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
she expected a second later Safdar jumped up and screamed Let me guess Mrs Howie said A snake Tied to a string Justine knew that Blatzo was going to find all of this funny But she wanted to get through her list So after Michael stopped laughing and Safdar sat down again Justine was finally able to ask for help Okay Justine said moving to the front of the class We need student volunteers to go into the woods with me and do some species counts You can choose flower buds frogs spiders or ants Wow the new girl said rolling her eyes If this is an April Fool’s trick it’s the worst one in the history of the world The new girl’s name was Savannah Blue It was her first day of class Pardon me Justine said Savannah laughed Nice try What kind of idiot would want to count spiders or frogs or ants 6
Chapter Two Mrs Howie cleared her throat It wasn’t because she needed to cough It was more like a warning All of the students knew this But Savannah Blue had just moved to the school She didn’t know it And those clothes Savannah said Did someone play an April Fool’s trick on you Justine was proud of how she looked Today it was purples and greens She also had a nice hat on with a frog emblem stitched on the side Mrs Howie cleared her throat again Savannah one of the rules in our classroom is that we don’t say mean things Oh Savannah said I’m sorry Justine actually likes to dress like that 7
