| “ | Look out below! | ” |
| — Louis | ||
"After the Storm" is the twenty-ninth chapter of Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom.
Synopsis[]
The students enjoy a prolonged recess after the Cloud of Doom clears.
Plot[]
The lights come back on after the Cloud of Doom's storm passes, and the students begin to head back to class. During the cloud's storm, everything inside the school seemingly has been shuffled to a random other floor. Items from all over the school are strewn across the halls, including Mr. Kidswatter's giant desk, which blocks the stairs between the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh floors. The students, and Mrs. Jewls, have fun climbing over it. In Mrs. Jewls's class, Myron places Miss Zarves's fingernail into the nail collection bucket, though it's now empty. All the other clippings are gone, as well as the blackboard, though the chalk is still there. Eventually, the blackboard is found in the library, while nail clippings show up sometimes in very strange places.
As the teachers stay inside to clean the mess, the students are sent outside, where it is shown that during the storm, the Cloud of Doom dropped a lot of snow over the school. The sky shines blue as Allison's eyes, and birds start chirping. Louis stands on the roof, shoveling down the snow that was dropped towards the end of the Cloud of Doom's storm. He tells the kids to look out, but they do just the opposite, playing a game where they try to crash into the clumps of snow Louis is tossing off the roof. Eric Ovens dashes past Jenny to get hit by a clump on the head, earning him one point. The students enjoy a three-hour long recess, while the teachers try to get everything back where they belonged inside. On the other side of the school, Louis tosses down another clump of snow, and the students race towards it. It ends up in Leslie's hair, though Terrence and Paul argue it's ground snow. Dana, however, points out that four flakes from above fell in Leslie's hair, so it counts.
Back up on the roof, Louis notices Sharie's umbrella caught in the snow. He yanks it out, but ends up sliding backwards off the roof. He calls for the students to look out, and they rush to the call, surprised to see it's not a clump of snow, but Louis himself. Louis doesn't want to hurt the kids, and considers using the umbrella as a parachute, but he's holding the wrong end with no time to change his grip. He prepares to grab the flagpole, and misses, but the hook of the umbrella's handle latches on, spinning Louis around in circles as he slides down and slowly reaches the ground. Sharie runs up to Louis, thanking him for getting her umbrella, but informing he should've just used the stairs.
Characters[]
- Myron
- Sigmund Freud (mentioned, final appearance)
- Mr. Kidswatter (mentioned)
- Mrs. Jewls
- Miss Zarves (mentioned, final appearance)
- Allison (mentioned)
- Louis (final appearance)
- Eric Ovens (final appearance)
- Jenny (final appearance)
- Leslie
- Terrence (final appearance)
- Dana
- Paul
- Bebe Gunn
- Sharie
Trivia[]
- There is a small error in this chapter, where it says "the other nine hundred thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine clippings were gone" instead of "the nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine clippings were gone."
- This marks the final appearance of Eric Ovens, Jenny, Terrence, and Louis. This marks the final physical appearance of Mrs. Jewls, though she is mentioned in "Rainbow" as well, as well as the final time Miss Zarves is mentioned.
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