Read Online Flying Feet by Patricia Reilly Giff - Free Book Online Page B

“I’ve had a ton already.”
    “Thanks.” Charlie put his popper in his mouth. Cheese melted into a bread ball. Mmm.
    “Mrs. Farelli grabbed me,” he said when he could talk. “She wants—”
    “Mrs. Farelli is tough as nails,” Mitchell said.
    “Almost as tough as Zelda A. Zigzag,” said Habib.
    “She’s going to have a Come as a Character Day.” Charlie talked as fast as he could. “Next Monday.”
    “Sorry,” Habib said. “I’m working on juggling.”
    Mitchell wasn’t paying attention. He sprinkled cheese-popper crumbs on the cement. “It’s a lunchroom line for ants,” he said.
    Sumiko leaned over to watch. But Charlie kept going. He hobbled toward Jake.
    Destiny stood on the stone wall with Beebe.
    Fifth graders were climbing over Jake’s pile of stuff.
    So was Terrible Thomas, Jake’s cat. Oops. Terrible Thomas was Mrs. Thomas now. She’d had a bunch of kittens.
    “Out of here!” Jake yelled at everyone. Jake was a yeller.
    They all scattered.…
    Except Mrs. Thomas and Charlie.
    “Look at this, Charlie,” Jake said. “It’s all good stuff. Old but clean. There’s just no room for it.”
    Charlie walked around the pile.
    There were lumps of straw and pots of droopy flowers. A tin hat and eyeglasses without the glass. Curtains. Yellow bricks from when the school was built.
    The bricks must be as old as Zelda A. Zigzag.
    On top were the red Flying Feet.
    “I was taking all this to the dump,” Jake said. “Then,
BAAAAM.
Two flat tires.”

    Charlie sat on a falling-apart chair. It was almost an invention. A Three-Legged Tilting Seat.
    He looked over at a broken door and a couple of pipes.
    “I’ve got to get rid of this junk,” Jake said. “Mr. Randolph, the principal, will have a fit.”
    “We could drag—”
    “Drag it where?” Jake moaned. “I’ll never get my work done. The whole school is a mess. Cheese poppers all over the place!”
    “We could put it all back on the truck.”
    Jake sighed. “That’s a big job. It took me days to get it out of the storeroom.”
    “Time for kickball,” Ramón yelled.
    Charlie jumped off the chair. It kept rocking.
    “I’ll help you tomorrow,” Charlie said. He ran over to the game.
    “Charlie’s on our side,” Habib yelled.

    Afternoon Center was over for today.
    Charlie headed for the bus.
    He nodded at Mrs. Dover, the bus driver.
    Her baseball hat was perched up on her hair.
    He went to the back. The whole school didn’t have to know that the new bus driver was his mother.
    Sumiko sat next to him. Her face was red. “I’ve been running like a cheetah,” she said.
    Sumiko was the smartest girl he knew.
    She knew sixteen words in Japanese.
    Whoosh! The bus started up.
    “How about signing up for Come as a Character Day?” Charlie asked Sumiko.
    “What?”
    “You dress up as someone in a book.” He raised his shoulders. “You talk about—”
    Sumiko shook her head. “Sorry. I’m training for the Olympics. Ramón says I’m a really fast runner.”
    Destiny and Beebe sat in front of them.
    Destiny patted a sparkly scarf on her head. “My hair isn’t so hot today. The beads keep falling out.”
    “Mrs. Farelli said—” Charlie began.
    “Make sure you look at Beebe when you talk,” Destiny said. “She can read your lips.”
    “That’s really good,” Charlie said.
    Beebe grinned. “Yup,” she said.
    “About Mrs. Farelli,” Charlie said.
    Destiny stopped patting her hair. “Mrs. Farelli is too tough for me.”
    “It’s for next Monday,” he said. “We’re going to do Come as a Character Day.”
    “I’m too busy. I’m going to be a ballroom dancer,” Beebe said.

    Gina was sitting in front of them. “I’m toobusy, too. I’m going to be an opera star.” She opened her mouth.
“Tor-eeeeee-a-dora,”
she sang.
    Gina was loud. Screechy.
    “Stick to inventing. Don’t bother with”—Destiny waved her hand—“come as a … whatever.”
    Charlie looked out the bus window. Next Monday was