Chapter One

g e a t B e t t er
Backsta
g!
Than Sleepin

I’M BILLY SURE. YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD OF ME.

Wait, that sounds weird, like “Who is this kid
and why does he think I’ve heard of him?   ” But
it’s not like that. I mean, I’m not like that. And
you probably weren’t thinking that anyway
because . . . well, like I said, you’ve probably
heard of me. Because I’m that Billy Sure, the
famous kid entrepreneur, inventor, and CEO
of Sure Things, Inc. At the moment I am
also the kid who is sitting on a blue couch in
a plain little room backstage at the Better Than
Sleeping! show.
 Maybe you will see me on the show tonight,
if your parents let you stay up that late on a
school night. (If not, maybe you can watch it
in your room with the sound turned way down.
Just don’t get caught—I don’t want to be the kid
who gets your TV taken away!)
“You’re bouncing your legs,” Manny tells
me. Manny Reyes is my best friend. He is also
the chief financial officer of Sure Things, Inc.,
which is just a fancy way of saying he likes
crunching numbers and has a really smart
head for business.
I didn’t even realize I was doing BO
UN
C
it. I look at my legs. Reason #35 LEGING
why Manny is the greatest CFO: S
He is always right. My knees are
definitely bouncing like Ping-Pong
balls on a trampoline.
“Don’t do that when you’re onstage,” Manny
continues. “It makes you look nervous. Don’t
pick your nose, either. Or burp. Or throw up.
Definitely don’t throw up.”
“But I am nervous. I might throw up,” I say.

2
 Manny gets a puzzled look on his face.
“Why? You’ve been on TV before.”
“Just the local news. This is national TV.
Millions of people will be watching!”
Manny grins. “Exactly. This is a fantastic
marketing opportunity. So don’t blow it!”
“Way to make me less nervous,” I reply,
grabbing my knees in an attempt to stop my
bouncing legs.
My dad leans forward. He’s sitting at the
other end of the blue couch. “You’ll do great,
Billy. We’re proud of you. I just wish your
mother could be here.”
My mom travels a ton, as a scientist doing
research for the government. I don’t know
much more than that. She’s been on assign-
ment for a while now, but she knows all about
what’s been going on with me because we
e-mail a lot.
“Why do I have to be here?   ” my sister, Emily,
moans. She hasn’t looked up from her cell phone
in three hours. “I’m bored, hungry, and thirsty.”
“I couldn’t just leave you at home while we

3
 came to New York, Emily. That’d
be illegal,” replies my dad.
“I’m fourteen!” she argues,
keeping her eyes on her phone.
“And very mature for my age. I’m
perfectly capable of taking care of
myself!”
“Sure you are, Ninja Spider,”
I taunt her. Lately Emily wears only black.
Black shirts, black pants, black shoes, black
everything. That’s why I’ve nicknamed her
Ninja Spider.
Emily finally looks up from her phone to
glare at me. She wipes her blond bangs out of
her face. Everyone says we look alike, which is
weird because she’s a girl. She notices my legs
are bouncing again, despite my best efforts to
stop them.
“A kangaroo called. He wants his legs back,”
she says.
Before I can think of a comeback, a can of
soda appears in front of Emily’s face. “Soda?   ”
someone asks. “I heard you say you were

4
 THE
O DA
S

thirsty. In the room across the hall there’s

a fridge full of free drinks. Stuff to eat, too.
Chips. Candy. Fruit, if you’re feeling healthy.”
Emily, being in a classic Emily mood, takes
in a deep breath. I know her well enough to

E R !
know that when she exhales, she’ll snap that

P EEL
she doesn’t want a soda; she wants to go home.

N
IPEELER!
But before she speaks, she looks up and sees

S T
DU
who is holding the can in front of her.
DUSTIN
I’m sure you know who Dustin Peeler is too.
(See? I don’t just say that about myself. Not
that I think I’m as famous as Dustin Peeler.) In
case you don’t know, Dustin Peeler is the most
popular teen musician on the planet at the

5
 moment. He can sing. He can dance. He can
walk on his hands. He can play guitar, piano,
drums, English horn, and didgeridoo—upside
down. And according to Emily, he is the most
gorgeous human being who ever graced the
earth with his presence.
Dustin Peeler smiles his perfect smile,
teeth glistening like ocean waves on a sunny
day. Emily’s mouth drops open, her jaw prac-
tically scraping the floor. “Thank you,” she

