Flower Power (4 page)

“Check out Miriam
now,
” Suzanne groaned as she, Katie, Emma W., Mandy, George, and Kevin all stood outside the school building after school.

“She looks perfectly normal to me,” Emma W. said.

“It’s her hair,” Suzanne urged.

The kids all looked over at Miriam. Her hair looked like it always did. Long, black, and straight. Today she was wearing pigtails.

“What are you talking about, Suzanne?” Mandy asked. “What’s wrong with pigtails?”

“She’s wearing pink and red ribbons,”
Suzanne pointed out. “She’s just doing that so her hair matches the wires in her braces.”

“Oh, cool,” Emma W. said.

“No it’s not,” Suzanne insisted. “Nothing is going to make those braces look cool. Miriam should just give it up. Don’t you think so, Katie?”

But Katie didn’t answer. She hadn’t really been listening to Suzanne.

“Katie?” Suzanne repeated louder.

“What? Oh sorry,” Katie said, realizing she hadn’t been paying attention. “I was thinking about something else.”

“What?” Suzanne asked in a voice that made it sound like nothing could be more important than anything she said.

But something was more important.
Much
more.

“She’s worrying about Mr. G.,” Kevin explained. “We all are.”

“What about him?” Suzanne said. “So what if he doesn’t have his ponytail.”

“It’s not just that,” Katie told her. “He told us today that he’s going to be absent tomorrow. He has an appointment.”

Suzanne smiled triumphantly. “I knew it! He’s looking for another job!”

Katie couldn’t believe Suzanne looked so happy about being right. Especially when all her friends were so miserable.

“We have to stop him,” Emma W. insisted. “We have to make sure Mr. G. stays.”

“But how can we do that?” Katie asked.

George thought for a minute. “Tomorrow, when the substitute comes, we have to really act up!” he exclaimed suddenly.

“What good would that do?” Mandy asked him.

“If the principal thinks Mr. G. is the only teacher who can make us behave, he’ll beg him to stay,” George explained. “Maybe he’ll give him a big raise so Mr. G. won’t want a new job.”

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea,” Emma W. said.

“Yeah, Mr. G asked us to be well behaved,” Katie added.

“But if we behave, he won’t be our teacher anymore,” George insisted.

“You really think so?” Katie didn’t like the idea of giving a teacher a hard time. But the kids could not let Mr. G. leave. No way! And George’s plan was the only one they had at the moment.

“Okay, so let’s go home and e-mail the rest of 4A and tell them what we’re going to do,” George said. “Everyone has to be really bad tomorrow.”

“That will never work,” Suzanne said. “Face it. Mr. G. is on his way out.”

“Stop it, Suzanne!” Katie scolded her angrily. “George’s plan
will
work! It has to.”

MR. GOODSTEIN

Katie frowned as she watched the substitute teacher write his name across the blackboard. She had been in her classroom only five minutes, and already things with Mr. Goodstein were not very “good.”

The substitute hadn’t been happy that there were no desks for class 4A. He had asked the kids to arrange their beanbag chairs in neat rows on the floor. That made 4A almost look like a normal classroom. Worse yet, Katie was sitting behind Mandy. Mandy was very tall, which made it difficult for Katie to see the board.

“Please take out your science notebooks,” Mr. Goodstein told the class. “We are going to learn the vocabulary for the parts of the plant.” He picked up a piece of chalk and began to write. “The basic parts of a plant are the roots, stems, leaves…”

Bam.
Just then, George dropped his notebook—accidentally on purpose—on the floor.

Bam.
Kevin dropped his notebook on the floor, too.

The trouble had begun.

Bam.
Katie slammed her notebook hard on the floor. It felt so weird to misbehave on purpose. Katie was not at all sure she liked it.

Bam. Bam.
Andrew and Emma Stavros dropped their notebooks.

Bam. Bam. Bam.
Kadeem, Mandy, and Emma W. all dropped theirs as well.

“What is going on here?” Mr. Goodstein demanded.

“Sorry,” George said with a mischievous grin. “We’re kind of a clumsy class.”

“I can see that,” Mr. Goodstein replied with a sigh. “Pick up your notebooks and let’s get back to work.”

