10 Ch10-Cooties and Clog Dancing

Chapter 10 Cooties and Clog Dancing "Good morning, boys and girls," Principal Klutz said over the loudspeaker. "Today is Tuesday, and today is special because our own Miss Small is a quarter of a century old! So if you see Miss Small in the hall, be sure to wish her a happy birthday." "Wow!" Ryan whispered to me. "A

quarter of a century is a long time." After the morning announcements, we have this thing in our class called Show and Share. We have to bring in something from home and tell the class about it. I brought in an old army helmet that my grandpa wore when he fought in a war a long time ago. It has fake leaves attached to it so Grandpa could hide in the woods and nobody would see him. I put it on my head even though it was too big for me. Then everybody passed the helmet around so they could feel how heavy it was. "That's very interesting, A.J.," Miss Daisy said when I was finished. "It's your

turn, Andrea. What do you have to share with us today?" "That helmet is awesome, A.J.," Ryan whispered to me while Andrea got up. "Yeah, let's see Andrea top that," I said. Andrea lugged a big duffel bag up to the front of the class. She pulled three long sticks out of the bag. On the end of each stick was a thing that looked like a marshmallow, but black. Then she pulled out a lighter and set those marsh- mallow things on fire! "My mom signed me up for juggling lessons," Andrea announced. Then she threw those flaming sticks up in the air! I don't know how she did it,

but the sticks were flying all over the place. She kept catching them and throwing them back up in the air. If it had been anybody else, I would have thought it was super cool.

Finally Andrea caught all three sticks in one hand, blew them out, and took a bow. Everybody started cheering and clapping. I hate her. "After I get good," Andrea said. "I'm going to learn how to juggle while I'm riding a unicycle." I hope she rides her unicycle off a cliff. "Okay, everybody, it's time to line up for Fizz Ed!" Miss Daisy announced. When we got to the gym, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Miss Small and told her she didn't look half bad for somebody who had lived a quarter of a century. "Today we're going to do something that's really fun!" Miss Small announced.

"Everybody choose a partner. We're going to have a three-legged race!" "How can we have a three-legged race when we only have two legs?" I asked. Everybody laughed even though I didn't say anything funny. I turned around to see if Ryan or Michael would be my partner. But Ryan chose Michael, and Michael chose Ryan. Just about everybody had already chosen a partner. There was only one kid in the class besides me who didn't have a partner. Andrea Young! "Looks like we're partners, A.J.," Andrea said.