Mr. Todd just shook his head. He
wrote Rhyme Time on the board. “In
England, if you get an April Fools’
joke played on you, they call you a
noodle. Who can give me a word that
rhymes with noodle?”
“Poodle!” called Jessica.
“That’s using your noodle.” Mr.
Todd turned to write on the board.
.
“Hey!” said Jessica. “One of Judy’s
sticks moved!”
Not now, Twiggy. Not yet.
Mr. Todd peered at the stick
collection. Nothing. Twiggy did not
move one toothpick leg.
Mr. Todd turned back to the board.
“Oodle!” “Kaboodle!”
Judy doodled in her notebook.
“Any more words that rhyme with
noodle?” Mr. Todd asked.
“Doodle!” called Judy.
“Hey, see?” said Jessica, pointing.
“One of Judy’s sticks moved again . . .
all by itself.”
Mr. Todd turned back around.
But Twiggy was hiding under the lid
now.
.
36
Phew. When Mr. Todd wasn’t
looking, Twiggy was on the move. But
every time the teacher turned around,
Twiggy was stick-still.
Mr. Todd wrote moodle on the board.
“Moodle is not a word,” said Jessica
Finch.
“Sure it is,” said Mr. Todd. “A
moodle is what you call a little mood.”
“Oh,” said Jessica.
“April Fools’!” said Mr. Todd.
Everybody cracked up. Mr. Todd
turned back to the board.
Just then, Judy saw two antennae
poke up through the top of the critter
case. No, Twiggy, you little sneaker-
doodle. Then a toothpick leg popped
up, then another, and before you
could say “Oodles of poodles,” Twiggy
had crawled right up out of the critter
case.
Uh-oh!
She, Judy Moody, was in a moodle.
.
38
Twiggy inched across a stack of
math homework. Twiggy crept up
the back of Mr. Todd’s chair. Twiggy
raced up Mr. Todd’s sleeve and
crawled right up . . .
Jessica Finch jumped out of her
seat. “Told you! That stick! It’s
aliiiive!”
39
“Mr. Todd! It’s on your head!”
yelled Jessica Finch.
Mr. Todd plucked the stick from his
hair and held it in his hand.
“April Fools’!” Judy yelled. “It’s not
a stick. It’s a stick bug. Meet Twiggy,
stick.”
.
“Look at that,” said Mr. Todd,
peering at the bug over his glasses. He
held it up for the class to see. “It really
does look just like a stick. Isn’t nature
amazing?”
41
Class 3T oohed and aahed over
Twiggy.
“Did I fool you?” Judy asked Mr.
Todd.
“A-plus! You got me good,” said
Mr. Todd. “But you’d better watch
out, Judy Moody. I might have a trick
or two up my sleeve. April Fools’ Day
isn’t over yet.”
Gulp!
“Mr. Todd,” asked Judy, “what
rhymes with uh-oh?”
.
43
Mystery of the Missing Birthday
CHA
p
TER
3
At lunch, Judy found a fake tomato
slice in her peanut-butter-and-jelly
sandwich. Mom! Hidden under her
sandwich was a birthday five-dollar
bill from Dad. NOT! It was fake money.
Rocky got a meatball cupcake in his
lunch. When Frank tore open his bag
of cheese doodles, there were healthy
snacks inside
—
carrots! Frank snorted
.
44
and chocolate milk went up his
nose.
Amy Namey’s pudding pack had
googly eyes. Even Jessica Finch’s bagel
was made to look like a doughnut
with sprinkles. But phony tomato
slices, meatball cupcakes, and the
Great Doughnut Fake-Out were
nothing compared to what Mr. Todd
might do to her.
Judy was full of itches and fidgets.
How could she sit still as a stick bug
when, any minute, Mr. Todd might
throw flour on her, like in Portugal?
Or write a big fat F-for-Flunk on her
homework sheet? Or worse . . . send
her to Antarctica (the desk in the back
of the class) for no reason!
.
All afternoon, kids kept looking at
her and giggling. “Hey, Rock,” Judy
said. “Do I have a fish on my back
or something?” She twirled left. She
twirled right. She reached behind her
back and grabbed the piece of paper
taped there.
