BIG Se eo THE THIRD WHEELDear reader, Tn very excited that youre holding the Kindle edition of Diary of a Wlimpy Kid im your hands. When TE read my frst e-book on a Kindle, TE was arazed at the possblites: Carrying a whole library around with re on a device T. could ft in the gale of my hand? Amazing, hat’ been very rewarding 40 re as an avthor has been seeing kids carrying +heir deg-eared copies of Diary of « Wingy Kid with thers The Kindle allows kids to have the whole series at their fingertips, and the reading experience is ersp and clean every tine «with no chance of today’s breakfast stainng the pages. “Thank you for prchasing Diary of « Wingy Kid on your Kindle. T hope it gives you lots of laughs and you have as much fin reading it as T did weiting it. Biff KonayrOTHER BOOKS BY JEFF KINNEY Diary of a Wimpy Kiel Diary of « Wimpy Kid: Redrick Rules Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw Diary of « Wimpy Kiel: Dog Days Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth Diary of « Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever The Wimpy Kiel Do-It-Yourself Book The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary COMING SOON More Diary of a Wimpy Kid!THE THIRD WHEEL by Jeff Kinney Pp NewYork =|PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This is « work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and Incidents ae either the product ofthe author's imagination or are used fetitiously, and any resemblance to actual parsons, ving or dead, business establishments, ‘events or locales is entirely coincidental Cataloging n-Publicstion Data has been applied for and may be ‘obtained From the Library of Congress ISBN 9784-4197.05847 \Wnpy Kid text and illustrations copyright © 2012 Wimpy Kid ne. DIARY OF A WIMPY KID®, WIMPY KIO™, and the Grog Helly design™ are trademarks of Wimpy Kid, In. Al rights reserved. Bock design by Jef Kinney ‘Cover design by Chad W. Beckerman and Jelf Kinney Published in 2012 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a rovieval system, or transmitted in any form oF by any means, mochanical, WYN for locking me in the laundry room once J got out of there. What he DESERVED was a good fly with the Stringers, 15.Co T i 152deck, so T pushed with all my might and gave open the door, 154° @ztnraeca fe En ee Sans and Mrs. Stringer came home 156Hopefully, we can all have a good chuckle about this story at some future Thanksgiving, too. But T think it ‘le bef Ste : . Wednesday After blowing my chances with Laurel Stringer, Vf 7 VE BZ Oke pe s—> But yesterday Rowley gave me some news after changed EVERYTHING. 157_& should tell Abigail the three of us could go to the — TOGETHER « f friends.” Rowley seemed +o like that idea because he's been doing all this work on the Dance Committee and didn’t have anyone to go with, either. 158SEEMS LIK IT WAS JUST ) THAT GREG WAS T knew if I really wanted to impress Abigail, Tid need +o rent a limo, but those things cost a 159talked to Abigail, and she likes the whole. “group Jefferson agreed to drive us to the dance. 160night +o screw things up Tiga T told Uncle Gary about the dance, and he seems even more excited about it than T am. He wanted 161th . SUPER . sand whenever a kid gets them, they're not allowed to come back +o school for a week. But I couldn't — afford +o have Rowley out of commission for even cone NIGHT. He was my ride to the dance, and T knew that if his mom and dad didn’t let him gp, then T. couldn't go, either. Rowley was gonna go straight downstairs and tell his parents, but T. told him to calm down and wed — figure this out together, 165. , f , , use. I. found some stuff called “concealer,” and that sounded about right to me. then tried to cover up the problem areas on Rowley’ face. Then T noticed he had a few chicken pox on his FOREHEAD, so T found a beach hat in his moms — closet and had him put that on, too 167T kind of held my breath when we got into the car, but Think Mr. Jefferson just thought Rowley ind of wi f , dn When T. opened the back door to get in, T. was pretty surprised to find Rowley old booster seat taking up one of the spots. 168But come to think of it, T've always thought by with his family.hr . Abiaail . When we pulled into Abigail driveway, T asked Mr. Jefferson to honk the horn to let her know was my big chance to make a good first impression an Abigail. So T walked up to the house and knocked on the door, 170vst knock KNOCKfor us at the dance. T+ was toe much of «hassle to nove all thet stuff, so T decided to just hop in the way back cof the car so we could get on with the night. 173T+ got kind of quiet in the car, so T asked Mr. Jefferson if he could turn on the radio. But instead of putting on some music, he tuned in to 174wat underarms with soap and water, then dried them with the hand der, 179out the door. I. said st skip dinner and go right to the dance, but Abigail said she was really hungry, and Rowley said HE was starving, t 180Luckily, T remembered about the tie issue before we walked in the front door, and I. stuffed mine in my back pocket at the last second. 181ay LET ME TAKE. \ CARE OF THAT ) FOR YA, PARDNER! oo |G Z i? Ty AW | —_ RE uM Corny’ Z00. fara 4 Saturday. CO ASC > || / MAL 7 og er wi) \ = | =) 182farily with a bunch of wild kids. 3) SPN FOuN8 7 oy. ZA | table. But I wish we had, Just stayed where we were, because our new situation wasnt anto be grabbing chips out of the same basket while Rowley had the chicken pox, so T kept it near me. 184T told Abigail and Rowley that Twas paying for dinner so they should get whatever they wanted. Twas trying to show off a little for Abigail by throwing my money around. 