Chapter 16

Maurecia was beginning to feel scared. She
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looked around for Louis, the yard teacher, but didn't see him. "I can scream real loud," she

warned.

"Oh my gosh!" said Jenny. "It's Louis!"

Maurecia looked at the stranger. He did sort of look like Louis.

Except his hair was combed. His shirt was tucked in. He was wearing a tie. And there was skin between his nose and mouth.

He had shaved off his mustache.

"That's Mr. Louis to you," said Louis. "I'm a teacher, and I expect to be treated with respect."

"You want to play jump rope, uh, Mr. Louis?" asked Maurecia.

Louis was great at jump rope. He could even do it blindfolded. He was the one who taught Joy the song she was singing at the beginning of this

story.

"No, thank you, Maurecia," said Louis. "I don't

play games. I'm an adult."

"But you're a yard teacher," said Jenny.

"No, I'm a Professional Playground Supervisor," Louis corrected her. He walked away.

"Wow!" whispered Maurecia. "I never knew Louis was so handsome!"

Jenny patted her heart. "I think I'm in love,"

she said.

"I thought he looked kind of goofy," said Joy.

Up in class, everyone was talking about the new Louis.

"He looks so weird without his mustache," said Calvin.

"He's handsome!" said Bebe.

"He got mad at me for running across the blacktop," complained John. "He made me go all the way back to the edge of the blacktop, then walk across it. And I had to call him Mr. Louis."

"I am very proud of Louis," said Mrs. Drazil. "He has always been a troublemaker. But I think he is trying to be good. We should all give him a chance."

Joy stared at Mrs. Drazil. It's your fault, she thought You made him shave off his mustache.

At recess, Louis refused to pass out the balls.

"I haven't washed them yet," he said.

"You're going to wash the balls?" asked Eric Bacon.

"They're filthy," said Louis. "And they all have the wrong amount of air in them."

"I don't care," said Eric Fry.

"I do," said Louis. "Before I can let you play with them, I have to clean them and pump them up with the precise amount of air as specified by POOPS."
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"POOPS?" asked Eric Ovens.

"The Professional Organization Of Playground Supervisors," explained Louis.

He showed them the POOPS handbook.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" asked Eric Fry.

"Just play and have fun," said Louis. "But remember, stay off the grass. No running on the blacktop. No eating. And no excessive shouting."

The three Erics walked away. "What a booger brain!" muttered Eric Bacon.

Louis heard him.

"That's Mr. Booger Brain to you, young man," he said.

The next day, when the kids tried to go outside for recess, they only made it down to the fourth floor. The stairs were completely jammed with other kids from lower classrooms.

"Hey, what's going on?" shouted Joy.

"Louis won't let anyone outside," somebody shouted back. "He's painting the blacktop!"

"But I have to go to the bathroom!" yelled Stephen.

"Now he's gone too far!" said Joy. "Excuse me, out of my way, sorry, coming through!" she said as she squeezed in and out of kids, crawled through legs, climbed over heads, until she made her way to the door at the bottom of the stairs.

Louis was slopping black paint across the blacktop. Joy could see him through the glass door. Next to him was a big bucket of paint.

"MR. LOUIS!" she shouted so loud that even the kids back up on the fourth floor had to put their hands over their ears.

He came to the door.

"What are you doing?" Joy demanded.

"The blacktop isn't black," explained Louis. "It's gray. A blacktop is supposed to be black. It's right here on page forty-three of the POOPS handbook."

He opened the book and showed page forty-three to Joy.

Joy grabbed the book and threw it out across the graytop. It landed plop in the bucket of black paint.

All the kids behind her cheered.

"You're the Poop!" said Joy.

Louis's red face turned even redder. The place where his mustache used to be turned purple.

"That's Mr. Poop to you," he said.