Rodrick Rules

Greg’s mother receives a phone call from Chirag’s dad, who tells her about Greg’s bullying. Greg denies the allegations, but when Mrs. Heffley questions Rowley, he immediately tells her all about the Invisible Chirag joke. Mrs. Heffley takes Greg to apologize to Chirag, and to Greg’s surprise, Chirag forgives him and invites him to come inside and play video games. However, Greg’s mother is upset that Greg lied, and she threatens to “ground [him] for a MONTH if she catches [him] lying again” (75). Greg decides to follow his mother’s advice and adopt a 100% honesty policy. Later, a member of the PTA calls looking for Greg’s mom, and she asks him to lie and say that she’s not home. However, Greg doesn’t want to lie, so he makes his mother stand outside so he can tell the caller the truth: His mother is “not inside the house right now” (82). Greg’s mother is annoyed, and he suspects that she will start to relax her “no lying” rule.

Greg’s school holds its annual Career Day, and the students take an aptitude test to determine what jobs they would be well-suited for. Although Greg daydreams about making lots of money and never having to work, his job chart says he should be a clerk, and Rowley’s chart says “Nurse.” On Saturday, Mrs. Heffley sends Greg and Rodrick over to their grandmother’s house to rake her leaves, and she offers to pay them $100 in Mom Bucks for every trash bag they fill with leaves. However, Rodrick quickly realizes that they can make more money and get done faster if they “[tie] the bag closer to the bottom” (87) instead of stuffing it full of leaves. They run out of bags before the job is finished, and their grandmother isn’t happy with them. At school, Rowley is spending more time with the girls who also got “Nurse” on their aptitude test, and Greg worries that Rowley might end up telling them the story of how Greg accidentally fell and put his butt through a wall in fifth grade.

Greg decides to steal Rowley’s diary to find out what Rowley and the girls are talking about. After all, Greg figures that Rowley is “writing down all sorts of juicy gossip in that thing” (91). However, when Greg sneaks a peek at Rowley’s diary, he discovers that Rowley uses his diary to write down a play-by-play of his action figure fights.

One night, Greg’s parents announce that they’re going away for the night. Manny is at their grandmother’s house, so Greg and Rodrick are left alone. Rodrick, who has been sick for a week, suddenly revives as soon as his parents leave and decides to host a party. Greg decides to go along with it so he can attend a high school party, but early in the night, Rodrick locks Greg in the basement away from the guests. The next morning, Greg is finally let out of the basement, and sees that house is trashed after the party. Rodrick tells Greg that he has to help him clean up the mess, and although Greg refuses at first, Rodrick blackmails Greg again about the embarrassing thing that happened to Greg during the summer. Greg gives in and helps Rodrick clean all day, but right before their parents return, Greg realizes that someone wrote “Hi Rodrick” on the inside of the bathroom door. Greg and Rodrick quickly switch the door out with the closet door from the basement moments before their parents return. Mr. Heffley is suspicious, but can’t find any evidence of the party. Greg has to write an allegory for English class, and he writes a story about a monkey named Rory who thinks he is smart enough to fix a car and ends up destroying it. Greg shows the story to Rodrick, who doesn’t understand that the allegory is supposed to be about him and his futile attempts to fix his van.