“Shh!” said Miss Mush.
Mr. Pepperadder knew better. You must never interrupt a great artist during her moment of inspiration.
Miss Mush’s eyes were closed. She rubbed her chin. She wanted to make something truly special after the Storm of Doom. “Rainbow stew!” she declared as she raised her wooden spoon high above her head.
“Brilliant!” agreed Mr. Pepperadder.
“What do we have that’s red?” asked Miss Mush.
Mr. Pepperadder looked over his inventory list. “Red cabbage,” he said. “Beets, strawberries, red peppers.”
Miss Mush waved the wooden spoon and said, “Toss them in the pot!”
Flames shot up as Mr. Pepperadder threw in the ingredients. He had to shield his eyes from the smoke.
“What about yellow?” asked Miss Mush.
“Yellow squash, bananas, yellow peppers, yellow onions . . .”
“Start with the bananas,” said Miss Mush, “and then we’ll see about the onions.”
Mr. Pepperadder started to peel a banana, but Miss Mush stopped him.
“The peel is the part that’s yellow,” she reminded him. “If I wanted white, I would have asked for peeled bananas.”
“Sorry,” said Mr. Pepperadder. He tossed fifty-seven bushels of bananas, peels and all, into the pot.
There was a loud hissing noise, as steam filled the room.
Some cooks considered things like taste, or perhaps nutrition, when preparing a meal. For rainbow stew, color was all that mattered.
Miss Mush stirred the pot with a large stick. “Perhaps a little black now, for definition,” she said.
Mr. Pepperadder read from his list. “Poppy seeds, burnt toast, my shoes . . .”
High above them, in Mrs. Jewls’s class, several children held their noses.
“What’s that smell?” asked Calvin.
“Miss Mush must be cooking something,” said Bebe.
“It smells like shoes,” said Myron.
D.J. sniffed. “Black shoes,” he said. “With hard soles, and no laces.”
“You can smell the laces?” asked Kathy.
“No,” said D.J. “I just told you there weren’t any laces.”
Mr. Kidswatter’s voice came over the speaker. “GOOD MORNING, STUDENTS. IT’S ANOTHER GREAT DAY HERE AT—”
There was the sound of paper rustling.
“—WAYSIDE SCHOOL. FOR LUNCH TODAY, MISS MUSH WILL BE SERVING RAINBOW STEW. IT WILL BE THE GREATEST LUNCH EVER!”
Fifteen floors beneath them, Miss Mush felt her stomach tighten. She too heard Mr. Kidswatter’s morning announcement. Now the pressure was on.
She climbed a ladder and stared down into the bubbling pot. Her face was covered with soot and sweat. “Something orange,” she decided.