Boyz Rule! Rotten School Day
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
CHAPTER 1
Gross Girls
CHAPTER 2
A Date with the Blackboard
CHAPTER 3
Top Gun Duty
CHAPTER 4
A Ball of Trouble
CHAPTER 5
How Bad Can It Get?
EXTRA STUFF
• School Lingo
• School Must-dos
• School Instant Info
• Think Tank
• Hi Guys! (Author Letter)
• When We Were Kids
• What a Laugh!
Rotten School Day
Felice Arena and Phil Kettle
illustrated by
Mitch Vane
MACMILLAN
First published in 2004 by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
15–19 Claremont Street, South Yarra 3141
Reprinted 2005, 2006 (twice), 2007, 2008, 2009
Visit our website at www.macmillan.com.au or
go directly to www.macmillanlibrary.com.au
Associated companies and representatives throughout the world.
Copyright © Felice Arena and Phil Kettle 2004
All rights reserved.
Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication data
Arena, Felice.
Rotten school day.
For primary school children.
ISBN 978 0 7329 9261 3.
ISBN 978 0 7329 9262 1 (Set 3).
ISBN 0 7329 9261 3.
ISBN 0 7329 9262 1 (Set 3).
1. School children – Juvenile fiction. I. Kettle, Phil. II.
Title. (Series: Arena, Felice. Boyz rule).
A823.3
Project management by Limelight Press Pty Ltd
Cover and text design by Lore Foye
Illustrations by Mitch Vane
Printed in China
These electronic editions published 2010 by
Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd
Level 1, 15 - 19 Claremont Street, South Yarra 3141
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
Boyz Rule! Rotten School Day
Felice Arena & Phil Kettle
Adobe eReader ISBN
9781458610539
EPub ISBN
9781458610546
Mobipocket ISBN
9781458610553
Online ISBN
9781458610522
Macmillan Digital Australia
www.macmillandigital.com.au
Visit www.macmillan.com.au/primary to read more about all our books and to buy both print and ebooks online. You will also find subject catalogues, teacher support material and news of professional development events.
CHAPTER 1
Gross Girls
Best friends Nick and Matt sit next to each other in class. They are whispering together, trying to ignore the two girls who are sitting directly behind them.
Nick “Why do they have to giggle like that?”
Matt “I know, it’s a pain. Hey! One of them just hit me on the head with a scrunched up piece of paper.”
Nick “We should get ’em back!”
Matt “You sure you wanna do that?”
Nick “What? What d’ya mean?”
Matt “I think they like you.”
Nick “What? Err, gross!”
Matt “I know. But look, see how they’re staring at you. If you try to get ’em back they’ll think you like them. They’ll probably wanna kiss you!”
Nick “No way! I’d get girl germs!”
Matt “Yeah, big time!”
Suddenly Nick and Matt’s teacher, Mrs. Binkle, warns them to stop talking and to do their school work, or else. The girls giggle again.
Matt “I can’t believe that! Your girlfriends got us into trouble.”
Nick “They’re not my girlfriends. Hey—they just hit me on the head … with an eraser!”
Matt “And they got me again, too!”
Nick “That does it. Let’s get ’em back!”
Nick and Matt scrunch up some paper balls and throw them back at the girls—just as Mrs. Binkle turns from the blackboard, towards the class.
CHAPTER 2
A Date with the
Blackboard
Nick and Matt try to explain to Mrs. Binkle that it wasn’t their fault. But she’s not in the mood for excuses.
She punishes the boys by making them stay in during morning recess and write on the blackboard twenty times: “We must never throw things in class”.
Nick “Did you see the girls’ faces when we got caught?”
Matt “Yeah, they couldn’t stop laughing.”
Nick “Girls are freaks!”
Matt “Well, not all of them.”
Nick “Yes, they are!”
Matt “My mum’s not a freak.”
Nick “Okay, mums and grandmothers don’t count ’cause they’re cool. But all other girls are!”
Matt “What about that singer you like?”
Nick “Okay, mums, grandmothers and cool singers don’t count.”
Matt “And what about our soccer coach, Miss Bruno. She’s pretty good.”
Nick “Okay! Okay! Mums, grandmothers, pop singers and Miss Bruno don’t count.”
