want to be
kicked around. That's why. And although
I couldn't say it like that all the
time, I still had enough sense at age
seven and a half to know that Julie
Baker was dangerous.
>> [laughter]
[gasps]
>> He thinks this little girl is dangerous.
He is really avoiding her.
Unavoidably dangerous, as it turns out.
Oo, let's see what happened. The minute
I walked into Mrs. Yelson's second grade
classroom, I was dead meat. Bryce, Julie
squeals. You're here.
Then she charges across the room and
tackles me. Some great action verbs
here.
So, unfortunately
for Bryce, Julie is in his class, right?
In his second grade class. He's dead
meat. What does that mean? If you're
dead meat, then you don't stand a
chance.
All right. You never had a chance. You
didn't stand a chance. Because he's
stuck with her, right? There's nothing
he can do about it. She charges across
the room running as fast as she can and
tackles me. If you tackle somebody, you
really throw yourself and your weight
into them.
Mrs. Yelson tried to explain this attack
away as a welcome hug, but man, that was
no hug. That was a frontline take them
down tackle. So Bryce is saying this was
not a hug. This was an attack.
I could have gotten really hurt. I could
have gotten injured, right? And even
though I shook her off, I got her away
from me. I shook her off, it was too
late. I was branded for life. Great word
here, branded. Now he has a label.
Everyone jered. Where's your girlfriend,
Bryce? Are you married yet, Bryce? And
then when she chased me around at recess
and tried to lay kisses on me, the whole
school started singing. Bryce and Julie
sitting in a tree. K I S S I N G.
So all of the kids are poking fun or
making
fun. They are jeering.
Cheering is pretty nasty.
If you jer,
you are not laughing with them. You are
laughing at them. Laughing at them. It's
um it's a mean way. It's a mean laugh.
Right. So, my first year in town was a
disaster.
Disaster. It was ruined.
It was a catastrophe.
Okay. Was really, really bad. Third
grade wasn't much better. She was still
hot on my trail every time I turned
around. Hot on my trail. So, she's
following him. That's what that means.
Same with fourth. But then in fifth
grade, I took action.
He decided finally to do something about
this problem. It started out slow.
One of those nah, that's not right ideas
you get and forget.
But the more I played with the idea, the
more I thought, what better way to ward
Julie off
to ward her off. Keep her away, right?
Like sometimes we talk about warding off
bad spirits, evil spirits like ghosts,
right?
What better way to say to her, Julie,
you are not my type?
And so, my friend, I hatched the plan.
Hatched the plan. Came up with the plan.
I asked Shellyley Stalls out. If you ask
someone out, then you go on a date with
them. All right? Maybe you are a
boyfriend and girlfriend, you go on a
date. To fully appreciate the brilliance
of this, you have to understand that
Julie hates Shellyley Stalls.
She always has. Though it beats me, why
beats me? That means I don't understand.
If someone asks you a question,
you don't know the answer. You can say,
"Hey, man. Beats me. I don't know. Beats
me." [gasps] Shel's nice and she's
friendly and she's got a lot of hair.
What's not to like? But Julie hated her
and I was going to make this little gem
of knowledge the solution to my problem.
What I was thinking was that Shelly
would eat lunch at our table and maybe
walk around a little with me.
That way, anytime Julie was around, all
I'd have to do was hang a little closer
to Shelly and things would just
naturally take care of themselves.
What happened though? What really
happened is that Shelly took things way
too seriously.
She went around telling everybody,
including Julie, that we were in love.
This is pretty funny. So, are you guys
following this? Are you understanding?
Bryce has a plan to ward off Julie, to
keep her away, right? And the plan
basically is to show her, look, I am
taken.
I am unavailable.
I'm not available. I have a girlfriend.
So, you should just leave me alone cuz
you don't have a chance with me. You
don't have a shot with me.
Unfortunately,
this plan what?
This plan backfired.
