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    The Getaway (Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book 12)


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      The Third Wheel

      Hard Luck

      The Long Haul

      Old School

      Double Down

      The Getaway

      1

      2

      3

      4

      5

      6

      7

      8

      9

      10

      11

      12

      The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book

      The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary

      The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: The Next Chapter

      THE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID SERIES

      MORE DIARY OF A WIMPY KID BOOKS

      Diary of a Wimpy Kid

      Rodrick Rules

      The Last Straw

      Dog Days

      The Ugly Truth

      Cabin Fever

      by Jeff Kinney

      AMULET BOOKS

      New York

      DIARY

      PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or 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: 978-1-4197-2545-6

      eISBN: 978-1-68335-111-5

      Wimpy Kid text and illustrations copyright © 2017 Wimpy Kid, Inc.

      DIARY OF A WIMPY KID®, WIMPY KID™, and the Greg Heffley design™

      are trademarks of Wimpy Kid, Inc. All rights reserved.

      Book design by Jeff Kinney

      Cover design by Chad W. Beckerman and Jeff Kinney

      Published in 2017 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 for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

      ABRAMS The Art of Books

      195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007

      abramsbooks.com

      to ANNIE

      DECEMBER

      Sunday

      The worst part of having someone tell you about

      their vacation is trying to pretend you’re HAPPY

      for them. Because no one wants to hear about all

      the fun they

      DIDN’T have.

      The only vacations I want to hear about are the

      ones where things went WRONG. That way, I

      don’t feel bad for missing out.

      2

      Well, my family just got back from vacation,

      and believe me, if I could’ve stayed home, I

      WOULD’VE. But I didn’t have a choice.

      A few weeks ago, this vacation wasn’t even

      supposed to HAPPEN. We were just having

      a normal December, and I was really looking

      forward to Christmas.

      But Mom and Dad were getting all stressed out

      about everything we had to do to get ready for

      the holidays. We were WAY behind on decorating

      the house, and nothing was going the way it was

      supposed to.

      3

      I’m sure we could’ve gotten our act together in time

      for Christmas. But one night an ad came on TV

      that TOTALLY turned our holidays upside down.

      The commercial was for this place called Isla de

      Corales, which is where Mom and Dad went for

      their honeymoon. And the reason I know that is

      because every time an ad for that place comes on

      TV, the two of them get all kissy-faced.

      4

      It makes me uncomfortable thinking about Mom

      and Dad before they had us kids. And I wouldn’t

      HAVE to if Mom didn’t break out their honeymoon

      album every year on their anniversary.

      The night after that ad came on, Mom and Dad

      made an announcement. They said that THIS

      year, we were gonna SKIP Christmas and all go

      to Isla de Corales instead.

      When I asked how we were gonna get our gifts

      to the resort, Mom said the trip WAS our gift.

      5

      I thought that sounded like a TERRIBLE idea,

      and I was surprised Dad was on board with it. He

      usually doesn’t like to spend a lot of money, and I

      was sure this resort was gonna cost a FORTUNE.

      But he said he was sick of the cold weather, and he

      wanted to escape to someplace warm.

      Personally, I don’t have a problem with cold

      weather. In fact, generally speaking, the worse

      it is outside, the happier I am.

      6

      I figured Manny and Rodrick would help me talk

      some sense into Mom and Dad, and we’d put a

      stop to this idea. But those guys weren’t any help

      at ALL.

      So I had to accept that we weren’t gonna have a

      normal Christmas at home. But what I REALLY

      didn’t like was that we had to FLY to this place.

      I’d never been on a PLANE before, and I

      wasn’t crazy about the idea of locking myself in a

      metal tube.

      7

      Nobody ELSE seemed worried, though, and two

      weeks later, on a night when we should’ve been

      hanging up our stockings and sitting around the

      fire watching Christmas specials, we were packing

      our suitcases for this island getaway.

      Monday

      We left the house around 8:00 on the morning of

      Christmas Eve. Dad was pretty uptight because

      he wanted to leave an hour EARLIER, but Mom

      said he was being ridiculous and we’d get to the

      airport in plenty of time.

      It was only about twenty degrees outside, but

      Rodrick was already dressed for vacation.

      8

      It turned out Dad was right, we should’ve left

      earlier. Apparently, Christmas Eve is one of

      the busiest travel days of the year, so the roads

      were CHOKED with families driving to see their

      relatives. And nobody really seemed to be in the

      Christmas spirit, either.

      What made things a lot worse was when it started

      to SNOW. After that, things slowed to a crawl.

      Mom and Dad started arguing over what time we

      should’ve left, and Dad almost missed the exit for

      the airport. He had to cut across three lanes of

      traffic, which didn’t look easy.

      When we reached the airport, the main parking

      lot was full. That meant we had to park in the

      economy lot, which was pretty far away. Dad said

      he’d drop the rest of us off at the curb with all

      the luggage and then come meet us after he parked.

