I woke up on Saturday morning with a big smile on my face.
What was I smiling about? I wondered.
Then I remembered.
Today I was going to move into my own room!
I'd never have to share a room with my brother, Tate, again.
I went into the kitchen.
My mom had left a note that said she was grocery shopping.
I ate breakfast and then went back to our room.
By now Tate was awake.
He watched me dump all my stuff in a big box.
"Good-bye, Tate," I said, picking up the box.
Tate grinned. "See you around, Iggy."
I could tell that Tate was happy I was leaving.
But I didn't mind, because I was happy too.
My new room was a tiny space off the kitchen.
Mr. Calabria, the superintendent of our apartment building, had built shelves for all my invention stuff.
Soon he was going to move my bed into the room too.
"Hey, Iggy!" Tate yelled. "Come back here!"
"Wow," I thought in surprise. "Tate misses me already!"
I walked back to Tate's room.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"You forgot something," said Tate.
He pointed under his desk.
I looked, but I couldn't see anything.
"There's a broken crayon under there," Tate said.
I looked again and spotted a tiny piece of broken crayon.
It was from the automatic coloring machine I'd invented.
I picked it up and then went to the door.
Mr. Calabria was here to move my bed.
I was still setting up my new room when Mom got home.
"I'm so tired from shopping," she said.
"After I put these groceries away, I'm going to sit down with a good book."
Just then someone knocked on our apartment door.
It was my friend Molly, who lives across the hall.
Her little brother, Caswell, was with her.
"Hi, Iggy," she said. "How's your new room?"
"I'm almost all moved in," I said. "Come and see!"
I showed them my new room.
"I'm going to think up great inventions here.
My next invention will be healthy candy.
You two can help."
Molly made a face.
"Who wants to eat healthy candy?"
"We're not going to eat it," I explained.
"We're going to sell it!
Moms will buy it for their kids."
I went back into the kitchen.
"Mom, can we use some frozen vegetables for my new invention?"
"Okay," she said. "But don't make a mess."
"I won't," I promised. Then I got busy.
First I took three bags of frozen vegetables out of the freezer.
There were lima beans, peas, and broccoli.
Next I dumped the vegetables on a platter in my room.
The broccoli was all stuck together.
We had to use a hammer to break it apart.
"This is fun!" said Caswell, pounding the frozen broccoli.
"But how are we going to make candy?" asked Molly.
"You'll see," I told her.
I went into the kitchen and got a stool.
Then I climbed up and got a bottle from the cupboard.
Its label said "Chocolate Syrup."
"Now," I said, as I came back into my room.
"We'll pour the syrup over the frozen vegetables.
Then the syrup will freeze.
The candy will be just like a chocolate-coated ice-cream cone!"
"But the candy will still taste like vegetables," Molly pointed out.
"Who cares?" said Caswell. "Let's start pouring!"
We all took turns pouring the syrup.
Caswell tried to be careful, but he got syrup all over his face.
In fact, he got syrup all over everything.
That was when Mom walked into my room.
"Iggy!" she cried.
"What do you think you're doing?"