6 Ch6-The Chocolate Party

Chapter 6 The Chocolate Party When I thought about it, putting a tack on Miss Daisy's chair was a pretty dumb thing to do. Mr. Klutz went to the front of the class. I was sure he was going to bring all of us to the torture chamber in the basement. But he didn't look all that mad, consider- ing what we had done.

"It has come to my attention that some of the students at our school need a little extra incentive to behave and work their hardest," Mr. Klutz said. "Do you know what the word incentive means?"

"An incentive is a reward that encour- ages a person to work harder to achieve something," Andrea announced, all proud of herself. She thinks she knows every- thing. I hate her. "Very good, Andrea," said Mr. Klutz. "What sort of incentive might bring out the best work in the students of our school?" "You could give us each a million dol- lars," suggested Michael. "You could make summer vacation last all year long," I said. "How about getting rid of homework?" asked Ryan. Miss Daisy went to the front of the

room. "Mr. Klutz can't do those things," she said. "But remember when all the stu- dents in our school read a million pages in books, and as a reward we turned the gym into a video-game arcade? That was quite successful. Mr. Klutz even dressed up in a gorilla suit for the evening, if I recall." "How about a chocolate party?" sug- gested Andrea. "Yeah!" everybody yelled. "Mmmrn," said Miss Daisy. "I like that idea!" We all got very excited, because if there is one thing that just about everybody loves, it's chocolate. jmkfho. Kids started shouting

out things we could have at the party, like chocolate cupcakes and chocolate fudge and chocolate bun- nies and chocolate ice cream and on and on and on. "But wait a minute," Mr. Klutz said. "What are you going to do to earn this chocolate party?" "We could read another million pages," suggested Ryan. "We did that already," Emily said.

"How about a million math problems?" I said. "What a wonderful idea!" Miss Daisy beamed. Ever since we taught her how to add and subtract, Miss Daisy loved math. "Math is hard," Ryan said. "How about a hundred math problems?" "One million math problems," Mr. Klutz insisted. "That's my final offer. Take it or leave it." "We'll take it!" we all yelled. "Agreed. If the kids in our school do one million math problems, I'll throw a party with so much chocolate, you'll be sick for a week." "I'll bring the bonbons," Miss Daisy vol- unteered.