NO PROBLEM
manages to squeak out as she takes the can of
soda. Her knees begin to shake.
“No problem,” he replies.
“Now who’s part kangaroo?    ” I whisper,
pointing discreetly to Emily’s shaking knees.
But Emily ignores me. She still can’t take
her eyes off Dustin.
I try again. My sister is seriously making a
fool of herself, and I feel like it’s my duty to
let her know. “Emily,” I whisper a little louder
this time. “You look really dumb with your
mouth hanging open like that!”
And then Dustin Peeler notices me for the

6
first time. “Hey, you’re the All Ball dude! That
thing is awesome!”
“Thanks,” I say.
An assistant sticks her head in. “Dustin,
we’re ready to do your hair.”
“But his hair is already perfect,” Emily says
like she’s in a trance.
“Oh, they’re just doing their jobs,” Dustin
says, smiling another dazzling smile. “Have
fun out there!” He gives us a double thumbs-up
and leaves. Emily resumes breathing.
“Who was that?   ” Dad asks.
Emily sighs.
“He said the All Ball was awesome,”
Manny says. “Maybe we could get him to do an
endorsement of some kind. Or even write us a
jingle!” Quietly singing, “All Ball, All Ball . . .
the only ball you’ll ever need,” Manny pulls
out his phone and taps a note to himself.
I told you Manny has a great head for busi-
ness. He has a ton of brilliant ideas about how
to sell Sure Things, Inc.’s products. Without
Manny, I wouldn’t have a business, just a

7
bedroom full of inventions. And dirty laun-
dry. And a few hidden candy bars (okay, maybe
dozens).
Emily pulls out her phone again and imme-
diately starts texting all her friends that
Dustin Peeler just handed her a can of soda.
She even texts a picture of the can. “I’m keep-
ing this can forever,” she announces.
“Be sure to rinse it out,” Dad says.
I guess it was cool to meet Dustin Peeler.
I’ve never bought any of his songs, but I’ve
certainly heard them. But I am much more
excited about the other guest on Better Than
Sleeping! tonight. Manny spots him first, stand-
ing out in the hallway.
“Hey,” he says. “Isn’t that the baseball
player you like? Carl Somebody? The short-
stop?   ”
“Like” is a slight understatement.
Carl Bourette has been my favorite ath-
lete since I was in kindergarten. I have every
Carl Bourette baseball card. Carl Bourette
bobbleheads. A nearly life-size poster of Carl

8
Bourette, hanging on my door. I know all his

CARL BOURET
stats. His favorite kind of bat. What he puts on
his burgers.

TE!
My brain is screaming, “CARL BOURETTE!”
But my mouth is saying nothing. My jaw
is hanging open, but no words are coming out.
Possibly a little drool, but no words.
“Might want to lift your jaw off the floor,
genius,” Emily suggests.
Then Carl Bourette notices me staring at
him. Instead of getting as far away as possible
from the weird kid with the staring problem,
he smiles and starts walking over to me.
“Hi,” he says, shaking my hand. “I’m Carl
Bourette.”
“Billy Sure,” I manage to murmur.
Carl nods. “That’s what I thought. You
invented the All Ball, right?   ”

9
 Now it’s my turn to nod. “Yes,” I say. “I did.”

WHAT
I seem to be limited to one-syllable words and

?
two-word sentences.
“I agreed to do the show tonight because
they told me you were going to be on it,” he
says, chuckling.
WHAT?!
“Man, that All Ball is great!” Carl contin-
ues enthusiastically. “My kids love it! Heck,

? !
my teammates love it! We’ve got one in the locker

AT
room!”

W H
DOUBLE WHAT?!

U B LE
I can practically see Manny’s eyes turn into

D O
dollar signs. He whips out his phone and taps
another note to himself.
“Thank you,” I croak, keeping to my one-­
syllable, two-word rule for talking to Carl
Bourette.
Carl reaches into his jacket pocket and
pulls out a pen and notepad. “I’m sorry to do
this, but would you mind signing an autograph
for my kids? They’ll be so excited I met you!”
Carl Bourette just asked me for my autograph?

10
 What kind of bizarre, backward world am I
living in? What next? Emily asking for my
opinion on her outfit?
“Sure,” I reply. “You got it.” Three words in
one sentence! A new record for talking to Carl
Bourette!
I sign a shaky autograph on the notepad
and hand it back to him. “Thanks!” he says. “I
really appreciate it.”
Before my head can explode, the assistant
hurries back into the room. “Billy, we’re ready

WELCOM
to do your hair.”

BEING F E TO
Carl laughs. “Bet you thought you knew
how to do your own hair. Welcome to being

AMOUS!
famous!”

