8. A+ Us

8 A+ Us A+! We got an A+ on our poem! Mr. Scary came right back to our desks. And he took his red pencil. And he wrote an A+ right on top of our paper! "What a wonderful poem you guys wrote," he said. "I loved that." We jumped and clapped for ourselves. It was the funnest morning I ever saw. And that is not all! 'Cause lunch and recess kept on being fun, too. On account of when four friends are in happy moods together, life

is a joy, I tell you! After recess, I hurried back to Room One. 'Cause I couldn't wait to see what happy assignment we would do next. I skipped in the room and looked at the board. And then, boom! I came to a screechy stop. On account of the board had two terrible words on it! It said, SPELLING TEST! And I forgot all about that stupid thing! That dumb test was supposed to be last Friday. And then it got put off till today. And so how was I even supposed to remember that last night? 'Cause I was worried about my note, of course. My legs felt weakish and limpish. Very slow, I dragged my feet back to my

seat. The desks were back to normal again. Herb was already sitting down. He turned around and looked at me. "What's wrong, Junie B.?" he asked. "Don't you feel good?" I laid my head on my desk. "I forgot to study my spelling words last night," I said. "And now I'm going to be in trouble with Mother and Daddy again." I did a whine. "This is the whole dumb problem with school," I said. "One minute you're all joyful and happy. And the next minute, the joy gets flushed right out of you." Herb tried to make me feel better. "Don't worry. Most of the words are easy this week," he said. He paused for a second. "Sort of."

I did another whine. 'Cause sort of does not mean "really." In the front of the room, Mr. Scary was passing out paper. "Is everybody ready for our spelling test this week?" he said. He winked. "Since you had four extra nights to study, I'm sure everyone will get a perfect grade, right?" My stomach turned into a knotball at that comment. Pretty soon, the test began. Mr. Scary pronounced the first spelling word. And he used it in a sentence. "Fox," he said. "The fox is running through the woods. Fox." I perked up a little bit. 'Cause I know how to spell fox, of course. I printed it very neat on my paper.

fox "The next word is box," said Mr. Scary. "I keep all my toys in a box. Box." I sat up even perkier. Because ha! Box is just as easy as fox! box Mr. Scary smiled. "The next word is would," he said. "I would like all of you to do well on this test. Would." Just then, I stopped perking. 'Cause sometimes I get mixed up on that one. I wrote down some letters. wood Then I crossed them out. On account of that was the wrong kind of wood, I believe. I tried again.

wood I shook my head. That didn't look right, either. Finally, I covered my face and I did a groan. "Shh!" said May. Herb started to turn around to see what was the matter. Then he quick stopped himself. 'Cause no turning around during a test, of course. I looked at what I wrote some more. Then I strained my brain to try and remember how to spell it. Only nothing came to me. Finally, I did another groan. And that's when a miracle happened! My friend Herbert came to my rescue!