Big Whopper (2 page)

“I like to discover new things,” said Gina.

“We’ll discover things all week,” Mrs. Farelli said. “Anything you see or learn for the first time counts.”

“I’ll be great at this,” Gina said.

Destiny wanted to say
humpf
. She didn’t, though. That wasn’t the way they did things at the Zelda A. Zigzag Afternoon Center.

Mrs. Farelli twirled her whistle. “The best part is—”

Destiny held her breath.

“—on Thursday, we’ll take a bus. We’ll visit the Discovery Museum.” Mrs. Farelli was smiling.

An after-school trip
, Destiny thought.
Cool!

She was lucky her mom was a hairdresser. Her mom would do something special with her hair. She’d lend Destiny neon green nail polish.

Destiny would look spectacular!

In the meantime, she’d have to discover something.

But what?

She thought of Christopher Columbus.
There was no land left to discover.

She thought of the guy who discovered light-bulbs. Destiny had plenty of light in her house.

Maybe there wasn’t anything new left.

Humpf!

CHAPTER 2
STILL MONDAY

W
hat was that?

A blast of noise.

Rattling!

Everyone raced out to the basement hall.

“Out of my way!” Gina screeched.

Habib was juggling with one apple. “Be careful!” he yelled. “This apple is mostly mush.”

Destiny didn’t waste time screeching or
yelling. She ducked around Mitchell. She slid around Charlie. She hopped over Terrible Thomas.

Thomas swished his tail back and forth at her.

Ellie and Ramón, the college helpers, were zigzagging down the hall.

They pushed a giant cart.

The wheels galumphed.

A huge roll of paper clunked back and forth on top.

“This is Discovery Week,” Ellie shouted. Her ponytail zipped around behind her.

“Get aboard,” yelled Ramón. He waved his baseball cap.

A bunch of kids hopped onto the cart.

Destiny and her friend Sumiko ran together. Sumiko even did an almost-cartwheel. She was great at gym.

Mitchell and Habib ran with them to the end of the hall.

The cart banged into the wall.

“Yeow!” Ellie said.

“Double yeow!” Destiny sank down on the edge of the cart. Discovery Week was fun. Especially when you didn’t have to think of discoveries.

“Here comes the hard part,” Ramón said.

Destiny looked at the roll of white paper. It was as big as an elephant.

But Ramón was as big as an elephant, too.

She watched him wrestle the roll off the cart.

Ellie held out a box of pushpins. “We’re going to roll this paper across the wall … all the way back down the hall.”

“Won’t it cover the doors?” Destiny asked. What if Mrs. Farelli couldn’t get into the art room? She’d have another fit.

Besides, what was this paper stuff all about?

“Don’t worry.” Ellie made cutting motions with her fingers. “We’ll make doorways.”

Ms. Katz came down the stairs. “Super work,” she said. “And all for Discovery Week. We’ll list our discoveries on paper.”

Destiny helped Ramón unroll the paper.

It slipped away from them.

It rolled halfway down the hall.

Terrible Thomas raced ahead of it. He disappeared into the mop closet.

The roll of paper stopped by itself.

“Now,” Ramón said. “We’ll tack this up along the wall.”

It won’t be easy
, Destiny thought.

Everyone held part of the paper.

Ramón tacked it up.

It was more fun than coming up with a discovery.

When the paper was up, it was full of:

“Whew,” Destiny said.

“Yuck,” Gina said.

“I think I see some of your cheese popper, Gina,” Sumiko said. But she said it kindly. She did one more cartwheel in front of Gina.

Charlie pointed to a spot. “That’s from my chocolate nutto bar,” he said.

“Never mind,” Ellie said. “No one will notice.”

Ms. Katz handed out a pile of markers. “Mrs. Farelli said it was all right to use these. But don’t make a mess on the floor.”

Destiny nodded. Jake the Sweeper would have a fit, too, if they made a mess.

Lots of fits going around
, she thought, and smiled to herself.

Ramón brought benches for everyone to stand on.

“Put your names up there. Leave plenty of room for your discoveries.”

“I’m in luck,” Yolanda said. “I just discovered how to draw with markers.”

Gina stood up on the bench next to Destiny. “You’d better move over.” Gina made a gigantic circle in the air with her marker. “I need room. I’m great at discovering things.”

Destiny moved over. She didn’t think she needed plenty of room. She didn’t need any room at all.

She didn’t have one idea for a discovery.

CHAPTER 3
TUESDAY

D
estiny stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

The not-so-white paper stretched from one end of the basement hall to the other. Doorways were snipped out.

People had begun to write their discoveries on the paper. Destiny read what Charlie had to say:

Destiny wished she could think of a discovery she’d forgotten!

She read Gina’s next.

Lucky Gina.

Destiny sang like a crow.

If only she could think of something like …

How to make a rocket ship. It would blast off from the schoolyard, right into space.

Destiny snapped her fingers. How about the guy who came up with earplugs? Your ears stayed dry as a bone when you went swimming.

Everybody thought that was terrific.

A little thing like earplugs!

If only she had thought of it first.

Right now, Mitchell was writing.

Destiny leaned forward to see.

He crossed it out.

“I know how to make a bell ringer,” he said. “But I just remembered. Someone did that already.”

“That’s the whole problem,” Destiny said. “There’s nothing left to discover.”

She waved at Mitchell. Then she climbed down and ducked into the girls’ room.

She leaned toward the mirror. Her nose almost touched the glass. Her eyes crossed.

Today she had a purple stripe in her hair. Her mother had sprayed it on last night.

What could be better?

She wasn’t going to think about discoveries right now. Today was filled with good things.

She was going straight to the art room.

In the hall, Trevor, a kindergarten kid, was
sitting on Mr. Oakley’s shoulders.

Mr. Oakley was a grandfather. He helped out at the Center. “Hurry,” he told Trevor. “You’re a big guy. I’m going to sink.”

“One more second.” Trevor reached up. He began to write on the wall.

Destiny stopped to see what he’d write.

It was only a bunch of letters.

Trevor looked down at Destiny. “I wrote about my discovery. I can make sparks. I wave my blanket around in the dark.”

“Wave yourself off my shoulders, please,” said Mr. Oakley.

“Me next,” said Clifton.

“All right,” Mr. Oakley said.

“Never mind,” Clifton said. “I’ve never discovered anything in my life.”

Destiny nodded. “Me neither.”

Destiny hurried toward the art room. Everyone else hurried, too. They were going to the gym, or outdoors to the nature center, or to the lunchroom for snack.

Wait a minute!

Snack. She had almost forgotten.

She rushed to the lunchroom.

The lunch lady was giving out chocolate pudding in little cups. Or vanilla.

Destiny hurried past the flowerpots that were full of dirt. No flowers!

She stood next to the lunch lady. She liked to help with snacks.

The lunch lady was tall and round. She wore a shower cap on her head. Her ears stuck out.

She looked like a doughnut.

A nice sugary doughnut.

“I’ll give out the pudding, too,” Destiny said.

“Whew,” said the lunch lady. “That will help.”

Destiny smiled. She felt sugary inside, too.

She gave chocolate pudding to Mitchell and Habib.

They were good friends.

She gave two chocolate pudding cups to Sumiko.

That was only fair. Sumiko was learning Japanese from her mother and father. Her brain needed lots of vitamins. So did the rest of her. She wanted to be a gymnast when she grew up.