“Made You Look!”

“Hey, Andrew!” I called. “Quick! Look outside! A gorilla is in the front yard! It is dancing around…. Now it is waving to me!”

Andrew ran to his bedroom window. “Where? Where is the gorilla?” he cried.

“April Fool!” I said.

Friday had arrived at last. But —

“Today is not April Fools’ Day,” said my brother. “No fair.”

“It is April Fools’ Day in Ms. Colman’s room,” I told him.

“Well, we are at Mommy’s house. We are not at your school.”

Boo. Andrew was no fun.

School was fun, though. Andrew let me borrow his squirting camera. I put it in my schoolbag along with the trick soap, the trick gum, and of course, the plastic cockroach. Today was my day to get Bobby Gianelli.

This is what I did the very second I stepped inside Ms. Colman’s room. I called to Hannie. “Hey, Hannie, your shoe is untied!”

“Uh-oh,” Hannie answered. She leaned over to fix her laces.

“April Fool! Made you look!” I shouted.

Hannie was wearing loafers. (They did not have shoelaces.) She giggled. “You got me, Karen.”

April Fools’ Day Eve was off to a great start.

I sat at my desk. I put away the things in my book bag. I had not told anyone about what I had ordered from McBuzz’s. I waited for a moment. Then I took out Andrew’s camera. It was already filled with water. When Pamela Harding walked into the room, I smiled.

“Ooh, Pamela, what a lovely dress,” I said. “May I take your picture?”

“Sure!” Pamela looked pleased.

I pressed the button on top of the camera.

Squeep! The little stream of water shot into Pamela’s hair.

“Ew! Oh, gross! Karen, you ruined my hair!” cried Pamela. (There was, like, one drop of water on Pamela’s hair.)

All around us, kids were laughing. “April Fool!” I said.

Pamela frowned. She flumped into her chair.

“Is that how you are going to get me?” Bobby asked me. “Because now I have already seen your tricks.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Maybe, maybe not,” I sang.

Soon school began. Ms. Colman made a Surprising Awful Announcement. “This weekend,” she said, “I want you to do five math worksheets and write a report about transportation.”

Transportation? Five worksheets? Oh, yuck!

“April Fool!” cried Ms. Colman. She had gotten us.

All morning I waited for gym. I tried to be patient. That was hard, considering I had hidden the cockroach in my shoe. I could feel it every time I moved my foot. At last Ms. Colman told our class to line up for P. E. (That stands for physical education.) We walked to the gym. We took off our shoes. We put on our sneakers. I tied my laces very, very slowly. While I did that, Bobby ran for a basketball. He and Ricky and Hank tossed it around.

I dropped the bug in Bobby’s shoe. I pushed it down into the toe.

In gym class, we played with a parachute. Then we practiced climbing ropes. When class ended, we ran to change out of our sneakers.

Bobby stuck his sock foot into one of his shoes. He frowned. Then he reached into the shoe and pulled out the cockroach. “Aughhh!” he screamed.

“April Fool, Bobby!” I cried. “I got you!”