No Messin' with My Lesson Read Online Free

right now. And Mrs. Derkman wasn’t even there!
    This was so not good.

Chapter 7
    There was nothing Katie could do but keep on teaching. Quickly, she scribbled another division problem on the board.
    “Who can answer this question?” Katie asked the class. “What is twenty-seven divided by nine?” Lots of kids raised their hands. “Kevin?” Katie said.
    “Four,” Kevin said confidently.
    Katie nodded and turned to the blackboard. She began to write another problem on the board.
    But, before she could, Mandy raised her hand. “Mrs. Derkman?”
    “Yes, Mandy?” Katie asked.
    “Kevin’s not right,” Mandy told her. “Twenty-seven divided by nine equals three.”
    “It does not,” Kevin argued.
    “Sure it does,” Mandy told him. “Because nine times three equals twenty-seven.”
    “Uh, very good, Mandy. I must have heard Kevin incorrectly,” muttered Katie.
    Mandy smiled at Katie. “I know all my times tables perfectly, Mrs. Derkman.”
    “You’re stuck-up,” Kevin said.
    “That’s not nice,” Miriam chimed in.
    “I’m just being honest, like Suzanne said we should be,” Kevin told her.
    “You’re jealous because I’m better in math and sports than you are,” Mandy told him.
    “You’re not so great, Mandy,” Becky butted in. “You’re not the best soccer player in the class. Jeremy is. And that’s the honest truth!”
    Katie knew she had to calm the kids down. But how? “You guys, come on,” she said helplessly.
    No one listened to her. Instead, the arguing got worse. “Becky, you always say things like that,” Suzanne said. “Everyone knows you have a big, fat crush on Jeremy.”
    Jeremy blushed. He turned to Suzanne. “Well, as long as we’re being honest,” he said, “you look like a banana in that yellow dress!”
    Suzanne gulped. No one had ever said anything bad about her clothes before. “I do not!” she shouted. “This is a very cool outfit. Everybody thinks so.”
    “I don’t,” Becky said. “I think Jeremy is right. You do look like a banana.”
    “You don’t know anything about style,” Suzanne shouted back.
    “You think you’re the best at everything,” Becky said to Suzanne.
    “I do not!” Suzanne shouted back.
    “I’m just telling the truth,” Becky said. “But you’re not the best. Can you do this?” Becky leaped out of her seat and did a back flip. She landed on the floor in a split.
    Katie looked helplessly at the class. She gulped. Mr. Kane was still standing there in the back of the room. But he didn’t look happy anymore. His face was beet red, and his eyes were bulging. A vein was throbbing at the top of his bald head.

    The principal couldn’t take the arguing anymore. He took a step toward the front of the room and opened his mouth to speak.
    But, before Mr. Kane could say a word, the judge tapped him on the shoulder. He whispered something in the principal’s ear. Mr. Kane whispered something back. The judge shook his head.
    Mr. Kane threw his hands up in the air. “This is a disaster!” he said. Then he stormed out of the room. The door slammed shut behind him.
    The judge did not leave the room. He stayed to watch what would happen next. From the look on his face, Katie could tell he was very disappointed at the way things were going. So, Katie did a very un-Derkman thing. She leaped up on a desk and whistled—loud.
    The kids stopped talking and stared at their teacher. Mrs. Derkman had never done anything like that before.

    “Okay, everyone sit down,” Katie said. “This is not a nice way to act.”
    “But we’re just being honest,” Suzanne said. “Friends have to be honest with each other.”
    Katie nodded. “There’s a difference between being honest, and being mean,” she said. “I think maybe you were using Suzanne’s advice column as an excuse to be mean. And that is totally not okay.”
    Totally not okay? The kids all stared at one another. Mrs. Derkman never spoke like that.
    “I think it’s okay to be