Stink_ Solar System Superhero - Megan Mcdonald [7]
“Somebody wrote all over my science book!” called somebody else.
“Me too!”
“Me three!”
“Somebody crossed out all the Plutos!” shouted Stink, looking around at all the other books.
“Boys and girls,” said Mrs. D., “let’s just keep calm.” She walked around the room, up and down the aisles, looking at everybody’s books.
“The Evil Science-Book Fairy strikes again,” said Sophie of the Elves.
“Anti-Pluto goblins are on the loose,” said Webster.
“Now, class, you know we don’t go around writing in textbooks. Would anyone like to tell me who did this?”
“Yeah, whoever did this sure is rotten,” said Stink, glaring at Riley.
“Okay, okay,” said Riley. “I did it.”
“Riley, you know better than this. What were you thinking?”
“Well, Pluto’s not a planet anymore. So I crossed it out — when everyone was at recess.”
“I thought we agreed we’d hold a debate on Friday.”
“We did, but I had to do something. Even you’ve already taken sides.”
“No one’s taken any sides,” said Mrs. D. “I’m leaving it up to all of you. Class 2D will debate and decide for themselves, fair and square.”
“Then why are you driving all over town getting everybody in the whole world to honk for Pluto?”
Mrs. D. looked confused. Heather Strong pointed out the window at a little blue Mini parked outside. Mrs. Dempster’s little blue Mini.
Mrs. D. leaned and peered out the window at a mysterious bumper sticker on her car. HONK IF YOU LOVE PLUTO.
She couldn’t help smiling. “So that’s why everybody’s been honking at me since yesterday!”
“See?” said Riley. “I rest my case.”
“Riley, I didn’t know anything about it until just now. I think we may have a Bumper Sticker Bandit in Class 2D.”
“And I bet his name is Stink Moody!” said Riley, pointing.
“Stink,” asked Mrs. D., “do you know anything about this?”
“I might,” said Stink. “Okay, I did it!”
“Boys and girls, I know we’re all enthusiastic about the subject of Pluto. But you know better than to go around writing in schoolbooks and sticking bumper stickers on cars without asking permission. Riley, Stink, I’m disappointed in you both.”
“Sorry,” said Stink.
“Sorry,” said Riley.
“Stink, first of all, I’m going to need you to go peel off that bumper sticker at recess.”
“It’s just a magnet,” said Stink. “It’s not even stuck!”
Mrs. D. nodded. “And you and Riley are going to spend recess erasing all the marks in the books.”
This was going to be a no-good, rotten recess. The rottenest.
Stink zoomed around the room, desk by desk. He erased book after book after book. He made a pile of eraser crumbs. A blizzard of eraser crumbs. A mountain of eraser crumbs.
Glancing across the room at Riley, Stink asked, “Did you know that before they had rubber for erasers, they actually used bread crumbs?”
Riley didn’t say a word.
“Did you know that the eraser was invented more than two hundred years ago?”
Riley didn’t say a word.
Stink erased some more. “How many erasers do you think it would take to circle Planet Earth?”
“Stink Moody, you are so e-noying!”
“E-noying? Is that like annoying with an e-raser?” Stink laughed at his own joke.
“FYI, Mr. Eraser Head, e-noying is extremely annoying.”
“Did you learn that at Space Camp?”
“For your info, it’s none of your beeswax.” Riley rubbed her eraser superhard. “I was never in trouble before, and now I’m in trouble and I have to stay in at recess, and it’s all because of you, Stink Moody!”
“I’m not the one who scribbled all over the science books! I don’t see why you hate Pluto so much. What did Pluto ever do to you?”
“Don’t you get it?” said Riley. “You’re just like Pluto.”
“Why? ’Cause I’m short? I have gas? What?”
Rotten Riley, Queen of Space Camp, looked like an Oort cloud about to explode. “No, because you’re always crossing my orbit!”
“Okay, okay,” said Stink. “You don’t have to go all asteroid on me!”
Wicked wormholes! Sometimes Riley Rottenberger was just plain extraterrestrial, maximum warp-speed, supernova annoying!
At last it was Friday. Time for the Class 2D scientists to present their cases!
Team KPB went first.