School Days According to Humphrey (7 page)

That was true. I'd been looking for Og's ears for as long as I'd known him, but I still couldn't see them.

“You're also cold-blooded, Og.” Aldo got out his rag and started dusting the tables. “Which means your body temperature goes up and down, while warm-blooded creatures like Humphrey and me have the same temperature no matter what the weather.”

Boy, Aldo is sure going to make a great teacher someday!

I was kind of sorry that Og and I didn't have much in common until Aldo said, “I think amphibians are just as nice as mammals. Don't you, Humphrey?”

“YES-YES-YES!” I answered.

Og let out a giant “BOING!”

A little later, Aldo stopped to eat his dinner and talk to us. He always gave us yummy treats. (Well, my treats were yummy, but Og's didn't look too tasty to me. However, he's an amphibian and I'm not.)

While he ate his sandwich, Aldo told us something very interesting.

“Richie's still having trouble getting used to his new teacher.” Aldo paused to take a gulp of coffee from his thermos.

“He was kind of upset because Miss Becker moved him away from Kirk. He should probably thank her for that because when he sits near Kirk, he usually gets in trouble,” Aldo said.

I knew Aldo was right. Kirk liked to tell jokes and Richie liked to laugh at them. None of the strange students told jokes. So far, anyway.

“She had to separate Gail and Heidi, too,” Aldo told us.

I could understand that because they were best friends. Gail was a great giggler and Heidi always giggled when she was around her. None of the strange students giggled like Gail. Not even her brother, Simon.

“Anyway, Richie will get used to her,” Aldo said. “Just like you got used to Mrs. Brisbane.”

It had taken me quite a while to get used to Mrs. Brisbane, and she was just one human being.

How long would it take me to get used to a whole room full of strangers?

Aldo rose and started pushing his cart toward the door.

“I think Richie's real problem is that they don't have a classroom pet in Room Eighteen.” Aldo turned off the light. “See you tomorrow night!”

I was a little disappointed when he walked right past Aki's red hamster ball on Mrs. Brisbane's desk and didn't turn it on.

When the door was closed and my eyes got used to the darkness, I had an idea.

“Did he say Room Eighteen, Og?” I asked my neighbor.

“BOING!” Og replied.

“That must be where the rest of our old friends are now. I'd sure like to see that room.” I was already pushing on the lock-that-doesn't-lock. “I'll tell you all about it when I get back.”

Soon I was out in the hallway. I knew that Room 18 wasn't to the left of Room 26, so I turned right and scurried down the hall. It had those dim lights to guide me, but a school with no children in it is unsqueakably quiet.

It was hard to see the numbers on the doors from way down low, but if I looked straight up, I could read them. Just like the night before, all the even numbers were on one side of the hallway and all the odd numbers were on the other. So I read them: 24, 23, 22, 21, 20. I ran out of hallway before I got to room 18, so I took a sharp left turn and the hallway continued. There was Room 19 and across from it: Room 18.

I was a little nervous about sliding under an unfamiliar door after I'd gotten stuck, but this time the gap between the door and floor was nice and wide. Whew!

Room 18 didn't look all that different from Room 26. There were tables and chairs, chalkboards and a teacher's desk. There was even a long table by the window, like the one where my cage and Og's tank sits. But instead of mammals and amphibians on the table, there was a neat row of boxes, each labeled with a name. I skittered across the floor to get a better look and saw the names of some of my good old friends from last year. Gail and Heidi, A.J. and Richie, Kirk and Tabitha—along with names I'd never seen before.

I stared at those boxes for a long time, remembering all the good times I'd had last year.

Then, suddenly, lights began to flash. My insides did a flip-flop. Was someone in the building? Was it Aldo—or had someone broken in? Why were they flashing the lights?

BOOM! There was a loud crash. Someone was breaking in for sure!

There was a tremendous clatter—and my insides settled down a bit as I realized that it was raining outside. The flashing lights and crashing sounds were lightning and thunder! I hurried back out into the hallway and back to Room 26. Of course,
I
wasn't afraid, but I was worried that Og might be.

“Don't worry, Og. It's just a thunderstorm. It won't hurt you,” I assured my friend when I was safely back in my cage.

I told him about the boxes in Room 18 and the names on them. Maybe it made Og sad to think of his old friends so far away. He didn't make a sound, so for the rest of the night, I sat in my cage and listened to the rain.