185B Abia pulled it down +o speak. But when he did, a single molecule of spit flew in the air and landed on my bottom lip. | wae) 7 ||T wanted to wipe my lip with my napkin, but Td A . tS L wai Abiaail . wiped my lip on her sleeve, HAVE YOU 7 ( DECIDED ON A 4 MAIN COURSE?, <= . 4 = A | 187lettuce and tomato, but there was mayonnaise oh sm burger, toe, ______________ When our waitress came around again, I told 1 . s T lost my appetite after that. But even if To WAS hungry, T probably wouldn't have finished my meal anyway. LF you clean ne plate at really cant stand, 183[PO \ \ eee. |and wetreses all cans ot and sang “Happy nee : J’ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU When the bill came, I couldn't BELIEVE how much it was. T had to use all the money in my wallet, and T. even had to pull out the five dollars Twas keeping in my sock in case of an emergency. 1901 f "sds Paris,” L . Dance Commi like a street in France. There was a long table set — chocolate fountain with strawberries for dipping. LAL ( oO) |AuvjUjUL MI ree Brus “adTab in Paris Something about the DJ looked familiar to me, iwL . “he . them go to the bathroom in groups, but something — T. didnt know what Abigail thought of me, but T figured she was probably telling her friends right at that moment. The boys’ bathroom is right next : S&S Fa T could hear a lot of giggling, but T couldnt{SENIOR ~] (Ty NE EMER CT) | | : 199Everybody seemed to be able +o live with that what killed the mood was the LIGHTS. There's gym, and they had to be either all on or all of f. The senior citizens wanted them on for their ttt tt tak Pan, :The oi ; ; f formed-a kindof wall that kept the boys out. § to make a move to break into the circle and got totally blocked.R HO\ BURN HAS” SECONDED THE MOTION. vo HAVE A COFFEEMAKER IN THE KITCHENETTE.get out of everyone's way, but at that moment was better off where Twas, 204Michael was the boy Abigail was SUPPOSED +o ge to the dance with, but T guess his “family 205T did what T could to help make Abigail feel better, but she kind of had a crowd around her, Lt: . 206du | JAIMIUJU)R) | A\FIE| ([AIM/O|U|R 2 so she could fish it avt when it eyled back through. et 208204“Ne cai 4 as couples, which was the first time that had happened all night. if : ° £» 1 é YS But just when T thought things couldn't get any worse, T saw Ruby Bird and she was coming right forme 210YO Ae eT esae Linas | ms have an excuse to get away from Ruby. And to be . L Abiaail see_me, too, so T led her to an empty spot on the dance floor. Then T noticed something on Abigail's chin. T+ one of Rowleys chicken pow 212Anyway, T know thet NOW, but anyone in my Tdi 213autWednesday A , 6D A few days ago Uncle Gary bought a bunch of Fshirts, and one of his tickets was a forty- thousand-dollar winner. So he paid Dad the money 215And speaking of Rowley and Abigail, I heard that the two of them are a couple now. All I. can say is if that's true, it makes Rowley the worst : . 216ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to my wonderful family for all your encouragement and for all the laughs. A lot of our stories are laced in these books, and it’s been great fun to share this adventure with all of you. Thanks to everyone at Abrams for publishing these books and for putting so much care into making them as good as they can be. Thanks to Charlie Kechman for treating every book like it's the first Thanks to Michael Jacobs for everything you've done to make Greg Heffley reach his full potential, Thanks to Jason Wells, Veror Wasserman, Scott Auerbach, Chad W. Beckerman, and Susan Van Metre for your dedication and for your fellowship. We've had lots of good times, and there are many more to come. Thanks to everyone at my job—Jess Brallier and the entire team at Poptropice—for your support, camaraderie, and dedication to creating great stories for kids. Thanks to Sylvie Rabineau, my terrific agent, for your encourage- ment and guidance. Thanks to Elizabeth Gabler, Carla Hacken, Nick DiAngelo, Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, and David Bowers for bringing Greg Heffley and his family to life on the big screen. Thanks to Shaelyn Germain for making things run smoothly behind the scenes and for helping in so many ways. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeff Kinney is an online game developer and designer, and a" New York Times bestselling author. Jeff has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. Jeff is also the creator of Poptropica.com, which was named one of Time magazine's 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives in southern Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.eae eas Pen secs Heffley? eee es Corr ees es Perma aris Peron eed Perna Pee eee ees friend, Rowley, doesn'thave Pee ea eer An unexpected t Rory eae ee ees rae Pea crt te ‘end, you never know who's going to be lucky in love. CaO st ean eee a a the USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal, EAD aCe ace eee ned ‘In the publishing worl Kinney is a rock star.” NPR's “Backseat Book Club” aq Wimpy Kid is ne of the most successful os tee Gorinaon” IMM cron eres ver publaked =Time magazine =The Washington Post “A big hit with reluctant readers and anyone looking for a funny book. School Library Journal ly Pinan encom paulo