Mr. Cobbler’s Class

Daniel Smith and his friends, Arthur Sinsupper and Laurie Locketbox, walked down the long hallways of the James Sanderson Learning Center. “I don’t get it. The school schedule said, ‘Mr. Cobbler’s class on Advanced Math would be on the fourth level of the school. Well, here we are on the fourth floor. Where is it?” asked Arthur.
“I think we’re lost,” said Laurie. “Mr. Cobbler’s classroom should be somewhere around here, but I don’t see it.”
Daniel looked up and down the long school corridors. “Maybe the room isn’t marked,” he said.
“Either way, this is our first class with him, and we’re already late. Mr. Cobbler will probably be mad when we get there,” said Laurie.
“I hope not. The guy gives me the creeps,” said Arthur.
“I know, every time I see Mr. Cobbler around the school, he always looks so cold and serious,” said Daniel.
“You know what I heard; I heard Mr. Cobbler used to work as a prison warden,” said Arthur
“Oh, come on, guys, we’re already late as it is. We can talk about how creepy Mr. Cobbler is after his class is finished,” said Laurie
“If we ever find his class,” grumbled Arthur.
“I know,” said Daniel. “But it has to be around somewhere,” he said as he looked around a corner and down another hallway.
“Wait,” he said, “look, there it is!” Daniel pointed down the hallway at the door marked with a sign: Advanced Math.
“Hey, I thought we already looked down this hallway,” said Laurie.
“Who cares! Let’s go before we get any later than we already are,” said Arthur.
So, with that, the three friends ran up to the door and entered the classroom quietly. The room was a big, dimly lit chamber with no windows. The walls were lined with shelves—each one stacked with rows of tiny little jars. The room had a musty smell. The class was already in session.

Daniel, Laurie, and Arthur stepped into the room, closing the door behind them, trying not to make a sound.
“Nice of you to join us,” said a cold, droning voice from across the room. The three friends turned around to see the long, pale face of Mr. Cobbler staring at them from the other side of the room. “You’re late!” Mr. Cobbler said.
“Yes, Mr. Cobbler, and we’re very sorry,” said Daniel.
“Hold your tongue!” Mr. Cobbler snapped. He walked up to Daniel, Laurie, and Arthur, stopping right in front of them. “Well, it seems you three prefer to dilly-dally instead of making sure you get to your classes on time.”
“But the only reason we’re late is that we couldn’t find your classroom,” spouted out Arthur.
“Don’t interrupt me,” said Mr. Cobbler, glaring at Arthur with his chilling eyes. “Well, seeing that you children like to spend all your time running about, why don’t you make yourself useful and go fetch some equipment for the rest of the class? Go downstairs to the basement of the school and get me ten tweezers and six cans of paint thinner from the supply closet, understand?”
All three friends nodded in unison.
“Well, don’t just stand there! Stop interrupting the class and go get the supplies!” yelled Mr. Cobbler.
With that, Daniel, Laurie, and Arthur ran out of the classroom.
“Well, he sure was understanding,” said Laurie with a chuckle as they walked down the hall.
“Tell me about it, I didn’t even want to take this class, but it was this or piano class,” groaned Arthur.
“What’s wrong with the piano class?” asked Laurie.
“Come on, guys, we’ll talk about this later,” said Daniel. “We should just get that stuff from the supply closet and get back to class.”
Daniel, Arthur, and Laurie walked down a long, curving staircase and around a corner to the supply closet in the school basement. Daniel opened the door. The closet was a lot bigger than Daniel thought it would be. There were many shelves and cabinets full of pencils, rubber bands, and yellow envelopes. There were also lots of weird things like toy lizards and jars of wax. The three friends stepped inside.
“How are we going to find anything in all this?” moaned Arthur.
“Everything seems to be labeled, so this should be easy enough,” Daniel pointed out.
“I forgot what we had to find,” Arthur said.
“You don’t remember?” Laurie said, rolling her eyes.
“He said we need to find tweezers and paint thinner,” said Daniel.
“What does he even need with paint thinner,” Arthur mumbled.
“Come on, let’s just get looking,” said Laurie. Just then, they heard the door SLAM behind them. The three of them jumped around to face the door.
“Did you shut the door, Arthur?” asked Laurie.
“Don’t look at me,” said Arthur. “I’m the farthest from the door.” Then he walked up to it and checked the doorknob. His heart sank. “It’s locked,” he said.
“Well, Mr. Cobbler knows we’re in here,” Laurie said. said. “He’ll come looking for us when we don’t come back to class.”
