Allison started up the stairs five minutes before the bell rang for school to start. The stairs were completely empty. Allison liked it that way. When the bell rang, the stairs would be crammed with a thousand screaming kids scurrying to their rooms, but now it was nice and peaceful.

She walked up past the eighteenth story and toward the twentieth. There was no nineteenth story in Wayside School. Miss Zarves taught the class on

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the nineteenth story. There was no Miss Zarves.

Allison didn\'t understand it. If there was no nineteenth story, then wasn\'t her class really on the twenty-ninth?

Suddenly she heard footsteps charging up behind her. She turned around to see Ron and Deedee racing.

She leaned against the wall to get out of their way, but Deedee stamped on her foot; then Ron\'s elbow jammed her in the stomach.

"Umph!" she grunted, as she fell and rolled down three steps.

Deedee and Ron didn\'t even stop to say they were sorry.

Allison slowly stood up. Fortunately she wasn\'t hurt, but her windbreaker was torn.

She thought Ron and Deedee were silly. They race up the stairs, and then when they get to Mrs. Jewls\'s room they\'re too pooped to learn anything.

Allison thought all the kids in Mrs. Jewls\'s class were silly, even Rondi, and Rondi was her best friend. Then there was Jason, who was always pestering her. That was because Jason hated her. Or else he loved her. Allison wasn\'t sure which.

When she got to class, Deedee and Ron were sitting with their heads flat on their desks and their tongues hanging out.

"You could have said you were sorry," Allison said

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as she walked past them. She sat up straight in her chair, folded her hands on her desk, and waited as everyone else wandered in.

Jason entered the room carrying a glass bowl with a goldfish swimming inside it. "Look what I brought!" he said.

"What\'s the name of your goldfish?" asked Mrs. Jewls.

"Shark!" said Jason.

Everyone laughed. Allison rolled her eyes.

"It makes him feel important," Jason explained. "Where should I put him?"

"How about on top of the coat closet?" suggested Mrs. Jewls.

Jason had to stand on a chair on his tiptoes. He held the bowl at the very bottom as he tried to nudge it over the edge of the closet.

Suddenly the chair toppled over. "Aaaaaahh-gulp!" yelled Jason as he fell on the floor. He was holding the bowl upside down above his wet face.

Mrs. Jewls hurried to the back of the room. "Quick, somebody fill the bowl with water," she said. "Where\'s Shark?"

Jason made a face. "I swallowed him."

The class went crazy.

What a show-off, thought Allison.

Mrs. Jewls rang her cowbell and told everyone to settle down. "You have a bad case of the sillies this morning," she said.

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She took roll. "Who\'s absent?" she asked.

"Allison," said Rondi.

"Very funny, Rondi," said Allison.

"Anybody besides Allison?" asked Mrs. Jewls.

"I\'m here, Mrs. Jewls," said Allison. She sat behind Eric Fry, so she thought Mrs. Jewls couldn\'t see her. Eric Fry was the biggest kid in the class.

"Just Allison," said Mrs. Jewls. She marked it on her green roll card. "Dameon, will you please take the roll card to the office."

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