I hopped down and quietly closed the door to the classroom.
You’ve heard the saying “When one door closes, another one opens”? The door I opened was the little one labeled December 1.
I held the wooden reindeer with the red glass nose up to the sunlight. My fingers were shaking, but they went right ahead and pried open the second little door.
Before I knew it, there were twenty-five teensy, bright toys lined up on the table. I could not stop staring at them. Cheerio was under their spell too. He crept out of his cage and sniffed each one.
The bell! I jumped down. There was no way I’d be able to stuff the toys back into place, so I swept all twenty-five of them into my lunch box. My hands were still shaking, but I managed to seal each tiny door shut.
The instant I refastened the twenty-fifth door, I heard Mr. Dayberry’s voice boom: “Slow down, please!” And then everyone stampeded back into class.