Suddenly he heard a low rumble. Then the stairs began to shake. It felt like an earthquake! This whole stupid school is going to fall over, he thought. He put his head between his knees.
The rumbling got worse. I’m going to die and nobody will even know who I am, he worried. The new kid. Mark Miller. The weirdo!
But it wasn’t an earthquake. It was just all the kids running back up the stairs.
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“Hey, Mark, why are you sitting that way?” asked Deedee.
“You look funny,” said Ron.
Benjamin looked up.
“How come you weren’t at recess?” asked Jason. “We looked everywhere for you.”
“Couldn’t you find the playground?” asked Calvin.
“It’s just straight down,” said Bebe. “You can’t miss it.”
“But don’t go in the basement,” warned Sharie. “Whatever you do, don’t go in the basement.”
“We’ll go down together at lunch,” said Todd. “That way you won’t get lost.”
Benjamin smiled. He was glad everyone seemed to like him. Or at least they liked Mark Miller. He wondered if they’d like Benjamin Nushmutt too.
“The bell has rung!” said Mrs. Jewls, standing in the doorway. “Now, everyone get inside.” She made Todd put a check next to his name on the board for being late.
Mrs. Jewls handed a stack of work sheets to Dameon and asked him to pass them out to the rest of the class.
Benjamin looked at his work sheet. At the top right corner there was a place to put his name. He didn’t know which name to put there, Mark Miller or Benjamin Nushmutt.
He left it blank and started working on the first problem.
Louis, the yard teacher, entered the room carrying a white paper sack. “Benjamin forgot his lunch,” he said. “His mother just brought it.”
“Who?” asked Mrs. Jewls.
“Benjamin,” said Louis.
“There’s no Benjamin in my class,” said Mrs. Jewls.
“Are you sure?” asked Louis. “It looks like a good lunch.”
“I know the names of the children in my class!” Mrs. Jewls said indignantly.
“Well, I’ll just leave it here until I figure this out,” said Louis. He left the lunch on Mrs. Jewls’s desk and walked out of the room.
Benjamin frowned. He looked at the white paper sack on Mrs. Jewls’s desk. He couldn’t tell Mrs. Jewls his real name now. She’d think he was making it up just to get a free lunch.
He wrote Mark Miller at the top of his work sheet.
But one of these days, he knew, he’d have to tell her his real name.
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Chapter 3