DIARY

of a

Wimpy Kid
HARD LUCK
8

&
Jeff Kinney
 OTHER BOOKS BY JEFF KINNEY

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel

The Wimpy Kid Do-lt-Yourself Book

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary

COMING SOON

More Diary of a Wimpy Kid

 DIARY
of a
Wimpy Kid
HARD LUCK
by Jeff Kinney

AMULET BOOKS

New York
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously,
and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments,
events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be

obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4197-1132-9

Wimpy Kid text and illustrations copyright © 2013 Wimpy Kid, Inc.
DIARY OF A WIMPY KID®, WIMPY KID™, and the Greg Heffley design™
are trademarks of Wimpy Kid, Inc. All rights reserved.

MAGIC 8 BALL and associated trademarks and trade dress owned by,
and used under license from, Mattel. 2013 Mattel. All Rights Reserved.

Book design by Jeff Kinney

Cover design by Chad W. Beckerman and Jeff Kinney

Published in 2013 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,

electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from
the publisher. Amulet Books and Amulet Paperbacks are registered trademarks of
Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity

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Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact
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I always thought I'D be the one in a relationship
and Rowley would be the guy everyone kind of
felt sorry for.
GREG JR., WOULD
YOU LIKE TO GIVE
A HOT DOG TO
MR. ROWLEY?

YES,
PAPA!

wwMH M

I guess I've got to give Rowley some creditfor

actually finding a girl who likes him. But I don't
have to be HAPPY about it.

Back in old days, it was just

the good and me

Rowley, and we hung out and did whatever we

wanted. If we felt like blowing bubbles in our
chocolate milk at lunch, then that's exactly what
we did. BLOOB//1N
BLUB
BLOB
BLOB

3
But now that there's a girl in the picture, things
are TOTALLY different.

THAT'S
IMMATURE!

Wherever Rowley is, his girlfriend Abigail is, too.

And even if she ISN'T there, it SEEMS like she

is. I invited Rowley to my house for a sleepover

last weekend so the two of us could spend some
time together, but after about two hours I gave
up trying to have any fun.

NO, YOU'RE
CUTER! HEE
HEE HEE!

SODA

4
And when the two of them are in the same place,

it's even WORSE. Ever since Rowley and Abigail

got together, it's like Rowley doesn't even have his
own OPINIONS anymore.

SO WHAT DID OH, WE

YOU THINK DIDN'T
OF THAT CARE FOR
NEW MOVIE? THAT ONE!

I was hoping this would've all blown over by now

and things would be back to normal, but there's
no sigh of this ending anytime sooh.
HAPPY NINE-
AND-A-HALF-DAY
ANNIVERSARY!

5
If you ask it's ALREADY gone too far.
me,

I've started noticing little changes in Rowley,

like the way he combs his hair and the clothes
he wears. And I GUARANTEE you, Abigail is

behind all of it.

But I'M the one who's been best friends with

Rowley
all these years, if anyone has the right to
so

change him, it's ME.

I just don't get how you can go from being
someone's best friend to getting kicked to the
curb. But that's exactly what happened.

During the winter, me and Rowley stored up some

showballs in my freezer so we could have a snowball
fight when the weather got warm.
6
Well, yesterday was the first day we've had in
nice

forever, but when I went over to Rowley's house

he acted like he was too good for me.

SORRY, WE'RE
OCCUPIED AT
THE MOMENT.

TOSS

The thing is, I can honestly say I've been nice

to Abigail, but SHE doesn't like ME. She's been

trying to drive a wedge between me and Rowley

ever since the two of them became a couple.
7
This is an issue for a COUPLE of reasons. For

one, meand Rowley have a deal where he's in

charge of scouting ahead for dog poop on the
sidewalk. And that arrangement has saved me a

BUNCH of times.

WHE

There's this one dog that really has it in for me

and Rowley, and we have to keep our guard up
whenever we pass by his house. He's thisreally
mean Rottweiler named Rebel, and he used to get
out of his yard and chase us on our way to school.
a

10
Rebel's owner had to install an electric fence to

make sure he couldn't get loose. Now Rebel can't

chase us, because if he takes one step out of his
yard, he'll get a shock from his collar.
BEEP
BEEP
BEEP

wwwM

Ever since me and Rowley found out about Rebel's

electric collar, we've been having some fun with him.

