9. The Prank of the Century

9 The Prank of the Century We walked a million hundred miles to room 123. I couldn't wait to pull off the prank of the century. I was rubbing my hands together with excitement. That's what you do when you're excited. You rub your hands together. Nobody knows why. When we walked into the room, Miss Banks was waiting for us.

"For homework tonight," she said, "please read the first five chapters in your social studies book, write an essay on what you did over summer vacation, and create a life-size animal out of items you have around the house." WHAT?! "Just kidding!" said Miss Banks. "There's no homework tonight. But starting tomorrow, we're going to work on multidigit multiplication, the parts of speech, and blah blah blah blah..." That fake homework assignment was just another one of Miss Banks's pranks, of course. Well, she had her little fun. But now it was my turn. It was time to begin my counterattack. While Miss Banks was talking, I put my hand in the air. "Do you have a question, A.J.?" she asked. "No," I told her. "I'm just pointing at the ceiling." A few kids giggled.

But that wasn't my genius prank. No, I was going to start off easy. I wanted to warm up before I unleashed my genius prank to end all pranks. "Very funny, A.J.," said Miss Banks. "As I was saying, starting tomorrow, we're going to work on adding and subtracting fractions and blah blah blah blah..." She passed out a handout. After I got mine, I put my hand up in the air again.

"Yes, A.J.?" Miss Banks asked. "I don't get it," I said. "What don't you get, A.J.?" "I don't understand how they can take a tree and turn it into this thin sheet of paper," I said. A few kids giggled. Miss Banks stopped passing out her handout and looked at me for a moment. She seemed a little annoyed. Good. "Neither do I, A.J.," muttered Miss Banks. "Now back to our work for tomorrow. We're going to learn about the solar system, electricity, and blah blah blah blah..." I could see I was getting to her. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was four minutes before two o'clock. Perfect. It was time for me to move in for the kill. It was time to give Miss Banks a taste of her own medicine.* Here's the awesome prank I told the gang about during lunch: At exactly two

o'clock, everybody in the class was going to drop our books on the floor. All at the same time. It would be hilarious. Even Andrea and Emily agreed to do it. This was going to be great! "Blah blah blah blah..." said Miss Banks. As she spoke, we were all peeking at the clock. It was three minutes before two o'clock. I piled my books up on top of my desk. "Blah blah blah blah..." said Miss Banks. It was two minutes before two o'clock. I looked over at Ryan, and he looked over at me. It was hard not to laugh, thinking about the great prank we were about to pull off. It was one minute before two o'clock. This was going to be awesome. We all watched the clock as the second hand moved closer to the twelve. Alexia gave me a quick thumbs-up, and I gave

her one back. 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... Tick, tick, tick. It was time! As the second hand reached the twelve, I swept my arm across my desk. My books went flying. Everybody's books went flying. BAM! All the books hit the floor. "AHHHHHHH!" Miss Banks swung around and screamed. The noise took her by surprise. I thought she was going to jump out of her skin. "Okay, I've had it with you kids!" she shouted. "That's the last straw!"