<Previously on the story>


Donut Trumpet has only one wish: to be king.

When the boy realizes that choking down burgers sends him leaping through time, he gulps a Big Pack in one breath!

Burgers and time-leaps will carry Donut up the craziest staircase of his life!

............................................................

 

The world slowly brightens.


The moment I snap back to consciousness, I throw up a fighting stance.

Lib’s sneak attack could come any second.

This time, I’ll land the counter-cross and drop her—


“Donut!”


BAM!


A sudden tackle.

She slams me flat, squeezing my neck with all her weight.


“Uooooooh!”


I shove her off with everything I’ve got.

A squeal—like a frog being squashed—and the one rolling across the floor isn’t Lib at all.


It’s Mama Macaron.


“What on earth are you doing, boy!?”


“Mom? What the—?”


“You choked on a Big Pack and got hauled to the hospital!”


A metal bed frame, a stiff white wall, that sting of disinfectant—I was in a hospital room.


“Why the hell am I in a hospital!?”


“Because you choked on a Big Pack—”


“No, not that! Why didn’t I time-leap!?”


“Donut… you are on some weird drugs, aren’t you?”


With a terrified look, Mama scurried out.

Probably to snitch to the doctor.

Whatever.

That wasn’t the issue.


Why didn’t I blast back into the past?


What was different this time?


I ate the Big Pack just like before—or did I?


No. There was one huge difference.


Could it be—





“Big Pack. One-oh-one!”


I burst into Pakdonald’s and snapped the words like a command.


“One hundred and one?”


Manager Pakdonald gaped, like some clown caught off guard.


“No way a grade-schooler can handle that. The record’s—”


“—a hundred. By Pastaque Carbonara, the pro wrestler. Don’t bother, I know.”


“Huh? Oh… you sure do.”


I slammed a wad of cash onto the counter.


I’d already helped myself to a generous advance on my allowance from Mama Macaron’s handbag—she’d left it behind when she rushed out of the hospital.


“Now hurry up and make ’em. Or maybe I should tell Dad it’s time to raise the rent on this place?”