by Michael Rex
I put on the ballerina skirt, the bear mask, and the bear-claw gloves. Then I started dancing around and jumping and spinning and twirling. It was kind of hard to see out of the mask, but I kept going.
“I’m the ballerina bear, la, la, la, la, la. First I will dance! Then I will eat you!” I held my arms up and roared. I did some more spins. I smashed into a wall and fell down. All of a sudden, the fire alarm rang. Gus and I looked at each other and said “Fire drill!” at the same time.
I took off the bear mask and the gloves, but I didn’t have time to take the skirt off. We ran out of the auditorium and out the closest door.
“And that’s when you found us!” Ricky said.
Ms. Jay shook her head again. “Okay, okay,” she said.
“Do I still have to talk in front of everybody?” asked Gus.
“Yes,” said Ms. Jay. “But there won’t be time today. You can do it tomorrow. Just get in line with the rest of the class.”
In the field behind the school, each class had lined up quietly behind a teacher. They did this for every fire drill. Then everyone noticed Ricky was in a tutu. Kids started pointing. Some kids started laughing. Then more laughed. Soon three whole grades were laughing at Ricky. He just stood there in the tutu.
Gus jumped in front of Ricky. He froze for a moment. Then he did a perfect moonwalk. The kids stopped laughing at Ricky. Gus started to dance, and the kids clapped a beat. Gus did the robot. He did the helicopter! He shuffled! Then he jumped on the ground and did the worm. He was amazing.
Some kid shouted out, “What’s his name?” and then some other kid shouted, “It’s Gus!” The kids were all chanting, “Gus! Gus! Gus!”
Gus turned his back on the crowd and looked at Ricky.
“I guess being in front of a crowd isn’t too bad,” he said. But Ricky hardly heard him over the cheers.
A little more …
The next day, Ricky and Gus got to school early so that they could give Mr. Brucey a drawing they made. Mr. Brucey really liked it.
They brought a drawing to Mr. Kane, too.
Mr. Kane looked at it. “Thank you,” he said, but he didn’t smile. “The mess you made is still over there. Clean it up and get to class.”
Ricky and Gus wiped the paint off the table, cleaned the brushes, and put all the supplies back in place. Then they walked to the door.
“Hey, boys?” called Mr. Kane. They turned around to look at him.
“See you later in class, all right?” he said.
MICHAEL REX is the creator of over thirty books for children, including the number one bestseller Goodnight Goon and the Fangbone! series. He was inspired to create Icky Ricky by his two boys, Declan and Gavin, who are fine young citizens, but very disgusting. Gavin eats ketchup on his cake, and Declan uses a purple marker to color his belly button. Along with the boys, Mr. Rex lives with his wife and their dog, Roxy, in Leonia, New Jersey. Both his wife and the dog are not disgusting at all. Visit him at mikerexbooks.blogspot.com. You won’t get dirty.
