13 Ch13-Poor Mr. Klutz

Chapter 13 Poor Mr. Klutz The kids in the other grades were disap- pointed when they heard that Mr. Klutz had changed his mind about bungee- jumping off the roof of the school. Some of them were even mad at us for stopping him. But when it was announced that there

would be a field trip to Water World if we reached our goal instead, they stopped being mad. Water World is probably the coolest water park in California. A few days before vacation, the school

still hadn't reached our goal of a million minutes of reading with our parents. It looked like we were not going to make it in time. Then Mr. Klutz got on the loud- speaker during morning announcements. "Students, there are three more nights to go before vacation," he told us. "I hate to do this, but if you don't reach your goal by Friday, the field trip to Water World will be called off and I will have no choice but to jump off the roof. Have a nice day." After hearing that, everybody started reading with their parents like crazy. Even the sixth graders, who say that

reading isn't cool. Everybody wanted to go to Water World. We reached a million minutes the day before school let out for vacation. The field trip to Water World was awe- some! They had about a hundred giant water slides, and in some of them you slid in the dark with laser beams shoot- ing all over the place. We got to eat as much pizza and ice cream as we wanted. They also had one of those giant, inflatable moon bounce thingies where you jump around like crazy inside it. After water sliding, eating all that junk food, and bouncing in the moon bounce, I thought I was going to throw up. jmkfho. It was

the greatest day of my life. Me and Ryan and Emily and Andrea and Michael went looking for Mr. Klutz to thank him. We found him standing next to the moon bounce thingy. "Great party!" I told Mr. Klutz, and we all gave him a big hug. "If you ask me, you're the greatest principal in the his- tory of the world." "Thanks, A.J.!" "See, you didn't need to bungee-jump off the school to make us learn," Andrea said. "I guess not," Mr. Klutz said. He was looking up at the moon bounce. "But I was just thinking, if we brought one of

these moon bounce things out to the front of the school, and I went up on the roof—" "No!" we all yelled. "I wouldn't even need a bungee cord—" "No!" "It's pretty soft—" "No!" I think it's going to be very hard work helping Mr. Klutz get over this need he has to do nutty things. Maybe by June, if the whole school works together, we might be able to cure him. But it won't be easy.