Jason tried not to fidget. He felt his face grow warm as he shook his head to the right. 

 

This didn’t help, so he put his finger into his ear.

 

His teacher, Ms. Johnson placed a pinto bean into a small glass of water sitting on the table in front of her.

 

“Now each of you is to take the bean I gave you and put it into a glass of water at home tonight. Tomorrow morning see what happened to it." She stopped talking.

 

Ms. Johnson raised one eyebrow and peered over her glasses. She stared at the blond boy in the striped shirt across the room.

 

“Jason! What’s wrong?” 

 

Snickering broke out from several classmates. His friends had dared him to do it and now it was about to be discovered by his teacher.

 

“Nothing’s wrong Ms. Johnson,” he mumbled. He felt his face grow hot.

 

More laughter followed. Every head in Ms. Johnson’s seventh grade class turned toward Jason, who had slid down in his desk chair.

 

“Then why are you shaking your head and putting your finger in your ear?” asked Ms. Johnson.

 

“Because he can’t hear you,” piped up a boy sitting behind Jason.

 

Jason wished he could blend into the floor, but the sunlight flooding in from the window shone on him like a big spotlight.

 

He quickly pulled his finger out of his ear and folded his hands on the desk. 

 

“I have ear wax!”   

 

Ms. Johnson’s voice grew louder. “What have you done Jason? Why is everyone laughing?”

 

“It’s nothing!” He pointed to his friends sitting beside him. “These guys bet me that I would -"  Jason sighed and looked down at his hands.

 

Ms. Johnson briskly walked over to him. She turned his head and looked into his right ear.  Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. She could see the small pinto bean she had given him for the class experiment. Jason twisted his head away.

 

“What have you gotten yourself into this time? You march yourself down to the nurse right now. We’ll have to call your parents and then a - "

 

He jumped out of his seat. “Not a doctor! No way!” 

 

 “Come on, let’s go,” Ms. Johnson led him out of the classroom and down the hallway to the nurse’s office.   

 

Jason thought, “I can’t believe this. The guys bet me to put the bean in my ear. What are my parents going to think? Oh no, my parents!”

 

His teacher opens the heavy door labeled “School Nurse” and went inside. Jason ducked behind her and slipped out of the office.

 

The school nurse walked up to the office counter.  “Can I help you, Ms. Johnson?"

 

“Yes, Jason here -" she turned to find he wasn’t in the room. Ms. Johnson opened up the door again and looked into an empty hallway.

 

“Jason! You get back here right now!” She started to walk down the hallway.

 

The boys restroom door opened a crack. One blue eye watched his teacher run back toward the classroom. Slowly the door fully opened and Jason stepped out behind it. He gently closed it behind him and tip toed toward the stairway.

 

“Cool, I lost her. Now I’m getting out of here,” he thought as he ran down the stairs.

 

He walked to the right at the bottom of the stairway and briskly walked toward the school’s entrance doors. He didn’t want to attract attention by running.

 

Jason abruptly stopped halfway and winched from the pain in his ear. 

 

“I have to get this bean out. Maybe I can do it myself and then I won’t have to see the doctor.” 

 

He tried to get his fingers inside his ear. “Ouch! That didn’t work.”

 

A clicking of heels and the squeal of sneakers echoed down the hallway. Several voices were calling his name and they were all familiar.

 

“They’re all coming after me!” Jason thought as he took off running.

 

Mrs. Johnson saw his stripped shirt disappear around the corner. “Jason, you come back here right now!” 

 

Jason stopped in front of a door that had ‘Janitor’ on it. 

 

“They’ll never find me in here. I’ll just squeeze in next to all that stuff,” he thought as he stepped over a mop, broom, supplies and a large cart in the narrow closet.

 

The door clicked behind him, leaving him in the dark. “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, I can’t see anything!” Jason mumbled as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

 

He heard his friend Peter outside. “He must have come this way Roger.” Both looked up and down the hallway but saw no one. 

 

“Come on, he must have gone somewhere else,” said Roger.  Their voices faded into the distance as Jason quietly laughed to himself.

 

After what seemed like an hour, the pain in Jason’s ear started to get worse. He knew he couldn’t stay in the closet much longer.

 

“It’s so hot in here!”  Jason wiped beads of sweat dripped off of his face with his arm.  

 

“I guess it’s time to give up and go to a doctor,” he thought, his stomach churning at the idea. He turned the door knob several times but the door wouldn’t budge. He realized that he was stuck inside.  

 

“Help! I’m in here! I can’t get out of here!” he yelled, as he pounded on the door.  

 

What seemed like forever, the door knob began to jiggle back and forth. A few minutes later,  the janitor pulled Jason up on wobbly legs and helped him out. His classmates and teacher were standing nearby.

 

Mrs. Johnson stared at him. “You’re lucky your friends heard you. Now will you come to the doctor and get your ear looked at?” 

 

“Yes. It can’t be as bad as being in that closet. Please don’t tell my parents what I did.  Tell them I got lost, okay?”

 

She smiled. “I don’t think they’d believe me any way if I told them. Come on, let’s go.  Everyone back to class, I’ll be there soon.”

 

His classmates scattered back to class and wished him luck. Jason and Ms. Johnson began their walk back to the other side of the school and to the nurse’s office.

 

He looked up at his teacher. “I’m glad to get rid of this bean. It wouldn’t be cool to have a beanstalk growing out of my ear.”

 

They both laughed and walked into the nurse’s office.

 

 

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