Because of Mr. Terupt

If you love someone, you don't quit on them just because they make a mistake.

We watched, and he taught us like he did every day we were with him. He showed us how to forgive.

Maybe you just do the best you can, 'cause you can't control what happens in the end.

We're lucky some people are so full of goodness.

Mr. Terupt stood up and walked over to Peter. We watched, and he taught us like he did every day we were with him. He showed us how to forgive.

I didn't want anyone to get hurt.

I remember thinking, sixth grade. We're going to be sixth graders. And Mr. Terupt is going to be my teacher. Our teacher. I thought of Mrs. William's word, MAGIC. I looked at Mr. Terupt sitting with some of my classmates. And I thought, she's right, there will be magic. He's my teacher. The Dollar-Word Man. Terupt (dollar word). THE END

I consider myself lucky to have you. I would endure all that pain again in an instant so that I could have you. I've never blamed you, nor will I. You're everything to me.

That was when I saw my principal’s underwear.

This year, for the first time in my life, I started thinking school could be fun.

Maybe if things had turned out differently that day, they would have turned out differently in the end, too. I think what happened on the soccer field just set us up for disaster later on.

We live on a farm. My mom grew up here. My grandma and grandpa live in their own house next to ours. They help us run the farm. So my grandma’s around a lot, and she wanted to know what was wrong with me—why I was crying. Any

Maybe you just do the best you can, 'cause you can't control what happens in the end. I guess it's okay to hope for things. Sometimes it works out.

We stepped off the elevator and walked to our car. As we pulled away, I saw the word HOSPITAL written on a sign. Mr. Terupt slept in the hospital (dollar word). I almost smiled.

It’s our bad luck to have teachers in this world, but since we’re stuck with them, the best we can do is hope to get a brand-new one instead of a mean old fart. New teachers don’t know the rules, so you can get away with things the old-timers would squash you for. That was my theory. So I was feeling pretty excited to start fifth grade, since I was getting a rookie teacher—a guy named Mr. Terupt. Right away, I put him to the test. If the bathroom pass is free, all you have to do is take it and go. This year, the bathrooms were right across the hall. It’s always been an easy way to get out of doing work. I can be really sneaky like that. I take the pass all the time and the teachers never notice. And like I said, Mr. Terupt was a rookie, so I knew he wasn’t going to catch me. Once you’re in the bathroom, it’s mess-around time. All the other teachers on our floor were women, so you didn’t have to worry about them barging in on you. Grab the bars to the stalls and swing. Try to touch your feet to the ceiling. Swing hard. If someone’s in the stall, it’s really funny to swing and kick his door in, especially if he’s a younger kid. If you scare him bad enough, he might pee on himself a little. That’s funny. Or if your buddy’s using the urinal, you can push him from behind and flush it at the same time. Then he might get a little wet. That’s pretty funny, too. Some kids like to plug the toilets with big wads of toilet paper, but I don’t suggest you try doing that. You can get in big trouble. My older brother told me his friend got caught and he had to scrub the toilets with a toothbrush. He said the principal made him brush his teeth with that toothbrush afterward, too. Mrs. Williams is pretty tough, but I don’t think she’d give out that kind of punishment. I don’t want to find out, either. When I came back into the classroom after my fourth or fifth trip, Mr. Terupt looked at me and said, “Boy, Peter, I’m gonna have to call you Mr. Peebody, or better yet, Peter the Pee-er. You do more peein’ than a dog walking by a mile of fire hydrants.

Mr. Terupt was going to die. I just knew it. I saw him. I saw what he looked like. He was going to die. My teacher was going to die.