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got a good look at the swimming specks.
    ‘Oh!’ Calm-Down-Cassie said. ‘Oh, I’ve never seen anything so – oh – oh!’
    I noticed that her hands were shaking.
    ‘It is something to see, Cassie,’ Mrs Brisbane said.
    I had to admit, swimming specks were more interesting than specks sitting in goo. But were they really that interesting?
    Joey thought they were. While my friends rushed out for playtime, he asked Mrs Brisbane if he could stay inside and sketch.
    ‘I want to draw the tadpoles at every stage,’ he said. ‘I want to get my drawings just right.’
    Mrs Brisbane smiled. ‘Everybody is supposed to go outside at break. Mrs Wright wouldn’t like it if you stayed inside.’
    Joey looked SO-SO-SO disappointed.
    ‘Maybe just this once, she won’t notice,’ Mrs Brisbane said. ‘Go ahead and sketch.’
    Joey worked really hard. He’d look at the swimming specks and then back at his drawing.
    ‘Good work, Joey!’ I squeaked.
    Joey didn’t look up, but he said, ‘I want to get it just right, Humphrey. Understand?’
    Of course I understood. I hoped his drawing would help me see what everyone was so excited about.
    As the day went on, I realised that all my human friends thought the specks were unsqueakably interesting.
    So interesting that Mr Morales came in to see them after lunch. ‘Amazing,’ he said.
    I was getting a little tired of that word.
    ‘To think that Og started out like this,’ he said.
    Everyone looked over at my neighbour, including me.
    Og just sat there on his rock, silent.
    When Mr Morales left, Mrs Brisbane led my classmates to the library to learn more about tadpoles.
    Once we were alone in the classroom, I jiggled my lock-that-doesn’t-lock and ran over to Og’s tank. ‘Og, did you see the specks swimming?’ I asked. ‘Mrs Brisbane says they’ll be frogs like you. Does that make you happy?’
    Og didn’t answer, but he stood up and dived into the water side of his tank with a gigantic splash!
    Had the specks made him speechless?
    I returned to my cage and started spinning on my wheel. That’s what I do when I need to think.
    Suddenly, I realised that swimming was what Og did when he wanted to think.
    We both had a lot to think about.

7 Test Trouble
    Late in the afternoon, Mrs Brisbane said, ‘Class, it’s time for us to think about Family Fun Night. We had a meeting about it yesterday and I found out that the theme is “Circus Night”. Each class is supposed to come up with a circus-themed game or activity.’
    ‘I think we should string a rope across the gym and all do tightrope walking,’ Tell-the-Truth-Thomas said.
    ‘Do you know how to walk a tightrope?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.
    ‘No,’ Thomas answered. ‘But I’d like to try it. Or fly on a trapeze.’
    ‘Not me!’ Calm-Down-Cassie exclaimed.‘Those sound dangerous.’
    Mrs Brisbane nodded. ‘They sound dangerous to me, too. Let’s think of other circus activities.’
    ‘Clowns!’ Rolling-Rosie shouted. ‘We can all be clowns!’
    Other classmates agreed that her idea was GREAT-GREAT-GREAT.
    Mrs Brisbane nodded, but then she said, ‘I know that would be fun. But Ms Mac already signed her class up to be clowns.’
    My classmates groaned. I was disappointed, too.
    ‘Juggling,’ Small-Paul said. ‘We could teach people to juggle.’
    ‘Are you good at juggling?’ Mrs Brisbane asked.
    ‘No,’ Small-Paul said. ‘But I’d like to learn.’
    Stop-Talking-Sophie waved her hand. ‘My dad can juggle. He can juggle three balls really fast and never drop them. He can even juggle knives!’
    ‘I’m not sure about knives, but I think we’d all like to see him juggling, Sophie. Let’s keep on thinking,’ Mrs Brisbane continued. ‘We have some time to figure it out.’

    I kept on thinking long after my friends had left Room 26 for the day.
    Once Longfellow School was empty, I opened my lock-that-doesn’t-lock and hurried out of the room to visit Gigi. If I wanted to swing up to her table to see