9. D-Day

9 D-Day Miss Aker picked up Super Droney. We grabbed our marshmallow shooters and gathered up as many bags of marshmallows as we could carry. "It's D-Day, kids," Miss Aker said very seriously. "That stands for Droney Day. Let's do this." We marched out to the playground.

When we got there, I looked up in the sky. There was no sign of Droney or Mr. Klutz. The teachers started digging foxholes in the dirt around the playground. Miss Aker hid Super Droney behind the slide. "Super Droney will be our secret weapon," she said. "MUST... DESTROY... DRONEY," repeated Super Droney. Miss Aker led us over to a picnic table and unrolled a big map on it. We all gathered around. So did Ms. Beard and Mrs. Lilly. "Droney will probably come from this direction," Miss Aker said, pointing at the map. "We'll wait until it gets here, and if Droney comes down low enough, we'll attack it with marshmallows here." Miss Aker looked like she was in complete control. I was nervous. We all were. I loaded a marshmallow into my

shooter. "I'm scared," said Emily, who is always scared. "Remember kids," Miss Aker told us. "We are makers. We will defend our school, whatever the cost may be. We will fight on the beaches. We will fight on the landing grounds. We will fight in the fields and in the streets. We will fight in the hills. We will never surrender!" Miss Aker was very inspirational. "Are you kids with me?" she asked. "Yeah!" we all shouted. Miss Aker took out binoculars and scanned the horizon. There was no sign of Droney. "What if Droney doesn't come back?" asked Michael. "Oh, it will come back," Miss Aker reassured him. "It wants to be principal of the school. It has to come back. And when it does, we're going to blast it out of

the sky. I just hope we brought along enough marshmallows." There was nothing to do but wait. We all climbed into foxholes. In the distance, I heard somebody playing a harmonica. That's when Andrea came over. She got into my foxhole with me.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered. "Get your own foxhole." "Arlo," she whispered, "I need to talk to you." "About what?" I whispered. "Just in case one of us doesn't make it out of here alive," Andrea whispered, "I want you to know something." "What?" I whispered. "Arlo, I just want you to know—" But Andrea didn't have the chance to finish her sentence, because Miss Aker started yelling. "Look, up in the sky!" she shouted. "It's Droney!" I looked up. There was a dot in the distant sky. Andrea jumped out of my foxhole and climbed into another one. "Droney is coming this way!" shouted Ryan. "Does it have Mr. Klutz with it?" asked Emily.

"I don't think so," said Ryan. "It's too far away to tell." "Okay, get ready, everyone," said Miss Aker. "When Droney gets close enough, we're going to give it everything we've got. But don't shoot until you see the whites of the propellers." Droney came closer... and closer... until it hovered over the playground, just a little too high for us to reach with our marshmallow shooters. "SO, WE MEET AGAIN," said Droney. "Where is Mr. Klutz?" shouted Miss Aker. "THAT IS FOR ME TO KNOW AND YOU TO FIND OUT," replied Droney. "PUT DOWN YOUR PATHETIC MARSHMALLOW SHOOTERS." How dare Droney insult our marshmallow shooters! We made them