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“So, what do you say, Stephen?” asked Louis. “You want to give it one more try?”
Stephen wished Louis hadn’t mentioned dropping the mallet on his toe. Now that was all he could think about.
He sighed, and then rolled back over. He pushed as hard as he could.
“You can do it, Stephen!” urged Allison.
“Push!” said Jason.
“Up!” encouraged Kathy. “I mean down. I mean up. I mean . . .”
Now she was really confused.
Stephen rose an inch off the ground, then collapsed.
Everyone cheered.
“One more,” urged Louis. “And then we’ll go to the monkey bars and do some pull-downs.”
20
Inside the Closet
Jason did it! He finished reading all 999 pages.
He was so tired, he didn’t know how he made it up the stairs to Mrs. Jewls’s class. He fell asleep somewhere around the fourth floor and awoke on the twenty-eighth.
“Did you finish your book, yet?” Allison asked him when he entered the classroom.
She and Rondi giggled.
“Yep,” said Jason.
The girls’ mouths dropped open.
His book report only had to be one page, but Jason had written ten pages. It was impossible to write only one page about a 999-page book.
He wondered if anybody had ever written a book with more pages. Probably not. There was probably a law against writing a book with a thousand pages or more.
He brought the ten pages, and his three pictures, to Mrs. Jewls’s desk. “I guess if somebody writes a book with nine hundred and ninety-nine pages, it has to be really good,” he said. “Or else nobody would ever read it.”
“I don’t know,” Mrs. Jewls admitted. “I’ve never read a book that long.”
Jason sleepily handed over all his papers.
“Where’s your paper clip?” asked Mrs. Jewls.
“It got all bent in my backpack,” he explained, too tired to think about what he was saying. “Unbent really. I guess the nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-page book was too heavy for it.”
He showed Mrs. Jewls his paper clip, now unbent into a crooked line.
Mrs. Jewls put her hand to her mouth, horrified. “You bent your paper clip?” she gasped.
“Unbent,” said Jason.
Mrs. Jewls stood up. “You better come with me!” she exclaimed. She grabbed Jason by his ear and yanked him toward the door.
