The Mystery of Room 114A

Chapter 1: A Very Strange Monday

Mrs. Pruneda walked into room 114A with her big cup of coffee. The coffee was so hot it looked like lava. She took a big sip and smiled. "Nothing is better than really hot coffee," she said to herself. Her three cats at home would agree if they could talk.

At home, Lola the calico cat was probably telling Luna and Pulguita what to do. Lola was the boss of the house. She made Mrs. Pruneda feed her with a spoon every day. Luna, with her weird green-brown fur and extra toes, was probably hearing voices again. And little Pulguita was probably making his sad "woe is me" sounds.

But Mrs. Pruneda didn't know that today would be the strangest day ever at Madden Elementary.

"Good morning, class!" Mrs. Pruneda said as the kids came in.

Joseph, known as Joey to his classmates and everyone else except Mrs. Pruneda when she was trying to get him to sit down and focus, walked in first. "Hey, girls!" he said with a big smile. All the kids laughed because Joseph always said that.

"Joey, you know there are boys in here too," said Mrs. Pruneda, laughing.

"I know, but I like saying it," Joey said. "Did I tell you I got married in kindergarten to Lily?"

Before Mrs. Pruneda could answer, something very weird happened. The elephant on the "Elephant Words" poster started to move. Its trunk wiggled. Then its whole body started coming out of the wall!

"AHHHHH!" screamed all the kids.

But Joseph was happy. "I wanted the elephant to come out!" he said, clapping his hands.

Chapter 2: Things Get Weirder

The elephant was now standing in the middle of the room. It was gray and big and looked very confused.

"This is not normal," said Mrs. Pruneda. She put down her lava-hot coffee and tried to think. At home, she had over 10,000 books. Surely one of them had information about elephants coming out of posters.

Courtlyn raised her hand. "Mrs. Pruneda, can I break my arm now?"

"What? No, Courtlyn! Why would you want to break your arm?"

"I just do," Courtlyn said. Then she tried to fly by jumping off her chair. She fell down but didn't break anything.

"I love pastel pink!" she yelled from the floor.

Suddenly, a small dancing rat appeared next to the elephant. It was wearing a tiny pink tutu and doing the cha-cha.

"My dancing rat!" Courtlyn screamed with joy.

But Adalyn was not happy. "I hate rats! And this school is haunted! I told you Madden has ghosts!"

"Don't worry," said Akash. "If there are ghosts, I will punch them so hard they will go away. And if that doesn't work, I will bring Spiderman to hit the griddy."

"It's 'hit the gritty,' not 'hit the griddy,'" said Lucas.

"I can hit the gritty so hard," Akash said, and he started dancing really badly.

Chapter 3: The Golden Dog Mystery

Just then, Adalyn's golden retriever Jenny came running into the room. But this was not a normal dog. Jenny was pooping golden poop all over the floor.

"Jenny!" Adalyn yelled. "How did you get here?"

A mysterious person in a black coat ran into the room. "I'm here to steal your golden dog!" the person said.

"No way!" Adalyn said. She started fighting the mysterious person. She punched and kicked and won the fight. The person ran away.

"Good job, Adalyn," said Mrs. Pruneda. "But we still have an elephant and a dancing rat in our room."

Amina was crying in the corner. "This is like a haunted house! I hate haunted houses! And someone stole my dog too, just like Jenny almost got stolen!"

"Don't cry," said Joseph. "Look at my rainbow ball!" He pulled out a colorful ball and started bouncing it.

But when the ball hit the floor, something strange happened. Lucas started talking in gibberish.

"Blah goo gah monster face!" Lucas said, acting like a monster.

"Lucas, what's wrong?" asked Mrs. Pruneda.

"He lied about something," said Joseph. "When people lie, they can only speak gibberish and act like monsters. I saw it happen before."

Chapter 4: Football Chaos

Ethan and Ali decided to play football in the classroom, even though there was an elephant, a dancing rat, and golden dog poop everywhere.

"I'm going to score a touchdown!" Ethan said.

"No way!" Ali said.

Ethan ran around the elephant and scored. Ali started crying.

"I told you I would win," Ethan said.

But then something really weird happened. Ali turned into a unicorn! His horn was sharp and pointy.

"Ali, you're a unicorn!" everyone yelled.

Ali the unicorn was mad about losing. He used his horn to stab the football. POP! The football went flat.

"Now we can't play anymore," Ali said sadly. But he was still a unicorn.

