“Thank you, Dr. Pickell,” she said, shaking his hand. “You are very wise. And I like your beard.”
“What’s wrong with my homework?” asked Kathy.
“It’s written backward!” said Mrs. Jewls. “Every sentence. Every word. Every letter. Even the numbers are backward.”
“Looks normal to me,” said Kathy. “Do you want me to do it over?”
Mrs. Jewls sighed. “No, that’s all right, Kathy. I’m just happy to see you doing so well. I’ll figure it out.”
7
The Closet That Wasn’t There
Mac was a curious kid.
When Miss Mush served chicken fingers, he asked her how many fingers a chicken had on each hand.
After lunch, he played basketball. Besides playing, he was also the self-appointed announcer, describing every shot, every pass, and every dribble.
Jenny finally told him to put a sock in it.
Only then, when he stopped talking, did Mac remember that he’d left his catcher’s mask in the cafeteria. Mac liked to wear his catcher’s mask for all sports, including basketball.
He was a curious kid.
The cafeteria was on the fifteenth floor. Mac found his mask right where he’d left it, but by then, it hardly seemed worth it to go all the way back down to the playground. So he continued on up to the thirtieth story.
And there, just outside his classroom door, was the most curious thing that Mac had ever seen. Next to the wall was some sort of giant closet. It hadn’t been there before lunch.
But that wasn’t what made it curious. The closet was wrapped up in heavy chains, and locked with a giant padlock.
Mac moved closer. Behind the chains, he could see double doors, with a steel bar clamped across them. Several signs were taped to the doors.
“KEEP BACK!”
“DO NOT OPEN DOORS!”
“DANGER!”
“CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IF YOU SMELL SOMETHING UNUSUAL!”
Mac sniffed, but all he could smell were chicken fingers.
Behind the chains, and the steel bar, each door had its own lock. He could see two keyholes, one red and the other green.
He put on his catcher’s mask, just to be safe, and tried to open one door, then the other. They wouldn’t budge.
He tried to peer through the keyholes, but they were too tiny.
He knocked on one of the doors. It seemed to be made of thick wood. “Anyone in there?” he called.
There was no answer. He knocked again, and then pressed his ear against the side of the closet.
Still nothing.
“What’s that?” asked Deedee, coming up the stairs.
Mac shrugged.
Deedee read the signs aloud. “Keep back. Do not open doors. Danger.”
She tried one of the doors.
“I think it’s locked,” said Mac.
More kids made it up the stairs. Each one stopped at the closet, read the signs, and then tried to open the doors.
Terrence kicked the doors.
Jason rattled the chains. “Look, it’s one long chain,” he determined, “wrapped around four times.”
“What do you think is inside?” asked Leslie.
“Snakes,” said Paul. He was afraid of snakes.
“Spiders,” said Rondi. She was afraid of spiders.
“Monsters,” said Allison.
She loved monsters.
“What if it’s Mrs. Gorf?” guessed Calvin.
Everyone shuddered.
Mrs. Gorf was the worst teacher they’d ever had.
“Give me a boost,” said Mac.
Jenny cupped her hands, and Mac stepped up, first onto Jenny’s hands, then onto the steel bar. He gripped the top edge of the closet and tried to shimmy up.
“Get away from there!” shouted Mrs. Jewls. “All of you!”
She had returned from the teachers’ lounge only to see the children hanging all over the closet, like monkeys.
“Mac, get down, now!”
Mac tried to hop down, but his foot got tangled in the chains, and he fell onto his back.
“Ooh, I think I broke my tailbone,” he complained.
“You’re lucky that’s all you broke!” said Mrs. Jewls.
“What’s inside?” asked Terrence.
“Never you mind!” said Mrs. Jewls. “Don’t you children know the meaning of DANGER? You are not to go anywhere near my closet! Don’t look at it. Don’t even think about it. It’s not there!”
“But I can see it,” said Mac, still lying on the floor.
“It’s Not There!” Mrs. Jewls insisted.
“But—”
“No Ifs, Ands, or Buts!” said Mrs. Jewls.
Everyone shuffled inside the classroom.
Mac was still on the floor. He stood up and adjusted his catcher’s mask, which had become cockeyed when he fell. He took one last look at the closet that wasn’t there, then walked into the classroom, more curious than ever.
8
Science
Twenty-nine hands were raised.
There were only twenty-eight kids in Mrs. Jewls’s class, but Joy stretched both her arms high in the air. She figured it doubled her chance of being chosen. She waved them back and forth, and around in circles.
“Pick me, pick me!” begged Bebe.
“Pick me, Mrs. Jewls,” urged Calvin, sitting next to Bebe.
“Sorry, Calvin, you’re too heavy,” Mrs. Jewls told him. “And your toes are too tiny, Bebe.”
Todd sat behind Joy but Mrs. Jewls couldn’t see him behind Joy’s helicopter arms.
“Okay, Joy!” said Mrs. Jewls.
Everyone else groaned.
Joy was all smiles. “You lose, losers!” she said as she headed toward the door.
This week, for science, they would be studying clouds. Luckily, Mrs. Jewls’s class was on the thirtieth floor. It was the classroom closest to the sky.
Last week, they studied dirt. That wasn’t so lucky. By the time they made it down to the ground, science was over, and they had to turn around and trudge back up.
Everyone brought their science notebooks and gathered just outside the door, by the closet that wasn’t there.
Mrs. Jewls put her hands around Joy’s waist. “Alley-oopsy!” she called out, and lifted Joy straight up.
Joy giggled.
This was why Mrs. Jewls hadn’t chosen Calvin. He was too heavy for her to lift.
Mrs. Jewls set Joy on top of the closet. Just above her, a trapdoor led to the roof. Joy stood on her tiptoes and pushed it open. This was why Mrs. Jewls hadn’t chosen Bebe. Her toes weren’t long enough.
A rope ladder tumbled down.
One by one, the children climbed the rope ladder to the roof.
“Be sure to stay away from the edge,” Mrs. Jewls called up to them.
There was a safety railing around the edge, but it was for taller people. Mrs. Jewls was afraid her students could slip right under it.
She was the last one up through the trapdoor. When she reached the roof, she saw everyone standing at the edge.
“What did I just say?” she demanded.
Everyone stared blankly at her.
“Alley-oopsy?” asked Dameon.
“Well, at least somebody was paying attention,” said Mrs. Jewls. She told everyone to take two steps back, and to sit on their bottoms.