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“Well, I’m glad you’re healthy, and here now. We’re starting a new unit on the Human Body from head to toe.”

“We’re going to get to jump rope,” said Jessica Finch. “And measure our heart rates.”

“And play Twister,” said Rocky. “To learn about muscles.”

“And sing a song about bones,” said Alison S.

“I can’t believe you started the human body without me!” said Judy. “A person can miss a lot in seven minutes.”

“Don’t worry. I think you’ll catch up,” said Mr. Todd.

Mr. Todd taught them a funny song that went, “Da foot bone’s connected to da ankle bone. . . .” He read them a book called Frozen Man, the incredible, real-life story of a five-thousand-year-old mummy.

And Class 3T got to turn out the lights and use the glow-in-the-dark skeleton named Bonita to count how many bones were in a human. Two hundred and six!

“We’ll be learning a lot of new words in this unit. The scientific names for bones and body parts come from Latin. So they may sound a little funny.”

“Like maxilla is your jaw?” asked Judy, looking at the bulletin board.

“And so is mandible,” said Jessica.

Jessica Finch had already learned to spell microbes (a fancy word for germs, as in cooties!) and medulla (a fancy word for brain stuff). “Can you spell headache?” Judy asked. Frank Pearl cracked up at that one.

Then Mr. Todd passed out owl pellets. They got to poke them with a pencil to find bones. Rodent bones. Judy and Frank stared at their fuzzy gray lump.

“Double bluck! Just think. This is owl spit-up!” said Frank.

“It’s still interesting,” said Judy. “Real bones are in there. Skulls and stuff.”

“You poke it,” said Frank. So Judy poked it with her Grouchy pencil. They found a jawbone, a rib, and a bone Mr. Todd called a femur. They glued each bone onto paper and drew in all the missing bones to make a rodent skeleton that matched the one on the board.

“Do any rodent bones have the same names as human bones?” asked Mr. Todd.

Judy raised her hand.

“Tibia,” called out Jessica Finch.

“Very good,” said Mr. Todd.

“That’s what I was going to say,” said Judy. Jessica Finch was a rat fink (like Stink!) for not raising her hand. A rodent fink.

“Now let’s talk about your Human Body projects,” said Mr. Todd. “Projects will be due in two weeks. You can do your project on bones, muscles, joints, the brain —”

“Even toenails?” asked Bradley.

“As long as it teaches us something about the human body. Let’s start by writing down ideas in your notebooks. I want to see brainstorming.”

Judy had a storm in her brain already.

Rocky wanted to do three-thousand-year-old human body stuff. Mummies!

“What are you thinking of doing?” Judy asked Frank.

“Cloning. I’ll be a fiction scientist or a science fictiontist. Somebody who clones stuff. Like in Jurassic Park. They used a drop of mosquito blood and made a whole dinosaur. They do it in real life, too. Start with one cell, like from your DNA, and make a whole new you.”

“Double cool!” Judy said.

“I’m going to write a dictionary,” Jessica told Judy. “With human body words like appendix and patella. That’s your knee.” Jessica Finch had cooties on the medulla if she thought she could rewrite the dictionary.

Judy looked back at her own paper. She chewed her eraser. She chewed her fingernail. She chewed her hair. Judy had a brain wave! A real-body-parts idea. She would call Grandma Lou to see if she had any good body parts for Showing and Telling. Something better than scabs. This was the brainiest of all storms! She wrote down Call Grandma Lou so she wouldn’t forget.

Judy’s just-sharpened Grouchy pencil was still flying when Mr. Todd said, “Class, that’s enough brainstorming for today.”

“Good. My brain hurts,” said Frank.

“I’m passing out permission slips for our field trip.”

Field trip! “Is it to Screamin’ Mimi’s?” asked Judy. “Please, please, pretty please with chocolate mud ice cream on top?”

“Max and Kelsey’s dad, from Class 3M, works at the hospital. So we’re invited to go with their class to the Walter Reed Memorial Hospital emergency