She stuck out her tongue at me as Ms. Hannah came over to our table.
âA.J., you havenât finger painted a thing,â Ms. Hannah said.
I didnât know what to do. I didnât know what to say. I had to think fast. âI did too finger paint something,â I said. âThis is a picture of a white polar bear. Heâs playing in the snow. White snow. And heâs eatingâ¦vanilla ice cream!â
All the kids were looking at me. Ms. Hannah was looking at me. I was afraid she was going to yell or go get Miss Daisy from the teachersâ lounge to take me to the principalâs office.
âVery nice finger painting, A.J!â Ms. Hannah said with a big smile on her face. âThatâs using your creativity!â
Hahaha! I stuck my tongue out at Andrea. She folded her arms across her front all mad-like.
It was great. It was not only great. It was the greatest moment in the history of the world. This was the next best thing to an elephant stepping on Andreaâs head.
Pretty soon it was time to clean up. Ms. Hannah taught us a song about cleaning up. The words were, âClean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do their share.â
It was a pretty dumb song, and me and Michael and Ryan changed the words to âClean up, clean up, even in your underwear.â
Any time anybody says a word that rhymes with âair,â you should always change it to âunderwear.â Everybody will laugh. Believe me, this works every time.
Ms. Hannah peeled the sheets of painty newspaper off our desks and stuck them on a ball that was sitting on the windowsill. The ball was about the size of a beach ball.
âWhat are you doing, Ms. Hannah?â Michael asked.
âIâm making a newspaper ball,â she said.
âWhy?â we all asked.
âOld newspapers with paint all over them can be art. This is my art. Like I said, art is everywhere. And this way, nothing goes to waste. I donât like waste. If you lookaround, youâll see that I donât even have a garbage can in here.â
We looked around. It was true. There was no garbage can in the art room. Ms. Hannah didnât need a garbage can, because she never threw anything away. âThat reminds me,â Ms. Hannah said. âFor our next class, I would like you all to bring in things from home that your parents were planning to throw away.â
âWhat for?â
âSo we can make them into art.â
I was still looking around for a garbage can. She had to have a garbage can somewhere . Everybody needs a garbage can.
âItâs a shame when people throw thingsaway,â Ms. Hannah said. âEverything in the world is beautiful. Everything can be used to make some kind of art.â
âWell, I just blew my nose,â I said, holding out a tissue. âDoes that make my boogers artistic?â Everybody laughed even though I didnât say anything funny. Ms. Hannah took my tissue and stuck it to her big newspaper ball.
It was disgusting.
3
Weird People
In the lunchroom I got to sit next to Ryan and Michael. I gave my apple to Ryan, and he gave me his yogurt with sprinkles in it.
âMs. Hannah is weird,â I said.
âArtists are always weird,â Ryan said. âMy mom has a friend whoâs an artist,and sheâs really weird. My mom says thatâs because artists are creative.â
âYour mom is weird,â Michael said.
âLots of people are weird,â I told them. âThat doesnât make them creative. Some people are just weird, and theyâre not creative at all. And some people are creative, and theyâre not at all weird.â
âYouâre weird, A.J.,â Ryan said.
âAnybody who wears a dress made of pot holders is weird,â Michael said.
âArt teachers are supposed to dress funny,â I said.
âIf my dad dressed like that, heâd be fired,â Ryan
Sarra Cannon
Ann Vremont
James Carlson
Tom Holt
Judith Gould
Anthony de Sa
Chad Leito
Sheri Whitefeather
Tim Dorsey
Michael Fowler