16. The Strangest School

THE STRANGEST SCHOOL 16 The school doors flew open. "Sam! Lucy! Antonio! Where have you been?" Ms. Grinker yelled from the top of the stairs. Mr. Nekobi stood beside her. He had a slight grin on his face. "Recess ended thirty minutes ago!" Ms. Grinker continued. Thirty minutes ago? Sam thought. It feels like we were gone a lot longer than that!

最奇怪的学校16学校的门突然开了。 “山姆!露西!安东尼奥!你上哪儿去了？”Ms。 格林克在楼梯顶上喊道。 Nekobi先生站在她旁边。 他脸上露出一丝笑容。 “课间休息30分钟前就结束了！”Ms。 Grinker继续说。30分钟前？ 山姆想。感觉我们离开的时间比那要长得多！

"I'm sorry, Ms. Grinker," Sam said. "We got lost in the fog." Ms. Grinker frowned. "What fog?" she asked, looking around. "Anyway, a little fog shouldn't keep you from getting to class. Especially not if you all want to continue being hall monitors!" Ms. Grinker stopped as she turned to go back inside. She eyed the jungle gym. "Hey..." she said. "Didn't the jungle gym used to be over there?" "Oh no, Ms. Grinker," Mr. Nekobi said. "It was being moved today. Didn't you get my note?"

“对不起，格林克女士，”萨姆说。 “我们在雾中迷路了。”Ms。 Grinker皱起了眉头。“什么雾？”她环顾四周，问道。 “不管怎样，一点雾不应该妨碍你去上课。 特别是如果你们都想继续当大厅监控器的话！”Ms。 当她转身回屋里时，格林克停了下来。 她注视着方格架。“嘿……” 她说。“以前不是有攀登架吗？”“哦，不。 格林克，”内科比说。 “它今天被转移了。 你没收到我的便条吗？”

Ms. Grinker glared. "No. I didn't." Sam and Lucy and Antonio giggled. "Enough laughing!" she barked. "You three, come inside! And wipe your feet— somehow you got covered in mud!" Ms. Grinker shook her head. Then the two adults stepped back inside. Lucy looked down at her clothes. "She's right. We are a mess, aren't we?" Antonio chuckled. "Well, we did just hike through a wild jungle!" "And we braved a hedge maze full of monstrous playground stuff!" Sam added.

格林克女士怒目而视。“没有。我没有。” 萨姆、露西和安东尼奥咯咯地笑。 “别笑了！”她吼道。 “你们三个，进来！”把你的脚擦一擦——不知怎么弄得你浑身都是泥！”Ms。 格林克摇了摇头。然后两个大人走回屋里。 露西低头看了看自己的衣服。 “她是对的。我们真是一团糟，不是吗？”安东尼奥咯咯地笑了。 “嗯，我们刚刚徒步穿过了一片野生丛林！”“我们还闯过了一个充满游乐场怪物的树篱迷宫！”山姆说。

Sam looked around. He looked at the playground. He looked at the woods beyond the playground. Sam swallowed. "Lucy, Antonio," he said. "Orson Eerie is much stronger than we ever imagined. His powers go past the regular school grounds." Lucy nodded. "I'll look closely at Orson Eerie's journal to find anything I might have missed before. Who knows where else his powers reach..."

山姆环顾四周。他看着操场。 他看着操场那边的树林。 山姆吞下。“露西，安东尼奥，”他说。 “奥森·怪诞比我们想象的要强大得多。 他的力量超出了普通学校的范围。” 露西点点头。“我会仔细看看奥森·怪诞的日记，找出我之前可能遗漏的东西。 谁知道他的力量还能到什么地方去……”

Antonio threw his arms around his friends' shoulders. "Let's worry about that tomorrow," he said. "For the rest of the day, I just want to relax. No monster jungle gyms, no hedge mazes, and hopefully no homework! Please tell me tomorrow is Saturday!" "Um, Antonio," Lucy said, chuckling. "Tomorrow is Tuesday." Antonio groaned. "Of course this mess happened on a Monday!" The three friends laughed, and then began walking toward the stairs.

安东尼奥伸出双臂搂住朋友的肩膀。 “我们明天再担心吧，”他说。 “今天剩下的时间里，我只想放松一下。 没有怪兽攀登架，没有树篱迷宫，希望没有家庭作业！请告诉我明天是星期六！”“嗯，安东尼奥。”露茜笑着说。 “明天是星期二。”安东尼奥呻吟着。 “这种混乱当然发生在星期一！”三个朋友笑了，然后开始朝楼梯走去。

WHOOSH! Sam turned in time to see the soccer ball bouncing down the jungle gym slide. It rolled to a stop at Sam's feet. Sam slowly and carefully bent down and picked it up. He smiled with relief— it was just a regular old ball now. Sam tucked it under his arm, and together he and his friends walked back into the strangest school anyone had ever known: Eerie Elementary.

嗖!萨姆及时转过身来，看到足球从攀登架的滑梯上弹回来。 它在萨姆的脚边停住了。 萨姆慢慢地、小心地弯下腰把它捡起来。 他如释重负地笑了——这只不过是一个普通的老球罢了。 山姆把它夹在腋下，和他的朋友们一起走进了最奇怪的学校：怪诞小学。