Messy Miranda (3 page)
As the students entered the classroom, Miranda dashed to her seat. She sat down and started pulling books out of her desk.
Neela saw this. “Why are you taking out your textbooks? It's not desk cleanup day today.”
“I'm trying to stay organized, Neela,” Miranda said. “I can't keep missing recess.”
But that wasn't the real reason. Miranda needed to put the hat at the bottom of her desk. She looked over her shoulder. Ms. Basil was busy helping Abdu take off his boots. They were stuck on tight and on the wrong feet.
It was time!
With nobody watching, Miranda slowly pulled the crumpled hat from her pocket. She smoothed it back into a flat disk and slid it into the desk with its brim facing up. She pushed the hat to the back of her desk so it would not be seen. Then she took her books and placed them on top of the hat.
The books fell right into the hole in her desk. Perfect! She could fit all sorts of things into the magic hat. Just how much could she fit? Miranda was going to find out. Today was book exchange at the library. Miranda was going to try a little experiment.
Just then a shadow fell across Miranda's desk. She turned around. Jaiden was standing there. He was chewing on the end of a pencil. The pointy end! He pulled it out of his mouth and licked his lips. “That desk is really clean, Miranda,” he said. He had a funny smile on his face, like he knew Miranda was up to something. “Can I see?”
“Uh, sure,” Miranda said.
Jaiden bent down low to get a good look. He sniffed the inside of the desk. “Smells different today,” he said.
“Uh, I guess,” Miranda said. Her heart beat faster.
“Where's that Frisbee thing you brought?”
“My bag!” Miranda said quickly. “And don't even think about touching it!”
Jaiden stood up suddenly. He backed away. Miranda followed Jaiden's gaze. He was staring at Ms. Basil, who had come by. Ms. Basil looked down at Miranda's desk. Now it was her turn to inspect it. “Wow, Miranda! It sure looks clean in there. I hope it stays that way until Friday.”
“Oh, it
will
,” Miranda said.
As Ms. Basil walked away, Miranda tore a page out of her reading journal. She crumpled it into a ball. Then she threw it into the desk and pushed it over to the hat. The paper vanished into the hole. The mess was gone. This was going to be a fun week!
As the day went on, Miranda practiced making things appear and disappear. During math, she put her ruler into the hat. When nobody was looking, she pulled it back out again. “Presto!” Miranda said.
Everybody in the class looked at Miranda.
“Presto?” Ms. Basil said. “I thought we were doing a measuring lesson. Not magic.”
“Sorry, Ms. Basil. My ruler is just so much fun today.” Miranda smiled.
“I hope it is fun every day,” Ms. Basil said.
After that, the students broke into small groups to measure different objects in the classroom. Jaiden measured a half-eaten cheese sandwich from the previous week. Neela was measuring her skipping rope with a big yardstick. “Wow!” Neela said. “It's three times longer than the yardstick. Come see, Miranda.”
Miranda went over to see what Neela was doing. Her eyes widened when she saw the yardstick. “Hey, Neela. May I borrow that for a minute?”
“Sure,” Neela said. “Can I come?”
Miranda shook her head. “I'll be right back.” She didn't want Neela to find out about the hat.
Miranda took the yardstick and went back to her desk. When nobody was looking, she slowly dipped the stick into her desk and into the hat. Wow! The hat was at least three feet deep.
“What are you doing?” Jaiden asked.
Miranda jumped. As she did so, the yardstick came flying out of her desk. It clattered to the floor in front of Jaiden's feet.
Jaiden dropped his sandwich. “Yowzers! That's crazy!”
“These desks sure are big,” Miranda said. She smiled at Jaiden.
Jaiden scratched his head. “Uh, I guess.”
Ms. Basil clapped her hands. Everyone clapped back and looked at her.
“It's time for book exchange at the library.”
Everyone cheered. The library was the best!
Miranda smiled. It was time to see what else she could fit into the hat.
The library was full of books. Big books, little books, heavy books, thin books. There were sports books, monster books, princess books, volcano books. There were books about everythingâbugs, cooking and even skipping. Miranda had read many of them. Today she wanted
The Biggest Book of Big Things
. It was the biggest book in the whole library, and she had a plan.
It was tricky to sign it out, because there was never any place you could put it. The book was taller than the kids in grade three. It had to go on a special shelf in the library. When Miranda took it down, she nearly fell over. She had to tuck it under her arm and drag it to the librarian.
“Are you sure you want that book?” the librarian asked.
“Oh, I'm sure!” Miranda said.
“You could use that book for a surfboard,” Jaiden said. He pretended to surf on one of the chairs.
“Jaiden, get down!” Ms. Basil said.
As Ms. Basil took care of Jaiden, the librarian signed out
The Biggest Book of Big Things
. Inside were all sorts of pictures of big things, like dinosaurs, skyscrapers, airplanes and whales. Miranda did not care much about them. She had only signed out
The Biggest Book of Big Things
to see if it would fit into the hat in her desk.
The students lined up and marched back to class.
Miranda had to get Neela to help her carry the book back. “How are you going to get this home?” Neela asked.
Miranda shrugged. “Ben can help me.” But Miranda had no plans to take the book home.
As soon as everyone had entered the classroom, the recess bell rang. “Quickly, students,” Ms. Basil said. “I have recess duty!” She did not have time to help the students put things away. Instead, Ms. Basil threw on her coat. She put on her orange safety vest and dashed out of the room.
This was perfect! Miranda stayed behind until everybody had left. Then she tried to put
The Biggest
Book of Big Things
into her desk.
She started by putting in a corner of the book. Then she put in the first half. Soon the whole book had slipped into the magic hat without making a sound.
Miranda's jaw dropped. “Wow!” she said. “Magic is so cool!”
Now that the book was safe in the hat, Miranda turned to go outside. She stopped in her tracks. Jaiden was standing just outside the door. His eyes were wide as Frisbees. “No way!” he said.
Miranda shook her head. “I told you these desks are big.”
Jaiden scratched his head. “But that's
The Biggest
Book of Big Things
,” he said. “There's no way it can fit into a desk.”
“It just did,” Miranda said. She tried not to look nervous as she walked out of the classroom past Jaiden. She did not want him to go near her desk or find out her secret. She was going to have to be very careful. But first, she was going to skip with Neela.
Back at home after school, Miranda got a phone call from Uncle Aldo.
“Miranda, have you seen my magic hat? I can't find it anywhere.”
Miranda felt her heart beat quickly. She swallowed hard. “Don't you have a bunch of magic hats?”
“Yes, but I've lost my most magical hat,” he said. “One of my rabbits is still in there.” Uncle Aldo explained that he had found one of the two rabbits that fit into the hat. But the hat and the other rabbit were missing.
“Oh no,” Miranda said. She didn't know what to do. If she told Uncle Aldo about the hat, he would be angry with her. Plus, Miranda's desk would get messy again. Ms. Basil would keep her in for recess.
Miranda needed to think about this.
“I'll look around for it,” she said. “Maybe Ben borrowed it to practice magic.”
Uncle Aldo paused. “Really? But he was downstairs with us the whole night.”