“Why is that not comforting,” said Arthur. “We’ll just get in more trouble.”
“Well,” Daniel said. “It’s either Mr. Cobbler who unlocks us from this place, or we’ll be trapped in the supply closet on the lowest floor of our school.”
“First off, we need to stay calm,” Laurie said. “We need to think of a way to get out of here.”
“Let’s just push at the door,” Arthur said. “Maybe it will give way.”
The three of them put all their weight against the door. But it wouldn’t budge.
“Okay,” Arthur said. “I don’t want to be trapped in here all night.”
“I got it!” Daniel said. “We’re in a school full of people. Let’s just start screaming.”
Each one of them belted out a scream in unison. They tried to make as much noise as possible. Then they waited for a few seconds. No response. “Maybe we should try one more time,” said Daniel.
“I mean, someone is going to have to open this door soon,” said Laurie. “It’s a supply closet. People get supplies out of it.”
“Are we just going to wait here then?” Arthur asked.
“I guess so,” said Daniel. Just then, they all heard a loud creaking noise. “What’s that?” Laurie asked.
Arthur gasped. “Look at the floor!”
Daniel looked down. Half the floor was gone, and the gap left in its place was widening even more. They all ran to the edge of the closet.
“What’s going on?” Laurie squealed.
“I don’t know, but if that hole gets any wider, we’ll fall in,” said Daniel.
“Then what do we do?” Laurie asked.
Before Daniel could think of an answer, Arthur screamed and fell into the ever-widening pit, disappearing into the darkness below.
“Arthur, no!” Laurie screamed.
As the surface of the floor grew smaller and smaller, Daniel looked around desperately for an exit.
Daniel got an idea. “Quick!” he said. “Onto the shelves, the ones nailed to the wall.”
Daniel and Laurie hoisted themselves onto a shelf on a nearby wall right as the floor disappeared underneath them. They were now sitting on a high shelf, with their legs dangling off the edge. Daniel looked down at where the floor used to be, only to see a black abyss.
Laurie looked very worried. “We must go down there and get Arthur,” Laurie cried.
“Yes, but we must be careful,” said Daniel. “We don’t even know how far down it goes.”
Just then, there was another loud creaking sound. The shelf they were sitting on slid out from under them, causing them to fall into the black pit below. They both screamed as they fell deeper and deeper into darkness. Suddenly, both Daniel and Laurie found themselves being slammed onto a rough surface.
“OWW!” Daniel screamed. He grabbed his chest and looked around. He was in some sort of old, dark room. “Where are we?” Daniel asked, still a little lightheaded.
Laurie groaned. “I don’t know…What did we land on? How did we survive the fall?”
Daniel put his hand on the ground and felt a fist full of hay. “I guess we landed in a hay pile,” said Daniel.
“Wait a minute…How far did we fall?” Laurie asked.
They both looked up; there was no way to tell. It was pitch black. “Hard to say,” said Daniel.
Both Daniel and Laurie stood up and brushed themselves off. “Where’s Arthur?” Laurie asked.
“I’m over here,” Arthur said. “I thought you guys were goners.”
Daniel and Laurie turned around. Arthur was standing near an open doorway in the corner of the room. There was a bright light flickering from beyond the doorway, which lit up the room just enough to see Arthur standing there
“Are you okay, Arthur?” Daniel asked.
“Well, besides falling what felt like at least a few stories, I’m fine.”
“Where exactly are we?” asked Laurie.
“I suppose we’re on some lower level of the school,” Arthur said.
“But weren’t we on the lowest level before the floor disappeared?” Laurie asked.
“Apparently not,” said Daniel. “Now, how do we get out of here?”
“Well, the only way out is to go through this doorway over here,” Arthur said, pointing behind him.
“We have no other choice,” said Daniel.
The three friends went through the doorway and entered a large tunnel that looked like it was made of bricks. The hallway was much better lit than the previous room. A series of old-looking lanterns hung from the ceiling.
“I’m not sure about you guys, but I want to get out of here,” said Arthur.
“Say, who do you think lit these lanterns?” asked Laurie.
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“Well, it’s just that these lanterns look quite old, and the flames couldn’t have been burning forever,” Laurie explained.
“So, you mean someone else is down here, too?” asked Arthur.
“I’m not sure,” said Laurie.
“Either way, we should hurry and find our way back to the school,” said Daniel.
So, Daniel, Laurie, and Arthur wandered down the dimly lit stone halls brushing aside cobwebs.
