The last tale was a tale about pigtails. This tale is a tale about tattletales.
If you can say that five times fast, I congratulate you.
Specifically Jason. Every time a student was misbehaving in Mrs. Jewls's class, he would be quick to point it out. He always wanted to impress Mrs. Jewls. She was one of the nicest teachers he ever had.
Actually, she might've been the only nice teacher he ever had, substitutes notwithstanding.
"Mrs. Jewls! Joy is cheating off of Maurecia's notes!" Jason shouted. He had the second biggest mouth in class.
"Joy, I'm ashamed at you. You need to pay better attention in class and write your own," Mrs. Jewls said. "Now go write your name on the blackboard under the word DISCIPLINE."
Joy was frustrated at Jason. He was the only thing getting in the way of her getting away with everything. He was always shouting things like
"Mrs. Jewls! Joy is chewing gum in class!" or
"Mrs. Jewls! Joy is trying to mess with Todd again!" or
"Mrs. Jewls! Joy is being insufferable!"
On the way to the playground for recess, Joy caught Jason on the stairs.
"Hey Jason!" Joy shouted. She had the biggest mouth in class. "You better be careful being such a tattletale!"
"Huh?" Jason asked. "I was only trying to help Mrs. Jewls!"
"Well you know what they say! Snitches get stitches!" Joy said. She skipped down the stairs.
You weren't supposed to jump down the stairs at Wayside School. There were signs plastered on every floor. But what if Joy was right? What if snitches do get stitches? He wasn't sure what the correlation between him calling out Joy for bad behavior and him getting stitched up would be, but he wasn't willing to take any risks.
Jason walked down the stairs without another word, and got to the playground. He figured he'd look for his best friend Stephen, so they could enjoy spending time together. However, Stephen looked a bit busy getting harassed by Terrence.
"Come on, give me my ball back!" Stephen shouted.
"Go to the moon, ya' dumb loon," Terrence said. He held the ball high above his head. Stephen was a little on the short side, so he had trouble reaching it. Eric Bacon walked over to help him out.
"Hey! You give Stephen his ball back, or else you'll have to face my fury!" Eric Bacon shouted.
"Kick a can, Tin Man," responded Terrence.
Eric Bacon tried to reach for the ball, but he was even shorter than Stephen. He was also pretty scrawny, so his fury wouldn't be very furious.
Eric Ovens saw Terrence bullying one of his best friends, and tried to help out. "Terrence! Why are you being so mean to my friends?" he shouted.
"Step on a tack, knick-knack," Terrence said.
Eric Ovens also tried to reach for the ball, but he was even shorter than Eric Bacon, even if not nearly as skinny.
Jason saw Louis across the playground. He was busy managing a game of kickball, so he didn't see what was going on with Terrence. Most of the tallest kids in class were busy playing kickball, so they couldn't help either. Jason tried shouting, "Hey Louis!"
Louis turned his head towards Jason. "What is it Jason?" he asked.
Jason was about to tell Louis about what was happening, when he remembered what Joy had said. He wasn't willing to take any risks. "I hope you're having a nice day today!" Jason said.
"That's very sweet of you, Jason," Louis said. "I hope you take care as well."
Jason looked back at Terrence, Stephen, and two of the Three Erics as he turned around and walked inside. Terrence had knocked Stephen down and kicked his ball over the fence. Jason wanted to help out, but he didn't know what he could do. He was too scared.
He walked upstairs to the classroom on the thirtieth story. He stuck his head out the window, where he could see everything that was going on below him.
On the playground, he saw Myron feeding the birds. Jason thought that such a peaceful sight would help him take his mind off of the troubles he had seen earlier.
Myron was a good kid, and he tried to toss out all the crumbs equally. He didn't want to see any birds getting too few. It was nice to see someone so well-behaved.
However, Kathy was not a good kid, and she was hiding in the tree right behind Myron, with a slingshot and some sharp pencils.
Jason wanted to tell Myron to look out, but he wasn't sure what would happen if he tried, so he kept his mouth shut.
Kathy launched a pencil at Myron's back, causing him to flail around in pain. All the birds were scared, and ended up flying away. Jason decided he shouldn't look over there, so he moved his eyes to another part of town. Wayside School was higher than any other building in town, so he had lots of places to look.
He looked towards a street downtown, a couple blocks away from his house. It was very nice to see the entire city below. It really put the world in a new perspective.
Suddenly, two masked men stepped out of one of the buildings, carrying big sacks of cash.
"I thought you said we were going to give up crime!" said one robber to the other.
"Well, how are we supposed to become scientists if we can't afford the equipment?" said the other robber.
The police tried to chase after the robbers, but they were able to hide in a small alley. Jason would be able to call the cops and tell them exactly where the robbers were, but he stayed silent. He was worried what could happen if he were to tell.
Jason tried to look around town, but it was all horrible. He wanted to stop all the bad things that were happening, but he feared the consequences.
Mrs. Jewls walked inside class seeing Jason at the window. "Jason, what are you doing?" she asked.
Jason was startled. He quickly turned around to see Mrs. Jewls, but out of panic, slipped a bit, and fell backwards out the window. He was only hanging on by the back of his knees and the tips of his fingers. Mrs. Jewls stared in horror.
"Joy! You were right! I'm sorry!" Jason shouted, hanging out the window. Joy, who was on the playground, looked up and saw Jason.
"Oh my gosh!" Joy shouted. "What happened?"
"You were right!" Jason cried. "I tried my hardest to stop being a tattletale, but it was already too late! Now I'm going to fall and hit the ground and I'm going to need stitches, just like you said!"
"Or you could die," Kathy interjected.
Jason was ready to accept his fate, when Mrs. Jewls pulled him inside by the legs.
"Jason! What are you doing?" she repeated.
"Looking out the window," Jason explained. "Then you showed up, and I was falling out the window."
Mrs. Jewls needed a moment to collect herself. That was the fourth time that year someone had fallen out that window. She needed to consider keeping it closed more often.
"What just happened?" Mrs. Jewls said.
"I already said! I was looking out the window, then I fell out of it!" Jason explained.
"I know that, but what caused you to look out the window?" Mrs. Jewls demanded.
"I'll tell you, but you should probably close the window first," Jason said.
Mrs. Jewls closed the window.
Jason proceeded to tell Mrs. Jewls everything, about the "snitches get stitches," Terrence on the playground, the bank robbery, and the window thing. Mrs. Jewls already knew that last one, but nonetheless.
Needless to say, Mrs. Jewls wasn't very happy with Joy when she got back to class. It was partially her responsibility for causing Jason to fall out the window.
To be fair, it was also part Mrs. Jewls's responsibility, because she startled Jason when she walked in the room.
Mrs. Jewls had Joy put a strike next to her name for giving Jason bad advice, and made her circle it for skipping down the stairs. She went home on the kindergarten bus at 12:00. Kathy and Terrence also had to write their names on the DISCIPLINE list, because of how they behaved on the playground. The robbers didn't have to, because they weren't part of Mrs. Jewls's class. Mrs. Jewls wrote her own name under the DISCIPLINE list for scaring Jason, but she was good for the rest of the day, and was able to erase it from the board at the end of the day.
"So I won't get any stitches?" said Jason.
"Sure, as long as you stay careful," replied Mrs. Jewls.
The bell rang to dismiss class. Jason stood at the top of the stairs, and looked down. He started down the stairs…
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...And he made it out perfectly okay. He let out a sigh as relief as he walked toward the bus and headed home.