A timer on the wall was ticking away. Five, four, three, two, one. Bong, bong, bong! Stunt-Man Stevens sounded the gong and we jumped into the Jell-O.
It was slooshy, sloshy, wiggly, and jiggly! I could not move through it very fast. Some of it went in my mouth. It was strawberry. Yum!
“I found a grape!” I cried, holding it up in the air.
“I found a banana!” called Ricky.
“I have two grapes!” called Natalie.
We were doing great. Then the gong sounded and our time was up.
When Stunt-Man Stevens announced the score, I was shocked. I was amazed. I almost fell over. Mr. Arnold’s wimpy second grade won by a landslide!
“How did they do that?” I whispered to Hannie and Nancy when I got back to my place.
“They were fast,” Nancy replied.
Mr. Stevens was asking another question.
“For two points, how many ounces are in two cups?” he said.
Terri answered eight. A girl from Mr. Arnold’s class answered ten.
“Sixteen!” I shouted. But I was too late.
Our teams had to do another stunt. Each player had to stand in a line with a spoon and pass a raw egg to his classmate. Mr. Stevens picked Pamela, Bobby, and Addie. My team dropped their egg with a splat. Mr. Arnold’s class passed the egg down the line. It hardly even wobbled.
At the end of the show, Mr. Stevens counted up the points.
“And the winner is … Mr. Arnold’s second grade from Hilford Elementary School. Congratulations!” he said.
They won? We lost? I could hardly believe my ears.
An Excellent Prize
Mr. Arnold’s class went wild cheering onstage. When they saw us looking their way, they quieted down a little. I think they did not want us to feel bad. They were pretty nice.
Ms. Colman suggested we congratulate them, so we did.
Then Mr. Stevens announced the prizes. “The first prize is a School Stars trophy and a weekend at Camp Outer Space,” he said. He handed Mr. Arnold the trophy for his class. It was gold and shaped like a rocketship.
“We do not want Ms. Colman’s class to go away empty-handed. To thank you for being part of our show, you will be receiving a classroom computer. We hope you will enjoy using it,” said Mr. Stevens.
Wow! A computer! The Three Musketeers gave the thumbs-up sign. This was an excellent prize. Now I could go on-line with famous people just like David Michael did. Maybe we would get computer pals, too.
“How about a thank-you cheer for Mr. Stevens?” said Ms. Colman.
When she gave the sign, both classes shouted, “Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate? Stunt-Man Stevens! Stunt-Man Stevens! Hooray!”
Then we boarded the bus back to our school.
“I cannot believe Mr. Arnold’s class won,” said Hannie.
“They looked wimpy. But they were not. They were great at those stunts,” said Nancy.
“They sure surprised me,” I replied.
“Oh, well. We tried our best. I wish we had won the trip to Camp Outer Space, though,” said Nancy.
“Me, too.” I said. “But, you know what? A computer is very cool.”
Going On-line
A few weeks later the computer was in our room and all set up. Ms. Colman showed us exciting things such as booting up. (That means turning on the machine.) Our computer even had a modem so we could go on-line.
Thanks to David Michael I already knew that a modem lets one computer communicate with another over phone lines. And I knew that on-line had nothing to do with lions.
We learned new things every day. One morning I even went on-line with Daddy at his office. He was so surprised when he saw my message. It said:
Hi, Daddy! Guess where I am? I am at school. How are you?
We had a very nice chat. Daddy told me he was going to make meatballs and spaghetti for dinner.
In the afternoon, Ms. Colman said, “I have arranged for an on-line session next week with Edith Moss. She is an expert on endangered animals. Tomorrow we will read about species that are in danger so we can have questions ready for her,” said Ms. Colman.
Then Ms. Colman looked at her watch and smiled.
“Right now, I have a surprise for you. Everyone gather round the computer and keep your eyes on the screen. We are going to be getting a call very soon.”
Beep, beep. Whirr. A minute later, our computer started making on-line receiving sounds. The screen went blank, then a message appeared.
Hello, friends in Stoneybrook! How are you? Tell us something exciting!
The message was signed,
Ms. Mandel’s class, New York City.
All right! We were on-line with our New York City pen pals. Now they were our computer pals, too. Ms. Colman gave each of us a chance to talk on-line.
Hi, Maxie! Did you catch me on School Stars? Did you see me walking around in Jell-O? It was strawberry, in case you were wondering.
Maxie wrote back that she saw the show and thought I did great even if my class did not win. We caught up on all our news. Now Maxie and I could write letters, visit, and chat on-line.
Having a computer in the classroom was so much fun. Too bad David Michael was such a grouchy show-off. Too bad we were mad at each other. If he and I were talking, we could go on-line. We could teach each other things we learned about our computers. That would be great.
Maybe one of these days we would make up. I hoped it would not take too long.
ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.
Copyright © 1996 by Ann M. Martin
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First edition, 1996
e-ISBN 978-1-338-05947-2
Ann M. Martin, Karen's School Surprise
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