It did not go the way Bryce hoped it
would go. In no time, Julie and Shelly
got into some kind of
cat fight. When two girls are fighting,
we sometimes call it a cat fight.
And while Shelley was recovering from
that, my supposed friend Garrett, he's
supposed to be my friend, but maybe he's
not, who had been totally behind this
plan.
Behind the plan, so he supported the
plan. In other words, told her what I
was up to. He's always denied it, but
I've since learned that his code of
honor is easily corrupted by weepy
females. This part makes me laugh. Okay,
so basically what this is saying is his
friend Garrett
spilled the beans. Spilled the beans and
revealed Bryce's plan. Okay. Now, he
always denies it. He always says, "No,
no, no. Come on. I wouldn't do that."
But his code of honor is easily
corrupted.
In other words,
he doesn't have any backbone.
He doesn't have much of a backbone.
Right. That afternoon, the principal
tried cross-examining me, but I wouldn't
cop to anything.
I just kept telling her that I was sorry
and that I really didn't understand what
had happened. Finally, she let me go.
So, the principal of the school
gets involved.
But what does Bryce do? He plays dumb.
If you play dumb, that means you pretend
like you don't really know what's going
on, right? Well, Shelly cried for days
and followed me around school sniffling.
Sniffling.
That's sniffling. Making me feel like a
jerk, like a bad guy. Which was even
worse than having Julie as a shadow
following him around. Right. Everything
blew over at the one weekek mark though
when Shelley officially dumped me and
started going out with Kyle Larson.
Okay. [snorts] Everything blew over.
Everything sort of got better.
Everything went back to normal.
She dumped him officially.
Maybe, you know, they were kind of not
boyfriend girlfriend anymore
unofficially.
But finally, she officially
dumped him and she started dating this
other guy, Kyle.
Then Julie started up with the goooo
eyes again and I was back to square one.
If you make goooo eyes,
this is so funny to try and explain
this. Um, if you make goooo eyes, maybe
if a girl makes goooo eyes at a boy,
that means she likes him. She's kind of
batting her eyes, trying to look cute,
trying to get his attention. I knew I
was back to square one. Look at all of
the fantastic idioms in this book.
What is back to square one? Write back
where you started.
Right back where you began. So
basically, if you make no progress,
can't really read that. No progress is
back to square one.
Now, in sixth grade, things changed.
Though whether they improved is hard to
say. I don't remember Julie actually
chasing me in the sixth grade, but I do
remember her sniffing me.
Smelling
smelling. Sniffing. Yes, my friend. I
said sniffing.
And can you blame that? Oh, sorry. And
you can blame that on our teacher, Mr.
Mertens.
He stuck Julie to me like glue.
Mr. Mertens has got some kind of
doctorate in seating arrangements or
something because he analyzed and
scrutinized and practically baptized the
seats we had to sit in. And of course,
he decided to see Julie right next to
me. So, what is this saying?
This is saying very simply that the
teacher decided to make them sit
together, right? He's kind of making a
joke here saying the teacher must have a
doctorate in seating arrangements.
Like he's that's his specialty. You
know, he's being sarcastic, saying, you
know, of course he just had to put us
together.
Julie Baker is the kind of annoying
person who makes a point of letting you
know she's smart. Her hand is the first
one up. Her answers are usually complete
dissertations.
Her projects are always turned in early.
Okay. So, she's kind of a uh a teacher's
pet
in English. We sometimes describe this
kind of student as a teacher's pet.
Teacher's pet. Okay. Maybe you suck up
to teacher. You answer all of the
questions. You're always raising your
hand.
She's always turning her work in early
and using it as a weapon against the
rest of the class. So, the rest of the
class is not a fan of Julie. They don't
like her, right? Teachers always have to
hold her project up and say, "This is
what I'm looking for, class. This is an
example of A+ work."
