day, Sid. You get to eat a double fungus sandwich. Salami and bread!â
Song Lee giggled. âCan you show us the kingdom of mushrooms at recess?â
âAt recess,â Harry said holding up a finger. âBut first, anyone who wants to see it has to promise not to tell where it is. Itâs a secret place.â
Everyone watched Harry make a small circle with his index finger and thumb. âPut your fingers in here.â
One by one we put our index fingers inside. It was a tight fit!
âNow repeat after me,â Harry said, lowering his voice and squeezing our fingers. We huddled together on the moon rug and listened.
âI promise ...â Harry began.
âI promise ...â we repeated.
âTo follow Harry to the kingdom of mushrooms ...â
âTo follow Harry to the kingdom of mushrooms ...â we answered.
âAnd never tell anyone where we go.â
âAnd never tell anyone where we go,â we repeated.
âGood,â Harry said, breaking up our circle of fingers. âAt recess, youâre going to have the mushroom treat of a lifetime!â Then he tucked his microscope necklace inside his sweater and gave us a toothy smile.
The Writing Wall
I t was a bummer being stuck in class all morning. We had to wait three hours until lunch recess. All we really wanted to do was visit the kingdom of mushrooms!
Miss Mackle noticed our long faces.
And frowns.
She immediately wrote âWriting Workshopâ on the blackboard, then turned around with a big smile. âSometimes, when weâre having a bad day, itâs the best day to write!â
Harry and I exchanged a look.
Mary rolled her eyes.
âI want you to write about something that bugs you, and then illustrate it. Iâll display your stories and pictures up on a Writing Wall out in the hall.â
âCan I make bugs for the wall?â Harry asked.
âSure! That sounds like fun,â Miss Mackle replied. âJust as soon as you finish your story.â
Harryâs face got longer. He wanted to make bugs first.
âI know what Iâm writing aboutâmy brother!â Ida groaned. âHe really bugs me.â
Miss Mackle smiled. âNo names please. But you can write about what a person does that bugs you ... like teasing or yelling orââ
âSmoking,â Dexter interrupted. âI hate smoke.â
âIâm writing about lice,â Sidney yelled. âI got them last year. That really bugged me.â
âWhat good ideas!â the teacher exclaimed. âAnybody else?â
Song Lee raised her hand. âI remember once my family got dressed up and went to a nice restaurant. There was sticky gum under the table. I hated that!â
Miss Mackle put her hand over her heart.
âIâve got the worst one,â Harry bragged. âTick bites. My grandma found one on her back last summer after we came back from a hike. That hairy bugger was half in and half out of her skin. As soon as I finish writing about it, Iâll make ticks and lice for the writing wall.â
While everyone cringed, Ida raised her hand. âIâve got another one now. Black ice. My mom and I nearly got in an accident last winter. Our car swerved all over the road!â
Miss Mackle gasped. âOh no! Letâs begin writing now!â
Mary scowled. She couldnât think of anything. I couldnât either.
Then Mary started tapping her pencil.
Thatâs it, I thought. Tapping bugged me. Finger tapping, pencil tapping, foot tapping ... I got busy writing.
Thirty minutes later, we shared our stories. One by one we used Miss Mackleâs microphone in the front of the room. Even the teacher read her story aloud. She hated long meetings.
Mary was the only one who didnât share. âI have writersâ block,â she complained. âAll the things I hate have been taken. I donât want to write on the same thing that someone