06 Preposterous Hippopotamus

Preposterous Hippopotamus When Judy woke up the next morning, her neck was so stiff she felt like a crookneck squash. But her head did not feel the least bit bigger. It did not even feel heavy from carrying around so many new words. She looked in the mirror. Same Judy-head as always. At breakfast, Judy stared into her eggs, just like Jeane Dixon, Famous American Fortuneteller. She thought she felt an earthquake! The earthquake was Stink, shaking the ketchup bottle onto his eggs.

"Stink, that's preposterous!" said Judy. "What's that mean?" asked Stink. "It means ridiculous," said Judy. "Like funny or silly," said Mom. "Think hippopotamus," said Judy. RARE! The dictionary-under-the-pillow thing really worked! Big words were flying out of her mouth faster than spit. Judy was in a positively purple, On-Top-of- Spaghetti-and-the-World mood. She wished she could take her mood ring to school. If only. On the bus, Judy told Rocky that his new magic trick was bewildering.

At school, Frank gave Judy a miniature hotel soap from his collection. "I already have this one," he said. Judy told him his treat was very unexpected. Then she asked Jessica (Flunk) Finch if she looked forward to the spelling test with anticipation. "Why are you talking funny?" asked Jessica. Mr. Todd passed out lined paper for the test. He told the class, "Only three more school days until our special visitor comes to class." Something was not the same. Something was different. Something was peculiar, unusual. Mr. Todd had new glasses! And he was wearing a tie. A crayon tie! Mr. Todd had never dressed up for a spelling test before.

"Your new glasses are very noticeable," said Judy. "Thank you, Judy," said Mr. Todd with a goofy grin. During the test, Judy Moody's Grouchy pencil flew across the page like never before. She spelled alfalfa and applesauce. She spelled cobweb and crystal. She hardly even had to erase, except on zucchini.

And she used the extra-credit word in a sentence! Crayon. What kind of a bonus word was crayon? Mr. Todd had crayons on the brain. For sure and absolute positive. Madame M predicts that the Crayon Lady will soon come to Class 3T to see Mr. Todd's crayon tie. Judy's extra-credit word sentence was practically a paragraph! And she used the bonus word twice! Double R-A-R-E! Judy was the first one to finish, even before the Queen Bee Speller Jessica Finch. Jessica wasn't even using her lucky pencil! What was that girl thinking? At the lunch table, she, Judy Moody, was in a predict-the-future mood. "Don't open your lunches yet," Judy said to

everybody. "Madame M will predict what's inside." "Hurry up," said Rocky. "I'm hungry." Judy shut her eyes. This was so easy. "I see baloney. Baloney sandwiches." Rocky, Frank, and Jessica each held up a baloney sandwich. Everyone was amazed. Now the moment she'd been waiting for. "I have another prediction," said Judy in a loud voice. "One about tomorrow. Something big. Something that's never happened in Class 3T before." "Really? Tell us! What?" "I, Judy Moody, will get zero-wrong-plusextra- credit on the spelling test! 110%! Pass it on."