12 Ch12-A Hard Bargain

Chapter 12 A Hard Bargain That afternoon we talked Miss Daisy into letting us go to Mr. Klutz's office for a meeting. "We need to speak with Mr. Klutz," Andrea told the school secretary. "It's very important." "It's a matter of life and death," Ryan said.

The secretary let us in. Mr. Klutz wasn't hanging from the ceiling or anything. He had on boxing gloves and he was punch- ing his punching bag. "May I help you kids?" he asked. "Go ahead, A.J.," Andrea said, giving me a shove from behind.

"Mr. Klutz," I told him, "we have come to make a deal with you." "Really? What kind of deal?" "We decided that we will read a million minutes with our parents, but only if you don't jump off the roof." "Only if I don't jump off the roof?" he

said, looking puzzled. "But I was going to jump off the roof as an incentive to encourage you to read with your parents at night." "Well, we're going to read with our par- ents at night as an incentive to make you not jump off the roof." "This is highly unusual," Mr. Klutz said. "I thought the principal should offer the students incentives, not the other way around." "Your incentives have been getting more and more dangerous," Andrea told him, "We're afraid that you might get killed trying to help us learn." jmkfho. "Yeah, and if you die, we'll feel guilty," I added.

"Now, let me get this straight," Mr. Klutz said. "I offered to jump off the roof if you read a million minutes at night with your parents. But you are saying you will only read a million minutes with your parents if I don't jump off the roof. Correct?" "That's right," we said. "What if I jumped off the basketball backboard in the gym into a swimming pool filled with foam blocks?" Mr. Klutz asked. "Would that be okay?" "No!" we all said. "Can I wear a suit made of bubble wrap and jump off the stage in the auditorium?" "No!" "No jumping off anything." Andrea insisted. "Not if you want us to read or

write or do math. That's our final offer. Take it or leave it." "You drive a hard bargain." Mr. Klutz sighed. "Okay, I won't jump." "Have a nice day!" we all said.