weight fall on Miss Kraftâs head.
Thatâs when the most amazing thing in the history of the world happened. Youâll never believe who walked into the door at that moment.
Nobody! It would hurt if you walked into a door.
But youâll never believe who walked into the doorway . It was Mr. Klutz!
âWhatâs going on in here?!â he hollered. âWhy is Miss Kraft tied up with rope? Who did this to her?!â
Everybody looked at me.
âA.J.!â shouted Mr. Klutz. âWhy would you tie up your teacher with ropes? Is that any way to show respect to a substitute? What did I tell you about behavior?â
âB-b-b-but ⦠,â I said.
Everybody started giggling because I said âbut,â which sounds just like âbuttâ even though it has one less t .
âIâm keeping an eye on you, young man!â yelled Mr. Klutz. âYou are this close to being suspended.â
I wanted to go to Antarctica and live with the penguins.
9
The Big Book Drop
âOh, donât worry about him ,â said Miss Kraft after Mr. Klutz left the room. âI know how to take care of principals.â
She also told us the five-hundred-pound weight wasnât really going to drop on her head, and it wasnât five hundred pounds either. It was made out of cardboard. She said she knew we would put the states in ABC order faster if we thought a five-hundred-pound weight was about to drop on her head.
Ryan and I untied the ropes around Miss Kraft.
So she had played a little trick on us. That was okay, because we were about to play a little trick on her .
I looked at the clock. It was 12:45. Fifteen minutes until the Big Book Drop.
âOkay, everybody!â Miss Kraft said. âItâs D.E.A.R. time!â
D.E.A.R. stands for Drop Everything and Read. We all have to read silently for half an hour. Ugh, I hate reading.
We all took books out from our desks. I had a book about fighter planes that I got from the school library. Reading it wasnât much fun, but the pictures of the fighter planes were cool.
It was hard to concentrate on my book anyway, because all I could think about was the Big Book Drop. I checked the clock. Ten minutes to go.
I turned around to look at Ryan, Michael, Neil, and all the other kids. Everybody was reading silently. Miss Kraft was sitting at Mr. Graniteâs desk, reading a book called Magic Tricks for Dummies .
I moved my pile of books to the edge of my desk so it would be easier to drop them on the floor. It was going to be hilarious when we all dropped our books at the same time.
Five minutes to go.
I could barely even look at my book about fighter planes. It was almost one oâclock. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ryan passing a note to Michael. I figured he was reminding Michael to drop his books at one oâclock.
There were only a few minutes left. Kids were snickering and whispering and passing notes back and forth.
I looked at the second hand on the clock. It was sweeping around the dial. This was going to be hilarious !
The second hand was getting close to the top. Twelve seconds left!
I got ready for the Big Book Drop.
10 ⦠9 ⦠8 ⦠7 ⦠6 â¦
It was so exciting!
5 ⦠4 ⦠3 ⦠2 ⦠1!
One oâclock! It was time! I pushed the pile of books off my desk.
Boom!
My books hit the floor. Miss Kraft jumped in her seat.
Ahahahahahahaha!
I looked around. Nobody else had dropped their books on the floor.
WHAT?!
Everybody was looking at me.
I probably donât need to tell you who walked into the doorway at that moment. It was Mr. Klutz, of course.
âWhat was that loud bang?â he asked.
âArlo dropped a bunch of books on the floor,â Andrea said, a little smile on her face.
âWhy did you do that , A.J.?â asked Mr. Klutz. He looked mad.
âI-I thought everybody was going to drop their books at one oâclock,â I explained.