Mrs. Pruneda was getting very confused. She needed her mechanical keyboard to help her think. At home, she had many expensive keyboards that made clicking sounds. The sounds helped her sleep when she watched typing videos on YouTube.

Chapter 5: The Plot Thickens

"Class, I think something very strange is happening," Mrs. Pruneda said. "This is not a normal day."

Lucas, who was still speaking gibberish, pointed at the window. Outside, they could see Tokyo! But they were supposed to be in Houston, Texas.

"I wanted to go to Tokyo!" Lucas said in gibberish that somehow everyone understood.

"But how are we in Tokyo?" asked Mrs. Pruneda.

Suddenly, a wheelchair appeared in the room. Lucas jumped in it, even though his legs worked fine.

"I wanted to be in a wheelchair!" he said happily, rolling around the elephant.

The dancing rat was now dancing with Jenny the golden dog. Courtlyn was still trying to fly. Joseph was bouncing his rainbow ball. Ali was still a unicorn. And Akash was practicing his gritty dance moves.

"This is like a dream," said Amina. "A very weird dream."

"Or a nightmare," said Adalyn. "I'm supposed to get married soon, but not in a room with an elephant!"

Chapter 6: Mrs. Pruneda's Realization

Mrs. Pruneda sat down and took a big sip of her lava-hot coffee. She thought about her cats at home. Lola would be demanding her spoon-fed dinner. Luna would be hearing voices and acting crazy with her extra toes. And Pulguita would be making his pitiful "woe is me" sounds.

"Wait a minute," Mrs. Pruneda said. "I think I know what's happening."

She looked at her coffee cup. It was empty. She had drunk all of her super strong coffee too fast.

"Class, I think the coffee made me see things," she said.

But just then, the elephant trumpeted loudly. The dancing rat did a backflip. Ali the unicorn neighed. And Jenny the golden dog pooped more golden poop.

"Or maybe not," Mrs. Pruneda said.

Chapter 7: The Truth Comes Out

Suddenly, Mrs. Pruneda's phone rang. It was her mom calling from Houston.

"Mija," her mom said in Spanish, "did you drink too much coffee again?"

"Maybe, Mama," Mrs. Pruneda said. "But there's an elephant in my classroom."

"That's what happens when you drink coffee that hot," her mom said. "I told you this when I was a teacher and a radio personality. Strong coffee can make you see things."

But her mom was wrong. The elephant was real. So was the dancing rat. And Ali was definitely still a unicorn.

"Class," Mrs. Pruneda said, "I think we're in a mystery. A real mystery."

Ethan raised his hand. "Can we solve it by playing football?"

"I don't think so," Mrs. Pruneda said.

Courtlyn was still trying to fly. She jumped off her desk again. This time, she actually flew a little bit!

"I'm flying! I'm flying!" she yelled.

"How is she flying?" asked Amina, who was hugging an imaginary bunny.

Chapter 8: The Big Twist

Just then, the mysterious person in the black coat came back. But this time, they took off their coat. It was the school principal!

"Surprise!" the principal said. "This is all a test!"

"A test?" asked Mrs. Pruneda.

"Yes! We wanted to see how you would handle weird situations in your dyslexia class. The elephant is a robot. The dancing rat is a robot. Even Ali turning into a unicorn was special effects."

"But I can really fly now!" said Courtlyn, floating in the air.

"That's... not part of the test," the principal said, looking worried.

"And I'm still speaking gibberish!" said Lucas. "Blah goo monster face!"

"That's not part of the test either," the principal said.

"And Jenny is still pooping golden poop," said Adalyn.

The principal looked very confused. "Um, maybe some of this is real after all."

Chapter 9: More Chaos

Joseph bounced his rainbow ball again. This time, when it hit the floor, Akash started speaking gibberish too.

"Gah blah monster gritty!" Akash said, doing a weird dance.

"Now two kids are speaking gibberish!" Mrs. Pruneda said. "This is getting out of hand!"

The elephant robot started malfunctioning. It began dancing with the rat. Ali the unicorn was chasing his own tail. Courtlyn was flying around the ceiling. Lucas was racing around in his wheelchair. And Amina was crying because everything was too much like a haunted house.

"I want to go home to my cats," Mrs. Pruneda said. "Lola would know what to do. She's the boss of everything."

"Who's Lola?" asked Ethan.

"My calico cat. She's very bossy and makes me feed her with a spoon. She would probably tell this elephant to sit down and behave."

"Can we call her?" asked Joseph.

