13 Mr. Willow’s Decision

CHAPTER THIRTEEN MR. WILLOW'S DECISION "WHAT IS IT, Simon?" Mr. Willow asked. "Can we turn the lights off for a few seconds?" Simon asked loudly. Mr. Willow tilted his head. He was curious. "Sure," he said. One of the parents flipped the light switch. Rosie and I snapped our heads to the left and looked outside.

It took a couple of seconds for our eyes to adjust. When they did, we could see the greenhouse. It was glowing—and blinking. It wasn't, like, as bright as the sun or anything, but it was definitely glowing. "It worked!" Rosie whispered to me and squeezed my left hand. I squeezed hers back. And then Rosie pointed toward the window and in a louder voice said, "That's our science fair project!" Everybody hurried to the classroom windows. It was easy to spot the green-yellow glow in the dark night. "What is that?" Mr. Willow asked. "It's our Fantastic Firefly Fetcher!" Simon yelled. Simon, Rosie, and I led everybody outside to see

it. We tried not to run, but we walked super fast across the playground to the greenhouse. It was covered in fireflies. Totally. There were fireflies on all the glass walls, the door, and on the screen roof. They were everywhere. And there were dozens— maybe hundreds—flying and blinking in the air around the greenhouse too.

Rosie explained how we made the Fantastic Firefly Fetcher to everyone. Simon and I added some details. Simon was sure to tell everyone that he caught the most fireflies. He was proud of that. "Is that why you got yourselves into the greenhouse yesterday?" Mr. Willow asked. "Did you throw the Frisbee up onto the roof on purpose?" Rosie nodded. "We had to dig the holes." "You know, you didn't have to trick me," Mr. Willow said. "I would have just let you in if you'd told me what you were doing." "Where's the fun in that?" Simon asked. "Where's the adventure? Where's the pizzazz? Where's the chutzpah?!" "I don't know what I'm going to do with you three," Mr. Willow said and shook his head. "You're either going to have to stay after school next week for bending the rules... or you're going to get first place

in the science fair." He held his hand up under his chin and looked down at the three of us.

We looked up at him. Right then a firefly fluttered down and landed on his index finger. He held it up slowly in front of his eyes. It glowed bright yellow for a couple of seconds. And then Mr. Willow smiled.