was tall enough as it was and now she could barely see anything over his shiny blond hair Don’t be silly said Yolanda rolling her eyes behind her thick-framed glasses Pop-Tarts are only for breakfast Not for me they’re not said Tom He held on to his rumbling rumbling belly The class erupted into animated curious whispers The only person who didn’t join in was Jedda She was new in class and still a bit too shy to share her opinions with her classmates She shook her curly brown-and-gold hair so it hung further over her face picked up her marker and made a start on her biology project The rest of the class grew louder and louder Children Ms Abaza said holding up her hands for quiet As she did so her phone dropped from the pocket of her colorful dress Jeremiah rushed to retrieve the phone As he did so he tried to take a sneaky peek in Ms Abaza’s box It was no good There was no way to see what was inside But he did notice that he could hear a faint scuffling noise Thank you Jeremiah Ms Abaza said smiling Back to your seat now Mara wrinkled her nose Ew I can smell something coming from the box It smells like pee She pulled out a bottle of bubble gum-scented body spray and spritzed it in the air She was trying Lab Mice Heist
to be sneaky about it but the whole room suddenly filled with bubble-gum scent as if it had been transformed into a candy store Maybe it is said Ms Abaza laughing Her big dark eyes twinkled She put the box down on her desk adjusted her embroidered embroidered pink hijab and turned to the class with one eyebrow raised And please put down the spray bottle Mara I’m pretty sure what I have in the box isn’t a fan of bubble gum Does pee like bubble gum asked Mara looking confused She took hold of one of her long red pigtails and began twirling it around her finger an annoyed expression on her face Wait so you’re saying it’s not pee Because pee doesn’t like like anything right Ms Abaza shook her head at Mara and moved over to the whiteboard She drew a circle with some lines coming from its sides Then she drew something beneath the circle that looked almost like a mouth And then yes Those were definitely paws And a belly and back and big round ears Finally she drew a long tail that looked like a worm That looks just like Peter Pack Rat Yolanda said When her classmates looked at her blankly she added From the old Atari game Oh my gosh you guys are more clueless than a Magikarp who never gets to be a Gyarados While they just continued staring blankly Yolanda looked hopefully at Ms Abaza Is it a Mouse-napped
vintage Atari Please let it be a vintage Atari Or any other kind of gaming console would be fine Sorry Yolanda Ms Abaza said pleasantly Yolanda sighed and dropped her chin to her hand How was she ever going to become the best girl coder in the United States if she had to do all her gaming research outside of school But you’re close Ms Abaza went on I’m a really terrible artist it’s true but what’s in the box is very close to a rat She opened the box and lifted a small cage with a handle The lid was made of blue plastic The cage had see-through sides that she kept hidden behind the cardboard box Ms Abaza waited for a moment while the kids sat up higher in their chairs craning to see inside Be very quiet Ms Abaza said holding a finger to her lips They don’t like loud noises For a moment a little bud of hope blossomed in Jedda’s chest When she was little she’d had a tiny blue-tongued skink that she had kept as a pet His name was Irwin and he had a carrier just like that one when he was small Maybe there was a blue-tongued skink in the cage like Irwin Jedda thought she might feel less homesick if there was But then she remembered There were no blue-tongued skinks in the United States just like there were no episodes of Saddle Club or Vegemite Lab Mice Heist
Ms Abaza slowly lifted the cage for everyone to see Five tiny little mice sat in a huddle in one corner nestled in paper Two of them were plain white One was white and brown and spotty Another was half white and half brown and the fifth was completely brown They all had teeny tiny pink paws and long thin wormlike tails They looked up at the students with wide curious eyes They seemed to be watching the students waiting to see what the students would do Mouse-napped