"Cats can't talk on the phone, Joseph."

"But elephants can come out of posters," Joseph said. "So maybe cats can talk on phones."

Chapter 10: The Resolution

Mrs. Pruneda decided to try something. She pulled out her phone and called home. She put it on speaker.

"Meow," came Lola's voice through the phone.

Everyone gasped. Lola could talk on the phone!

"Lola," Mrs. Pruneda said, "we have an elephant, a dancing rat, a unicorn, flying kids, and gibberish speakers. What should I do?"

"Meow meow purr," Lola said. Somehow, everyone understood that she said, "Give everyone some milk and cookies, and everything will go back to normal."

Mrs. Pruneda went to her desk and pulled out milk and cookies for everyone.

As soon as the kids ate the cookies and drank the milk, amazing things happened. Ali turned back into a regular boy. Lucas and Akash stopped speaking gibberish. Courtlyn gently floated back down to the ground. The elephant walked back into the poster. The dancing rat disappeared. And Jenny's poop turned back to regular dog poop.

"How did you know that would work?" Mrs. Pruneda asked Lola through the phone.

"Meow purr meow," Lola said, which meant, "I'm a very smart cat, and I know everything."

Chapter 11: Back to Normal (Sort Of)

"Well, class," Mrs. Pruneda said, "that was the strangest day ever."

"Can we do it again tomorrow?" asked Joseph.

"NO!" said Mrs. Pruneda, Adalyn, and Amina at the same time.

"I liked being a unicorn," said Ali sadly.

"I liked flying," said Courtlyn.

"I liked the wheelchair," said Lucas.

"I liked punching ghosts," said Akash, even though he never actually punched any ghosts.

"I just want my dog back," said Amina, still sad about her stolen dog.

"And I want to go to Tokyo for real," said Lucas.

"And I want to eat Skittles," he added.

Mrs. Pruneda poured herself another cup of lava-hot coffee. "Maybe tomorrow will be a normal day," she said.

But just then, Luna called from home. Her meow sounded like she was hearing voices again.

"Uh oh," said Mrs. Pruneda. "Luna is hearing voices. That usually means more weird things are coming."

"What kind of voices?" asked Ethan.

"Ghost voices," Mrs. Pruneda said.

"AHHHHH!" screamed Adalyn and Amina. "We hate ghosts!"

"Don't worry," said Akash. "I'll punch them!"

Chapter 12: The End (Or Is It?)

The bell rang, and it was time to go home. All the kids packed up their things.

"Bye, Mrs. Pruneda!" they all said.

"Bye, kids. Try not to turn into unicorns or fly around at home," she said.

As the kids left, Mrs. Pruneda sat at her desk. She thought about her day. She thought about her cats at home. Lola would want her spoon-fed dinner. Luna would be acting crazy with her extra toes and voice-hearing. And Pulguita would be making his sad little meows.

She also thought about her 10,000 books at home. Maybe one of them would explain what happened today. And tonight, she would type on her mechanical keyboards and listen to typing ASMR videos to help her sleep.

But just as she was about to leave, she heard a small voice.

"Psst, Mrs. Pruneda."

She looked around. The room was empty.

"Down here."

She looked down. It was the dancing rat! It was back!

"I thought you disappeared," Mrs. Pruneda said.

"I did, but I came back. I like it here. Can I be the class pet?"

Mrs. Pruneda thought about it. After everything that happened today, a talking dancing rat didn't seem that weird.

"Okay," she said. "But you have to promise not to make the kids speak gibberish."

"Deal," said the rat. "By the way, your cat Lola says hi. We had a long talk on the phone."

Mrs. Pruneda shook her head and laughed. "This job is never boring."

As she walked to her car, she could hear the rat practicing its dance moves in the classroom. Tomorrow would definitely be another interesting day in room 114A.

And somewhere in Houston, three cats were waiting for their human momma to come home with stories of elephants, unicorns, and flying children. Lola was already planning what she would demand for dinner. Luna was hearing voices that told her about tomorrow's adventures. And Pulguita was practicing his most pitiful "woe is me" meows.

The mystery of room 114A was solved, but Mrs. Pruneda had a feeling that more mysteries were coming. After all, when you have students like Courtlyn, Adalyn, Amina, Ethan, Ali, Joseph, Lucas, and Akash, every day is an adventure.

And that's exactly how Mrs. Pruneda liked it.

The End... or is it?

(The dancing rat winked at the reader and did one more backflip before the lights went out in room 114A.)