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.
“Ow,” he whimpered.
Whispers could be heard from all around the room.
“He read a nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-page book!”
“But he bent his paper clip.”
“He wrote a ten-page book report.”
“But he bent his paper clip.”
“No, he unbent it.”
“Everyone stop talking, now!” ordered Mrs. Jewls. “Do not leave your seats for any reason!” She pulled Jason out of the room and slammed the classroom door behind her.
She dragged him straight to the closet that wasn’t there.
Jason read the signs. “KEEP BACK!” “DO NOT OPEN DOORS!” “DANGER!” “CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IF YOU SMELL SOMETHING UNUSUAL!”
He sniffed.
He didn’t smell anything.
Yet.
Mrs. Jewls turned the dial on the padlock as she quietly said the combination to herself. “Twenty-four . . . seventeen . . . six.”
The lock opened.
“But you said it wasn’t there,” Jason pointed out.
“Of course it’s there,” said Mrs. Jewls. “Hold this.” She gave Jason one end of the heavy chain.
He remained where he was as Mrs. Jewls took the other end and walked four times around the closet, unwrapping it. Then she took Jason’s end from him and tossed the chain aside.
It clanged against the floor.
A steel bar, held in place by two clamps, still blocked the closet doors. The locks on the clamps had letters instead of numbers.
Jason watched as Mrs. Jewls set one lock to ACBD and the other lock to BDBC.
The clamps snapped open.
“I’m really sorry about the paper clip, Mrs. Jewls,” said Jason.
“It’s a little late for that now, don’t you think?” said his teacher. She lifted the steel bar and tossed it aside. A loud CLANK echoed down and up the stairs.
Mrs. Jewls walked down several steps. Jason watched, amazed, as she slid open a secret compartment hidden in the third step from the top.
She removed two keys, one red and one green.
Each closet door had a keyhole; one was green, the other red. Mrs. Jewls put the green key in the red hole, and the red key in the green hole.
“I have to turn them toward each other, at precisely the same time,” she said, “or else it will trigger the sirens and smoke screen.”
Jason held his breath as he watched her turn the keys.
The doors clicked open.
Ever since the closet first appeared, he and his friends had been trying to guess what was inside it. They imagined all kinds of horrible things, but what Jason saw now was worse than anything they ever imagined.
The closet was empty.
“Don’t lock me in there, Mrs. Jewls!” he pleaded. “I didn’t do it on purpose. The book was too heavy!”
He tried to remember all that he had seen and heard. Third step from the top. Red key in green hole. 27-6-14. ABDC.
It was too much! It was slipping out of his brain faster than he could remember.
“CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT IF YOU SMELL SOMETHING UNUSUAL!”
“I don’t want to become an unusual smell!” he cried.
“What are you blabbering about?” asked Mrs. Jewls. “Why would I lock you in the closet?”
She bent over.
Jason looked again. The closet wasn’t completely empty, after all. There, in the back corner, was a small cardboard box.
Mrs. Jewls picked it up. A price tag stuck to its side read, “89¢.”
Mrs. Jewls opened the top flap and removed a paper clip.
“Now, don’t tell anyone where you got this,” she said as she handed it to him.
“I won’t,” he promised.
She put the box back in the closet, then shut and locked the doors, turning the color-coded keys in opposite directions. She returned the keys to their secret hiding place.
She grunted as she lifted the steel bar, and then again when she set it in place. She snapped the clamps shut and spun the dials on the locks.
Jason picked up one end of the chain and walked four times around the closet. Mrs. Jewls secured the padlock.
“I’m very proud of you, Jason, for finishing the whole book,” she said.
“I was kind of sorry when it ended,” said Jason.
Teacher and student returned to class.
21
Breathe
Stephen stared at the clock on the wall.
What if he couldn’t lift the mallet? What if he dropped it on his toe? What if he dropped it on Mr. Kidswatter’s toe? He could be expelled!
“Breathe,” said Jason from the desk next to him.
Stephen took a breath.
He stared at the clock.
What if someone left a skateboard on the stairs? Then he might trip over it on his way to the gong. If he broke his leg, Mr. Kidswatter would yell at him for being late!
“Breathe,” said Rondi from the desk on his other side.
Stephen took a breath.
He stared at the clock. Sometimes, it seemed the hands didn’t move at all. Other times, he’d blink, and it would be half an hour later.
Time didn’t always make sense at Wayside School.
For lunch, Miss Mush made pepper-only pizza. Stephen ate his slice, but did not remember eating it. His only clue was that he was very thirsty and his tongue and lips burned.
He returned to his seat in Mrs. Jewls’s class. He stared at the clock.
Jenny was late coming back from lunch. “Sorry, Mrs. Jewls,” she said. “I can’t find my skateboard.”
“Oh, no!” Stephen shouted.
“Are you all right, Stephen?” Mrs. Jewls asked him.
“Why did he have to pick me?” Stephen moaned.
“If you didn’t want to do it, why’d you raise your hand?” asked Mac.
“Everyone else had their hands raised,” Stephen explained. “I mean, I guess I was excited about it at the time, but now . . .”
“You have cold feet,” said Mrs. Jewls.
“Yes!” exclaimed Stephen. He wondered how Mrs. Jewls knew that. His feet felt like two blocks of ice. No wonder she was a teacher! But what did his frozen feet have to do with ringing the gong?
“Breathe,” said Mrs. Jewls.
Stephen took a breath.
Mrs. Jewls’s class always had music on Friday afternoons. “I’m sorry, we don’t have musical instruments today,” she announced. “They were sent out to be cleaned, and we haven’t gotten them back yet.”
What if the gong was being washed too? Would he have to bang it on a different day?
“Breathe,” said Kathy.
Stephen took a breath.
“So just use what you were born with!” said Mrs. Jewls. “And a one, and a two . . .”
Dana loudly blew her nose. Ron twiddled his lips. Mac puffed out his cheek and popped it with a flick of a finger. Calvin and Bebe whistled. Joe stood on his head and sang “Jingle Bells.”
Paul pulled Leslie’s pigtails. She shrieked, squealed, or squawked, depending on the pull.