Junie B., First Grader_ Shipwrecked - Barbara Park [5]
Mr. Scary smiled.
“Nice, José. That's a great poem you found,” he said. “Let's see how many facts we can find there.”
He wrote them down.
Columbus was a sailor.
He had three ships.
He sailed from Spain.
The year was 1492.
Just then, Sheldon started waving his plastic hands very urgent.
“I know the names of the ships! I know the names of the ships!” he called out. “They're the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María.”
“Excellent job, Sheldon,” said Mr. Scary.
He printed the names on the board.
5. Niña, Pinta, Santa María
Then Mr. Scary started to call on someone else. But Sheldon stood up and read more from his paper.
“Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. He landed on some islands near America,” he read.
Mr. Scary added the new facts to the list.
6. Sailed the Atlantic Ocean.
7. Arrived in islands near America. “Okay. Well, thank you again, Sheldon,” he said. “Now I think we should let someone else have a—”
Sheldon interrupted. “My uncle Vern sailed to an island once,” he said. “He came back with a woman named Bunny.”
Sheldon kept on standing there. “Aunt Bunny has tattoos,” he said.
After that, Mr. Scary hurried to Sheldon's desk. And he put him back in his chair.
May went next.
“My fact is about the Mayflower,” she said. “The Mayflower is the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America. And so I am going to be the Mayflower in our Columbus play. Because both of our names start with May.”
Mr. Scary looked curious at her. “Yes, but the Mayflower didn't sail to America until over a hundred years after Columbus,” he said.
“I know it,” she said. “But both of our names still start with May. Don't you get it?”
“Yes, May. I get it,” said Mr. Scary. “But we can't change history. So I'm afraid the Mayflower won't be sailing in our Columbus play.”
May sat down in a huff.
Lucille stood right up.
“My fact is about the richie queen of Spain,” she said. “The richie queen of Spain was named Isabella. And she gave Chris the money for the trip. So I am going to be richie Queen Isabella in the play. Because if there's one thing I know, it's how to be rich.”
José raised his hand.
“You shouldn't call him Chris, Lucille,” he said. “In Spain, they called him Cristóbal Colón.”
Lucille made squinty eyes at him.
“Chris … Crystal Ball … whatever,” she said. “A queen can call you whatever she wants to.”
She fluffed her hair and sat down.
That's when I springed up. And I waved my paper all around.
“Eighteen facts! I have eighteen facts!” I said real happy. “And so listen to this, people! The Niña was the smallest ship. And the Pinta was the fastest ship. And the Santa María was a big old tub.”
Mr. Scary winked at me.
“Those are outstanding ship facts, Junie B.,” said Mr. Scary. “Great job.”
He printed them on the board.
And guess what?
After that, Shirley told him even more ship facts.
And so that's how the whole rest of the morning kept going.
Room One kept on telling him facts. And Mr. Scary kept on writing them down. Until finally, we'd told him every fact in the book!
Then ha! That's when the funnest part of all happened.
’Cause Mr. Scary walked around the room. And he counted how many facts each of us had listed on our papers.
And wait till you hear this!
He said, “We have a tie!”
Because me and my friend José both had EIGHTEEN FACTS!
We jumped out of our seats and gave each other a high five!
Then I skipped around my desk very joyful. Plus also, I skipped to the pencil sharpener and back.
Mr. Scary came back and shook our hands.
He said we would choose our play parts when we come back from lunch. And so meanwhile we should be thinking about what parts we want.
“Yeah, only I already know what part I want!” I said real thrilled. “And it is the bestest part I can think of. Only I'm going to keep it a secret till after lunch. And so nobody ask me. And I mean it.”
After that, I pretended to lock my lips with a make-believe key.
Herb turned around. “You mean you're not even going to tell me?” he said kind of disappointed.
I got out my key and unlocked my lips.
“Okay