Schools Out by Hurwitz Johanna

Author:Hurwitz, Johanna [Hurwitz, Johanna]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: StarWalk Kids Media
Published: 2014-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

“Lucas, what’s taking you so long?” Mrs. Cott screamed.

Lucas knew that he should go down the ladder first and show his friends that it was easy, but he just sat and rubbed his hand against the rough surface of the roof. He had been so busy planning his climb up that he had never thought about climbing down.

Cricket started to cry. “It’s all your fault, Lucas Cott. We’ll have to stay up here forever.”

At that moment, though, they could hear that someone was climbing up the ladder. For one second, Lucas thought it might be his mother. It wasn’t. It was the red-haired painter.

“You crazy kids,” said the painter as he reached the top of the ladder. He reached for Julio, who was standing at the ladder, and helped him turn around so his face looked toward the house and his feet could go down the rungs, backward.

“Take it slowly,” said the painter. “I’m right behind you. You won’t fall. Just go one step at a time. You can do it. I do it every day.”

“But we’re not painters!” Cricket sobbed. “I’m going to be a lawyer when I grow up. And lawyers don’t climb ladders. ”

“You should have thought of that before,” said the painter, but he smiled at Cricket. “I won’t let you fall,” he promised. So Cricket went down after Julio.

Then it was Lucas’s turn. Lucas took one peek downward as he began his descent. His stomach churned and he thought he would throw up his whole breakfast. He squeezed his eyes shut and held as tightly as he could to the sides of the ladder.

“I think I can. I think I can,” he told himself, and he lowered his right foot, trying to find the location of the rung below. When his foot landed safely on the rung, he felt a surge of relief.

“I think I can. I think I can,” he repeated again, and he was still a bit closer to the bottom. It felt as if it took an hour to get all the way down.

When he reached the bottom, Julio and Cricket were waiting for him. Mrs. Cott, Genevieve, Marcus and Marius, and both the painters were standing at the foot of the ladder waiting, too. Lucas’s mother looked as white as the white paint.

As punishment for doing something so reckless as climbing the ladder, his mother said Lucas had to spend the rest of the day inside the house. He couldn’t go off to the swimming pool with Julio.

“See you tomorrow,” Julio said as he got on his bike and departed without Lucas.

“See you in fourth grade,” said Cricket as she started off toward home.

Lucas went inside. He was relieved to be down on the ground again, but he was still a tiny bit glad he had climbed the ladder. It was worth staying in the house for the rest of the day, he thought. He didn’t tell that to his mother, though. “I promised the painters that I wouldn’t touch the paint,” he said.

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