6. The Joker Club

6 The Joker Club I love Batman. I saw all the Batman movies—Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and Batman v Superman. I even watched reruns of the old Batman TV series. I have a collection of Batman action figures and a Batman

poster on my bedroom wall. I'm obsessed with Batman! One Halloween, I dressed up as the Joker. He's Batman's archenemy and my favorite bad guy. So when I found out that Mrs. Marge was starting the Joker Club, I was the first to sign up. Ryan was the second. Like me, he loves everything to do with Batman. The first meeting of the Joker Club was in the basement of the school. I thought that was perfect. The Joker is a really weird and creepy guy, so he would probably live in a basement. Ryan and I wandered around for a long time down there until we saw a sign on a door that said THE JOKER CLUB on it. Ryan pulled open the door. Mrs. Marge was in there, of course. "Welcome to the Joker Club," she told us. "The meeting will begin in a few minutes. Take a seat." Nobody else was in there. I guess Ryan and I were the only kids who signed up to

be in the Joker Club. "This is gonna be so cool!" said Ryan, rubbing his hands together as we sat down. "I love the Joker." "Me too," I said. Mrs. Marge put two milk cartons on each of our desks. "I don't want any milk," I told her. "Sorry, there's a two-drink minimum."*

I looked at Ryan, who shrugged. "That was weird," I said. Suddenly, the lights went off. It was completely dark. And then a white spotlight lit up the brick wall. "Heeeerrre's... the Joker!" announced Mrs. Marge. I was so excited. Mrs. Marge must have hired a guy dressed up like the Joker to kick off our first meeting. What a great idea! But you'll never believe who walked into the door at that moment. Nobody! Doors are made out of wood. Why would you walk into one? I thought we went over that in Chapter One. But you'll never believe who walked into the doorway. It was Mrs. Stoker! "Good afternoon!" she said. "I just flew in from the coast and boy are my arms tired! Say, did you hear about the cake store that hired a pig? Yeah, it was really good at bacon. Get it? Bacon? Bakin'? But

seriously, did you ever notice that crabs never give any money to charity? If you ask me, they are totally shellfish..." "Wait a minute," I interrupted. "This is the Joker Club. What are you doing here, Mrs. Stoker?" "Telling jokes, of course!" she replied.

"That's what the Joker Club is all about. You get to hear my new comedy routine." WHAT?! "But I thought we were going to learn all about Batman," said Ryan. "Why would you want to learn about Batman when you could listen to my jokes?" asked Mrs. Stoker. Ryan and I sat there while Mrs. Stoker told more jokes. "Did you know that bees are actually allergic to pollen?" she told us. "Yeah, it makes them break out in hives. It's really sad. Speaking of sad, I have to tell you about my friend Bob. The other day, he just evaporated. It's true! He will be mist. Get it? Missed? Mist?" Mrs. Stoker went on and on telling more of her terrible jokes, and we had to laugh at all of them. I thought I was gonna die.