Then he remembered something. I didn’t bring anything for show-and-tell!
Miss Nogard heard him. Before he could lower his hand, she called on him.
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And that was how he ended up with his shoelace dangling from his hand like a dead worm.
“It came from my sneaker,” he said. He took off his sneaker and held it up too, next to his shoelace. “See, you stick the laces through the little holes, here. Then tie it in a bow. That keeps it from falling off your foot.”
“Duh!” said Dana.
“We know what a shoelace is,” said Paul.
“I’ve been tying my shoes since I was two years old,” said Joe.
Calvin and Bebe booed.
“Sit down,” said Jason. “You’re boring.”
The kids in Mrs. Jewls’s class never used to be so mean, but they’d been getting grumpier and grumpier ever since Miss Nogard took over.
“Put your shoe back on!” said Maurecia. “Your foot stinks.”
Mac felt terrible.
Miss Nogard smiled. “Go on, Mac,” she said. “We’re all very interested to hear what you have to say.”
He tried to think of some way to make a shoelace interesting. “Uh, shoelaces are real important,” he said. “There was once this guy. He was a real fast runner. His name was Howard. Howard Speed! He was the fastest runner in the world! But this was back before shoelaces were invented. And so, every time Howard raced, he ran right out of his shoes!”
Nobody seemed very impressed. But then Rondi asked, “Did it hurt his feet?”
Mac shrugged. “I guess,” he said.
“I once stubbed my toe on a rock,” said Stephen. “It hurt.”
“Yeah, and you didn’t run as fast as Howard Speed!” said Mac. “He ran so fast that if he kicked a rock, he would break his toe!”
“Did he have blisters?” asked Todd.
Mac smiled. “Man, he had the biggest blisters you ever saw in your whole life! Bleeding blisters!”
“Ooooh,” Joe and John said together.
“With pus oozing out!” said Mac.
“Oh, gross!” said Dana, wide-eyed.
Everyone was paying close attention to Mac now.
“Wherever Howard went,” said Mac, “he left a trail of bloody footprints.”
“Cool!” said Terrence.
“And so they had to invent something to keep Howard’s sneakers on his feet,” said Mac. “First they just tried nailing his shoes to his feet.”
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