Judy Moody Saves the World! (8 page)

The next morning, and the next one after that, Judy woke up feeling like a sloth moth. She could hardly make herself get out of bed.

Saving the world was not going so well. She hadn’t done anything
really
important. Like heal the world with her own Crazy Strip. So far, she had only saved four banana peels, a lunch bag, and a toad.

On Friday morning, Judy ate her no-garbage breakfast in silence. She packed her no-garbage lunch by herself. She didn’t say a word when Stink stuck Crazy Strips all over his arms, elbows, knees, and chin.

“These Crazy Strips itch,” said Stink, peeling off the one on his elbow. Judy couldn’t stand it one more minute.

“If those were my Crazy Strips,” said Judy, “I’d be happy to itch. I would not scratch once. And I would never not ever peel it off. Not even in the bathtub.”

In school, Judy did not raise her hand once. She did not pass a note to Frank. She did nothing but chew her Grouchy pencil all through Spelling.

She, Judy Moody, was in a pencil-snapping mood.

When it was time for Science, Mr. Todd took off his watch and said, “I want everybody to sit still for sixty seconds. I’ll time you.” When the minute was up, Mr. Todd said, “In that minute, one hundred acres of trees in the rain forest were just destroyed. That’s seventy football fields.”

“No way!” went through the class.

“We all depend on the rain forest,” said Mr. Todd. “For things we eat and wear and use every single day. Think about it. Even your wooden pencil and rubber eraser could be from the rain forest. Ninety-eight percent of the cedar wood used for pencils comes from rain forest trees.”

Judy stopped chewing on her Grouchy pencil. She stared at it. The grouchy face looked even grouchier. This pencil used to be a tree. A rain forest tree!

She, Judy Moody, would never, ever use a pencil again. Not even a Grouchy pencil.

“If we help save the rain forest, we help save the planet,” said Mr. Todd.

Suddenly, Judy had a plan. A perfect Save-the-World plan. All she had to do was skip recess.

When all the kids hurried outside to the playground, Judy sneaked back to the classroom. This was her big chance. Inside each desk was a pencil holder. Judy raced around the room and took the pencils from each desk. Then she hid them inside the flower vase.

As soon as recess was over, it was time for Math. “Take out your workbooks,” said Mr. Todd. “Let’s get those pencils working.”

Uh-oh!
Judy thought.

“Hey, my pencil’s gone!”

“Mine too!”

“Mine was right here!”

“Mr. Todd! Mr. Todd! Somebody stole our pencils!” The whole class was in an uproar.

“Okay, is somebody playing a joke?” asked Mr. Todd. Nobody answered. “Do any of you know anything about the missing pencils?”

Judy kept her head down and pretended to work out math problems. Brad looked at Judy. She was the only one NOT complaining about her missing pencil. And she was doing math problems with a
p-e-n.

“Pencil thief!” Brad yelled, pointing at her. “Judy Moody stole our pencils!”

Judy felt the eyes of twenty-one third-grade pencil lovers turn to glare at her.

“Judy?” Mr. Todd came over to her desk. “What do you know about these missing pencils?”

“Okay, I took them,” Judy confessed. “Because I think we should stop using pencils.”

“Stop using pencils? That’s nuts!” Brad said.

“To help save the rain forest,” said Judy.

“Hmm. Class, what do you think?” asked Mr. Todd.

“We just want our pencils back,” said Leo.

Judy could not believe these third-grade pencil freaks! Were they in the ozone? Didn’t they care that seventy football fields of trees a minute were being cut down? She wished they would all move to PENCILvania.

“I think we
should
save the rain forest,” said Frank.

“Me too,” said Hailey.

“Me three,” Rocky said.

“Yeah, but we can’t just give up pencils forever,” said Randi. “We have to write stuff, and erase. Like in Math. How can we save the world without math?”

“Maybe we don’t have to use so many,” said Jessica Finch. “One pencil can draw a line thirty-five miles long. We could all promise to use the same pencil until fifth grade.”

