I bet we have more substitutes than regular teachers now Curtis said Josh leaned toward his friend Yeah And what’s with all those questions they ask I know Curtis said It’s like we’re on a game show Quiet boys Mr Ott said Josh leaned back He watched the clock instead of the movie Finally the bell rang for lunch He poked his sister’s arm as they hurried out the door What do you think the special project will be he asked Jenny grinned I don’t know but I bet it’ll be the best one yet After getting their food Josh and Jenny grabbed their favorite table Josh looked around the cafeteria The new substitutes were everywhere The regular teachers on lunch duty stood together talking But the substitutes walked down the rows of tables 8
stopping every few minutes to lean forward ask a kid a question speak into their phone and walk on to another kid Jenny chewed her food and mumbled Why won’t they leave us alone Hey stop spraying your food said Josh I’m going to smell like tuna all day Charlie Weatherby leaned across the table A substitute actually asked me questions through the bathroom door yesterday Eeew Jenny said Did you answer Charlie shrugged I didn’t even know the answer to tell him He asked when the first ship from Earth went into space Josh nodded These substitutes had lots of questions His cousin said they were the same at his school They didn’t really teach just asked questions Jenny finished her milk and said There is something scary and mysterious about them 9
Josh and Charlie agreed When lunch was over Josh hurried down the halls back to class What was Mr Ott’s big announcement Maybe it would be about building airplanes No that would be hard to do in school Or maybe they would invent a new cookie He licked his lips as he followed Jenny into the classroom Jenny stopped suddenly Josh ran into her 10
Hey what’s the big idea Don’t hit the brakes without a warn He looked to where Jenny was pointing Standing beside Mr Ott’s desk was a woman A woman in gray pants and a blue shirt A woman with red hair A woman who looked at them with green eyes and had a ladybug tattoo on her cheek A substitute 11
