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“Give me a boost,” said Mac.
Jenny cupped her hands, and Mac stepped up, first onto Jenny’s hands, then onto the steel bar. He gripped the top edge of the closet and tried to shimmy up.
“Get away from there!” shouted Mrs. Jewls. “All of you!”
She had returned from the teachers’ lounge only to see the children hanging all over the closet, like monkeys.
“Mac, get down, now!”
Mac tried to hop down, but his foot got tangled in the chains, and he fell onto his back.
“Ooh, I think I broke my tailbone,” he complained.
“You’re lucky that’s all you broke!” said Mrs. Jewls.
“What’s inside?” asked Terrence.
“Never you mind!” said Mrs. Jewls. “Don’t you children know the meaning of DANGER? You are not to go anywhere near my closet! Don’t look at it. Don’t even think about it. It’s not there!”
“But I can see it,” said Mac, still lying on the floor.
“It’s Not There!” Mrs. Jewls insisted.
“But—”
“No Ifs, Ands, or Buts!” said Mrs. Jewls.
Everyone shuffled inside the classroom.
Mac was still on the floor. He stood up and adjusted his catcher’s mask, which had become cockeyed when he fell. He took one last look at the closet that wasn’t there, then walked into the classroom, more curious than ever.
8
Science
Twenty-nine hands were raised.
There were only twenty-eight kids in Mrs. Jewls’s class, but Joy stretched both her arms high in the air. She figured it doubled her chance of being chosen. She waved them back and forth, and around in circles.
“Pick me, pick me!” begged Bebe.
“Pick me, Mrs. Jewls,” urged Calvin, sitting next to Bebe.
“Sorry, Calvin, you’re too heavy,” Mrs. Jewls told him. “And your toes are too tiny, Bebe.”
Todd sat behind Joy but Mrs. Jewls couldn’t see him behind Joy’s helicopter arms.
“Okay, Joy!” said Mrs. Jewls.
Everyone else groaned.
Joy was all smiles. “You lose, losers!” she said as she headed toward the door.
This week, for science, they would be studying clouds. Luckily, Mrs. Jewls’s class was on the thirtieth floor. It was the classroom closest to the sky.
Last week, they studied dirt. That wasn’t so lucky. By the time they made it down to the ground, science was over, and they had to turn around and trudge back up.
Everyone brought their science notebooks and gathered just outside the door, by the closet that wasn’t there.
