9 Ch9-The Most Horrible Thing in the History of the World

Chapter 9 The Most Horrible Thing in the History of the World A couple of days later, around two o'clock, we came into the all-purpose room for rehearsal. Miss Holly was wearing a Santa Claus hat and beard. She's weird. "Habari gani?" she said. "What the heck does that mean?" I asked.

"That means 'What's the news?' in Swahili," said Miss Holly. "You say it during Kwanzaa." It was a week before the big holi- day pageant, and we had to rehearse every day. There was a lot of work to do. We had Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa songs to learn, lines to memorize, and entrances and exits to practice. Me and Ryan and Michael had to learn

how to move the scenery and props around and work the spotlight, too. At the end of the pageant, it would be our job to lower Santa Claus (Mr. Klutz, of course) and his sleigh down from the ceiling with ropes. That was going to be cool. Miss Holly said that because we were Elvises, we could sing "Hound Dog," even though it didn't have anything to do with the holidays. Mr. Loring, our music teacher, played piano for all the songs, Miss Holly played her guitar. Emily got to sing a solo. She is a big crybaby, but she has a pretty good voice, and Miss Holly let her sing "The Dreidel

Song." Emily was practicing it when I came up with the most brilliant idea in the history of the world. "Since she's singing a song about a dreidel!" I said to Miss Holly, "maybe she should spin around too?" "Great idea, A.J.!" said Miss Holly. I'm in the gifted and talented program, and I'm constantly coming up with genius ideas. I should get the No Bell Prize for that one. At the end of rehearsal, Miss Holly told us how proud she was. She said the holi- day pageant was going to be great. Miss Holly was so pleased that she told us she was going to invite Dr. Carbles, the

president of the Board of Education, to come and see the show. Wow! If the prin- cipal is the king of the school, the presi- dent of the Board of Education must be like the king of the whole world. We rehearsed until three o'clock, when it was time for dismissal. Then we lined up outside the doorway in ABC order. That's when Andrea turned around and whispered in my ear, "Hey, Arlo. Look up!" I looked up. It was that mistletoe stuff! It was hang- ing from the doorway right over our heads! How did it get up there? I remembered what Miss Holly told us about mistletoe. If two people are under

it, they're supposed to kiss. Andrea was standing there with her lips all puckered up like she was trying to whistle. Eww! Yuck! Disgusting! What is her problem? No way was I going to kiss Andrea. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do. I had to think fast. I looked around to see if Ryan and Michael were watching. "You have to kiss me, Arlo," Andrea whispered. "I do not!" "Do too." "No way." "Yes way!" "Not in my lifetime."