Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (Wayside School 3)

Chapter 3

Poetry

Mrs. Jewls told everyone to pick a color and write a poem about it.

“Huh?” said Joy.

“For example,” said Mrs. Jewls, “if brown was your favorite color, you might write: ‘At the circus I saw a clown. On his face was a great big frown. His sad eyes were big and brown.’ ”

“Could you repeat that just a little bit slower?” asked Joy.

Mrs. Jewls repeated it for her.

“Ooh, I’m going to do purple!” said Rondi. Rondi loved anything purple.

“You can’t do purple,” said Allison. “I’m doing it.”

“So?” said Rondi. “Mrs. Jewls didn’t say two people couldn’t do the same color.”

“But purple is my favorite color in the world,” said Allison.

Rondi and Allison were best friends, but Allison always got her way.

Rondi switched to blue.

Joe raised his hand. “I don’t know what rhymes with red,” he said.

Mrs. Jewls gave him a few suggestions. “Bed, led, wed. Think of words that end in ‘e-d.’ ”

“Oh, I get it!” said Joe. He set to work.

Rondi tried to think of words that rhymed with blue. She raised her hand. “Mrs. Jewls!” she said. “I chose blue. Can I rhyme that with zoo?”

“Yes, that would be a good rhyme,” agreed Mrs. Jewls.

“How about glue?” asked Rondi.

“Yes, that rhymes too,” said Mrs. Jewls.

“Oh, I know!” said Rondi. “How about stew?”

“Just pick one and get started,” said Mrs. Jewls.

Rondi smiled. “This is fun,” she told Allison. “There are lots of words that rhyme with blue.”

Allison grunted.

Nothing rhymed with purple. In her mind, Allison had gone through every letter of the alphabet: aurple, burple, curple, durple … all the way to zurple.

But after making a big stink over it with Rondi, she couldn’t switch colors now.

Rondi was just about to start her poem when she got an even better idea: Love That’s True. “Poets are always writing about Love That’s True, aren’t they, Mrs. Jewls?”

“Sometimes,” said Mrs. Jewls.

Rondi smiled. Except she really didn’t know much about true love.

“Morning dew!” she said. “Poets write about morning dew too, don’t they, Mrs. Jewls?”