9 Our New Teacher Will Be

9 Our New Teacher Will I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that thanks to Lil Mouse, we had the greatest graduation in the history of graduations. It was the end of an era at Ella Mentry School. We were officially fourth graders.

And now for the bad news. The day after graduation, some new rapper named Big Mouse recorded a song in his bathroom, and an hour later it went viral. Suddenly, Lil Mouse was old news, and his career was over. Mrs. Stoker told us he's working at a car wash with Cray-Z. Hey, who said stories have to have a happy ending? Deal with it. Maybe Lil Mouse will write another

hit song. Maybe we'll get a new math book in fourth grade. Maybe Teddy Roosevelt will bust some trusts, whatever they are. Maybe grown-ups will stop powdering their noses. Maybe I'll find out what people used before toilet paper was invented. Maybe Mr. Klutz will turn his head upside down. Maybe Ryan will stop wearing diapers. Maybe we'll find out why they changed the name of the library. Maybe people will stop walking into doors all the time. Maybe somebody will figure out why clams are so happy. But it won't be easy! Oh, I forgot to tell you. After we got our diplomas, Mr. Cooper gathered us all around him in the back of the all-porpoise room. "Well, this is it," he told us. "It has been my honor to be your third-grade teacher. I'm going to miss you kids." It looked like Mr. Cooper was going to start crying.*

"We'll miss you too," said Alexia. We group-hugged for a long time. "Who will be our teacher in fourth grade?" asked Andrea, who obviously wanted to know who she needed to suck up to. "I think the list of classroom teachers was just posted outside the front office," said Mr. Cooper. We all rushed to the front office. Mr. Cooper was right. There were a bunch of papers taped to the wall with the names of each teacher and all the kids in each class. We crowded around to see who our new teacher would be for fourth grade. There were a million hundred names on the wall. I searched all over to find the name of our new teacher. But Andrea, of course, found it first.

"I'm so excited!" Andrea finally shouted. "It says our new teacher is going to be