The school's beloved
lunch lady, Mrs. MacGrady, is not at school. Instead, her nephew Skip Bitterman fills in despite lacking in cooking skills. After about a week, Mr. Ratburn reveals that Mrs. MacGrady is on leave because she has cancer. The students all react differently to the news. Muffy doesn't entirely grasp the situation, and stays optimistic while she shops for her father's birthday presents. Francine, who lost her grandfather to cancer, starts acting out in various ways, including intentionally losing a soccer game because it won't make Mrs. MacGrady feel any better. Arthur and D.W. deliver homemade chicken noodle soup to Mrs. MacGrady. At Mr. Crosswire's birthday, Muffy laments about Francine being too sad to help her shop for a proper gift. Her father explains that Francine is just upset about Mrs. MacGrady's illness and encourages her to visit Mrs. MacGrady and maybe bring her a care package. Francine stays home after having a nightmare that Mrs. MacGrady will never return to work. After school, she's visited by Binky and Buster, who are planning to bring gifts to Mrs. MacGrady and invite Francine to come along. Francine declines, but before they leave, Binky tries to cheer her up by giving her the email address of Lance Armstrong (professional wrestler Uncle Slam in the revised edition), which he got after meeting him at the Elwood City Bike-A-Thon. He explains to a surprised Francine that Armstrong (Uncle Slam) had cancer two years ago and encourages her to write to him. Francine reluctantly does so, but to her and her friends' surprise, he writes back and offers to meet with her when he visits Elwood City the following week. Muffy, who is planning on visiting Mrs. MacGrady, offers to bring Francine along so she can share the news, but Francine again refuses to visit. Muffy arrives just as Arthur and D.W. deliver more gifts to Mrs. MacGrady, including more jars of chicken noodle soup and a giant stuffed bear. Muffy compliments Mrs. MacGrady's bandana, only to learn Mrs. MacGrady is wearing it as she has lost her hair from the
chemotherapy treatment. After Arthur and D.W. leave, Muffy takes a moment to apologize for being insensitive about Mrs. MacGrady's illness. Mrs. MacGrady replies that cancer is difficult, but she assures Muffy that she intends to get better. Armstrong (Uncle Slam) arrives in Elwood City and goes for a walk in the park with Francine. He talks to her about how he got through his cancer diagnosis through medicine and the support of his biking (wrestling) community. Francine expresses her surprise that someone of Armstrong's (Uncle Slam's) stature could get diagnosed with cancer, but he tells her it can happen to anyone, and that his doctors were unsure about his survival rate. However, Armstrong pulled through and made his return to biking (Uncle Slam made his return to wrestling with a Cancer Benefit Wrestling Tournament to raise money and awareness of the disease). This gives Francine a similar idea to hold a cancer benefit bike race, "Pedal for a Cure". Muffy returns to Mrs. MacGrady's house just as her sister Martha is taking her to a doctor's appointment. Noticing the state of the house, Muffy offers to wash the dishes while they're gone, but has trouble doing so. When Arthur and D.W. arrive with more gifts, Muffy points out there are different ways of helping than just bringing gifts. So they join Muffy in cleaning up the entire house, leaving a note for Mrs. MacGrady when she returns, assuring her that they're her "support team". The "Pedal for a Cure" is a huge success. At the finish line, Francine apologizes to Mrs. MacGrady for not visiting. Mrs. MacGrady assures her she understands, remarking it can be frightening to see someone you care about when they're sick. After more than a month of Skip's terrible meals, Buster and the rest of the students almost start a revolt, as that day's lunch looks like a
sponge. Buster goes up to ask what that lunch is, with Skip replying that it is "A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I call it, Whatchamacooking." Their uprising is thwarted by the return of Mrs. MacGrady—while not totally cancer-free, she's at least healthy enough to return to work. Skip claims that "cooking is not for me, I'll stick to banking." Buster corrects his school lunch almanac with a prediction that the food will be unknown, but will taste great. == Info ==