Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar Read Free Book Online

chair!”
    She put Benjamin’s chair on top of hers, but she still wasn’t tall enough.
    Calvin dumped the wastepaper basket onto the floor. “Try this,” he said.
    Bebe turned the trash can upside down and put it on top of Benjamin’s chair. Then she climbed on top, but she still couldn’t quite reach.
    Leslie brought the class dictionary. Jenny and Dana donated their math books. Sharie grabbed Mrs. Drazil’s old blue notebook.
    “Put that down!” yelled Mrs. Drazil. “Right now!”
    Sharie dropped the notebook. Mrs. Drazil’s kindly old face had suddenly turned mean.
    “Don’t ever touch that again!” Mrs. Drazil ordered.
    Sharie returned, trembling, to her seat.
    Everyone was staring at Mrs. Drazil. She smiled sweetly. “Go back to what you were doing,” she said.
    Jason threw Bebe his lunch box. She set it on top of the books, then climbed on top. Standing on her tiptoes, she was able to pull the cover off the fluorescent light. She grabbed the light just as the pile collapsed beneath her.
    She fell to the ground, triumphantly holding the unbroken light bulb high above her head.
    Ron returned with a sack of potatoes from Miss Mush.
    Stephen returned with Mr. Kidswatter’s coffeepot.
    Eric Fry unscrewed the pencil sharpener from the wall.
    Mrs. Drazil wrote “Coffeepot,” “Sack of Potatoes,” “Pencil Sharpener,” and “Light Bulb” on the blackboard.
    “We’re going to drop all four objects out the window at the same time,” she said. “How many people think the coffeepot will hit the ground first?”
    “Is there coffee in it?” asked John.
    “It’s about half full,” Stephen reported.
    Eight kids thought the coffeepot would hit the ground first. Sixteen thought the sack of potatoes would hit the ground first. Three thought the light bulb would be first. Only Terrence thought the pencil sharpener would hit first.
    Jason, Jenny, Joe, John, and Joy were the judges. Mrs. Drazil sent them outside.
    Stephen held the coffeepot out one window.
    Bebe held the light bulb out another.
    Eric Fry held the pencil sharpener out another.
    And Ron held out the sack of potatoes.
    Everyone else crowded around to watch. With everyone on the same side of the classroom, the school leaned a little bit, just like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
    “On your mark. … Get set. … Let go!” said Mrs. Drazil.

    The objects fell through the air and smashed against the pavement.

    A short while later, the judges returned. Their clothes were splattered with coffee. Jenny had bits of potatoes in her hair.

    “Was the pencil sharpener first?” asked Terrence.

    “It happened so fast,” said Joe. “They all hit about the same time.”
    “But the coffeepot made the coolest explosion,” said Jason.
    “I think the light bulb hit the ground last,” said John.
    “Well, that’s possible,” said Mrs. Drazil. “Gravity causes all objects to fall at the same rate. But air slows them down. That’s called air resistance. And that’s good. Otherwise raindrops would kill us. Air resistance slows all things down a little bit, but it has a greater effect on very light objects, such as a piece of paper. And of course the shape of the paper is important too. A crumpled-up piece of paper will fall faster than—”
    “You’re getting boring again,” said Mac.
    Mrs. Drazil stopped talking.
    “Now we need a new pencil sharpener,” said Leslie.
    Paul licked her ear.

g

    Chapter 15
    An Elephant in Wayside School
    The bell rang for recess, and the children exploded out of the building.
    Louis, the yard teacher, was ready with a big pile of red and green balls.
    The kids called, “Hi, Louis!” and “Over here, Louis!” as he tossed the balls to them: over his shoulder, behind his back, through his legs.
    Deedee came charging out of the building. Usually by the time she got to the playground, there were no good balls left, but she could see one red ball by Louis’s foot.
    She knocked over a kid from the tenth floor and