I'm working he mumbled Finally Meri gave up Mrs Miller will figure it out she said She won't if you don't tattle Sean said Tattle about what Meri asked Steve's great joke Sean grinned Right Meri carried the rest of the packets around the room She hoped this would be Sean's last prank She didn't want to tell on anyone but if Room Eight went prank crazy she didn't want to get caught in the middle either
No More Catastrophes It took most of the morning for Mr Genova to put all the backpack hooks back up on the wall He had to fasten a long board across the whole wall and then screw the hooks into the board That should keep those hooks out of trouble he said giving everyone a wink as he walked out of the coatroom Mrs Miller sent the class into the coatroom one table at a time to hang their backpacks on the hooks and bring out their lunches Meri heard moans all over the room as people opened up smashed lunches Meri took a deep breath and unzipped her lunch box Her mom always used plastic
containers for lunches She'd been doing it ever since Meri's older sister Judith wrote a long report about how much waste comes from food wrappers The hard plastic containers kept Meri's lunch safe Only her banana was flat and oozy Sean's twin sister Sonia was now one of Meri's best friends She pulled a flat sandwich bag out of her lunch sack Well my sandwich is now a smooshwich My chips are now just crunchy bits Jasmine complained Jasmine was Meri's other best friend The three girls sat together in class and were in the same reading group My lunch is fine except for the new banana smoothie Merisaid easing the oozing banana out of the bag Jasmine smiled I think it's more like a banana lumpy The girls giggled Meri shared some of her lunch with her friends since her mom always
seemed to pack tons of food She was used to the big appetites of Meri's older sisters Meri looked over at Sonia as they ate You know your brother unscrewed the hooks right Sonia shrugged I didn't know but whenever there's a prank I suspect him He got in so much trouble at our last school for stuff like that I really hoped he wouldn't do it here Did you see him unscrew the hooks Meri shook her head No but I heard him laughing with the other boys at his table right after it happened And not one of them ran to the coatroom to see what made the crash Ah clues Jasmine said waving a broken piece of cookie around The great Merlock Holmes will solve this mystery It could have been one of the other guys at the table Sonia suggested Sure Meri agreed but she didn't think so None of them had come up with any pranks before Sean joined their group 13
