One day, in the fall, Lemanda Headerson, Lemon for short, and her friends headed for school. Lemon is very outgoing and fast thinking; she could get a fly out of a spider’s web with her slick words. Her friends were not, well, normal. First off, there was Adnama Loth, (Addie with her friends) the loopy, 10-year-old who was too smart for her own good. Then, there was Luke James, the short kid with blue eyes and braces that always seemed too loose for his forever-open jaw. They walked to the bus stop and looked around. “I can’t wait to meet our new teacher!” Lemon said.
“Yea, me either!” Luke added, “I wonder what she will be like?”
“I hear she is a maniac when it comes to frogs.” Addie mentioned.
“Really? Weird. Oh well… I also heard she would shoot people to Mars if they didn’t do their homework!” Lemon said.
“Really?!” Addie and Luke exclaimed at the same time, “I guess we better do our homework then,” Luke said.
Well, that might not have been true, but they still needed to be careful. Their new teacher was the infamous Mrs. Plogger; the nice-yet-overly-peppy-and-way-too-helpful fifth grade teacher at Liguana Elementary. She had a record of loosing her balance very often, and sometimes fell onto the students. She was also not just a frog lover; she was obsessed with the little green things. She had almost 900 stuffed frogs and maybe 200 statues, each with eyes that seemed to follow you where ever you went. Also, sitting in a tank on her desk, was a live, poison dart frog that she was rumored to use on the students if they did not behave in class. Her students were always winning the attendance and spirit awards, and other teachers did not seem to notice or care, they seemed to be afraid of her just as much as her students.
As the conversation went on, they did not realize that they had just walked past the school! It was Luke who noticed first, and told his friends. When they heard this, they immediately turned around and ran towards the building, and just as they opened the door, the tardy bell rang. They were late for class! They each swallowed their nerves and walked into the office.
“Hello, delinquents. How may I help you tardy children today?” the old secretary sitting behind the desk screeched.
“Um, well… may we, uh, have late passes to our class?” it was Lemon who spoke up first.
“Maybe,” she screeched at them again, “but before I can give you anything, you must explain to me why you three were late to school!”
The three glanced at each other briefly before Mrs. Plogger walked in, exclaiming as she did, “Oh, Mildred. These three were helping me get some items out of my trunk! I caught them before school, so they could not put their backpacks in my classroom. Isn’t that right children?”
Both terrified and grateful, all the three could think of doing was nod their heads and look away from the elderly woman staring at them from behind the desk. The grin on Mrs. Plogger’s face was wider than that of a Cheshire cat as she looked between the three of them and the wrinkled secretary.
“Well, alright, Mrs. Plogger. You best believe that I will be keeping my eye on them, though,” the secretary then glared at the three, and added, “and they better not be late again for quite a while.”
“Okie dokie, Mildred. I promise,” said Mrs. Plogger, winking to Lemon and her friends. She then waved to the woman at the desk and walked the children out the door. Then looking at them each in turn, said, “Phew! That was a close one, am I right? Well, I better get your kids to the classroom, then, shouldn’t I? Okay, this way,” she said as she walked towards a dark classroom that seemed to be empty of all life.
As they entered, the faint smell of chocolate and acid met their noses. And it was not an overpowering odor, but it was enough to make them need to cover their noses with their sleeves.
“What is that smell?” Luke whispered to Addie.
“I don’t know… but I don’t think I want to find out, either!” whispered Addie.
“Is there anything you would like to tell the class?” Mrs. Plogger said, flourishing to the room full of frogs. Then she laughed in a way that sounded like a dog singing opera and skipping every other note. “It seems that I can not find the students amidst my froggies!”
“Um, are there any other students here besides us?” Lemon asked.
“Well, of course there are! They are just hiding. And they want us to find them!” Mrs. Plogger exclaimed.
“Yea, sure. And I am a pink and green frog!” Addie muttered.
At this, Mrs. Plogger looked at her and said, “Well, dear. I would be careful of my wishes in this classroom, if I were you.” This made beads of sweat run down Lemon’s neck and made her knees shake.
“Wha-what does that mean?” Luke added nervously.
“Never mind that, kids. It was a little teacher humor!” Mrs. Plogger said with a laugh, “never you mind that… now, how about we sit down and start off with our class work? Ok, you three can sit in the first row, so I can keep my eye on you.”
And the kids all sat in the front row of seats, and got out their notebooks to write down their homework. As they began class, the class got weirder and weirder. First, they were asked if they liked frogs and they had to write 6 paragraphs about their favorite species of frogs, which they had to look up on the computers, right next to her desk and her pet frog. Addie, being the nearest to the tank, was staring at the tank every five or six words just to make sure it was not going to jump out at her.
