Messy Miranda Read Free

when she saw the yardstick. “Hey, Neela. May I borrow that for a minute?”
    â€œSure,” Neela said. “Can I come?”
    Miranda shook her head. “I’ll be right back.” She didn’t want Neela to find out about the hat.
    Miranda took the yardstick and went back to her desk. When nobody was looking, she slowly dipped the stick into her desk and into the hat. Wow! The hat was at least three feet deep.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Jaiden asked.
    Miranda jumped. As she did so, the yardstick came flying out of her desk. It clattered to the floor in front of Jaiden’s feet.
    Jaiden dropped his sandwich. “Yowzers! That’s crazy!”
    â€œThese desks sure are big,” Miranda said. She smiled at Jaiden.
    Jaiden scratched his head. “Uh, I guess.”

    Ms. Basil clapped her hands. Everyone clapped back and looked at her.
    â€œIt’s time for book exchange at the library.”
    Everyone cheered. The library was the best!
    Miranda smiled. It was time to see what else she could fit into the hat.

Chapter Six
    The library was full of books. Big books, little books, heavy books, thin books. There were sports books, monster books, princess books, volcano books. There were books about everything—bugs, cooking and even skipping. Miranda had read many of them. Today she wanted The Biggest Book of Big Things . It was the biggest book in the whole library, and she had a plan.
    It was tricky to sign it out, because there was never any place you could put it. The book was taller than the kids in grade three. It had to go on a special shelf in the library. When Miranda took it down, she nearly fell over. She had to tuck it under her arm and drag it to the librarian.

    â€œAre you sure you want that book?” the librarian asked.
    â€œOh, I’m sure!” Miranda said.
    â€œYou could use that book for a surfboard,” Jaiden said. He pretended to surf on one of the chairs.
    â€œJaiden, get down!” Ms. Basil said.
    As Ms. Basil took care of Jaiden, the librarian signed out The Biggest Book of Big Things . Inside were all sorts of pictures of big things, like dinosaurs, skyscrapers, airplanes and whales. Miranda did not care much about them. She had only signed out The Biggest Book of Big Things to see if it would fit into the hat in her desk.
    The students lined up and marched back to class.
    Miranda had to get Neela to help her carry the book back. “How are you going to get this home?” Neela asked.
    Miranda shrugged. “Ben can help me.” But Miranda had no plans to take the book home.
    As soon as everyone had entered the classroom, the recess bell rang. “Quickly, students,” Ms. Basil said. “I have recess duty!” She did not have time to help the students put things away. Instead, Ms. Basil threw on her coat. She put on her orange safety vest and dashed out of the room.
    This was perfect! Miranda stayed behind until everybody had left. Then she tried to put The Biggest Book of Big Things into her desk.
    She started by putting in a corner of the book. Then she put in the first half. Soon the whole book had slipped into the magic hat without making a sound.
    Miranda’s jaw dropped. “Wow!” she said. “Magic is so cool!”
    Now that the book was safe in the hat, Miranda turned to go outside. She stopped in her tracks. Jaiden was standing just outside the door. His eyes were wide as Frisbees. “No way!” he said.

    Miranda shook her head. “I told you these desks are big.”
    Jaiden scratched his head. “But that’s The Biggest Book of Big Things ,” he said. “There’s no way it can fit into a desk.”
    â€œIt just did,” Miranda said. She tried not to look nervous as she walked out of the classroom past Jaiden. She did not want him to go near her desk or find out her secret. She was going to have to be very careful. But first, she was going to skip with