6 She’s Gonna Freak Out!

6 She's Gonna Freak Out! The score was 2–0. The teachers were winning, but there was plenty of time for us to catch up. After school, we didn't go right home. We snuck out to the playground to plan a strategy. We had to think up some great pranks to pull on Miss Banks or we'd never get a candy party.

"Okay," said Andrea, "let's put our heads together." "I'm not putting my head next to your head," I told Andrea. "It's just an expression, Arlo!" said Andrea, who calls me by my real name because she knows I don't like it. "Can you two stop arguing for once?" asked Alexia. "We have bigger fish to fry." Huh? I was going to ask Alexia what fish had to do with anything, but we had more important things to worry about. Like coming up with great pranks to pull on Miss Banks. "What if we wrapped up her cell phone with rubber bands?" suggested Michael. "Bor...ring," I groaned. "What if we stuck Post-it notes all over her car?" suggested Ryan. "Nah," I muttered. "What if we put an Out of Order sign on the door to the teachers' bathroom?" said Neil. "Snoozefest," I said. They were a bunch of dumb ideas. "Is Miss Banks afraid of anything?" asked Alexia.

"Bugs," Neil said. "Remember when she told us how much she hates insects?" "Yeah." "I have an idea!" said Andrea, all excited. "I could make some bugs out of chocolate, and we can put them on her desk when she's not looking!" "You know how to make chocolate bugs?" Alexia asked. "Sure," Andrea replied. "I took a baking class after school. They taught us how to make all kinds of things out of chocolate." Of course. Andrea takes classes in everything after school.*

"That's a great idea!" said Emily, who thinks all Andrea's ideas are great. But for once in her life, Emily was right. Putting chocolate bugs on Miss Banks's desk was a great idea. If she's really afraid of insects, she'll probably jump three feet in the air when she sees her desk covered with them. We rushed to get to school early on Tuesday morning so we would be in class before Miss Banks showed up. Andrea brought a box filled with chocolate cockroaches, spiders, flies, and ants. They looked really real! Everybody was giggling as we spread the bugs out on Miss Banks's desk. "She's gonna freak out when she sees this!" said Michael.

"It's gonna be great!" said Ryan, rubbing his hands together. "Finally, the shoe will be on the other foot," said Alexia. Huh? What did shoes have to do with anything? Why is everybody always talking about shoes? We put our backpacks in our cubbies and rushed to our seats. I couldn't wait to see the look on Miss Banks's face when she saw bugs crawling on her desk. A few minutes later, she came into the classroom.

"Good morning!" she said. She hung up her coat. She opened the window. She looked at the clock. The suspense was killing me! Finally, Miss Banks went over to her desk. "Oh, look!" she said. "I love chocolate bugs! Time is fun when you're having flies!" Then she popped some bugs in her mouth. Grrrrrrrr.