Ms. Todd Is Odd! by Dan Gutman Page A

over it. I’ll have to burn—”
    Andrea never got the chance to finish her sentence, because at that very secondMr. Klutz came in with his bald head. He was wearing a black T-shirt that said TEAM on it.
    â€œWhat’s going on in here?” Mr. Klutz asked.
    I grabbed my old shirt out of my backpack and quickly put it on.

    â€œA.J. thinks the classroom is a dressing room,” Andrea said.
    What is her problem? Why can’t a giant box full of T-shirts fall on her head?
    â€œI just got a call from Miss Daisy,” Mr. Klutz told us. “She’s not feeling well today. So you’ll have Ms. Todd as your substitute teacher. She’ll be here any minute.”
    Mr. Klutz said he would go to the office to greet Ms. Todd. He told us to be on our best behavior while he was gone. So as soon as Mr. Klutz left the room, me and Michael and Ryan got up and shook our butts at the class. Most of the kids laughed.
    â€œI hope Ms. Todd is nice,” said Andrea. Girls always want everybody to be nice.
    â€œI hope Miss Daisy is going to be all right,” said Emily. She looked all worried, like she was going to cry. That girl will cry about any old thing. She’s weird.
    â€œWe should make Miss Daisy a get-well card,” said one of the other girls.
    Miss Daisy better get well soon, because I hate substitute teachers. They always make us learn stuff. Miss Daisy never makes us learn anything, because she doesn’t know anything. She is the only grown-up who can’t read, write, or do arithmetic. In fact, sometimes wehave to teach her stuff! She is the dumbest teacher in the history of the world.
    Miss Daisy asked us once not to tell Mr. Klutz how dumb she is. She’s afraid she’ll get fired. I hoped Ms. Todd would be as dumb as Miss Daisy.
    â€œYou know,” Ryan said, “Miss Daisy didn’t look sick yesterday.”
    â€œMaybe she’s not sick at all,” said Michael.
    â€œYeah,” I said, “maybe she’s faking it so she can stay home and lie on her couch eating bonbons.”
    Bonbons are these chocolate treats Miss Daisy loves. She told us that whenever she is stressed out, she lies on her couch andeats bonbons until she feels better.
    â€œDo you think Mr. Klutz found out that Miss Daisy can’t read or write or do arithmetic?” asked Neil the nude kid. “So he fired—”
    Neil the nude kid never got the chance to finish his sentence, because the door opened again and Mr. Klutz came in. He was with some lady.
    â€œBoys and girls,” said Mr. Klutz, “this is Ms. Todd. She’ll be the substitute for Miss Daisy.”
    We all looked at Ms. Todd. Ms. Todd looked at us. I looked at Andrea. Ryan and Michael looked at me. Everybody was looking at everybody else withoutsaying anything because it was the most amazing thing in the history of the world.
    Ms. Todd looked like Andrea!
    It’s true! She was tall just like Andrea. She was skinny just like Andrea. She even had curly hair just like Andrea. It was like there were two of them! It was like a horror movie!
    â€œShe’s pretty,” whispered Andrea.
    â€œPretty ugly,” I whispered.
    Ms. Todd was wearing a TEAM T-shirt just like Mr. Klutz.
    â€œWhy are you both wearing T-shirts that say TEAM?” asked Ryan.

    â€œTEAM is our new motto at Ella Mentry School,” said Mr. Klutz. “It stands for ‘Together Everyone Achieves More.’” Mr. Klutz loves initials.
    â€œWhat’s a motto?” asked Michael.
    â€œNothing,” said Mr. Klutz. “What’s a motto with you?”
    Mr. Klutz laughed even though he didn’t say anything funny. He’s nuts.
    Ms. Todd waved and smiled a big smiley face just like Andrea. She looked really young. Mr. Klutz said that Ms. Todd was a brand-new teacher and told us to be extra nice to her. Then he left.
    â€œHello!” said Ms. Todd, all cheery.
    Well, at least she talked like a