After they finished their papers and handed them in, they had lunch and recess outside. None of the other kids walked near them and they were considered freaks just because of who their teacher was! That was just unfair, so they walked over to the lunch aid, Mr. Lesse, and told him that everyone was making fun of them. So he said, “well, sorry kids, but I can not stop them from making fun of you. I am not capable of controlling the way they think, sorry.”
And with a sigh, the children walked back into the building. Addie was stopped in the hallway buy a hall monitor who said, “You guys go on back to class. This one needs to come to the office with me right away. “
So Lemon and Luke went sadly back to class and when they entered the room, Mrs. Plogger was not there. So they just went to their seats and waited until she returned. The worry inside them grew as the minutes passed. Where was Addie? And where was Mrs. Plogger? And just as Lemon was about to voice these questions, Mrs. Plogger walked in with a new stuffed animal. It was a large frog with bulging eyes. It was light pink with dark greed spots. Lemon elbowed Luke to show him the frog. “Pink and green, Luke! Just like Addie had said earlier when she got Mrs. Plogger mad, remember?”
“I bet it is just a coincidence, Lemon. I bet she had to talk to the nurse or something… Don’t worry so much!” Luke said softly, so Mrs. Plogger wouldn’t hear him.
But she did. “Luke! Were you speaking out of turn? Go to the office and talk to the principal!” she said, “I have a better idea! I will walk you down there myself!” she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him to the office, he was screaming and yelling all the way.
And this left Lemon alone.
Alone with the frogs.
She was so nervous that she walked over and held her ear to the door, hoping that she would be able to hear Luke’s screams from the classroom. But it did not work; he was too far by that time. And she knew he was a goner. Just like Addie and al the other students (if there ever were any).
And then she realized what must have been going on. The stuffed frogs were all her past students who had misbehaved! She had to save Luke!
She ran to the door, threw it open, and ran as fast as she could to the office, hoping that she could make it there in time. When she got to the door, she heard Luke scream. And then a flash of light, and the screaming stopped. But not only did the screaming stop, but so did all noise and movement. As if the world had stopped. Everything stopped. All but the tears streaming down Lemon’s cheeks.
Then the door creaked open and Mrs. Plogger walked out, carrying a light blue frog, with a big mouth and markings that looked like braces along the back. She gave Lemon a kind smile and said, “Do you like stuffed frogs? You can have this one if you’d like!”
And even with the tears in her eyes, Lemon could manage to say with rising anger in her voice that reached a full out scream, “No. that is no frog. That is Luke! And the pink and green one was Addie! How could you?! My only friends! HOW COULD YOU!”
Appalled, Mrs. Plogger said in an oddly calm voice, “so I take it you don’t want it. ok, just another to add to my collection!” and she walked off, carrying the frog in her right arm as she petted it with the left, singing to herself, “2 little kids in my class, 2 little kids! Take one out and turn him to plush, 1 little kid le-e-eft!!”
Lemon was next on her list. The next one to be turned to plush! So she thought of an idea. I will figure out how she turned them to plush frogs, and then I will use it against her! Turning her into a stuffed frog! Her plan was going to work. If not, if it failed by the near half, she would turn to plush, instead of the teacher! She had to make this work. As revenge for her lost friends and all the other children she had plushinated to the point of no return. She would do it. No matter what the cost. It had to be done.
She decided the first step would be to sneak into the principal’s office and look around and find some clues. So she leaned on the door very quietly and peaked in. it was empty. She then turned the knob slowly and entered the room. While she was searching, she found a piece of chocolate. It was unwrapped and it had two bites missing. She figured that was probably what was used in turning them into frogs, so she stole it. Careful not to touch it to her skin.
She then decided that the second step would be to somehow slip the chocolate into Mrs. Plogger’s coffee. She had to do it very carefully, making sure she did not make a wrong move. She ran up to the classroom on silent feet and knocked on the door, pretending to be the suck-up hall monitor and needing her to take a call in the office. Surprisingly, it worked! So she entered the room and slipped the chocolate into the coffee. After all the chocolate was melted in, she got all her stuff, ran out the door and hid under the drinking fountain. As Mrs. Plogger walked in and closed the door, Lemon got up from her hiding spot and watched through the tinted glass on the door. All she could see through it was the blurry shape of Mrs. Plogger drinking a sip of her coffee, and a flash of light.
She turned the handle and opened the door. And sitting in the chair where Mrs. Plogger had sat, was a deep-brown colored stuffed frog. She decided to take it and sit it on the very top of the pile of other various colored frogs. It fit in quite well.
Lemon was both relieved and scared so she decided to go wait out side until the final bell so her mom could pick her up. And when she did, Lemon explained her entire day in excruciating detail. But all her mom could say was, “Lem, honey that is a good story! You should write it as a short story for middle school! They love creative writers!”
And so she did. 4laugh
DragonCat98 Community Member 
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