Stephen had green hair. He had purple ears and a blue face. He wore his sister\'s pink dancing shoes and green leotards. The leotards matched his hair. He was all dressed up as a goblin for Mrs. Jewls\'s Halloween party.

But unfortunately it wasn\'t Halloween.

"Ha, ha, ha, you sure look stupid," said Jason. Jason was Stephen\'s best friend.

"So do you," said Stephen.

"Boy, are you dumb," said Jenny. "Halloween is on Sunday. Today is only Friday."
112"You\'re the one who\'s dumb," said Stephen. "Ha, ha, you\'d probably come to school on Sunday. Mrs. Jewls said we\'d have the party today."
But none of the other children wore costumes, only Stephen.

"All right, class," said Mrs. Jewls. "It is time for our Halloween party."

"See," said Stephen.

Mrs. Jewls gave each child a cookie that looked like an orange witch with a black hat. She laughed when she saw Stephen and forgot to give him one. Stephen didn\'t ask for it. He was afraid that she\'d laugh again.

The children finished their cookies in less than thirty seconds.

"All right, class," said Mrs. Jewls. "The party is over. We have a lot of work to do."

Stephen felt like a fool. The party lasted less than a minute. And he had to spend the rest of the day wearing his stupid goblin suit.

"Look, Stephen\'s wearing his sister\'s leotards," laughed Dana.

"They\'re green, just like his hair," said "Fatso."

Everybody laughed.

Mrs. Jewls began the arithmetic lesson. She wrote on the blackboard. "Two plus two equals five."

"That\'s wrong!" Joy shouted.

Mrs. Jewls tried again. "Two plus two equals three."

That wasn\'t right, either. She added two and two again and got forty-three. It was useless. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get two plus two to equal four.
113"I don\'t understand it," she said. "They\'ve always equaled four before."
Suddenly she screamed. The chalk turned into a squiggling worm! She dropped it on her foot.

Then all the lights went out, and the blackboard lit up like ............