Everyone in Mrs. Jewls's class impatiently watched the clock on the wall. The recess bell would ring at ten o'clock, and everyone in Mrs. Jewls's class only had ten minutes before recess would be over. For most of the students at Wayside, there was plenty of time for the students to get out of the class and make it to the playground before recess began. Unfortunately, the students in Mrs. Jewls's class weren't nearly as lucky.

When Wayside School was built, it was built sideways. It was meant to be built one story tall, with thirty rooms placed in a row. Instead, it is thirty stories high, with all the classrooms stacked on top of each other. The builder said he was very sorry, but the children didn't mind. The lot they had rented out made for a very large playground. Mrs. Jewls's class was located at the very top on the thirtieth floor.

There was only one other class at Wayside which would have more trouble getting to the playground in time, which was Miss Zarves's class on the nineteenth story. There is no nineteenth story. There is no Miss Zarves.

The bell rang for recess, and every student rushed out of the classroom before Mrs. Jewls could even announce it. A few took their time, but none of them would be able to reach the first floor before the bell rang again. The fastest students in Mrs. Jewls's class could make it down in about two and a half minutes. The slowest would take at least seven.

Deedee charged down the stairs before anyone else. Unlike almost everyone else in her class, she liked recess more than spelling. She was faster than anyone else, rushing past kids from the twenty-third floor on her way to recess. She reached the playground in two minutes and twenty-eight seconds, and rushed to Louis, the yard teacher.

"Hi Louis!" she shouted from about forty-eight feet away.

"Hi Deedee," Louis said back. Deedee was only twenty-three feet away now.

"Did you see how fast I was?" Deedee said, now about eight feet from Louis.

"No," Louis said.

"That's okay," Deedee responded. "I didn't either." Deedee spotted a red ball beside Louis, and grabbed it without even asking. She usually would, but she only had about four minutes left of recess before she'd have to go upstairs, and she didn't want to waste a single second of it. She rarely got anything better than a yellow ball, which never bounced and always went the wrong way.

Terrence arrived shortly after.

"Hey, Louis!" Terrence shouted. "Give me a red ball!"

"Remember your manners, Terrence!" Louis reminded.

"Sorry," Terrence apologized, "Give me a red ball please!"

"Sorry, Terrence, but Deedee took the last one," Louis began. "I'm sure she'd be willing to play with you if you asked, though.

So, Terrence stomped on over to Deedee, who was playing one-square with the red ball. She'd play two-square or three-square, but there weren't many other kids at recess yet to play with her.

"Deedee!" Terrence shouted, "Give me your red ball please!"

"Buzz off, Terrence," Deedee said, "You'll just kick the ball over the fence."

Deedee bounced the red ball into the air and caught it. One-square wasn't a particularly interesting game to play, but it was still better than zero-square, where there's no person and no ball. I hear it's a very popular game on the nineteenth story.

Terrence watched the ball intently. If Deedee won't share it, I'll take it instead, he thought.

Deedee threw the ball up in the air.

And it bounced right back down.

Then she threw it up again.

And it bounced down again.

Then she threw it up again, again.

And it fell right into Terrence's hands.

"Hey, you stole the ball! Give it back!" said Deedee.

"Ride a horse, Sammy Morse," said Terrence. He proceeded to run away with the red ball as fast as he could. Terrence was a pretty fast kid, maybe the fourth or fifth fastest student in Mrs. Jewls's class. Fortunately, Deedee was the first fastest. She was not going to take the yellow ball again.

She ran across the kickball field, where Ron was starting a match with Eric Ovens. Neither of them were very good at kickball, but it made it a fair game between them. Ron tripped over his kickball when he saw Deedee running by.

"Hey Deedee!" shouted Ron, "Do you want to play kickball?"

"Sorry, Ron, I don't have time! Terrence took my red ball!" Deedee said.

Ron decided to tag alongside Deedee, and Eric Ovens tagged alongside Ron.

Terrence, Deedee, Ron, and Eric Ovens ran past Eric Fry, and Eric Bacon, who were in the middle of a match of Way-High-Up Ball. Way-High-Up Ball is a game where you throw the ball at the school to get points. The Three Erics had made it up themselves.

"What do you mean it was a glopper?" asked Eric Fry, "It clearly hit above the sixth story window."

"Well how could I tell? The sun got in my glasses," said Eric Bacon.

"Hey, Eric and Eric! Terrence stole Deedee's red ball!" said Eric Ovens.

"So?" asked Eric Bacon.

Eric Ovens shrugged and continued running with Terrence, Deedee, and Ron. The other Erics followed him.

As the group ran across the playground, everyone stopped what they were doing to follow them. Sharie even stopped her nap on the tire swing to follow everyone, and the tire swing was her favorite place to sleep in the whole world. No one even knew what was happening anymore, but they were excited to find out.

Eventually, Terrence and Deedee reached the edge of the playground by the fence. A large crowd had followed them. Deedee probably had enough kids nearby to play twenty-square. However, none of them seemed to be in the mood to play twenty-square, and Terrence had the ball.

"Terrence! I want you to give the ball back right now!" Deedee said.

"You want me to give it to ya'? Because I'll give it to ya', alright!" Terrence threatened.

"Yes! That is exactly what I want!" Deedee shouted back.

Everyone in the crowd was screaming, preparing to see a fight.

"Kick him in the teeth!" said Rondi.

"Sock him in the eye!" said John.

"Break each other's bones!" said Kathy.

Deedee rolled up her sleeve, which wasn't much, because she was wearing a T-shirt. Terrence would also roll up his sleeve, but he wore a sleeveless shirt. Terrence wound up his fist to land the first blow, and the crowd went wild, when suddenly…

"DRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGG!"

The bell had rung. Ten minutes were up, and recess was over. Terrence handed the ball back to Deedee, who handed it back to Louis. The crowd broke up, and everyone headed up the stairs. No one wanted to be late for Mrs. Jewls's class, though it always felt as if no one was in quite the same rush to run back upstairs. On the way up, Deedee and Terrence talked for a second.

"Are we gonna settle this at lunch?" asked Terrence.

"I don't know," responded Deedee, "Ron asked if he wanted to play kickball earlier and I think I'm gonna join him."

"Fine…" Terrence grumbled. "See you during class…"

"You too, I guess," Deedee said.

The two didn't say another word as they walked back to Mrs. Jewls's class.