“Why do you think these tunnels were built?” asked Laurie.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s just for storage,” said Arthur.
“There has to be some other reason why these tunnels were built,” said Laurie.
As they walked further into the tunnel, Daniel thought about Laurie’s question. But he was unable to come up with any reason for why these tunnels existed. Finally, the three kids got to the end of the tunnel, they walked through a massive entryway only to find themselves in a huge stone room with a tall ceiling. The room was once again lit up by ancient-looking lanterns and was full of hundreds of passageways and staircases that led out through different doorways in different spots. The room was bigger than a concert hall, and there were doorway openings leading out from every part of the room. All the doorways we’re facing in every different direction. There were so many doorways and exit paths that there were even some lined up on the walls and ceilings. “Oh great, now which way do we go?” Arthur asked.
“There are so many pathways,” said Laurie grasping her head.
Daniel looked around, trying to figure out which one was the right way.
“Any ideas?” Arthur asked.
“Well, obviously, we should take the path that leads up,” said Laurie.
“I see at least a dozen paths that look like they’re pointing up.
“So, what do we do?” Arthur asked.
Daniel came up with an idea. “Guys, I know how we can find a way out of here.”
“How?” asked Laurie.
“Well…We need a piece of wood.” He looked around the room. “Over there,” he said, pointing to a wall where the paint and stone had crumbled, revealing several pieces of horizontal wooden beams. “Guys, help me break off a piece of a beam.”
“Why?” asked Arthur.
“I’ll show you in a sec,” said Daniel.
All three of them pulled one of the beams from the wall. It wasn’t as hard as they thought it would be. The beams were quite old and broke easily.
“Okay,” said Laurie. “We’ve got the wood. Now what?”
Daniel ran over to the doorway from where they had entered and where a small old lantern sat. He picked it up and ran back to his friends. “Now,” said Daniel as he opened the glass case of the lantern, “we make a fire.”
“Why would we want to make a fire?” asked Arthur. “There are plenty of lanterns lighting up this place.”
“It’s not for seeing,” said Daniel. He placed the tip of the beam into the flame within the lantern. The top of the wood caught fire.
“Ummm,” said Laurie. “If it’s not for seeing, why are we going through all this trouble to make a torch?”
Daniel raised the torch into the air. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I saw this in a movie once.” He started running in circles with the torch above his head.
“Daniel, no offense,” said Laurie. “We should be worried about how to get out of here, not reenacting scenes from movies.”
“Look,” Daniel said. “It’s working.”
“What’s working?” Arthur asked, “The old wood is just making a bunch of smoke.”
“That’s the point,” Daniel said. “There’s like a million doors in here, right? And we need to find the right one. So, I need the smoke from this torch to lead us to the door where the air is coming in.”
“Wait, a minute,” said Laurie. “That’s right. We’re breathing, aren’t we? This means that there is somehow air in here, and the smoke will escape to where the air is coming in.
“I think I get it,” said Arthur.
“Come on!” Daniel said, pointing to a trail of smoke heading down a dark tunnel. “The smoke is going that way. Let’s follow it.”
Laurie started to cough. “Who knew our only way out would be so bad for our health.”
They walked through the cave tunnel, following the smoke as it drifted further and further into darkness. Daniel continued holding the burning beam out in front of him. As they walked for what felt like a long time, Laurie started to speculate. “I think it’s become obvious at this point,” she said, “to come to the assumption that the current school staff does not know about this place.”
“The cleaning staff sure doesn’t,” said Arthur as he spat out a cobweb.
“If the school doesn’t know about this place, why is it here?” Daniel asked.
“If we ever get out of here, that’ll be the first thing I want to find out,” Laurie said. She looked down at the ground and saw a rat scurrying by. “Well, maybe it’s the second thing,” she said. “The first thing I want to find out is if I caught any deadly sicknesses from being down here.”
“Look,” said Arthur, pointing to a glow a few yards away. “There’s a light. I think there’s some sort of room up ahead.”
Daniel, Laurie, and Arthur walked toward the emanating light and entered another large room, once again lit with old lanterns. This room was not as big as the last one and was covered in different colored tiles. They were on the ceiling and on the walls, and some were grafted on the support beams for the room.
“What’s up with all these tiles? Why are they everywhere?” Laurie asked.
“I don’t know, but there is no way out of this room except for the way we came in,” Arthur pointed out.
“What?! Then, where is the smoke escaping to?” Laurie asked.
“Hey guys, I hate to say this, but I have some bad news. Take a look,” said Daniel, pointing to the ceiling. Laurie and Arthur looked up at the massive grate on the ceiling. “All the smoke is getting out through there,” said Daniel.
