Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (Wayside School 4)

Mrs. Jewls put her hands around Joy’s waist. “Alley-oopsy!” she called out, and lifted Joy straight up.

Joy giggled.

This was why Mrs. Jewls hadn’t chosen Calvin. He was too heavy for her to lift.

Mrs. Jewls set Joy on top of the closet. Just above her, a trapdoor led to the roof. Joy stood on her tiptoes and pushed it open. This was why Mrs. Jewls hadn’t chosen Bebe. Her toes weren’t long enough.

A rope ladder tumbled down.

One by one, the children climbed the rope ladder to the roof.

“Be sure to stay away from the edge,” Mrs. Jewls called up to them.

There was a safety railing around the edge, but it was for taller people. Mrs. Jewls was afraid her students could slip right under it.

She was the last one up through the trapdoor. When she reached the roof, she saw everyone standing at the edge.

“What did I just say?” she demanded.

Everyone stared blankly at her.

“Alley-oopsy?” asked Dameon.

“Well, at least somebody was paying attention,” said Mrs. Jewls. She told everyone to take two steps back, and to sit on their bottoms.

“But then we’ll be farther away from the clouds,” Mac complained.

“Sometimes, safety is more important,” said Mrs. Jewls.

She pointed out the clouds to her class. “That one there is a cumulus cloud.”

Some of the students wrote it down in their notebooks. Bebe drew a picture of a sleeping giant. The cumulus cloud was his pillow.

“And that’s a cirrus cloud over there,” said Mrs. Jewls.

Bebe drew a picture of flying angels. Hundreds of white feathers had fallen from their wings and had swirled into a cloud.

Bebe could draw really fast.

“What kind of cloud is that one, Mrs. Jewls?” asked Benjamin.

He was pointing at a dull, dark cloud way off in the distance.

Mrs. Jewls gasped.

If Bebe were to draw it, her picture would look exactly like the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag, while the vacuum was still on.

But Bebe had never seen the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag while the vacuum was still on. So she couldn’t draw it.

“Everyone back to the classroom!” Mrs. Jewls shouted. “Double quick!”

The children scrambled to the trapdoor.

“Hurry!” ordered Mrs. Jewls.

Some fell right through. Others got rope burns.

Mrs. Jewls didn’t worry about little things like that.