Artifacts Read Online Free Page A

them down.
    Running as fast as I could, I skated around crowds of guys heading to practice, crowds of girls talking about nothing anybody ever cared about, and teachers who looked like they were about to collapse as they struggled to get to their cars.
    Making a turn into the first hallway, I ran into Korie, who was trying her best to get through the crowd. But for every few feet she’d move up, she’d get dragged back twice as far.
    That’s when I saw Mouth and Tank making the turn and heading directly for us.
    “Hey, Mouth,” I yelled, waving my arms just as Korie got swept under the crowd.
    “Duck behind him,” Mouth said to Korie, grabbing her arm and dragging her to safety. “It’s the only way to travel once that last bell rings.”
    “Yeah,” Tank agreed, “and it’s a blast, too.”
    As Mouth, Tank, Korie, and I moved, I could see Crunch being lifted up in the air and crowd surfing over the hundreds of hands holding him up. He was giving them directions as he moved, slowly making his way toward Bartholomew’s.
    “Right turn up here,” he yelled. “Hang a left! Not so fast! Two classrooms down … and straight on ‘til morning .”
    By the time we got to Bartholomew’s, Crunch was standing there, waiting for us.
    “See,” he said, a broad smile on his face, “that wasn’t so hard.”
    I laughed. “You’re lucky they didn’t crowd surf you out a window and into a dumpster.”
    Walking into Bartholomew’s classroom, it had changed quite a bit since the last time we were there. Posters were tacked to the wall and stacked up around the room … hundreds of them. Each one was the picture of a separate fairy tale.
    “Where are all the superheroes?” Tank asked, rifling through the posters.
    “They’re not comic books, they’re fairy tales,” Mouth said. “Like the one you’re in.”
    Tank looked confused. “The one I’m in?”
    “Yeah,” Mouth said. “ The Wizard of Oz . You’re like the Scarecrow … ”
    “Why not the Lion?” Tank asked. “Just not cowardly.”
    “Because the Lion has a brain,” Mouth said quickly and then ran across the room.
    The five of us split up, walked around the classroom, taking our time, looking at all the stories. I glanced over at Korie and she looked really happy. Helping Crunch on this project seemed to be something she really liked.
    I wonder what fairy tales had to do with Crunch’s mystery extra credit .
    “Good afternoon, lady and gentlemen,” Bartholomew said, sweeping into the classroom and taking his seat behind his desk. “As you can see, there are a number of magically amazing, awe-inspiring stories around you that have captured the hearts of children around the world.”
    I never liked when he talked like that .
    “I have agreed to create a display at a local library,” Bartholomew continued. “It will be filled with ‘faux,’ fun, imagination-soaring artifacts matching many of the individual fairy tale characters you see before you. I am looking for imaginative examples that will allow us to take the various treasures you find and relate them directly to the stories. Fill those display cases for me and Crunch will pass English and run … amuck … with you this summer.”
    It was an awesome idea, but I wanted to make sure we were on the same page.
    “Do you have an example you can show us?” I asked.
    Bartholomew reached down beside his chair, pulled out an old wooden bucket, and dropped it on the top of his desk with a resounding crash. It was old, a little worse for wear, but definitely had something special about it.
    “And that would be?” Korie asked.
    “The Witch-Melting Water Bucket from The Wizard of Oz .” Bartholomew said.
    “Hey.” Mouth laughed. “We were just talking about that!”
    “Frank L. Baum’s wife Maud was washing the floors when he needed a way to kill the witch,” Bartholomew continued, “and she handed him a bucket.”
    “How many do you need?”
    “All of them,” Bartholomew said. “I