9
The next day was quite possibly the most unusual Wednesday in the history of Mountain River Valley Elementary.
The first unusual thing was that Miss Kinde took a sick day. Since she’d never before been absent, 3B was confused when the last bell rang and their teacher wasn’t there.
And then Principal Fish walked in. “MISS KINDE IS ILL,” he thundered. “AND NO SUBSTITUTES ARE AVAILABLE. RULE SIXTY-TWO SAYS THAT IF NO SUBSTITUTE IS AVAILABLE, THE PRINCIPAL MUST FILL IN. AS PRINCIPAL, I MUST FILL IN.”
3B groaned silently. They would have groaned out loud, but they didn’t want to break rule eighty-five with Principal Fish right there.
“Can we still work on our creative endeavor?” Norbert asked, picking up a long yellow pad of paper.
Principal Fish said nothing.
“I thought of some excellent dance moves,” Fletcher said. “I can teach them to everyone if we move our desks out of the way.”
“Then we can do our handsprings,” Desdemona added eagerly.
“We brought our tape measures,” Agatha and Agnes said. “We’ll take measurements so we can work on the pants.”
“THERE WILL BE NO DANCE MOVES,” Principal Fish bellowed. “THERE WILL BE NO HANDSPRINGS! THERE WILL BE NO PANTS! THERE WILL BE A PRACTICE EXAM.”
3B sighed sadly. Without Miss Kinde, they wouldn’t get to work on their creative endeavor.
But actually, there was no practice exam. Principal Fish couldn’t find the key to the file cabinet where all the exams were kept. Principal Fish, very unhappy about not being able to give the exam, ordered the class to do something quietly while he searched for the key.
Silently, 3B took the opportunity to work on Banana Pants. Agnes and Agatha passed around their tape measures so everyone in the class could secretly measure. Fletcher showed Desdemona and Felix his dance ideas with his fingers. Norbert put his yellow pad on the far-right side of his desk so that Norris could read what he was writing. After Felix watched Fletcher’s fingers dance, he sketched a few sets and showed them to Miranda, who tried to think of matching props. Silently, Maude and Hillary each wrote a lengthy list of reasons why she should be director.
And then, just when Norbert was getting to the big action scene, Principal Fish boomed that he’d found the key (which was on the hook marked KEY HOOK next to the cabinet).
The day turned more usual after that. Principal Fish gave 3B a practice exam and then escorted them to lunch.
It was during lunch that the most unusual thing happened.
“Look! Look at my lunch!” Donut hollered.
Maude stopped slurping soup and Miranda stopped nibbling cheese. They looked at Donut’s lunch, but to them it looked like all school lunches: gray and lumpy.
“It just looks gross,” Maude said. “Sorry, Donut.”
“Don’t look at the food. Look at the tray!”
Maude’s eyes practically doubled in size. The tray was plastic! A lovely, recyclable plastic. She reached out and touched Donut’s lunch tray.
“It’s not Styrofoam!” Maude shouted, jumping up. “It worked! It worked! It worked!”
“What worked?” Donut asked.
“The—” Maude looked at Miranda. Was it the letter she’d written for Miranda? Was that the letter that finally worked? Maude opened her mouth but said nothing.
“Principal Fish finally answered your letters,” Miranda said.
Maude nodded.
“And you didn’t even need me,” Miranda said happily.
Maude looked at Miranda, then back at Donut’s tray. “I guess I didn’t,” she said.
