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This story begins with a smile

It was a stupid-looking s face Maybe it was the smile that made the face look stupid Or maybe it was the face that made the smile look stupid It was difficult to tell because the tere rarely apart

It was the smile on the face of Gary Boone

He was in the seventh grade at Floyd Hicks Junior High School Just about everybody there thought he was a goon They called hi face

“You’re an idiot, Goon, you know that?” Paul Wattenburg said to hi

“No, as a hed

He called himself Goon too On the first day of school, his ley, asked him his name and he said, “Goon”

“I beg your pardon,” said Miss Langley

“See, my name’s Gary Boone,” Gary explained, “so you take the G froether and get ‘Goon’ Ha Ha”

Miss Langley went on to so else

Last year at the end of sixth grade, Gary was voted Class Clown He took it as a great corew up “Or a sit-down coet tired”

Unfortunately, however, nobody who voted for hihed at his jokes He was simply the obvious choice

Gary often daydrea next to beautiful starlets and other celebrities, cracking jokes Naturally, all the starlets would fall in love with him because he was so funny

Soe with him…

“You were his seventh-grade teacher, weren’t you?” asks David Letterman

“That’s right,” says Miss Langley “But even then I knew he’d grow up to be a famous coh at his jokes I bit the insides ofHe was so funny I only wished I was fifteen years younger”

Miss Langley happened to be one of the rade ht when Gary dreas

He drealy often—at least once a week

“Hey, Goon!” said Matt Hughes “Has anybody ever told you you’re an idiot?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Gary “PaulHa Ha”

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Gary wrote a story called “The Boy Who Ate Fire” for English class