11 Ch11-Just Admit It!

Chapter 11 Just Admit It! It was no use. Even after we proved to Mrs. Roopy that she was dressing up as all these characters, she still wouldn't admit it. "Mrs. Roopy is in denial," Andrea said when we got back to the classroom. "I'll bet you don't know what that means, A.J."

"Sure I know what 'denial' means," I said. "It's that river in Africa." "Not the Nile, dumbhead! Denial! It means she can't admit to herself that she has a problem." "So what are we supposed to do now?" Michael asked. "There's only one thing we can do," Andrea said. "We've got to tell Mr. Klutz." Mr. Klutz is the principal, which means he is like the king of the school. One time I got into trouble and was sent to Mr. Klutz's office. When I got there, he didn't punish me. He gave me a candy bar. Mr. Klutz is nuts! We told Miss Daisy that we had to speak with Mr. Klutz and that it was a matter of

life and death. She called the office and in a few minutes Mr. Klutz arrived. Mr. Klutz has no hair at all. We told him all about the crazy things Mrs. Roopy had been doing and how Andrea's mother is a psychologist and she thinks Mrs. Roopy might have a big problem. "We're really worried about her," Emily said. "Hmmm, this sounds pretty serious," Mr. Klutz said. "Maybe we'd better go have a little chat with Mrs. Roopy." Mr. Klutz led us down the hall to the library. When

we got there, Mrs. Roopy was lying on the floor under the tree house. She was hold- ing her head like it had been hit. Not only that, but Mrs. Roopy was really fat. It looked like she had gained about a mil- lion hundred pounds! "What happened, Mrs. Roopy?" Michael asked. jmkfho. "Are you okay?"

"Mrs. Roopy? Who's that?" Mrs. Roopy said. "My name is Humpty Dumpty. I was sitting on that wall up there, and I had a great fall." "Don't tell me," Andrea said. "All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put you back together again. Right?" "How did you know?" Mrs. Roopy asked. "You're not Humpty Dumpty!" Andrea said. "You're Mrs. Roopy, our librarian! Just admit it!" "It doesn't matter who it is," Mr. Klutz said. "There has been an injury. I need to write a report and give it to the Board of Education." "You can give it to me," I told Mr. Klutz.

"I'm bored of education." Everybody laughed even though I didn't say anything funny. Mr. Klutz said he had to go call a doctor for Humpty Dumpty. Mrs. Roopy got up off the floor and dusted herself off. "Wait a minute," I said. "I have a ques- tion." "Yes, A.J.?" asked Mrs. Roopy. "Your name is Humpty Dumpty, right?" "Right." "What I want to know is, why did your parents name you Humpty? I mean, if their last name was already Dumpty, they could have named you John or Jim or Joe or something normal. But they had to go