Matt “And what about … ”
Nick “Matt! Stop! Forget it. Have you nearly finished?”
Matt “Yep, just one more line to write.”
Nick “Me too. But for the last one I’m gonna write: ‘Girls are really gross, especially Mrs. Binkle’.”
Matt “You can’t do that. She’ll see it and then we’ll be in really big trouble.”
Nick “Don’t worry, I’ll rub it out before she gets back!”
Matt “Cool. Then I’m gonna write: ‘The girls should be doing this, not us’.”
Nick “Nice one!”
Seconds later, Mrs. Binkle suddenly appears.
CHAPTER 3
Top Gun Duty
Nick and Matt are sent to Mr. Blake’s office—Mr. Blake is the school principal. They are told to return at lunchtime, eat their lunch with him, then do photocopying duties.
Nick “How many sheets did Mr. Blake say we have to copy?”
Matt “A hundred.”
Nick “And how many have we done so far?”
Matt “Only ten. You and your dumb idea to write that message on the board.”
Nick “You wrote one, too!”
Matt “Only because you did it.”
The photocopying machine coughs and splutters.
Nick “What’s happening? Something’s wrong with it.”
Matt “Should I go and get Mr. Blake from the staff room?”
Nick “Nah, just hit it on the side. That’s what my dad does when he tries to get a better picture on our old telly.”
Matt whacks the photocopying machine with his fist. A few moments later it begins to groan loudly and then out of the blue, it uncontrollably spits out sheets of paper al
l over the office.
Nick “What have you done?”
Matt “What have I done? It was your stupid idea to hit it!”
Nick “We’ve gotta stop it somehow. Before Mr. Blake gets back! It’s going berserk!”
As the boys struggle to stop the machine, the principal suddenly returns.
CHAPTER 4
A Ball of Trouble
Mr. Blake is so upset with Nick and Matt that after lunch he doesn’t allow them to play softball with their class. Instead, they are made to pick up rubbish around the schoolyard.
Nick “You know it wasn’t our fault. Nothing really has been our fault today. We’re victims.”
Matt “We’re what?”
Nick “Victims. I heard it on a TV cop show last night. If we had a lawyer we’d have a pretty good case.”
Matt “A suitcase?”
Nick “No, derr brain, a case. A good reason why we shouldn’t have got in trouble in the first place.”
Matt “Yeah, you’re right. Dumb girls getting us into trouble! They should be the ones picking up garbage. Look at ’em over there. They’re laughing at us.”
As the boys glare at the girls, one of their classmates hits the softball in the direction of the boys. The ball lands right by their feet. Nick and Matt dive for it.
Nick “It’s mine!”
Matt “No, it’s mine! I can throw better than you.”
Nick “No, you can’t.”
The boys wrestle for the ball until eventually Nick breaks away with it.
Matt “Nick, let me do it—you’re a hopeless thrower!”
Nick ignores Matt and tosses the ball with all his might. The ball whizzes over the top of Nick and Matt’s classmates and straight through the library window—crash!!!
CHAPTER 5
How Bad Can It Get?
Nick and Matt get an ear-bashing from the principal … again. They are told to sit still in his office and not to move a muscle until the home-time bell rings. When it does, Mr. Blake then tells the boys to think about their day and to come in with a better attitude tomorrow. Nick and Matt walk across the schoolyard, glad to be going home.
Nick “I can’t wait to get outa here!”
Matt “You can say that again!”
Nick “How unlucky were we today?”
Matt “Yeah!”
Nick “Well, at least it can’t get any worse.”
Matt “Um, maybe it can. Look!”
Nick follows Matt’s stare to see that he’s spotted the two girls that got them into trouble earlier in the day. The girls approach the boys and hand Nick a note. They run off, giggling loudly. Nick reads the note.
Nick “Err gross! Haven’t we suffered enough!”
Matt snatches the note from Nick’s hand and reads:
“We think you guys are really cute.
We can’t wait to see you both
tomorrow.
Lots of hugs and kisses,
Penelope and Bettina xoxo”
Matt “Whoa! You’re right, that’s bad!”
Nick “You can say that again. This has been the worst school day ever. Bring on tomorrow!”
