The
Consequences Rule

“who knows what this word is?” Miss Lee said. She pointed to the letters A-I-R-P-L-A-N-E on the Word Wall.

“Anyone?” Miss Lee looked around for hands.

Beepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeep! Beepbeepbeep!

Someone giggled.

Posey put her hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t giggle, too. They all knew what the sound was.

It was Jacob’s new watch. It had a stretch band and an alarm. He had been showing it to kids all week.

“Jacob?” Miss Lee frowned. “Didn’t I ask you to leave that at home?”

Posey looked at Jacob. He sat at the table in front of her.

“I forgot to turn it off,” he said.

“I know,” said Miss Lee. “But I warned you three times. We all remember the consequences rule, don’t we?”

She looked around the room.

Posey nodded solemnly. So did the rest of the class.

The consequences rule was serious. Consequences were what happened when you didn’t make a good decision.

Miss Lee held out her hand.

Jacob took off his watch. He gave it to Miss Lee.

“You can take it home at the end of the day,” she said. Miss Lee went to her desk and pulled out the bottom right-hand drawer.

Posey’s eyes opened wide.

The Consequences Drawer.

That was where Miss Lee put their treasures when they played with them during class.

The rule was that you had to keep them in your backpack. Or you could put them in your cubby.

You could only play with them during recess.

Posey loved to follow rules, but this one was hard. It was so exciting to share your treasures.

One time, Posey brought her new lip gloss to school. It tasted like real pineapple.

Posey let Nikki and Ava smooth it on their lips. She smoothed it on her lips, too. They licked it until it was gone.

So they needed to put on more.

Miss Lee had to tell Posey to put it away. Two times.

Her lip gloss could have ended up in the Consequences Drawer, too.

Thunk! Miss Lee closed the drawer.

That was the sound of a treasure being locked away.

Posey never, ever wanted one of her treasures to end up in the Consequences Drawer.