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himself, he hid in the cloakroom again and took a chance that Stewy would not miss him. When the classroom door was safely locked, he watched Mutt gobble the cheese he had brought him and look around for more. Hungry as he was, Otis gave the rat the rest of the cheese and a vitamin pill.
    Suddenly Otis heard the sound of a key in the door. Mrs. Gitler was coming back! He looked frantically for a place to hide and made it to the cloakroom just as the classroom door opened. He crouched halfway between the cloakroom’s two doors. Just to be safe, he pulled someone’s raincoat over him. He heard Mrs. Gitler lock the classroom door from the inside. Then he heard her walk across the room, humming to herself.

    Otis was afraid to move. He was almost afraid to breathe. Was she going to stay in the room for the whole lunch hour, for Pete’s sake? He heard the drawer of her desk open. More humming. Then a snapping noise. What could that be? A compact, of course. Mrs. Gitler was powdering her nose.
    Otis’s left leg went to sleep. The drawer closed. A chair scraped. Mrs. Gitler walked down the side of the room by the windows. Would she…? Yes, she did. She stopped by the rats’ cages.
    Otis’s right leg went to sleep. If only he could be sure Mutt had finished the vitamin pill! He tried wiggling his toes inside his shoes to ease the numbness in his legs. Just then Mrs. Gitler started to walk toward the back of the room. Otis held his breath. He didn’t know what he would do if she came into the cloakroom. He heard her pause at one of the cloakroom doors. Then she passed it. He was able to breathe again as he heard her open a cupboard, take something out, and close it again. If only she would leave the room!
    Otis’s hungry stomach began to rumble and then to growl. Frantically he pressed his arms against his middle. His stomach made an interesting gurgling noise. He squirmed silently. His stomach growled back at him. Surely it was loud enough for Mrs. Gitler to hear.
    Mrs. Gitler’s footsteps returned to the front of the room and Otis heard her sit down at her desk. He heard papers rustling and decided she was settled for the rest of the lunch period. At least she couldn’t hear his noisy stomach from the front of the room.
    Why did I ever think this was such a good idea anyway, thought Otis miserably. Maybe it wasn’t such a good joke after all. Maybe the joke was really on him. Then he thought how close he was to rat-weighing time. No, he wouldn’t give up. He would hang on a little longer. His legs felt as if they were stuck full of pins. Grimly he listened for each minute to click by on the electric clock. Each minute seemed so long he was sure the clock had stopped. Outside he heard the children laughing and shouting. He wondered if anyone missed him.
    Finally, when Otis was sure he could not remain motionless another instant, the first bell rang and Mrs. Gitler unlocked the door. He waited until the halls were filled with noise before he came out from under the raincoat. Then he clung to a coat hook with one hand while he tried to make his stiff, prickly legs work.
    Stewy was first into the cloakroom. He was eating a chocolate bar filled with almonds.
    Otis had to swallow before he could say, “Hi.”
    “What are you doing here?” demanded Stewy suspiciously.
    “I stayed in. I don’t feel so good,” said Otis, looking hungrily at the chocolate bar. And it was true. He couldn’t think of a time when he had felt worse.
    Stewy hung up his jacket, popped the rest of the chocolate into his mouth, and licked his fingers.
    By that time Otis’s feet were working once more and were able to carry him into the classroom. As he walked past the rats’ cages he saw that the vitamin pill had disappeared, but he wondered uneasily what Mrs. Gitler had seen. He was glad his experiment was nearly at an end. He couldn’t keep it up any longer. Not even for soda pop in the cafeteria.
    When Monday morning finally arrived, Otis