11. The Feast

11 The Feast May's mother was the last guest to come to our room. She was carrying three bags of food. I did a sniff. Something did not smell delicious. It was the stewed onions, I believe. Also, it was the beans and squash. My stomach did a flip-flop at those stinky smells. I took some deep breaths to try to calm it down. Here is a helpful hint. Deep breathing does not work that good when you are smelling stink.

Finally, I said the word bluck. And I held my nose. Mr. Scary snapped his fingers at me. That meant please let go of your nose, I think. After all the guests were sitting down, Mr. Scary said a welcome speech to them. "Welcome, everyone! Welcome to our feast!" he said. "Room One would like to thank you for bringing this delicious food to help us celebrate Thanksgiving." After that, he gave the children a nod. And all of us shouted, "THANK YOU!" A lot of rehearsing had gone into that. "This is going to be a wonderful day," said Mr. Scary. "So please grab a plate. And let's get started." We let our guests go first. That is some kind of guest rule, apparently. Room One lined up behind them. Only too bad for me. 'Cause someone took

the lid off the stewie pewie onions. And the smell almost knocked me down. My stomach felt sickish and rumbly. I hurried to the end of the food line. Mr. Scary saw me go. But this time, he did not get mad. Instead, he made a 'nouncement to all of the children. "Boys and girls, today is a celebration of all the things we're thankful for. And—since each of us is thankful for different kinds of foods—just take the food you love the most. And enjoy every single bite." All of us did a breath of relief. Then things got even better! Because Mr. Scary walked over to the supply closet. And he pulled out one more bag of food for our Thanksgiving feast. And its name was… "NIPSY DOODLES!" shouted Lennie. "MR. SCARY BROUGHT NIPSY

DOODLES!" He ran to Mr. Scary and did a high five. After that, we could not wait to get our plates of food! It was the tastiest Thanksgiving dinner I ever even ate! I had turkey! And carrot sticks! And Nipsy Doodles! And cranberry jelly! Herb had turkey! And carrot sticks! And two giant plops of applesauce! Lennie just had Nipsy Doodles and that's all. Plus also, he took four napkins. "It will make my grandmother feel good," he said. After we finished eating, all of the children walked around the room. And we thanked our families for the food they brought. "Thank you for your crunchy carrot sticks," I said to Herb's grandmother. "Thank you for your hugie, big turkey," I said to Lucille's richie nanna.

"Your napkins were delicious," I said to Lennie's grandmother. After that, I thanked Mother and Grandma Miller for the cranberry jelly. Then Grampa Frank Miller picked me up. And he spun me all around real happy. Frank would be fun in my real, actual class, I believe. After we got done with our thank-yous, Mr. Scary said he had one more happy surprise for us. Then he looked in the hallway. And he did a nod. And guess who came in next? "MRS. GUTZMAN!" I shouted. "IT'S MRS. GLADYS GUTZMAN!" Mrs. Gutzman is the bestest lunch lady in the whole entire world! I sprang out of my seat. "HELLO, GLADYS GUTZMAN! IT'S ME! IT'S JUNIE B. JONES!"

Mrs. Gutzman was holding two pie boxes in her hands. She put them down and waved at me. "Hello, Junie B. Jones! Hello, children!" she said. "Congratulations on winning the Thankful Contest!"