9. The Big Surprise Ending

9 The Big Surprise Ending It was almost time for my favorite part of the day—dismissal! Everybody was gathering up their pencil cases and backpacks. That's when Mrs. Barr came into our classroom. She was wearing the mask I made in art class. "I just wanted to say goodbye," she said.

"We're going to miss you," everybody said. Some of the kids went over to give Mrs. Barr hugs. "I'm going to miss you too," she said as she went over and opened the window. "Where are you going to travel next?" asked Ryan. "Oh, I don't know," Mrs. Barr replied. "Maybe Istanbul. That's in Turkey. Istanbul is the only major city that is in two continents. You can actually stand with one foot in Asia and one foot in Europe." "Cool!" everybody said. "Or maybe I'll go to Indonesia," said Mrs. Barr. "Did you know that Indonesia has more than thirteen thousand islands?"* Brrrrrriiiiiinnnnngggg! The dismissal bell rang. That's when the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. Mr. Klutz came into our

classroom. Well, that's not the weird part. Mr. Klutz comes into our classroom all the time. The weird part was what happened next. "This has been a wonderful week, Mrs. Barr," said Mr. Klutz. "I wanted to thank you for giving up your valuable time and teaching our students about geography." "I have had a lovely week," said Mrs. Barr. "Thank you for letting me visit your school." And you'll never believe who burst through the door at that moment. Nobody! You can't burst through a door! When are you going to learn? But you'll never believe who burst through the doorway. It was four policemen! "Freeze, dirtbag!" one of them shouted. "You're under arrest!"

"Who's under arrest?" we all shouted. The police officers pointed at Mrs. Barr. "Gasp!" everybody gasped. "What did Mrs. Barr do?" asked Mr. Klutz. "She is the notorious Globetrotting Jewel Thief," said one of the officers. "I knew it!" I shouted. "Oh, she's a clever one," the officer continued. "We've chased her from England to Italy to Asia, and across the

Pacific Ocean. She hides out in schools wherever she goes. Every time we're about to catch her, she slips away. But now we've finally nabbed her." "Mrs. Barr, you've gone too far," one of the other cops said. "There must be some mistake," Mr. Cooper said. "Mrs. Barr is just a nice lady I met on vacation." "Oh yeah?" said one of the officers as he grabbed Mrs. Barr's suitcase. "Let's have a look in here." "She keeps her doggie underwear collection in there!" Andrea shouted. "Sure she does," the officer said as he opened the suitcase and picked up some doggie underwear. "But underneath, the suitcase is filled with stolen jewels! See?" He held up a fistful of necklaces and bracelets.

"Gasp!" everybody gasped. "I told you!" I shouted. "Nobody needs a whole suitcase to carry their doggie underwear!" "What do you have to say for yourself, Mrs. Barr?" asked Mr. Klutz. "But... but..." she stuttered. We all giggled because Mrs. Barr said "but," which sounds just like "butt" even though it only has one T.