Yolanda’s new idea was super!
But first they had to find Jake.
Destiny and Yolanda looked out the door to the playground.
Beebe and Gina were running a race. The gray kitten was racing after them.
Clifton was hopping along the fence. A kitten was trying to climb it.
Ramón was playing basketball with Mitchell.
And there was Jake in the middle of the yard, sweeping.
Destiny and Yolanda rushed outside.
“I’m crossing my fingers,” Destiny said. “This has to work.”
“I’m crossing my toes,” said Yolanda.
Jake was waving his arms around. His face was red.
“He doesn’t look happy,” Destiny whispered to Yolanda.
“Something has to be done,” Jake was muttering.
Destiny closed her eyes for a moment.
Poor, poor Ms. Katz.
“Hi, Jake,” she said.
“Hi, girls,” Jake said back.
Destiny began. “Yolanda is an artist,” she said.
“Nice,” said Jake.
He began to sweep again.
Mrs. Terrible Thomas walked by. Her six kittens followed in a row.
Orange Ice was last.
“We could all fix up Bus Thirteen,” Destiny said.
“That bus is finished!” Jake said. “I’m just trying to think of how to get rid of it.”
“It would make a great place for Ms. Katz’s poetry people,” Yolanda said.
Jake squinted at the bus. “Well …,” he began. “Maybe we could do that. We wouldn’t have papers all over the wall. We might not have pear goo all over the floor.”
“And Ms. Katz wouldn’t take up so much room,” Yolanda said. “You wouldn’t have to get rid of her at all.”
“What?” Jake said. “Get rid of …”
Destiny could hardly get the words out. “Get rid of Ms. Katz.”
Jake opened his eyes wide. “Didn’t you read the poems? They say what a great teacher Ms. Katz is.”
Destiny looked at Yolanda.
The poems were working.
Destiny really was an excellent thinker. She bet no one even remembered that little rainbow/rhyme mistake.
“No one wants to get rid of Ms. Katz,” Jake said. He leaned on his broom. “She’s the best teacher at the Zigzag School.”
Wait a minute. Something was strange here, Destiny thought.
“I heard you …,” she began.
Yolanda spoke at the same time. “But Destiny said …”
“You said Ms. Katz had to go,” they finished together.
Jake looked surprised.
Super surprised.
Then he began to laugh. “That’s not it,” he said. “Look around.”
She looked as hard as she could.
The handball court was right there.
Someone had dropped half a sandwich in front of it.
There were ball players and racers. There was a squirrel sitting in the tree.
Destiny put her hand up to her mouth.
“Do you see what I mean?” Jake said.
The striped kittens were growing up. They were racing up and down the steps.
The gray kitten was almost as big as Mrs. Terrible Thomas.
Two black and white kittens were climbing on the trash basket. They were tipping it over.
Even Orange Ice wasn’t a tiny kitten anymore.
She was a cat.
“Cats!” Destiny said. “That’s what you said.”
“Not Ms. Katz!” Yolanda said.
Jake nodded. “We have to find homes for my cats.”
There was a strange feeling in Destiny’s chest.
A good feeling.
Ms. Katz would stay at the Zigzag School forever.
Then a bad feeling.
She’d made a terrible mistake. Again.