It was still raining the next morning (but the lightning and thunder had stopped, thank goodness). The students arrived in Room 26 with an assortment of umbrellas, raincoats and hats, which were put in the cloakroom. I was glad to have a nice dry cage to stay in, especially since hamsters shouldn't ever get wet.

Just-Joey rushed out of the cloakroom and hurried over to my cage.

“Hi, Humphrey,” he said. “It's me, Joey.”

“I know you're Joey,” I squeaked.

He laughed. “You answered me!”

“Of course,” I said. “I'm a very polite hamster.”

I wished he could understand what I said.

“Humphrey, I had a hamster once. His name was Giggles, because he made little sounds that kind of sounded like giggles,” he said.

“What happened to him?” I asked.

“I don't have him anymore.” Joey suddenly looked sad. “He D-I-E-D.”

I guess he thought I couldn't spell, but I knew what D-I-E-D meant.

“I wanted another hamster, but my parents got me a dog instead,” he explained. “Skipper. I like Skipper—okay—I love him. But I still think about good old Giggles.”

“Of course you do. He was your friend,” I said. “I'm unsqueakably sorry.”

“Now you're giggling, too!” Joey's face lit up. “I like that!”

Well, I hadn't meant to giggle, but I was happy if I made Joey feel better.

When Joey ran off to join his friends, I told myself that whenever he was near my cage, I was going to giggle.

I climbed up my tree branch, all the way to the tippy top of my cage.

More students came in, looking damp and drippy.

“Boy, that thunder last night was so loud, it shook the house and all our pictures fell down,” Thomas announced when he arrived. “Even my teeth shook.”

“Thomas T. True, is that really true?” Mrs. Brisbane asked.

Thomas shrugged. “That's what it felt like, anyway.”

When Mrs. Brisbane took attendance, Harry was missing again. She shook her head when she read his name, but he finally showed up in the middle of reading.

“Did you get an excuse from the office?” Mrs. Brisbane asked. Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper.

“Dad drove me and we got caught in traffic,” he said.

I thought that made sense on a very wet day, and Mrs. Brisbane didn't say anything. Harry went into the cloakroom to hang up his jacket. The other students kept on reading, but Harry didn't come out of the cloakroom, so Mrs. Brisbane went back to check on him.

The cloakroom isn't really a room, but it's partially walled off from the rest of the room and I can't see inside from my spot by the window.

“Harry? What are you doing?” she asked.

“Just taking off my jacket,” I heard him answer.

“Well, hurry up, Harry,” she said in a not-very-happy voice.

Harry came out with a grin on his face. “Mrs. Brisbane, did you know that eight of the jackets back there are blue? Way more than any other color!”

Mrs. Brisbane just said, “Take your seat, Harry. We're in the middle of class.”

The rain was still beating against the windows when the bell rang for recess, so my friends had to stay inside.

Mrs. Brisbane opened the closet and pulled out a huge plastic tub.

“Here's my rainy day box,” she said. “The things in here can only be used on days like this.”

She started taking out smaller boxes and lining them up on the desk. “We've got board games and puzzles, art supplies and activity books. It's strictly first come, first serve—no arguments. Now, first, let's get the wiggles out a little.”

Then the most amazing thing happened. Mrs. Brisbane stretched her arms way up over her head and wiggled her fingers.

“Stretch . . . and wiggle!” she said.

Most of the students stood up. Rosie managed to stretch and wiggle right in her wheelchair.

I put my paws up on the side of my cage and stretched, too. I wiggled my whiskers at the same time. None of the other students could do that!

Next, Mrs. Brisbane started rolling her head around.

“Wiggle your heads.”

The students did. They all looked pretty silly, but I tried it, too.

“Wiggle your shoulders,” she continued. “Wiggle your arms.”

I wasn't sure about my shoulders and arms, so I just wiggled everything.

“Wiggle your hips,” she said. “Wiggle your knees.”

I'd never seen Mrs. Brisbane act so unsqueakably silly before. The students were wiggling like crazy and they were giggling, too.

“Wiggle your toes and wiggle your nose.” Mrs. Brisbane even giggled at that one.

I'm very good at wiggling my nose. I've had a lot of practice.

“And now shake.” Mrs. Brisbane shook her whole body. “Shake your problems away.”