OOPS! LOOKS
LIKE IDROPPED
MY SANDWICH!

MEOW!
MEOW!
m

wwww

M
MMWM

But Rebel figured out that as long as his

COLLAR doesn't cross over the property line,
he won't get shocked.
11
 And if I didn't have Rowley watching out for me,
I definitely would've stepped on one of Rebel's
land mines by how.

ALERT!
ALERT!

www

wwww Mw

M
www

The other reason it stinks that Rowley isn't

walking with me is because, with the school year
winding down, the teachers have really been
loading us up with homework lately.

That means I have to take almost all my books

home with me ever day.
every

My body's not built to carry that kind of weight,

but Rowley is practically like a pack animal, so it's
no problem for HIM.

12
 PANT
PANT

www

ΛΑ
ΑΛΑ
wwΜ
MM

Unfortunately, Rowley is just as willing to help

Abigail with HER books, which makes me think
the only reason she's even with him is to USE him.

And as Rowley's good friend, I find that a

little hard to take.

PANT
PANT

wwww wwwww Mwwww

wwNw wM

13
Tuesday
I figured out pretty good solution to my book
a

problem. This morning I borrowed the roller bag

Dad uses when he goes on trips, and carrying all
my school stuff was no sweat.

wwww

wM

MwM wwwww

I was able to make pretty good time, too, but

that's partially because I walked a little extra
fast when I went by Mr. Sandoval's house.

Before a snowstorm, Mr. Sandoval always puts poles

in the ground on either side of his driveway so the
guy who plows it knows where the pavement is.

The last time it snowed, me and Rowley plucked

the poles out of Mr. Sandoval's yard and started
horsing around with them.
14
 EN
YAAARGH!
GARDE!

NK

00

But I guess we didn't put the sticks back in

exactly the right place, because when the guy came
to plow Mr. Sandova's driveway, he was off by
about ten feet.

VROOM

15
One time me and Rowley got too close to the
woods and one of the Mingo kids came out to let
us know.

YOU COME NEAR

OUR WOODS
AGAIN, MECKLEY'S
GONNA GIT YOU!

ハ
Muм
ww

I'm still not sure what he meant by that, but if

Meckley's belt buckle was gonna be involved in any
way, I didn't want to stick around to find out.

Now that I'm walking home on my own, I have

to cross to the other side of the street when I

get nearthe Mingos' woods. It wouldn't be a big

deal except there's no sidewalk over there, and
that can't be good for Dad's roller bag.

18
 CONSTRUCTION
CAUTION ZONE

Mom's noticed I haven't hanging out with

been
Rowley lately. She said I shouldn't get too worked
up over it because most friendships from childhood

don't last and that me and Rowley will probably

grow apart over the years anyway.

Well, I hope that's not true, because I think

it's important for me to keep my childhood friends
so that later on someone can appreciate how far

I've come.

BEAUTIFUL WHY, I SUPPOSE

DAY, MR. IT IS! YES, I
HEFFLEY! SUPPOSE IT IS.
3

19
 I'm not so sure Mom'squalified to give me
friendship advice anyway, because guy friendships
TOTALLY different from girl friendships.
are

And I know because I've read almost every single

book in the Slumber Party Pals series.

TheSlumber Slumber
The

Party Pals,

The Slomber
Party Pals,
The Slumber Party Pals

Teamwork! The Slumber Best

Frenemies
Party Pals 117
ber/Party Puls

Boyfriend
Trouble

Before you judge me and say those books are for

GIRLS, let me just explain that the only reason
I got into them was because one time I forgot
to bring in a book for Silent Reading, and the
only books the teacher had were in the Slumber
Party Pals series. And once you've read ONE of
them, you can't stop.
20
There must be something like a hundred books in
that series. The first thirty or so were pretty

good, but after that I think the author started

running out of ideas.

The Slumber
Party Pals
The SlumberParty Pals
#87

Lindsey Loses
a Mitten

Anyway, the Slumber Party Pals books these

in

two friends are always getting into fights with

each other about little stuff.

YOU USED UP ALL MY WELL, YOU ONLY

PURPLE LIP GLOSS WANTED TO WEAR
BECAUSE YOU KNEW I IT BECAUSE YOU
WANTED TO WEAR IT KNEW JUSTIN
TO THE ROLLER RINK! WOULD BE THERE!

21