Summary

It is September. Greg Haffley has been in a fight with his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, and now worries about going to school without a best friend. Greg considers becoming best friends with either Christopher Brownfield, Tyson Sanders, or a kid named Fregley. But Christopher is a summertime friend, Tyson uses urinals with his pants pulled all the way down, and Fregley is weird. Rowley, thanks to his parents, is now hanging out with a teenager named Brian, part of the Cool Brian big-brother/mentor-for-hire company. It angers Greg.

Still, Greg hopes it will be a good year. Greg’s math textbook belonged to Jordan Jury, a very popular guy famous for parties, the year before. Greg hopes walking around with a popular kid’s math book will make him popular, too. The popular kid in Greg’s grade is Bryce Anderson, who...