Sideways Stories from Wayside School (Wayside School 1)

The bell rang. The lunch period was over. Allison could hear the other children running up the stairs.

“Allison,” said Mrs. Jewls. “You learned a very important secret today, and I don’t want you to tell any of the other children, not even Rondi.”

“What was that?” asked Allison. She didn’t even know she had learned a secret. She loved secrets.

“You learned that children are really smarter than their teachers,” said Mrs. Jewls.

“Oh, that’s no secret,” said Allison. “Everybody knows that.”

? Sideways Stories from Wayside School ?

24

Dameon

Dameon had hazel eyes with a little black dot in the middle of each of them. The dots were called pupils. So was Dameon. He was a pupil in Mrs. Jewls’s class.

Mrs. Jewls was about to show the class a movie. She turned out the lights. When it was dark, Dameon’s pupils got bigger.

“Dameon,” said Mrs. Jewls, “run downstairs and ask Louis if he’d like to see the movie with us.”

Dameon ran down the thirty flights of stairs to the playground. He stepped outside as Louis was hooking up a tetherball.

“Hey, Louis,” Dameon called. “Do you want to see a movie in Mrs. Jewls’s class?”

Louis rubbed his chin. “What movie?” he asked.

Dameon shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

Dameon ran all the way back up the stairs to the thirtieth story.

“Louis wants to know, what movie?” said Dameon.

“Does he want to know the name of the movie or what the movie is about?” asked Mrs. Jewls.

“I don’t know, said Dameon. “I’ll ask him.”

Dameon raced back down the stairs and out to the playground.

“Louis, do you want to know the name of the movie or what the movie is about?” he asked.

“The name,” said Louis.

“Okay,” said Dameon.

Dameon hurried back up the thirty flights of stairs. He took the steps two at a time.

“He wants to know the name,” said Dameon.

“Turtles,” said Mrs. Jewls.

Dameon turned around, took a deep breath, then ran back down the stairs.

“Turtles,” Dameon told Louis.

“Hey, that might be good,” said Louis. “What’s it about?”

“I’m not sure,” said Dameon. “I’ll find out.”