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Chapter 1

Main Street School

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          Did you ever hear of twins who were born in different centuries? I’m not talking about some spooky mythical story of reincarnation or something. I’m talking about actual real-life twins with the same mother born 17 minutes apart. How can that be?

          My name is Jimmy Huckleberry and that’s exactly what happened to me and my sister Annie.

          First came me at 11:49 p.m. on December 31st, 1999. So far, so good, with nothing weird or unusual. Next it was Annie’s turn and 17 minutes later, at 12:06 a.m., along she came. But by then it was January 1st 2000. The next day.

          See what I mean? But it wasn’t just a different day, it was a different year, a different century, and even a whole different millennium, which is a word that means a one-thousand-year period. So, when you think about all that it kind of seems like I’m way older, not just 17 minutes. But the truth is it’s just a crummy 17 minutes. And I may have won that first race but ever since then Annie has been way ahead of me in most things, most of the time. You’ll see what I mean. Talk about a super-smart, outspoken person that I guarantee you’d always want to have on your side when things get rough. You’ll see.

          Anyway, that was years ago. Now I’m going to tell you about some of the really remarkable and crazy things that happened to Annie and me all throughout this past year.

          Before I begin I should explain that we actually live in an old red-brick school building. Seriously. It was the old school in town that got to be too small so the town built a new, much bigger one.

          Now before you start thinking how weird it would be to live in a school, let me ask you this. What would it be like to have a whole school practically all to yourself? No teachers. No principal. And how would you like to have a whole classroom as your own room? You could set it up the way you wanted to; write whatever you wanted on the board; stick your artwork or whatever all over the bulletin board. There’s a gigantic closet, not just for your clothes, but for all your other important supplies, collections and possessions. Just tons of space in the room to spread all your stuff around. And room to have all kinds of fun with your friends doing you-name-it. Plus there are these huge sliding windows that you can open and jump out of right onto an enormous school lawn. That feature comes in very handy at times. Anyway, Annie and I each have a classroom like that all our own.

          And what about the hallways? Can you think of the fun you and your friends would have in school hallways with no one yelling at you about running? We even ride our bikes in the halls, and not just on rainy days. No kidding. Of course there’s our mom and dad to contend with but they’re not yellers. At least not all that much. Naturally they do their share of reminding us of the basics of how not to be killing ourselves. But for the most part they trust our judgement and generally leave us alone.

          Then there’s an art room with tons of art supplies that were left behind. And a music room with a piano and a bunch of other instruments that apparently weren’t good enough to be taken to the new school. Just left there. Anyway you can use your imagination about all the endless goofing around one can achieve in those rooms. So I’m sure you’re getting the picture. But everything that I’ve described so far is nothing compared to the king of all rooms. Need I say it? The gym.

          No kidding, our own gymnasium. When the school went up for sale, our mom and dad, Rachel and Sam Huckleberry, got interested in maybe buying it. So we all went to check it out. Believe me, Annie and I got pretty thrilled right away as we started to figure all the advantages we would have from actually living in our old school. But when we walked into the gym it really hit us; especially when the sales-person looked at us and said, “How would you two like to have this room to ram around in every day?”

          My dad later said that was a dirty sales trick, trying to get the kids all mesmerized about the place, and it probably was, but it didn’t matter because our folks were already pretty much sold by then. Needless to say, so were Annie and I.

          Anyway, like in all the other rooms they left all kinds of perfectly good stuff behind; climbing ropes, basketballs and hoops, volleyballs and nets, kickballs, mats, you name it. But best of all a couple dozen gym scooters. No kidding. And let me tell you those scooters alone have practically eradicated boredom from our lives. Just those scooters.

          So Rachel and Sam Huckleberry went ahead and bought the Main Street School and here we are.

I wish you could come and hang out sometime. It’s insane. And it’s our house. And most of the crazy stuff

I’m going to tell you about took place right here in what most people in the village of Canterbury still call,

Main Street School.

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