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“Hooray!” yelled Kathy. “Wayside School is falling down!”
“What are you so happy about?” asked Joe. “We’ll all die.”
“Yes, but we won’t have to do our homework,” said Kathy.
They entered the room on the thirtieth story.
Mrs. Jewls rang her cowbell. “Find your seats,” she said.
That wasn’t easy. All the desks were crammed together on one side of the room. The building swayed, and the desks slid to the other side of the room.
Finally the children all found their seats and planted their feet firmly on the floor.
“We are going to have a fire drill today,” Mrs. Jewls told them. “So let’s be prepared. Who is our door monitor this week?”
“I am,” said Maurecia.
“Good,” said Mrs. Jewls. “Who is our help monitor?”
“I am,” said Jason.
“Very good,” said Mrs. Jewls. “You have a big mouth.”
Stephen raised his hand. “What if there really is a fire?” he asked.
“There’s not going to be a real fire,” said Mrs. Jewls. “It’s just a drill.”
“I know, but what if there really is a fire?” asked Stephen. “And then the firemen won’t come because they’ll think it’s a drill! The school will burn down!”
“Don’t worry,” said Kathy. “The school is not going to burn down. It’s going to fall down!”
BLEE
P! BLEEP! BLEEP! … BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP! … BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!
It was the fire drill.
Maurecia, the door monitor, held open the door.
Jason, the help monitor, ran to the window. “Help!” he screamed. “Save us! We’re up here. Help! Help!”
Mrs. Jewls led the children out of the room. If there was a real fire, the children might not be able to see her because of the smoke, so she constantly rang her cowbell. There wouldn’t be time to go all the way down the stairs, either. Mrs. Jewls led them up the ladder and through the trapdoor to the roof. If there was a real fire, helicopters would rescue them.
The wind was even worse on the roof than it was on the playground. Mrs. Jewls stood in the center and held the cowbell high above her head. She looked just like the Statue of Liberty.
“Everyone stay away from the edge!” she warned.
Kathy sang: “Wayside School is falling down, falling down …”
“It’s not falling down,” said Stephen. “It’s burning down! And no one will rescue us because they think it’s a drill.”
Jenny noticed a dark, funnel-shaped cloud off in the distance. “Tornado!” she screamed. “We’re all going to get sucked off the roof!”
A flash of lightning lit the sky, followed by a loud crack of thunder.
“We’re going to be struck by lightning!” shouted Todd.
“No we won’t,” said Stephen. “We’ll burn in the fire.”
