2 Payback Time

2 Payback Time We were on the playground at recess, hanging on the monkey bars. Why do they call them monkey bars? I've never seen any monkeys in the playground. Anyway, we were all pretty mad about what happened in Chapter 1.

"I can't believe Miss Banks got us again," said Ryan. "She's always pulling pranks on us," said Michael. "And we always fall for them," said Neil. "Miss Banks is mean," said Alexia. "We're not gonna take it!" "Do you know what we should do?" asked Andrea. "We should pull a prank on Miss Banks." "That's right," said Emily, who always thinks Andrea is right. I was surprised that Andrea wanted to pull a prank on Miss Banks. Andrea never breaks the rules. She never does anything that might get herself in trouble or prevent her from getting into Harvard someday. Andrea must have been pretty mad about Miss Banks's constant pranking. "It's payback time," Alexia said. "What prank should we pull on Miss Banks?" "How about we tell her it's National Sitting Day?" suggested Neil. "So we can sit down for the rest of the day." "We sit down every day," Andrea pointed out. "How about we put bubble wrap under the rug?" suggested Ryan. "So when she steps on it,

it'll pop and freak her out." "She already did that to us," said Andrea. "Remember?" "How about we let the air out of the tires on her car?" suggested Michael. "That might be illegal," Ryan said. "We could go to jail." "I don't want to go to jail!" whined Emily. She looked like she might start crying, as usual.

"Nobody's going to jail," Andrea assured Emily. We needed to come up with the perfect prank. We needed a prank that would get Miss Banks good but wouldn't put us in jail. We thought and thought and thought. I thought so hard, I thought my brain was going to explode. That's when I came up with the greatest prank in the history of the world. "I have an idea!" I whispered, so nobody else would hear. "When Miss Banks goes to write something on the board, we should all turn our chairs and desks around so we're facing the back of the room. That would be hilarious." "Actually, that's not a bad idea," said Andrea. "Oooooh!" Ryan said. "Andrea likes A.J.'s idea. They must be in LOVE!" "When are you gonna get married?" asked Michael. If those guys weren't my best friends, I would hate them.

"Miss Banks will be totally surprised," said Neil. I should get the Nobel Prize for my great idea. That's a prize they give out to people who don't have bells. After recess, we went back to the classroom and took our seats. We were all giggling in anticipation of our great prank. "This afternoon," Miss Banks told us, "we're going to learn about the digestive system. It includes the parts of the body that turn food and liquids into the fuel our bodies need blah blah blah blah..."

She went on and on. We waited for her to write on the board so we could turn our chairs and desks around. "The parts of the digestive system," continued Miss Banks, "are the mouth, the esophagus, the stomach, the intestines, and blah blah blah blah..." The digestive system is really gross. I waited for Miss Banks to turn around and draw a picture of a stomach or something on the whiteboard. But she didn't do it! She just kept talking. It felt like we were waiting a million hundred hours. Finally, Miss Banks looked at her watch and told us she had to step out of the room for a minute. "Now!" I shouted as soon as she walked out the front door of the class. We all rushed to turn our desks and chairs around until we were facing the back of the room. Everybody was giggling. "This is gonna be great," whispered Alexia. That's when the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. The back door of the classroom opened, and Miss Banks walked in.