“Let’s try and reach that grate. Maybe we’ll find the way out,” said Laurie.
“How?” Daniel asked. “I don’t think we can reach it. Even if we stood on each other’s shoulders, it wouldn’t be enough to reach it,” said Daniel.
“The ceiling does look pretty high up,” said Laurie.
“So, what do we do now? Should we go back to the room with all the doors?” Arthur asked.
“I guess so,” said Laurie.
The three friends turned around to exit back down the hallway. “Sorry, guys, I thought using smoke from the fire would help.”
Daniel was about to blow out the flame on the torch when Laurie called out: “Wait, look!” She pointed down at a silver plaque built into the floor. The three friends ran up and gathered around it. The plaque was old and dusty. Arthur reached down and dusted it off. Then Laurie read what was on the plaque out loud:

There is only one way to move forward past this room. Press the square tile, and the doorway out will be revealed.
Arthur swerved his head from left to right, looking all around the room. “Wait, what? There’s like a million tiles in here.”
“Yeah, not to mention they’re all square,” said Laurie.
“Don’t worry, guys, we can figure this out,” said Daniel.
“Hey, guys, I got it,” said Arthur. He ran over to a nearby wall that was covered in tiles and started pushing against each one with his hands. “Come on, guys. Just keep pushing on tiles; one of them has to be the right one!”
“Please,” said Laurie, rolling her eyes. “That won’t work.”
Laurie walked around the room, examining each tile. Daniel walked around in the other direction, looking for any differences in the tiles. Sadly, no matter how Daniel looked at it, all the tiles still looked square. Eventually, despite their efforts, all three of them sat defeated in the middle of the room.
At this point, the torch had gone out on its own, leaving only the flickering light of the ancient lanterns to light the old room. “I think it’s safe to say we are going to be missing our classes today,” Laurie said with a sigh.
“Forget class. How on earth are we ever going to get out of here?” cried Arthur.
“Ughhh…. I don’t know. All these tiles are the same,” said Laurie.
“Wait! That’s it!” said Daniel, jumping to his feet. He began to run around the room, quickly looking over each tile.
“Give it up, Dan. There’s no way out of here,” groaned Arthur.
“Yeah, there is. Come on, help me look,” said Daniel.
“Look for what?” asked Laurie.
“The square tile!” said Daniel, darting to the other side of the room.
“You do realize that all the tiles in here are square,” said Arthur, slightly annoyed.
“No,” said Daniel. “Don’t you see? These tiles aren’t square, they’re rectangular!”
“Wait, what do you mean?” asked Laurie.
“I mean, two sides of each tile are slightly longer than the other sides. One of the tiles must be perfectly square, and that’s the one we have to press,” said Daniel. Suddenly, all three of them were rushing around the room in search of the square tile.
“Guys, look!” Laurie yelled. “This one is smaller. I completely missed it last time. Quick! Come here!” Daniel and Arthur rushed over to her side. Sure enough, the tile was perfectly square. Daniel leaned forward and pushed the tile with his hand. As he pushed, the tile slowly sank into the wall behind it. At first, nothing happened. Daniel once again pushed his hand against the tile, this time a little harder. Again, nothing happened. Right when all three of them were about to give up hope, a loud sound echoed through the room.
“What is that?” asked Laurie.
“An elephant tap dancing. How should I know?” exclaimed Arthur.
“It sorta sounds like gears turning,” said Daniel.
“Where is it coming from?” asked Laurie.
“It sounds like it’s coming from that wall,” said Daniel, pointing to the wall at the far end of the room.
Sure enough, the tiles on the wall were sliding away, revealing an exit behind it. “Finally, a way out of here. Let’s go!” said Arthur. All three ran to the new exit and discovered a stone staircase leading up, once again lit by lanterns.
“Yes, this has to be the way out,” said Laurie.
“Let’s hope so,” said Daniel.
All three marched up the stairs. Once again, Laurie brought up the lingering question in each of their minds. “I still don’t understand why all these passageways are here.”
“Let’s just wait till we get out to worry about that,” said Arthur.
“But it makes no sense. Why are there all these catacombs down here? Why are all these lanterns lit, and how come no one seems to know about this place?” Laurie asked her friends.
“I don’t know, it’s just weird,” said Daniel.
“Hey, look! There’s another room up ahead,” said Arthur pointing to a doorway at the top of the long staircase.
“Great, maybe it’s the way out,” said Laurie.