11
 Chapter Two

Catch!

NOW I’M STANDING NEXT TO THE CURTAIN, WAITING

to walk out onto the set of Better Than Sleeping! ,
where I will be interviewed by the host, Chris
Fernell.
In my hands I am holding a carrying case.
Make that “in my very sweaty hands.” I’m
really nervous. I can’t help it.
Behind me another assistant places his
hand on my shoulder. I have no idea why. All I
know is that I’m supposed to enter when Chris
Fernell says my name.
“Please give a warm welcome to Billy Sure,
 APPLAUS
E
kid entrepreneur!” I hear from onstage.
As the studio audience applauds, the assis-
tant gives me a little shove to start me walking.
Maybe some people get so nervous they freeze.
I walk out onto the set, remembering to
smile. I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a
television set before, but it’s bright. Also, the
furniture seems smaller than it looks on TV.
In fact, the whole set seems kind of small.
And there are big cameras pointing right at
me. Now would be a really terrible time to trip, I tell
my feet.
Chris Fernell shakes my hand and motions
for me to sit in the chair next to his desk.
I have never understood why TV hosts need
desks. Do they have homework they need to
work on during the commercials?
“So you invented the All Ball, and now this

13
 L D !
S O
thing is huge!” Chris begins. “How old are you,

EA R
Billy?   ”

Y
“Twelve,” I say. “Thirteen next March.”

LV E
“Twelve years old!” Chris marvels. “When

W E
I was twelve, I was just playing video games.

T
And not complicated video games. Simple
games. You know, like, ‘click on the door to
open it.’  ”
The audience laughs. I don’t think what he
said was very funny, but it seems weird not to
laugh, so I do. You need to work on your fake laugh, I
tell my mouth. That didn’t sound very good.
“When did you invent the All Ball, Billy?   ”
Chris asks. He seems genuinely interested. Of
course, that is his job.
I explain that I actually came up with the
idea for the All Ball last year in sixth grade,
but I had trouble figuring out exactly how to
make it work. But then at the very beginning
of the summer, the trouble all went away and
it came together. (At least, that’s what I tell
him. The real story is much more complicated
than that. But I won’t be telling any of that to

14
Chris Fernell.) Instead I talk about how Manny
started a company with me called Sure Things,
Inc., and we found a manufacturing company
to make the product.
“The product,” Chris repeats, smiling. “I
love that! You’re twelve years old and you’ve
got a product! Can we see it?   ”
The audience applauds again. I open my
case. “Here it is,” I say, bringing out two All
Balls. “It comes in two sizes: large and small.
Wanna play?   ”

The only ball you’ll

ever need.

15
 The audience whoops and cheers. They want
to see Chris play. “Sure!” he says. “Let’s do it!”
“Great. Let’s start with soccer,” I say. Then
without anyone seeing, I press a button on a
remote and the All Ball turns into a soccer
ball.
We walk over to the side of the stage, toward
the band, where two goals have been set up. I
set the small ball aside and toss the larger All
Ball to Chris. “How does it feel?   ”
“Like a perfectly normal soccer ball,” he
says. Then he drops it on the ground and kicks
it toward me. I kick it back. Chris works the
ball with his feet a little, but lets me

!
steal the ball and kick it into the net.

G O A L
“GOAL!” Chris shouts. More applause.
“Okay, now what if you wanted to play
volley­ball?   ” I say.
“I love volleyball,” Chris says. “But we need
a different ball.”
“No, we don’t,” I say, taking a small remote
control out of my pocket. “That’s the beauty of
the All Ball.”

16
 I press a button on the remote. And the ball
changes from a soccer ball to a volleyball. Just
like that.
“That is amazing!” Chris yells. We hit the
ball back and forth. “Incredible! It’s exactly
like a volleyball! How did you do that?   ”
“I’m afraid the ball-morphing technology is
patented, proprietary, and top secret,” I say,
using all the terms that Manny has coached
me on. I gesture toward the basketball
hoop set up on the stage. “I see you’ve got
a basketball hoop.”
“Why, yes we do!” Chris says, hamming it
up. “If only we had a basketball!”
I press a different button on the remote,

THE A
and the volleyball in Chris’s hands starts

U
LOVES DIENCE
turning into a basketball. It grows. The seams
move. The surface changes. And the ball turns

IT
orange.
The audience loves it. Chris dribbles the
ball and shoots a layup, which he makes. The
crowd really goes wild at that one.
“Okay,” Chris says. “This All Ball is, like,

