Please tell me it’s a rubber snake said Mrs Howie from behind her desk Remember this is the first day of April Mrs Howie had short brown hair thick glasses and a very nice smile She was Justine’s favorite teacher Michael went back to his desk and opened the lid and looked inside Yes he said It’s a rubber snake tied to a string The string was tied to my desk top so when I opened the desk the snake jumped out at me A few of the students giggled One of them laughed very hard This was Safdar another one of Justine’s close friends You sounded like a little kid Safdar said He held his stomach because he was laughing so hard Who would fall for something like that Did you put the snake there Mrs Howie asked Safdar That was a great April Fool’s joke No Safdar said I didn’t Safdar was telling the truth Justine knew that before school started Jimmy Blatzo had snuck into 3
the classroom and put the snake in Michael’s desk as an April Fool’s trick Blatzo was one of the older students in the school He was a friend of Justine Michael and Safdar What a shame Mrs Howie said to Safdar She pointed to the apple on her desk It was a much better joke than switching my apple for one with half a gummy worm sticking out the side That’s an old trick It didn’t fool me for a second Mrs Howie bit into the apple She chewed and swallowed then smiled at the class When she put the apple down the worm was gone Justine didn’t want to tell Mrs Howie that maybe she needed new glasses Justine had definitely seen the worm move as she walked into class Mrs Howie waited for the students to settle down again Justine she said we are ready Thank you Justine said She looked at the students On April 22 it will be Earth Day That 4
means we have only three weeks to complete a project to help our planet She saw that Safdar was not listening Safdar already knew what Justine was going to suggest because Safdar had helped her come up with the list So had Michael Justine paused because she saw that Safdar was about to look inside his desk for something Just as 5 5