All three of them ran to the top of the stairs, only to have their hopes drop when they saw what was up there. In front of them was not the way out but another strange room. It was completely empty, except for a platform in the middle of it with five brown levers attached on top.
Daniel led Laurie and Arthur through the dust-covered room to a large wooden door. He reached out and gave the door a push, but it was locked tight.
“It won’t budge,” said Daniel.
Arthur rolled up his sleeves and said: “Move out of the way. Let me try.”
He began pushing and pulling at the locked door with all his might but with little effect. Laurie rolled her eyes. Arthur started gasping for air.
“Okay, this door is locked up tighter than a drum. What do we do now?” asked Arthur, breathing heavily.
“Let me take a look at it,” said Laurie. Arthur moved out of her way as she began to examine the door. She looked with one eye at the crack in between the wall and the door.
“Well,” said Laurie. There are at least three rim locks keeping this door in place.
“Well, how do we unlock them?” asked Arthur.
Daniel looked at the platform with the levers on it. “Hey, guys, see those levers? They had to be put here for a reason. Maybe one of them unlocks the door.”
He walked over to the platform Daniel grabbed the lever on the far left.
“Wait,” said Laurie. “None of those levers are labeled. What if something bad happens after you pull one?”
“Yeah, what if you get electrocuted or something?” Arthur added.
Daniel paused. “Well, we’ll never know unless we find out.”
Daniel pulled down the lever. All of a sudden, there was a small clicking noise. The three of them stood still for a moment. Laurie peered through the thin crack between the door and the wall.
“I hate to tell you guys this, but there are now four rim locks keeping this door shut,” said Laurie.
“Aww, man, we’ll never get out of here,” Arthur moaned.
“So, wait, are you saying when I pulled this lever, it added another lock? Daniel asked.
“That’s right,” said Laurie.
Daniel looked down at the row of levers in front of him. “I have a hunch,” he said. He grabbed the far-left lever once again and pushed it back into its original position. Just then, there was another clicking sound.
“What are you doing?” snapped Arthur. “Do you want to lock us in here even more?!”
“No, I’m trying to figure out how these locks work,” said Daniel.
“How is pulling the same lever that locked the door in the first place going to open the door?” Arthur asked.
“Think about it. If pulling the lever one way adds a lock, then pushing it back will probably take that lock away,” Daniel explained.
“Hey, Daniel’s right. There are only three locks again,” said Laurie as she looked through the crack in between the door and wall.
“So, if we figure out what each lever does, we can figure out which ones we should pull to remove the locks,” said Daniel.
“Okay. I kind of understand,” said Arthur.
“Good,” said Daniel. “Laurie, look through the crack again for any changes in the locks.” Laurie turned back around and peered through the small space with one eye. Daniel grabbed the lever second farthest to the left and pulled it towards him.
“Two of the locks unlocked,” said Laurie. “But now there is another lock.”
“So that makes two, right?” Arthur asked.
“I’m going to pull the second lever back to its original position,” said Daniel. After he did so, Laurie confirmed that it went back to three locks.
“Well then,” said Daniel. “I’m going to do the same thing with the other three levers.” He pulled each lever and then pushed each one back into place. As Daniel pulled and pushed each of the remaining levers. Laurie carefully watched the locks as they changed, informing her friends of the results “So now we know from left to right,” said Daniel. “The first lever adds one lock; the second lever adds one lock but takes away two; the third lever takes away two; the fourth lever adds two locks, and the fifth lever only takes away one lock.”
“And we’re starting with three locks,” said Laurie, “which means we have seven locks in total.”
“My head hurts explain that to me,” said Arthur.
“If there are three locks, to begin with,” said Daniel, “and the only levers that add locks are the first one, which adds one, so that’s four, the second one, which takes away two but adds one, that’s five, and the fourth one, which only adds two, that’s seven. Three of them are already locked, and four of them are spared to be locked.”
“I wish I were better at math,” said Arthur.
“With that in mind,” said Laurie. “We know that if we pull a lever, it will reverse the locks or add locks, or do both. But if we push the levers back into place, it will undo whatever was changed by pulling the lever.”
Daniel stood in front of the levers running the information through his mind.
“This is great. Now, what do we do?” Arthur asked.
Daniel perked up. “So, Laurie, just to be clear, what’s the status now? How many locks are bolted right now?”
“You put the levers back, so we’re back to the beginning. We have three locks.”