“Shark!” said Judy. Oh, that Mr.
Todd.
“April Fish!” yelled Frank.
Judy cracked up. But the day was
almost over, and Mr. Todd still had
not played a trick on her. Weird.
.
Wait just a mini-cupcake minute!
Judy had been so busy thinking about
April Fools’ Day that she almost forgot
it was her birthday!
Judy looked around the room for
any sign of a birthday. No silly hat in
the shape of a cake. No giant Happy
Birthday sunglasses. Judy’s name was
not even up on the board.
Even Nancy Drew couldn’t solve
the Mystery of the Missing Birthday.
Weird and weirder!
.
50
Then it happened. Mr. Todd asked,
“Who will go to the office and pick up
a package for me?”
Package! Of course! The package
had to be her very own class birthday
present
—
a box of mini-cupcakes.
All hands shot up.
“Judy,” said Mr. Todd.
M
S
.
T
UXEDO
Judy rushed down the hall to the
principal’s office. “Hi, Ms. Tuxedo!”
she said to the principal. “I’m here to
pick up a package for my birth
— for
Mr. Todd.”
.
“Package? There’s no package here,
honey.”
“A box? Pink maybe? Smells like
cupcakes? Not meatball cupcakes.
Real cupcakes.”
“Sorry. No box and no cupcakes,
meatball or otherwise.”
Judy’s heart sank. Mr. Todd had
sent her on one of those fool’s errands,
and she was the noodle.
No fair! D-minus, Mr. Todd.
.
54
“Anything wrong?” asked Ms.
Tuxedo, coming up behind Judy.
“My class is missing!”
Judy moped back to class. But when
she got there, her class was missing!
As in G-O-N-E gone
.
“A whole heap of third-graders
can’t just disappear,” said Ms.
Tuxedo. “Let’s check the multi.”
Judy followed Ms. Tuxedo to the
multipurpose room, but it was dark.
No Mr. Todd, no Class 3T in there.
.
Suddenly, the lights came on. The
curtain on the stage opened.
“Surprise!” sang Mr. Todd.
“April Fools’!” shouted Class 3T.
.
Each kid in Judy’s class was holding
a piece of cardboard with a letter
drawn on it. One by one they stepped
forward, until Judy could read:
.
Mr. Todd had not forgotten her
birthday after all.
“Surprised?” asked Mr. Todd.
Judy nodded. “This was your idea?”
“With a little help from the class,”
said Mr. Todd. He held out a pink box
full of mini-cupcakes. “And your mom
and dad.”
61
“A-plus, Mr. Todd. You got me so
good,” said Judy. “I was sure you
all forgot my birthday and went to
Antarctica or something.”
“Or something!” yelled Rocky and
Frank.
“Rare!” said Judy. She took a mega-
bite of her not-meatball mini-cupcake.
“Best April Fools’ joke ever.”
.
“Judy, would you like to be first to
get your face painted?” a voice said.
The voice belonged to Ms. Tater.
Ms. Tater was an artist and Mr. Todd’s
girlfriend and she had written a book
about crayons.
“Ms. Tater-Tot!” said Judy. “Oops, I
mean Ms. Tater. Did you come to talk
to our class about crayons?”
Ms. Tater laughed. “Not this time.
Mr. Todd invited me. I thought I’d
brighten up your birthday with a little
face-painting.”
April Fish and spaghetti trees!
“Just like in India,” said Judy.
.
64
Ms. Tater held out her paintbrush.
“What will it be? A butterfly? A
balloon? A birthday cake?”
“A Band-Aid, of course,” said Judy,
pointing to her cheek.
After face-painting, it was picture
time. Class 3T crowded in front of
a spaghetti tree they had made out
of cardboard and paper. Oodles
of wiggly noodles hung from the
branches.
.
66
Judy put on the birthday-cake
hat and the giant Happy Birthday
sunglasses.
“Say cheese!” said Mr. Todd.
“April Fish and spaghetti trees!”
said Judy, grinning like an April
fool.
.