Add all the extra credit she does to an
already perfect score. And I swear she's
never gotten less than 120% in any
subject. So she is not just an A
student. She is an A++ plus student. She
always gets good grades. We can call
that a star student, right? She's a star
student.
But after Mr. Mertens stuck Julie right
next to me, her annoying knowledge of
all subjects far and wide came in handy.
Hm. came in handy. It was useful.
If something comes in handy, then it's
useful. You've got a good use for it.
See, suddenly Julie's perfect answers
written in perfect cursive were right
across the aisle, just an eye shot away.
Okay? So, he's going to cheat and look
at her answers and copy her answers,
right?
You wouldn't believe the number of
answers I snagged from her. I I got from
her. I copied from her. I started
getting A's and B's on everything. It
was great. But then Mr. Mertens pulled
the shift. He had some new idea for
optimizing positional latitude and
longitude.
And when the dust finally settled, I was
sitting right in front of Julie Baker.
So basically, this is just a fancy way
of saying the teacher caught on
[clears throat]
caught on. The teacher started noticing,
right? And switched [snorts]
things
up.
Switched things up. Made a change. Now
Bryce is sitting in front of Julie so he
cannot copy her work. Right?
This is where the sniffing [laughter]
comes in. That maniac or crazy person,
right? Started leaning forward and
sniffing my hair. She'd edge her nose
practically up to my scalp and sniff
sniff sniff. I tried elbowing and back
kicking. I tried scooting my chair way
forward or putting my backpack between
me and the seat. Nothing helped. She
would just scoot up too or lean over a
little farther and sniff sniff sniff
sniff sniff. So now that Bryce is in
front of Julie, she is sniffing him.
smelling him. I finally asked Mr.
Mertens to move me, but he wouldn't do
it. Something about not wanting to
disturb the delicate balance of
educational energies.
Now, if this sentence is confusing,
don't worry. It's supposed to be
confusing. Mr. Merton speaks in this
very complicated
uh advanced way with lots of big words,
right? Basically, he's saying he doesn't
want to disturb the balance of the
classroom or mess up,
right, the system
that he has for seating people. Okay,
whatever. I was stuck with her sniffing.
And since I couldn't see her perfectly
pinned answers anymore, my grades took a
dive.
His grades got a lot worse, especially
in spelling.
Then one time during a test, Julie's in
the middle of last page, guys, almost
done. In the middle of sniffing my hair,
when she notices that I've blown a
spelling word, a lot of words, suddenly
the sniffing stops and the whispering
starts.
That's whispering.
At first, I couldn't believe it. Julie
Baker cheating, but sure enough, she was
spelling words for me right in my ear.
Julie had always been sly about
sniffing.
Sly meaning maybe sneaky. Sneaky about
it, right? Which really bugged me.
How could we say that another way?
Really bothered me because no one ever
noticed her doing it, but she was just
as sly about giving me answers, which
was okay by me. The bad thing about it
was that I started counting on her
spelling in my ear. I mean, why study
when you don't have to, right? But after
a while, taking all those answers made
me feel sort of great word indebted to
her. Kind of like he owes her. Yeah, he
owes her. Okay. How can you tell someone
to bug off or quit sniffing you when you
owe them? It's, you know, wrong, right?
So, I spent the sixth grade somewhere
between uncomfortable and unhappy.
But I kept thinking that next year, next
year, things would be different. We'd be
in junior high, a big school in
different classes.
And uh I would be or it would be a world
with too many people to worry about ever
seeing Julie Baker again. It was finally
finally going to be over. Okay, that is
the end of chapter 1 here.
Flipping [snorts]
back through, we can see we really took
a lot of notes, didn't we?
And um what do you guys think? Was this
useful?
Did you learn some new words? There are
a lot of great useful phrases and
expressions in this book. Like I was
saying, how about you let me know
down in the comment section.
you can leave me a comment with one or
two new things you learned.
And uh guys, I hope this video was
helpful.
Maybe I'll see you again next time for
chapter two. Bye-bye.