The kids did as they were told. They picked up the books, opened to a clean page and…

“Cough, cough.”
Kevin suddenly started coughing wildly.

“Cough, cough, cough,”
George chimed in, coughing even harder.

That made Kadeem let out his own long, loud chain of coughs.
“Cough, cough, cough,
COUGH!”

“Cough, cough,”
Andrew joined in. He was followed by Andrew, Mandy, the two Emmas, and Katie.

“Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough…”

“Stop it! Stop it right now!” Mr. Goodstein bellowed.

“Cough…cough…”
The kids kept coughing.

“I think we all need some water,” George
said. “Can we go to the water fountain?
Cough, cough…”

Mr. Goodstein sighed. “Nothing will get done until you do, I suppose,” he said angrily. “Go into the hallway, stand in line, and get your water. And be quick about it.”

Katie and her classmates jumped up from their seats and quickly ran to the fountain. A few moments later, they were all back in their neatly arranged beanbag chairs.

Katie glanced over at George. He looked weird. His cheeks were all puffy. Was he sick?

Nope. George wasn’t sick. It was all a trick. A moment later he pursed his lips and…
whoosh!
He spit a stream of water from his mouth.

“Look at George, he’s a water fountain!” Kevin screamed excitedly. “That’s so cool, George!”

Mr. Goodstein did not agree. “You, you there. The boy with the dribble of water on his shirt. Go out into the hall. Stay there until you can behave.”

Katie knew George wasn’t all that upset to
be sent out. It used to happen to him all the time last year. Their strict third-grade teacher, Mrs. Derkman (or Mrs.
Jerk
man as George liked to call her), was always sending him into the hall for misbehaving. Of course, now, with Mr. G. for a teacher, George was better behaved. Katie figured that was because he was happier.

But Katie bet George would be back to his old self if Mr. Goodstein—who was more like Mr.
Bad
stein—went from substitute teacher to permanent teacher. That would be
so
not good!

After a tiring morning of coughing, book dropping, and water spitting, the kids in class 4A had a well-deserved lunch and recess. And by the time they returned to the classroom, they were ready to get back to Operation Keep Mr. G.

“Now, let’s talk about the flower of the plant,” Mr. Goodstein said as the kids took their seats.

“Speaking of flowers,” George began. “Do you guys know what the bee said to the rose?”

“What?” Mandy asked him.

“Hi, bud!” George answered, chuckling.

The class all laughed with him. Mr. Goodstein did not join in. “Excuse me, but we are discussing science and…”

“Do you know what flower is the happiest?” Kadeem interrupted the substitute teacher.

“Which one?” Emma S. asked.

“The
glad
iola!” Kadeem replied.

The class all laughed again.

“It’s a flower joke-off!” Kevin exclaimed. “Awesome.”

“Why do gardeners hate weeds?” George shouted.

“Why?” Andrew asked.

“Because if you give them one inch, they’ll take the whole yard!” George joked.

“If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?” Kadeem asked the class.

“What?” Emma W. replied.

“Pilgrims!” Kadeem shouted. “Get it, Mayflower? Pilgrims?”

The kids all laughed really hard at that one.

“That’s enough!” Mr. Goodstein shouted
angrily. “Stop the clowning around. This is school. And school is serious business.”

The kids all stopped laughing immediately. All except Katie, that is. She wasn’t trying to be bad. It was just that that last joke had been so funny. She couldn’t stop laughing.

“You—the girl with the red hair!” Mr. Goodstein bellowed. He pointed right at Katie. “Out, now!”

What! Katie’s heart skipped a beat. She had never been sent out of a classroom before. She blinked a few times so the tears wouldn’t come. Then she stood up and walked quietly out of the classroom.

This is all to keep Mr. G.,
she reminded herself.

As the door closed behind her, Katie stood there, alone in the hallway. It was a horrible feeling. She didn’t know how George could stand it.

Suddenly Katie heard loud footsteps coming down the hall. She turned and
came face-to-face with Mr. Kane, the school principal.

“Katie, what are you doing out here?” he asked her.

Katie gulped. “I…um…some kids were telling jokes, and I was laughing and…”

Just then, a chorus of dropping notebooks could be heard coming from the classroom.

“What is going on?” Mr. Kane demanded.