“And we’re still no closer to getting out of here,” said Arthur.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Daniel. He grabbed the second lever and pulled it towards him. There was another clicking noise. Then he grabbed the third lever (middle one) and once again pulled it towards him. There was another clicking sound, and the door swung open.
“I don’t believe it!” Laurie said. “How did you figure it out?”
“Hurray!” Arthur shouted. “I don’t know what you did, but let’s get out of here.”
The three of them walked through the door to another staircase. “You must tell me,” Laurie said. “How did you know those two levers would unlock the door?”
“Well,” Daniel said, “I knew the first lever I pulled was the one that added one lock but also took away two, which would leave us with two. The middle lever I pulled only took away two locks, which would leave us with none.”
“Gee, that’s incredible,” Laurie said. “So, the other levers were just there to mess us up.”
“I guess so,” said Daniel.
“Look,” Arthur gasped. “Another door at the top of the staircase.” A double-decker door sat at the top of the staircase with rusty black hinges and old-fashioned door handles. “What do we need to do for this one? Paint the Mona Lisa? Rebuild the Pyramids? Figure out what killed the dinosaurs?”
Daniel ran up the stairs and pushed the doors open without effort. “Look where it leads. Outside!”
Laurie and Arthur ran up the stairs and out the door. Daniel followed them. “I don’t believe it,” said Arthur. “We’re in front of the school building! We’ve been outside the main school building before a bunch of times, and there was never a doorway that led to some underground Labyrinth.
Daniel looked back and said: “Guys, look. There is no door.”
“What are you talking about?” Arthur asked.
Laurie and Arthur turned around and saw the regular school grounds, but the door they had opened was gone.
“Um… where did the door go? It was right here. We literately just walked out of it,” said Laurie.
“Oh, forget it. I’m so done with this,” said Arthur.
“Say, do you guys know what time it is?” Daniel asked.
“It looks like the late afternoon,” said Laurie.
“Maybe we should check in with Mr. Cobbler?”
“Must we?” Arthur groaned.
Daniel and Laurie nodded. The three of them walked back to Mr. Cobbler’s class on the fourth floor. Laurie opened the door with the sign “Advanced Math” on it. As the door opened, the grim face of Mr. Cobbler came into view. He was sitting at his desk, staring at them. “Well, look who’s finally come back,” he said. The three of them stood frozen in the doorway.
“I suppose you think it’s fun to skip your classes, don’t you,” Mr. Cobbler sneered.
Laurie spoke up. “Please, Mr. Cobbler, let us explain.”
“Quiet!” Mr. cobbler said in a sharp voice. “Apparently, going to get things from the supply closet is too difficult for simple minds like you. You didn’t even return the items I asked for. Now, because of all you’re gallivanting about, you have missed the entire class and will have to make for it in homework.”
“But that’s not fair,” Arthur cried out.
Mr. cobbler slammed his hand on the table and shouted, “QUIET!”
Arthur fell silent. Mr. Cobbler gazed at them with an emotionless but terrifying glare. “As I was saying…This little mishap will affect your grades severely. I hope you know what you did today was quite pathetic. I guess kids today aren’t as smart as their parents think they are.”
“Please, Mr. Cobbler, it’s not our fault that we’re late,” said Daniel.
“I SAID, BE QUIET!!” Mr. Cobbler shouted.
Daniel had had enough. “NO, YOU LISTEN!!” he shouted back. Mr. Cobbler looked dumbfounded. Daniel took a deep breath. “I’m sorry I shouted,” he said. “What happened is we got lost. It was my fault. It won’t happen again. Please, do not punish my friends. I will take any punishment you want me to have.”
“You impudent brat!” Mr. Cobbler roared. “Don’t you dare tell me such lies!”
“Hold it,” said Daniel. “I’m not lying. We got lost, and we had to find our way back. This is a very big school. What’s so hard to believe about that?”
“Enough!” Mr. Cobbler screamed. “I want all three of you cockroaches out of my sight this instant!”
Without hesitation, the three of them left the classroom.
“What’s his problem? Arthur asked as the three of them walked down the hallway.
“I have no idea,” said Daniel.
“Thanks for sticking up for us,” said Laurie.
“No problem,” said Daniel. “I just think it isn’t right for Mr. Cobbler to treat people the way he does.”
“I hear you, especially after all we’ve been through today,” said Arthur.
“Okay, guys, can we think about this later? I’m starving,” said Daniel. It should be practically dinner time.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Laurie.
Daniel laughed. “Let’s just hope that our next class with Mr. Cobbler is “more” exciting.” The three of them laughed as they rushed to the cafeteria.

The End