Three came after one, but before two.
Four came before one.
Five came before four.
Six came after one, but before three.
“Don’t worry,” said Virginia. “Even if you miss a few, Miss Zarves will give you an A when you finish.”
Seven came after one and before six.
Eight came first. Allison couldn’t think of any number that would come before eight, so she wrote it down. She also knew zero would come last, if she ever got that far. By then she’d be older than Virginia.
I’ll talk to Louis at recess, she thought. He’ll save me.
“When’s recess?” she asked.
&n
bsp; “There is no recess,” said Ray. “We’re not allowed out of the classroom.”
“What about if you have to go to the bathroom?”
“What’s a bathroom?” asked Virginia.
“We don’t eat, either,” said Nick. “We just work all the time.”
“But we never have homework,” Virginia said cheerfully.
“That’s because we never go home,” said Nick. “We get a two-minute break every eleven hours.”
“But don’t worry,” said Virginia. “Miss Zarves always gives us good grades.”
Miss Zarves walked around the room checking everybody’s work. “Excellent, Ray!” she said. “Very good, Virginia. You’re doing wonderfully, Allison. You get an A for the day.”
Big deal! thought Allison. She had to figure out some way out of there. It was clear that Virginia, Nick, and Ray were all too far gone to help her.
“Are there any other new kids in the class?” she asked.
“Ben’s new,” said Nick. He pointed Ben out to her.
Ben appeared to be about Allison’s age. She was glad about that. When the two-minute break came, she went over and talked to him.
“Are you Ben?” she asked.
“No,” he said.
“Oh,” said Allison. “I was looking for Ben.”
“That’s me,” said the boy.
“But you just said—”
“My name’s Mark Miller,” said the boy. “But for some reason everybody calls me Benjamin Nushmutt.”
“There’s a Mark Miller in my class!” exclaimed Allison.
“I know, that’s me,” said Mark. “I’m Mark Miller.”