Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (Wayside School #4) - Louis Sachar Page 0,9

me through,” he ordered as he made his way to Louis and Dana. “What’s going on here?” he demanded.

He looked at Dana.

Dana looked back at Mr. Kidswatter.

Their eyes locked.

It became a staring contest. Everyone wondered who would blink first.

But Dana couldn’t blink.

Finally, Mr. Kidswatter turned away. “Cute kid,” he said, and patted Dana on the head. He headed back to the building.

Dana’s face instantly popped back into place.

“Your face is fixed!” exclaimed Jenny.

Dana smiled, but then she made her face return to just plain normal. She didn’t want her smile to get stuck. Even that could be unpleasant. As long as they were under the Cloud of Doom, she would have to be very careful with her facial expressions.

Mr. Kidswatter walked quickly back to his office. He shut the door behind him.

He was sticking out his tongue. His left eye was shut tight, his right eyebrow was raised, and his left cheek was all puffed out.

11

What’s the Point?

In some classrooms, teachers choose the weekly spelling words. Not so in Mrs. Jewls’s class. She lets her students pick.

Nearly everyone had a hand raised. Mrs. Jewls called on Rondi.

“Pistachios,” said Rondi.

This is why other teachers don’t let their students choose the words. Mrs. Jewls couldn’t spell pistachios.

So she did what every teacher everywhere does in such situations. “That’s an excellent word, Rondi,” she said. “Would you like to come up and write it on the board?”

Rondi came to the front of the room. Mrs. Jewls paid close attention as Rondi wrote pistachios on the blackboard.

“I love pistachios,” said Kathy when Rondi returned to her seat.

“Me too,” said Allison. “They’re my third-favorite nut.”

Mrs. Jewls called on D.J.

“Grumple,” he said.

“I don’t think ‘grumple’ is a word,” Mrs. Jewls pointed out.

“So?” asked D.J. “We should still know how to spell it.”

“It might become a word someday,” Kathy agreed.

Mrs. Jewls wrote grumple under pistachios.

Joy raised her hand. “A,” she suggested.

“A what?” asked Mrs. Jewls.

“Just a,” said Joy.

“Don’t you think that’s a little too easy?” said Mrs. Jewls.

“It’s a very common word,” said Kathy. “It’s important that we all know how to spell it.”

Mrs. Jewls couldn’t argue with that. She added a to the list.

Myron had his hand raised.

“Yes, Myron,” said Mrs. Jewls.

“What’s the point?” Myron asked.

“That’s three words,” said Mrs. Jewls.

“And all good ones too,” chirped Kathy.

“The Cloud of Doom is getting bigger every day!” Myron exclaimed. “What does it matter if we can spell?”

“So we can read and write,” Mrs. Jewls replied.

“What’s the point of reading?” asked Leslie.

“What’s the point of writing?” asked Jason.

“What the point of arithmetic?” asked Benjamin.

“There is no point!” Myron grumpled. He slammed his pencil down hard on his desk. The point broke off of it.

“I understand you’re scared and upset,” said Mrs. Jewls. “But what’s the point of quitting? We can all just sit around and grumple, or we can try to do our best, cloud or no cloud.

“And it hasn’t been all bad,” Mrs. Jewls continued. “We’ve been getting a whole lot more nail clippings.”

That was true. Ever since the Cloud of Doom appeared, everyone’s fingernails and toenails had been growing a lot faster. They had to be clipped three or four times a week.

The number on the board was now 19,457.

“Someday, the Cloud of Doom will be gone,” said Mrs. Jewls. “And the world will be a much better place, even better than before the cloud. Colors will be more colorful. Music will be more musical. Even Miss Mush’s food will taste good. The bigger the storm, the brighter the rainbow.”

At that moment, a crack of thunder shook the classroom, and then the lights went out.

The children screamed. They weren’t scared. They just liked screaming in the dark.

Mrs. Jewls lit a candle, and everyone settled down. “Now, shall we continue with our spelling?”

Jenny raised her hand and suggested, “Hope.”

“Excellent word,” said Mrs. Jewls.

She held her candle in one hand, and the chalk in the other. She said the letters out loud as she wrote them on the blackboard.

“H-o-p-e.”

12

Mrs. Surlaw

The library was on the seventh floor. Mrs. Surlaw was the librarian.

A giant stuffed walrus sat next to her desk. The walrus was bigger than most of the kids in the school, and a couple of the teachers too.

Kindergarteners often got scared the first time they saw Mrs. Surlaw’s walrus. When they dared touch one of its giant tusks, however, they discovered it was soft as a pillow.

There were lots of rules in the library. No eating, no drinking, no yelling, no somersaults, and no hugging the walrus until after