17
the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. Soccer
ball to volleyball to basketball, unbelievable.
But I’ve got to ask, what if I want to play foot-
ball? No way, right?   ”
“Actually, way,” I say, pressing another
button on the remote control unit. With a kind
of zzzwoop sound, the basketball shapes itself
into a football.
Chris stares at the football. “Okay, now
you’re freaking me out. How? Huh? What?   ”
As Chris tosses the football to the drum-
mer in his band, I remember another one of
the things Manny told me to say. “The large
All Ball eliminates the need to buy and haul

18
around five different balls. Now you just have
to buy one.”
The drummer tosses the football back to
Chris. Tossing it from one hand to the other,
he turns back to me. “Hold it,” he says. “I’m
no mathematician, but I’m pretty sure you’ve

1+1+1+1=5?
only shown us four balls—soccer ball, volley-
ball, basketball, and football. What’s the fifth
ball?   ”
I aim the remote control. I don’t mean to
time it this way, but I hit the button just as
Chris tosses the football into the air, ready to
catch it in his other hand. Zzzwoop! In midair,
the large All Ball morphs from a football into
a bowling ball. “Catch!” I call out.
Naturally, Chris isn’t prepared to catch a
sixteen-pound bowling ball, and drops it. Clonk!
Luckily, the bowling ball doesn’t land on his
foot.
I let out a sigh of relief. I totally don’t want
to be that guy who goes on TV and injures the
host. Chris looks up at me in surprise and then
starts cracking up. The audience roars with

19
laughter, and then breaks into a long round of
applause.
It is cool. No, it is awesome. I look around
and have trouble believing that this is really
my life.
“Can I try one of those? Maybe the small
one?   ” someone asks.
It’s Carl Bourette! He appeared on the show
earlier, but now he’s walking back onstage! The
audience starts cheering even louder!
“Hey, Billy,” he calls. “Toss me that other
All Ball!”
Carl Bourette remembered my name! He just said it
out loud! On television!
I run back to my seat, grab the small All
Ball, turn it into a baseball, and toss it to Carl.
I’m no pitcher, but luckily it goes right to him.
“Nice!” he says, tossing the ball up with one
hand and catching it in the other.
“Get out your remote,” he continues. “And
zap it just as I toss this to Chris. Ready, Chris?   ”
“It’s not going to change into another bowling
ball, is it?   ” Chris asks, pretending to be nervous.

20
 M E S !
HERE IT CO
“Here it comes!” Carl says, throwing the
ball at Chris.
I hit the remote. Zwoink! The baseball turns
into a hockey puck midair! Chris catches it
and holds it up over his head in triumph.
“Looks like I’m missing all the fun,” some-
one else says. The audience starts going nuts. I
look to see Dustin Peeler strolling onto the stage.
So I, Chris Fernell, Carl Bourette, and Dustin
Peeler play catch, changing the small All Ball
from baseball to hockey puck to tennis ball to
golf ball to Ping-Pong ball.
When Chris gets a signal that we are out
of time, he puts his arm around me and
shouts, “Billy Sure and the All Ball!” As
the audience applauds, my dad, Emily, and
Manny come out onstage to join me. Chris
introduces them as my family, so everyone
probably thinks Manny is my brother, which
is fine with me.
On the plane ride home, everybody tells me
what a great job I did on Better Than Sleeping!
and how well it went, and how we are going to

21
sell a zillion more All Balls. I feel happy, but
I’m also nervous.
Does that ever happen to you, where you feel
two emotions at once? It’s very complicated.
How can you be happy and nervous at the same
time? I don’t know the answer to that, but I
guess it’s better than feeling happy and nause-
ated at the same time. Nervous and nauseated
would be really terrible. I’m not so nervous
that I feel nauseated, but I’m pretty close.
Why am I so nervous, you might be wonder-
ing? Tomorrow I start seventh grade. I’m a tiny
bit nervous about that. But that’s not it.
I have a secret about the All Ball that
nobody knows, not even Manny.
And that secret has me feeling really nervous.

22
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is
stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and
neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped
book.”

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or
real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are
products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or
places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
First Simon Spotlight paperback edition May 2015
Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Text by David Lewman. Illustrations by
Graham Ross. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in
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please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or
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Designed by Jay Colvin
The text of this book was set in Minya Nouvelle.
Manufactured in the United States of America 0415 OFF
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 978-1-4814-3948-0 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4814-3947-3 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4814-3949-7 (eBook)
Library of Congress Catalog Number 2014949478