2. The Petting Zoo

2 The Petting Zoo After a few minutes of staring at the geese, we went back to class. "Turn to page twenty-three in your math books," said Mr. Cooper. That's when an announcement came over the loudspeaker: "MR. COOPER'S CLASS, PLEASE

REPORT TO ROOM 303." Yay! No math! Mr. Cooper slammed his math book closed. "Room 303?" asked Ryan. "What's room 303?" "I never heard of room 303," said Andrea, Little Miss Know-It-All. "Me neither," said Emily, who's only heard of stuff that Andrea has heard of. We lined up like Pringles and walked a million hundred miles to room 303. A sign over the door said BAND ROOM. Oh, yeah! The band room. That's where they keep musical instruments. We've never been in there. Only the upper grades get to play instruments. We looked around. The room was

filled with drums and trumpets and saxophones and lots of other stuff you hit or blow into. And you'll never believe who walked into the door at that moment. Nobody! It would hurt if you walked into a door. But you'll never believe who walked into the doorway. It was our music teacher, Mr. Loring.* He teaches us how to sing weird songs like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Mr. Loring is boring. He handed out name tags for us to wear. "Are you the band teacher too?" asked Andrea. "No," said Mr. Loring. "I'm the band aide." We all giggled because Mr. Loring said he was a Band-Aid. "I'm here to introduce you to Mrs.

Bacon," said Mr. Loring. "Before she became the school band teacher, she was a conductor." "She drove trains?" I asked. "Not that kind of conductor, dumbhead!" said Andrea. I was going to say something mean to Andrea, but I didn't have the chance because you'll never believe who poked her head into the door at that moment. Nobody! Why would anybody poke her head into a door? Didn't we just go over that a few paragraphs ago? But you'll never believe who poked her head into the doorway. It was Mrs. Bacon, of course. Who else could it be? Her name is right on the cover of the book! Mrs. Bacon was wearing an army

uniform and holding a chopstick in her hand. We all clapped, which is what you do whenever somebody gets introduced. "Why do you think Mrs. Bacon has a chopstick in her hand?" Michael whispered to me. "Maybe she's going out for Chinese food after this," I whispered back. "Thank you," said Mrs. Bacon. "I love music. I feel the passion of music in my soul. Playing music can heal the sick. It can end wars. Music can bring people together. It can change the world."

"Everybody loves music!" said Andrea. What a brownnoser. "That's right!" said Mrs. Bacon. "Music is the universal language." "Does that mean they have music on other planets of the universe?" I asked.