But it was Miss Daisy who came up with a great idea. She went over to the bottom of the flagpole, where the rope is tied up. She took the knot out and held both ends of the rope tight. Then, slowly and carefully, she began to let out some rope and lower Mr. Klutz down the flagpole, just like he was a regular flag.

When he reached the bottom, the teachers caught him and loosened the rope from his foot. He was okay, he said, except for the rope burns on his leg.

“Hooray for Miss Daisy!” our class cheered. After he was back on the ground, Mr. Klutz got up, brushed himself off, and walked up the front steps, like it was totally normal for a principal to hang upside down from a flagpole.

Mr. Klutz is nuts!

10

Mr. Klutz Is Getting Weirder

“Your Election Day essays were fantastic,” Mr. Klutz told our class the next morning. He had a big bandage wrapped around his head. I’m guessing he must have either crashed his skateboard again or found another flagpole to fall off.

“Thank you!” we all said.

“But I was a little surprised by the number of spelling errors I found in them,” he continued. “We need to improve the spelling at our school. So here is what I have decided to do. If you students can write out a list of one hundred thousand spelling words by Thanksgiving, I will dress up in a turkey costume and ride a pogo stick down Main Street.”

“Yayyyyyyy!” everybody hollered.

“How about one thousand spelling words?” shouted Ryan.

“One hundred thousand spelling words,” Mr. Klutz repeated. “That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it. And every word must be spelled correctly. Have a nice day.”

During lunch, I was sure that Andrea was going to start her list of spelling words just to show how smart she was. But she didn’t. She just kind of sat there, picking at her food quietly.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” she finally said. “I’m beginning to wonder if something might be wrong with Mr. Klutz.”

“Like what?” Emily asked.

“Maybe he has some kind of a personal problem.”

“What do you mean?” Michael asked. “Mr. Klutz is a cool guy. Would you rather have a boring principal?”

“My mother is a psychologist,” Andrea said, “and she says that people sometimes do weird things for reasons that are buried deep within their mind.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means she thinks Mr. Klutz is nuts,” said Michael.