Junie B., First Grader_ Shipwrecked Part 2

I thought it over a second.

Then I shook my head no.

"Nope, sorry. I think a mouse play is still the way to go here," I said.

Mr. Scary said thank you thank you for my opinion and for my opinion and please sit down please sit down.

I tapped my foot kind of annoyed. Then I gazed my eyes around the room.

"Okay. Who would rather do a mouse play? Please raise your hands," I said.

Mr. Scary snapped his fingers at me.

Snapping means the conversation is over, I believe.

I sat down.

That day when I got home from school, Mother was already back from work.

I like it when that happens.

She was in the kitchen with my dog named Tickle.

I gave her a paper Mr. Scary sent home about the play.

Her face smiled when she read it.

"Oh boy! Your cla.s.s is going to do a play for Parents' Night, huh?" she said. "How fun!"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Yeah, only it would be funner if it was a mouse play," I said. "But Mr. Scary says it has to be about dumb old Columbus Day."

Mother kept on reading.

"Oh, and look at this this," she said. "It says that over the weekend you're supposed to look up facts about Columbus and his ships. And whoever has the most facts will get to choose their part first."

I rolled my eyes.

"Fact number one," I said. "Columbus is not a mouse. And so I don't even care about being in this dumb play."

After that, I turned around. And I clomped out of the kitchen kind of grumpy.

Tickle clomped with me.

We were almost to my room when my mother called after me.

"I just don't get get it, Junie B.," she hollered. "I thought you always wanted to be a it, Junie B.," she hollered. "I thought you always wanted to be a star star!"

I stopped clomping.

Tickle stopped clomping, too.

"A star star?" I said. "Whoa. I never even thought about that that situation situation."

I quick turned around and zoomed back to the kitchen.

"A star star?" I asked. "I could really be a star, do you think? Like the one and only star of the whole entire production, you mean?"

Mother grinned.

"Well ... maybe not the one and only only star," she said. "But still, if you bring in the most facts about Columbus, you'll be able to choose any part you want." star," she said. "But still, if you bring in the most facts about Columbus, you'll be able to choose any part you want."

Just then, my legs jumped all around very excited.

"The star star part, Mother!" I said. "I am going to choose the part, Mother!" I said. "I am going to choose the star star part!" part!"

I quick grabbed her hand.

"Let's go! Hurry! Hurry! We have to go to the library to get my facts straight!"

Mother undid my hand.

"Sorry, honey. But we can't go now," she said. "Ollie's right in the middle of his nap. And I don't have a babysitter."

I slumped my shoulders very glum.

"Darn it," I said. "Darn it, darn it, darn it. That dumb old baby ruins everything."

Mother wrinkled her eyebrows at me.

"Ollie's not dumb, Junie B.," she said. "And besides, you and I can go to the library tomorrow. Tomorrow will be plenty of time for you to collect your facts."

She stood there for a minute.

"Or," she said, "if you want to do it right now ... we can look up some Columbus facts on the computer. How does that sound?" she said, "if you want to do it right now ... we can look up some Columbus facts on the computer. How does that sound?"

I grabbed her hand again and pulled her to her desk.

"Perfect!" I said real squealy. "That sounds perfect!"

And so me and Mother sat down at her desk. And she typed the name of Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus on her computer. on her computer.

And wowie wow wow!

A jillion pages came up about that guy! 'Cause he was famouser than I thought!

There were easy pages. And hard pages. And shortie pages. And longie pages. And picture pages. And poem pages. And there were even song pages!

Me and Mother read the pages out loud together. I read the easy pages. And she read the hard ones.

Then I wrote down lots of important facts we found out. And before I even knew it, I had eighteen eighteen whole facts printed on my paper! whole facts printed on my paper!

I jumped down from my chair very thrilled.

"Eighteen! Eighteen! I have eighteen whole facts! And eighteen is more than my wildest dreams!" I said.

Then I hugged Mother real joyful.

And me and Tickle skipped to and fro.

And far and wide.

And round and round and round.

Just then, Mr. Scary finished taking attendance. And he said to please put our journals away.

"As you can see, we're missing three more cla.s.smates today," he said kind of frustrated. "It's going to be hard to do a play with so many people absent. But we'll keep our fingers crossed that our cla.s.smates will be back in time to partic.i.p.ate."

Just then, we heard a rustly sound.

Sheldon was crossing his fingers inside his sandwich bags.

After he got done, he waved to Mr. Scary very pleasant.

Mr. Scary looked at him for a real long time. Then he waved back.

Finally, he stood up and walked to the board.

"Boys and girls, I thought it would be fun to base our play on the facts you gathered for homework," he said.

He picked up the chalk. "If you have a fact you'd like to share, raise your hand and I'll write it on the board. Then-when we've listed all our facts-we can choose our play parts," he said. "Now who would like to go first?"

Jose shot his hand in the air speedy fast.

"I would! I would! I have a poem poem!" he said.

Then he jumped right up, and he started to read.

In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain; He sailed through sunshine, wind, and rain.

Mr. Scary smiled.

"Nice, Jose. That's a great poem you found," he said. "Let's see how many facts we can find there."

He wrote them down.

1. Columbus was a sailor.

2. He had three ships.

3. He sailed from Spain.

4. The year was 1492.

Just then, Sheldon started waving his plastic hands very urgent.

"I know the names of the ships! I know the names of the ships!" he called out. "They're the Nina Nina, the Pinta Pinta, and the Santa Maria. Santa Maria."

"Excellent job, Sheldon," said Mr. Scary.

He printed the names on the board.

5. Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria Then Mr. Scary started to call on someone else. But Sheldon stood up and read more from his paper.

"Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. He landed on some islands near America," he read.

Mr. Scary added the new facts to the list.

6. Sailed the Atlantic Ocean.

7. Arrived in islands near America. "Okay. Well, thank you again again, Sheldon," he said. "Now I think we should let someone else have a-"

Sheldon interrupted. "My uncle Vern sailed to an island once," he said. "He came back with a woman named Bunny."

Sheldon kept on standing there. "Aunt Bunny has tattoos," he said.

After that, Mr. Scary hurried to Sheldon's desk. And he put him back in his chair.

May went next.

"My fact is about the Mayflower Mayflower," she said. "The Mayflower Mayflower is the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America. And so I am going to be the is the ship that brought the Pilgrims to America. And so I am going to be the Mayflower Mayflower in our Columbus play. Because both of our names start with in our Columbus play. Because both of our names start with May May."

Mr. Scary looked curious at her. "Yes, but the Mayflower Mayflower didn't sail to America until over a hundred years didn't sail to America until over a hundred years after after Columbus," he said. Columbus," he said.

"I know it," she said. "But both of our names still start with May. May. Don't you Don't you get get it?" it?"

"Yes, May. I get get it," said Mr. Scary. "But we can't change history. So I'm afraid the it," said Mr. Scary. "But we can't change history. So I'm afraid the Mayflower Mayflower won't be sailing in our Columbus play." won't be sailing in our Columbus play."

May sat down in a huff.

Lucille stood right up.