More Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (Wayside School 2.60)

Chapter 11

Report Cards

Once again, it was time for Mrs. Jewls to write report cards. It was a job she hated. Instead of giving out grades, she would rather give out hugs.

But at least this time it would be done by computer. She had bought herself a home computer, and throughout the year whenever she graded a test or checked a child’s homework, she entered the results in the computer.

Now all she had to do was run the program, and the computer would instantly print out twenty-nine report cards, complete with teacher’s comments.

She would give the hugs herself.

She sat down at her desk and turned on the machine. Her cat, Monkey Face, sat on her lap and purred.

The computer screen gave her three choices.

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g

She moved the mouse until the curser came to the box marked REPORT CARDS. She clicked the button.

Monkey Face jumped off her lap, and pounced on the mouse.

“Aaahhh!” screamed

Mrs. Jewls.

The cat’s paws danced crazily over the keyboard as it wrestled with the mouse.

“Get down!” shouted Mrs. Jewls, as she pushed the cat off her desk and onto the floor.

The computer screen looked something like this:

g

g

g

“Uh-oh,” said Mrs. Jewls.

“Okay, don’t panic,” she told herself. “Stay calm.”

She pressed the Escape key.

A whole new set of strange symbols and numbers appeared on her screen.

She pressed Back Space but nothing happened.

She pressed Enter.

The screen cleared. Then a new message appeared.

g

g

Mrs. Jewls turned the machine off and on. She was beginning to sweat.