2 Ch2-Mrs. Kormel's Secret Language

Chapter 2 Mrs. Kormel's Secret Language I dashed on the bus and there was Mrs. Kormel, the school bus driver. She was wearing a crash helmet on her head and a silver whistle around her neck. "Bingle boo, A.J.!" she said. "Bingle boo, Mrs. Kormel." "Bingle boo" is Mrs. Kormel's way of

saying "hello." One time I asked her why she doesn't just say "hello" like normal people. "I'm inventing my own secret language," she told me. "Everybody says 'hello.' But I think 'hello' is boring. I'm trying to get people to switch from saying 'hello'

to saying 'bingle boo.' Secret languages are fun!" Mrs. Kormel is not normal. "Limpus kidoodle," said Mrs. Korrnel. That means "sit down" in Mrs. Kormel's secret language. I looked around the bus. There was a snot-covered kindergartner in the front row behind Mrs. Kormel, and a few angry fifth graders in the back row. Fifth graders are really mean because they get a lot of homework. The more homework you get, the meaner you are. That's why fifth graders are meaner than fourth graders, and fourth graders are meaner than third graders, and third

graders are meaner than second graders. You don't want to go near seventh or eighth graders. They get lots of home- work, and they just hate the world. I hope I never get to high school. I sat down in the middle by myself. Mrs. Kormel stopped the bus at the next corner, and a few other kids got on. At the stop after that, my friends Ryan and Michael got on. "Bingle boo!" Mrs. Kormel said to Ryan and Michael. "Limpus kidoodle." Ryan and Michael sat down next to me. "What did you bring in for Show and Share?" Ryan asked. "I brought in an old light switch."

"I brought in a ball of string," said Michael. Show and Share is when we bring something from home that starts with a certain letter of the alphabet and talk about it in class. Today's letter was s. I took my Show and Share thing out of my backpack. It was an action figure called Striker Smith. He's a superhero from the future who travels through time and fights bad guys with a sharp sword that's attached to his hand. He can turn into a jet plane, too, and fly when you push a button. I saw a commercial for Striker Smith on TV and bugged my par- ents until they finally got it for me.

"Striker Smith belongs to a secret organization of crime fighters," I told Ryan and Michael! in case they didn't see the commercial. "You should get extra credit," Ryan said, "because Striker Smith has two S's." "He's cool," said Michael. "Sometimes I take my old action figures down to the basement and my dad lets me saw them