3 The Big Jump Jumping Contest

The Big Jump Jumping Contest

"Hey, Andy," said Jill. "I bet I can jump higher than you." "I bet you can't," I said. "I bet I can," said Jill. "Let's have a jumping contest and I'll prove it!" "Anytime," I said. "Right now, if you want." "Can I be in it, too?" said Terry. "Sure," said Jill. "But you're not going to win, because I can definitely jump higher than both of you." "And I bet I can jump higher than both of you," said Terry. "And I can jump higher than both of you and me!" I said. "You can jump higher than yourself?" said Jill. "How

is that even possible?" "You'll see," I said. "Let the big jump jumping contest begin. On the first jump, I jumped higher than Jill and Terry. On the second jump, Jill jumped higher than Terry and me.

On the third jump, we all jumped as high as one another, but when Jill and I landed, Terry was nowhere to be seen. "He must have run away to hide when he realized that we could jump so much higher than him," I said. "I don't think so," said Jill. "Look up there!" I looked up— and there, far above us in the sky, was Terry!

He'd jumped so high he was as high as the clouds. "Come back, Terry!" I shouted. "You win!" But Terry was too far away to hear me. And he kept going higher. And higher. And higher. "Uh-oh," I said. "If he doesn't stop, he'll end up in outer space. We have to get him back." "But how?" Jill said. "We'll never be able to reach him because neither of us can jump that high!" "I've got an idea," I said, handing Jill a pair of jet- powered jumping boots. "Put these on. I invented them in our secret underground laboratory last week. Luckily, I made two pairs." Jill and I put on the jumping boots and then we jumped as high as we could. We jumped up almost as high as the clouds, which

was quite high, but nowhere near high enough. "We need to get higher!" I said as we landed back in the treehouse— surprisingly softly thanks to the reverse- thrust feature I'd built into the jumping boots. "I've got an idea," said Jill. "Let's eat some jumping beans. I've got some right here."