Trouble at School for Marvin & James Read online

  He crawls over to the candy and takes a tiny bite. The sweet cherry taste perks him up.

  The bell rings loudly in the empty room. Is James going to another class now? Has he forgotten Marvin? Marvin hears a lot of noise in the hallway outside, and the sound of many feet.

  Then he hears voices coming closer, into the cafeteria.

  “Well, that’s it,” says a man.

  “I’ll get the bags in the kitchen, you get the ones out here,” says another man.

  Marvin hears footsteps coming close to his trash can. A man’s big face looms over him. Marvin ducks inside the red Life Saver, trying to hide. The man’s hands grab the big bag that holds all the trash.

  By the time Marvin realizes what’s happening, it is too late.

  This man is emptying the trash! He’s going to pull the trash bag out of the can—with Marvin inside—and dump it somewhere!

  Marvin is frantic. He has to get out of the bag before the man ties it shut. He races as fast as he can over the bumpy surface of food and litter.

  “Hey! Wait a minute!” A boy’s voice cuts through the air.

  Marvin would know that voice anywhere.

  JAMES!

  James is here! James is looking for him.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Winter,” says James, “but I think I dropped something in the trash by mistake. Can I look before you take it away?”

  Mr. Winter stops what he’s doing. “You’ll never find it in here, kid. We’d have to dump out the whole thing.”

  “Please,” James says. “Can I look?”

  “What was it?”

  “It was a…” James stops. “A toy,” he says finally.

  “What kind of toy? What does it look like?”

  Now James’s face is over the trash can too. Marvin’s heart leaps with joy. But how can he get James’s attention? If he moves, Mr. Winter will see him.

  And there is so much trash! He needs to go somewhere he will be seen. If he crawls onto something white, maybe James will notice his shiny black shell.

  Marvin sees the white napkin under the Life Saver. He tucks the red Life Saver under one leg and waves his front legs in the air.

  For a minute, he doesn’t think James saw him. But then, suddenly, the napkin closes over Marvin and rises up through the air.

  “I found it!” James says quickly.

  “You’re kidding,” Mr. Winter says. “Right on top?”

  “Yes, it was right on top. In the napkin.” James’s voice is full of relief.

  “Well, that was lucky for you. A minute later and everything in this bag would be outside in the Dumpster.”

  Marvin can’t bear to think about that. Through the white wall of the napkin, Marvin hears Mr. Winter tying the bag shut and banging the trash can back down onto the floor.

  “Thanks, Mr. Winter,” James tells him. “Sorry to bother you.”

  Marvin is still inside the napkin. Then it is very loud, and he can tell they are in the hallway.

  “Are you okay?” James asks softly, opening up the napkin. “I thought I’d lost you!”

  Marvin clings to his cherry Life Saver. He is shaking from fear and relief.

  James’s eyes are huge. “I was so scared! I kept coming back to the cafeteria between classes, but I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

  Marvin beams with happiness. The whole time he was looking for James, James was looking for him! Because that is what friends do.

  “Good thing you had that red Life Saver,” James says. “That was the first thing I saw, when you made it move. It really was a lifesaver.” He smiles down at Marvin. “I’m going to put you back in my pocket, where you’ll be safe. School’s over now. We’re going home.”

  Gently, he takes Marvin out of the napkin and drops him into his shirt pocket.

  Marvin is still holding tight to the cherry Life Saver. What an adventure he’s had! He cannot wait to be back in his little home under the Pompadays’ kitchen sink, with Mama and Papa, Uncle Albert and Aunt Edith, and even Elaine.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Happy Accidents

  When James finally sets Marvin down inside the kitchen cupboard and closes the door, Mama and Papa come rushing out to meet him.

  “Marvin!” Mama cries. “Where were you?”

  “You were gone all day. What happened?” Papa asks.

  “I was with James,” Marvin answers slowly. “At school.”

  “AT SCHOOL!” Mama and Papa shout together. They are not happy.

  “Marvin, what were you thinking?” Mama says. “That is way too dangerous!”

  “And you didn’t tell us,” Papa adds. “You must always ask before you do something like that.”

  “I know,” Marvin says. “There wasn’t time.”

  “If you don’t have time to ask, you don’t go,” Mama tells him. “That’s the rule.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Marvin says. He knows Mama is right. Then he remembers what he has for her. “Mama, I brought you something!”

  “A cherry Life Saver!” Mama smiles. “We’ll have it for dessert tonight.”

  Papa is pleased too. “That’s Mama’s favorite. Where did you find it?”

  “At school,” Marvin says. He thinks about the trash can, but decides not to talk about that just yet. He follows Mama and Papa through the little hole in the wall into the beetles’ home.

  Mama takes the Life Saver and puts it in the center of the pink eraser that is their dining-room table.

  “Ewww,” Mama says. “Darling, you smell terrible.”

  “I know,” Marvin agrees.

  “School must be a very smelly place,” Papa says.

  “It is,” Marvin tells him.

  “Well, you need a bath.”

  Mama and Papa take the juice bottle cap that is Marvin’s bathtub, and together they push it under the leaking hot-water pipe beneath the kitchen sink. As it fills with water, Mama drops tiny bits of soap into it, to make bubbles.

  Marvin slides into the warm, soapy water. He swims around, kicking his legs. He loves to swim.

  Elaine comes over. “Marvin! Where were you?” she cries. “I thought you’d been stepped on. Or eaten by a mouse! Or zipped into a pocket where we would never see you again.”

  Marvin thinks she seems very excited by all these terrible ideas.

  “I’m fine,” he says. “I went to school! With James.”

  “School!” Elaine says. “Oh my goodness. What was it like?”

  And she leans over the side of the bottle cap while Marvin tells her all about school.

  He tells her about Art class and drawing the butterfly. He tells her about spinning on the globe. He tells her about the sneeze during lunch that blew him away from James. He even tells her about meeting the cockroach. He swims through the warm water, telling her about everything he saw and did.

  “Oh, Marvin,” Elaine says, “you must never, ever do that again.”

  Marvin knows she’s right. But even though it was scary, he’s still glad he got to go to school.

  He saw things he had never seen before.

  And that’s when Marvin knows that it’s not just mistakes in art that are happy accidents.

  Mistakes in life can be happy accidents too.

  Because even if a mistake is scary, it can help you see something differently.

  And it can lead you someplace new.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Elise Broach is the award-winning, New York Times–bestselling author of books for children and young adults, including The Wolf Keepers, Masterpiece, Shakespeare’s Secret, Desert Crossing, the Superstition Mountain trilogy, and The Miniature World of Marvin & James and James to the Rescue, Books One and Two in the Masterpiece Adventures series. She lives in Connecticut with her family. Visit her at elisebroach.com, or sign up for email updates here.

  Kelly Murphy is the acclaimed illustrator of many children’s books, including Masterpiece and The Miniature World of Marvin & James and James to the Rescue, Books One and Two in the
Masterpiece Adventures series. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island. Visit her at kelmurphy.com, or sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT NOTICE

  DEDICATION

  CHAPTER ONE

  Marvin Goes to School

  CHAPTER TWO

  Lunch

  CHAPTER THREE

  Buried

  CHAPTER FOUR

  See and Be Seen

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Happy Accidents

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  Text copyright © 2017 by Elise Broach

  Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Kelly Murphy

  Henry Holt and Company

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  First hardcover edition 2017

  eBook edition April 2017

  eISBN 9781627793193