Chapter 8 A Lot of Books!
On Thursday Principal Klutz came into our class. He was wearing a hat, which almost made him look like a regular person who had hair on his head.
“I have to go to a meeting,” Principal Klutz told us, “but I heard that some of you second graders had something important you wanted to discuss with me.”
Miss Daisy said that I could ask my question.
“Can we buy the school?”
“Hmmm,” Principal Klutz said. “Hmmm” is what grown-ups say instead of “er” or “um” or “uh” when they don’t know what to say.
“Why do you want to buy the school?” Principal Klutz asked.
“Because we want to turn it into a video-game arcade,” I told him.
“I see,” the principal said. “Schools cost a lot of money.”
“How much?” I asked. “If you tell us how much it will cost, we’ll raise the money.”
“I’ll tell you what,” Principal Klutz said. “I can’t sell you the school, but I can rent it to you for a night. Do you know the difference between buying and renting?”
Andrea Young got her hand up first, as usual.
“When you buy a video, you get to keep it forever,” she said. “If you rent it, you have to return it to the video store in a couple of days.”
“That’s right,” the principal said. “Would you be interested in renting the school for a night?”
“How much would that cost?” I asked.
“One million pages,” Principal Klutz replied.
“Huh?”
“If you kids read a million pages in books, you can turn the school into a video-game arcade for one night.”
A million pages! That sounded like a lot of books.
“How about a thousand pages?” I suggested.
“A million,” said Principal Klutz. “That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it.”
“Would it be okay if some of the other classes helped us out?” Miss Daisy asked.
“Certainly,” Principal Klutz said. “The more the merrier. And I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. If the kids in this school read a million pages, I will come to the big video-game night dressed in a gorilla suit.”
“You’ve got a deal!” I said, rushing forward to shake Principal Klutz’s hand.
In my head I was already hatching a plan.