2 Stuck

CHAPTER TWO STUCK SIMON WAS STILL at his first table. He hadn't handed out a single quiz. He was standing in front of Lizzy Jacobsen at Table 7. Simon had one of the math quizzes in his right hand. And he was sort of shaking it at her. Not in a mean way. It was more like in a frustrated way—like he couldn't let go of it or something. He shook his hand harder, but the quiz stayed stuck there. Finally, he used his left hand to peel the quiz loose and hand it to Lizzy. Lizzy looked at it and said, "Gross."

Mr. Willow had not noticed any of this. His back was turned as he wrote today's schedule on the whiteboard. TODAY'S SCHEDULE 1. MATH QUIZ (FUN, FUN, FUN!) 2. SCIENCE- PHOTOSYNTHESIS (HERE COMES THE SUN!) 3. SILENT READING TIME (YOU CHOOSE THE BOOK!) 4. LUNCH (MUNCH!) 5. RECESS (GO WILD!) 6. COMPOSITION (WRITE ON!) 7. ART (WHAT WILL YOU MAKE?!) 8. DISMISSAL Once Lizzy had her paper, Simon handed a quiz to Billy Price. I should say he tried to hand a quiz to Billy Price. It didn't work out very well. The same thing happened. Billy's quiz was stuck to Simon's right hand. He shook it at him, but it didn't come loose. He shook it harder and the paper rustled loudly. "What is he doing?" I whispered to Rosie. We

were back at Table 5 now. "Is he doing that on purpose?" "I don't think so." Simon shook it harder—and it rustled even louder. This got Mr. Willow's attention. He turned around. "Uh-oh," Rosie said. Simon shoved his right hand and the quiz toward Billy. "Just take it," Simon said. I think he knew that Mr. Willow was looking now. Everybody was looking. Billy grabbed the edge of the paper and pulled. Riiiiiip! Billy got half of his quiz.

The other half was still stuck to Simon's hand. "Simon, what is going on?" Mr. Willow asked loudly. It wasn't a mean voice, but it sure wasn't friendly either. Simon didn't answer. He just held his hand palm out toward Mr. Willow, showing him that one-half of Billy's math quiz was stuck there. And now we could all see that there were splotches of brown stuff on Simon's hand. "What is that?" Mr. Willow asked. "On your hand?" "Sap." "Sap?" "Yeah," Simon answered and pushed his hand closer so Mr. Willow could see better. "Like from a tree."

"I know what sap is, Simon," Mr. Willow said and closed his eyes for two seconds. "I'm just wondering why it's on your hands. And, more importantly, why it's tearing my quizzes."

"It's a long story," Simon answered and tried to peel the rest of the paper off with his other hand. "See, this morning I was at Picasso Park and—" "Stop," Mr. Willow said and shook his head. He wasn't mad or anything. It just looked like he wanted to get the school day started. "Go wash your hands." "It's super sticky," Simon said. "I washed them, like, a million times already." "Try a million more," Mr. Willow said as he took the quizzes from Simon and began to pass the rest of them out.