How did Jessica Fink Finch know so much about pencils? Maybe she wasn’t such a fink after all.

“How many pencils can you get from a tree?” Judy asked.

“None,” said Brad. “Pencils don’t grow on trees.”

“Hardee-har-har,” said Judy. “I mean it. You can get a lot of pencils from one tree. For real.”

“One tree can make 172,000 pencils!” said Jessica Finch. “I read it in my
Ranger Rick
magazine.”

“Wow! One tree could make all the pencils in our school.”

“All the pencils in Virginia!”

“We could plant a tree in the rain forest, then,” said Judy. “You know, for the Virginia Dare School. To make up for all the pencils we use.”

“Kids all over the world raise money to protect rain forests,” Jessica told the class. “It only costs a dollar to have one tree planted in the Children’s Rain Forest in Costa Rica.”

“If it only costs a dollar,” Judy said, “then we could send money for them to plant trees, and our class can adopt them.”

“Wow!” everybody said. “Let’s do it.”

“Class? Any ideas about how to raise some money?” Mr. Todd asked.

“How about a car wash?” said Lucy.

“We could sell stuff,” said Adam. “Like cookies!”

“My sister put on a play in fifth grade and made money to help save the whales,” said Jessica. “She even won a Giraffe Award for it.”

A Giraffe Award! For somebody who sticks their neck out for a good cause. Judy could hardly wait till fifth grade!

“Maybe we could put on a magic show,” said Rocky.

“Or we could collect a bunch of stuff to recycle,” said Frank, “and get money for it. The Recycle Center gives five cents each for pop bottles and milk jugs.”

“Rare!” said Judy.

“Double cool!” said Rocky.

“A bottle drive sounds like a fine idea,” said Mr. Todd. “We could raise money while recycling at the same time. What do you say, class? Do you think we could collect enough bottles?”

“Yeah!” everybody yelled.

It was settled. The Virginia Dare School, Class 3T, was going into the bottle business. Starting with their very own cafeteria.

The third-graders spent the afternoon rounding up milk jugs from all over the school. They piled up plastic bottles from the kindergarten classes, and from the teachers’ lunchroom. They even rescued some from the trash.

Class 3T worked as hard as an army of leaf-cutter ants. “That was cool how you got us out of Math,” whispered Frank.

“This is more fun than when you put my arm in a cast,” said Jessica.

“We still need a ton more bottles if we’re going to save the rain forest,” said Rocky.

“Rocky’s right,” said Mr. Todd. “Let’s go home and see how many bottles we can collect over the weekend. Ask your family and neighbors. Tell your friends.”

Judy Moody felt as sharp as a pencil point. They were just a few days and a few hundred bottles away from saving the rain forest.

She was in a Judy-Moody-best-mood-ever. At last she was on her way to saving the world. And the best part was she no longer had to do it all by herself. Class 3T would save the world together. Like an ecosystem!

She, Judy Monarch Moody, knew just how a butterfly felt coming out of the chrysalis. Light as a feather.

“Let’s go on a bottle hunt,” said Rocky. “After school.”

“I sure hope bottles are easier to find than northeast beach tiger beetles,” Judy said.

They raided Rocky’s garage first and found two milk crates full of bottles that had not been recycled. “Rare!” said Judy. “Twenty-seven bottles!”

“But they’re all smooshed. I forgot my mom stomps them.”

“That’s okay,” said Judy. “They’re ABC bottles. Already Been Crushed!”

At Judy’s, her mother let her have the stash of milk jugs she was saving to make bird feeders. Dad didn’t have any bottles, so he gave Rocky and Judy one dollar bill each to plant a tree.

“Thanks, Mr. Moody!” said Rocky.

Judy kissed George Washington right on his presidential nose.

“Does this mean I can wear lipstick again?” asked Mom.

“And I can drink coffee?” said Dad.

“Yes. But not too much,” laughed Judy.

“No fair,” said Stink. “I’d plant a tree, too, if I could have a dollar or something.”

“Or something,” said Judy.