      When we got to the passenger drop-off area, it

      was COMPLETE chaos. We tried to unload our

      bags, but the cops weren’t letting anyone stop

      for more tha
    n thirty seconds. And that just

      stressed everyone out and made things worse.

      10

      I had to get back in the van so I could help Dad

      with the rest of the bags. Ordinarily, that kind of

      thing would’ve been Rodrick’s job, but since he was

      dressed for eighty-degree weather, he got out of it.

      He was lucky he DID, too. When we got to the

      gate for the economy lot, Dad couldn’t reach the

      ticket from his window. So he made me get out of

      the car to grab it.

      Unfortunately, I didn’t notice that there was a

      giant slush puddle on my side of the car until it

      was too late.

      After we parked, we rolled our bags to the

      nearest shuttle stop, which wasn’t a lot of fun.

      11

      The sign said the shuttle bus to the main terminal

      came every ten minutes. But there was no room for

      us in the bus shelter, so we had to wait outside in

      the freezing cold.

      Twenty minutes went by without a bus, and Dad

      started getting really anxious about the time. He

      said we were just gonna have to WALK to the

      terminal, which was about a mile away.

      12

      I would’ve tried to convince Dad to wait a little

      longer, but my sock was starting to turn to ice,

      and I didn’t wanna get frostbite.

      Sure enough, once we got about a hundred feet

      from the shelter, the shuttle bus pulled into the

      parking lot. We tried to get the driver to stop,

      but he just blew right by us.

      So we RAN to the shuttle stop, but we didn’t

      make it back in time.

      Now Dad was really worried about missing our

      flight. I told him maybe missing the flight

      wouldn’t be the WORST thing to happen, but he

      didn’t seem to be in the mood to hear what I had

      to say.

      By the time we got to the terminal, we were

      both soaking wet and miserable. So when a pickup

      truck almost hit us in the crosswalk, it made Dad

      REALLY mad, and he let the driver know.

      That just made the DRIVER mad, and he pulled

      his truck over and stepped out of his vehicle.

      15

      We didn’t stick around long enough to talk

      things over with this guy. We ran in the

      opposite direction and blended in with some people

      standing on the sidewalk until the coast was clear.

      Dad told me I could learn a lesson from this, which

      was to never lose your temper and do something

      stupid. But I took away a DIFFERENT lesson—

      when Heffleys get in trouble, Heffleys RUN.

      The rest of the family was waiting inside the

      entrance to the terminal. Mom wanted to know

      what took us so long, and Dad wanted to know

      why she hadn’t gotten in line with Manny and

      Rodrick and held a place for us.

      16

      It took twenty minutes for us to get through

      the check-in line. But when Dad put our big

      suitcase on the scale, the person at the counter

      said it was too heavy, and it was gonna cost extra

      money to check it.

      But Dad said the airline was ripping us off and

      we weren’t gonna give them an extra NICKEL.

      So we took some clothes out of the suitcase and

      stuffed them into our carry-on bags.

      By the time we got everything sorted out, we

      had a half hour to get to our gate before our

      flight started boarding. And when we got to the

      security area, it was a total ZOO.

      There were two lines—one for families and one for

      business travelers.

      I guess Dad usually gets to go through the

      business lane when he travels for work, so he

      didn’t seem to be too happy about being stuck

      with the rest of us in the family lane.

      18

      Anytime you add the word “family” to something,

      you know things are gonna be bad. And trust

      me, I’ve been to enough family restaurants to

      know what I’m talking about.

      We waited in the security line a long time, and we

      finally made it to the front. But then some kid a

      few rows behind us started pressing the buttons

      on the poles that hold the barriers together.

      All of a sudden, there was nothing keeping the

      lines separated, and for a second, no one moved.

      But then things COMPLETELY fell apart.

      20

      By the time the security agents got all the zip

      barriers reconnected, we ended up at the BACK

      of the line. And the family with the kid who caused

      all the trouble was at the FRONT.

      Now Mom and Dad were REALLY stressed,

      because our flight was supposed to leave at any

      minute. Dad begged one of the security agents

      to let us go to the front, but he didn’t seem

      too sympathetic.

      I thought we were going to miss our flight, so I

      didn’t really see the point of going through security.

      But Dad said sometimes they leave the gate open

      until the last second, and we might still make it.

      21

      We finally got to the front of the line, and we put

      our bags on a conveyor belt. Then we took off our

      coats and shoes and put them into some plastic bins.

      Manny saw what the rest of us were doing, and

      he started taking off HIS clothes, too. Luckily,

      Mom noticed in time and stopped him before he

      could go any further.

      22

      Manny wasn’t finished causing problems, though.

      Apparently, he thought the conveyor belt was

      some kind of RIDE, and he was really upset when

      he found out that it WASN’T.

     

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