Mrs. Jewls was teaching the class about fractions and decimals. She explained that .5 was the same as 1/2.

Mac raised his hand.

Mrs. Jewls pretended not to see him.

"Ouch! Ouch!" Mac groaned as he stretched his hand so high that it hurt.

Mrs. Jewls pretended not to hear him.

Jenny raised her hand.

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"Yes, Jenny?" said Mrs. Jewls, glad to call on anyone besides Mac.

"Mac has his hand raised," said Jenny.

"Um, thank you, Jenny," muttered Mrs. Jewls. "Yes, Mac, what is it?"

"I couldn\'t find one of my socks this morning," said Mac. "Man, I looked everywhere! In my closet, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, but I just couldn\'t find it! I asked my mother, but she hadn\'t seen it either."

"That\'s very interesting, Mac," Mrs. Jewls said patiently, "but what does that have to do with decimals?"

"Because," said Mac, "I only could find half of my socks!"

"Oh. Right," said Mrs. Jewls. "Does anybody else have any questions about decimals? Yes, John?"

"Did you look under the bed?" asked John.

"That was one of the first places I looked," said Mac, "but it wasn\'t there."

"Did you check the dirty clothes?" asked Ron. "Maybe it was never washed."

"I checked," said Mac.

"Do you have a dog?" asked Bebe. "Maybe your dog took it."

"No, my dog doesn\'t wear socks," said Mac.

"Why didn\'t you just put on a different sock?" asked Allison. "Even if it didn\'t match?"

20

"I thought of that," said Mac. "See, but then if I wore a sock that didn\'t match, I\'d be left with only one sock of that color for tomorrow. And then if I wore that sock, I\'d have to wear a sock that didn\'t match with it. And so on for the rest of my life! I would never wear matching socks again."

"Well, be that as it may," said Mrs. Jewls, "we really need to get back to decimals. Yes, Stephen?"

"Once I had both my socks on," said Stephen, "but I wasn\'t wearing any shoes. My mom had just waxed the floor, too. I slid all around on it like I was skating. It was a lot of fun until I fell against the kitchen table and broke two dishes. Then I got in trouble."

"What\'s that got to do with my socks?" Mac asked impatiently.

Stephen shrugged.

"Did you ever find your other sock?" asked Leslie.

"Yep," said Mac, "but you\'ll never guess where. In the refrigerator!" He held out his arms in bewilderment. "How did it get there?"

No one knew.

"See, here it is," said Mac. He climbed on top of his desk so everyone could see his feet. He pointed to his left foot and said, "This is the sock I had from the beginning." He pointed to his right foot and said, "And this is the sock I couldn\'t find."

His socks were red with gold lightning bolts down the side.

21

"Ooh, hot socks!" said Mauricio.

"No, it was cold after being in the refrigerator," said Mac, still standing on top of his desk. "I made it up a song, too, while I was looking for it. You want to hear it?"

He sang:

"I got one sock!

Lookin\' for the other. One sock!

Lookin\' for its brother. When I find that sock!

I\'ll tell you what I\'ll do. I\'ll put it on my foot,

and I\'ll stick it in my shoe!"

The bell rang for recess.

"Since we didn\'t finish the arithmetic lesson," said Mrs. Jewls, "you\'ll have to do the rest of it for homework."

All the kids groaned as they headed outside.

After recess was science. Mrs. Jewls was teaching the class about dinosaurs. She told the class that there were two types of dinosaurs; those that ate meat, and those that ate only vegetables.

"You mean like broccoli?" asked Rondi.

"I don\'t think they had broccoli back then," said Mrs. Jewls. "Just as there were different kinds of

22

animals back then, there were also different kinds of vegetables."

Mac raised his hand.

Mrs. Jewls pretended not to see him.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Mac groaned. He looked like he was going to explode.

Mrs. Jewls pretended not to hear him. She called on Myron.

"Mac has his hand raised," said Myron.

"Um, thank you, Myron," muttered Mrs. Jewls. "Yes, Mac?"

"My uncle grew the biggest watermelon you ever saw in your whole life. Man, it was huge! It was so heavy I couldn\'t even lift it."

"Mac, what does this have to do with dinosaurs?" asked Mrs. Jewls.

"Because that must have been the kind of watermelon that dinosaurs ate," said Mac.

"Did you eat it?" asked D. J.

"Not all of it," said Mac, shaking his head. "Whew, it was too big for me, and I love watermelon!"

"What did it taste like?" asked Maurecia.

"Delicious!" said Mac. "But lots of seeds. You shouldn\'t eat the seeds. Otherwise a watermelon might grow inside your stomach. I once heard about a lady who was so fat that everyone thought she was going to have a baby. But she didn\'t have a baby. She had a watermelon!"

"Was it a boy or a girl?" asked Joy.

23

Everyone laughed.

Mrs. Jewls never finished her lesson about dinosaurs, so she had to assign it for homework.

After school Mac walked home with his girlfriend. Nancy. Nancy\'s class was on the twenty-third floor of Wayside.

Mac carried his arithmetic book, his science book, his reading book, his language book, and his spelling book.

Nancy didn\'t have any books. "Ill carry your books for you, Mac," she offered.

Mac gave Nancy his books. "Don\'t you have any homework?" he asked.

She shook her head.

"Man, it\'s unfair," said Mac. "Mrs. Jewls assigns more homework than any other teacher in Wayside School."