School Lingo
blackboard A board painted black (or more often, green) so the teacher (and sometimes picked-on students!) can write on it with chalk.
class clown A student who likes to do funny things to make his or her classmates laugh. The class clown isn’t usually very popular with the teacher.
homework Schoolwork that students have to complete at home (and it’s usually really boring!).
principal The head of the school, the person with all the power.
teacher’s pet The teacher’s favourite student—two-legged, not four—usually someone who loves to suck up to the teacher.
School Must-dos
Never forget to eat your lunch. It’s hard to think without food in your stomach.
Be kind to your teachers. Can you imagine what it would be like if you had to look after 25 versions of you?
Remember to put your name on everything—pencil case, uniform, bag and books. You never know when you might lose them.
Remember not to leave any food like fruit in the bottom of your bag or locker—it will turn really gross and make all your books stink.
Don’t ever be afraid to tell someone if another kid is giving you a hard time. No-one likes a bully.
Use the schoolyard—not the classroom—to kick a soccer ball. You can kick it further outside!
Always listen carefully when the teacher is speaking—you don’t want to miss out on learning something great (or have to write lines on the blackboard during recess).
School Instant Info
The country that has the most primary schools is China. They have more than 800 000.
The principal in the TV series “The Simpsons” is called Principal Skinner.
In 2002, primary schools in Melbourne, Australia, built the longest Lego structure ever! It was in the shape of a millipede and it measured 1014.8 metres long.
The world’s largest school is the City Montessori School in India. It has over 26 000 students!
In the enormously popular Harry Potter book series, Harry attends Hogwarts—the best wizard school in the land.
School students in the USA and in Britain begin their school year in September. Students in Australia begin their school year in January.
Primary schools are called elementary schools in the USA.
Think Tank
1 Who or what is a principal?
2 What does 2 + 2 + 2 + 11 – 3 equal?
3 What do you carry your schoolbooks in?
4 Where do you keep all your pencils?
5 What is a blackboard?
6 Name one day of the week most students don’t go to school?
7 What’s homework?
8 What’s the place at school called where you can buy food?
Answers
1 The principal is the person who is head of the school.
2 2+2+2+11-3=14
3 You carry your books in your school bag.
4 You keep all your pencils in a pencil case.
5 A blackboard is a painted board you can write on with chalk.
6 Most students don’t go to school on Sunday.
7 Homework is schoolwork that you do at home.
8 The canteen or tuckshop is where you can buy food at school.
How did you score?
• If you got all 8 answers correct, then you deserve an A+! You love school and you love to learn.
• If you got 6 answers correct, you also enjoy learning new things and always love a challenge.
• If you got fewer than 4 answers correct, then you like school, sort of, but can get easily distracted sometimes. You also know that when you focus you can be the best student ever!
Hi Guys!
We have heaps of fun reading and want you to, too. We both believe that being a good reader is really important and so cool.
Try out our suggestions to help you have fun as you read.
At school, why don’t you use “Rotten School Day” as a play and you and your friends can be the actors. Set the scene for your play. You won’t need to bring in too many props as there are plenty around at school every day for this one! Just use your imagination to create the broken window.
So … have you decided who is going to be Nick and who is going to be Matt? Now, with your friends, read and act out our story in front of the class.
We have a lot of fun when we go to schools and read our stories. After we finish the kids all clap really loudly. When you’ve finished your play your classmates will do the same. Just remember to look out the window—there might be a talent scout from a television station watching you!
Reading at home is really important and a lot of fun as well.
Take our books home and get someone in your family to read them with you. Maybe they can take on a part in the story.
Remember, reading is a whole lot of fun.
br /> So, as the frog in the local pond would say, Read-it!
And remember, Boyz Rule!
When
We Were Kids
Felice “What was your favourite subject at school? Was it sport?”
Phil “Nope.”
Felice “History?”
Phil “Nope.”
Felice “Maths?”
Phil “Nope.”
Felice “Music? Science? Art?”
Phil “Nope, nope and kind of!”
Felice “I give up! What was it?”
Phil “Lunchtime, where I learned all I need to know about the art of eating!”
What a Laugh!
Felice Arena, Boyz Rule! Rotten School Day
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