Bobby opened the door to the gym.
Jason, Nina, and Izzie were there already, ready for Kids Central.
Miss Shelly was passing out sweatbands.
"What are we doing today, Miss Shelly?" Bobby asked.
"We are exercising," Miss Shelly answered.
"Are we playing basketball?" Bobby asked excitedly.
"We're doing a different kind of exercise," she said.
"Today we'll exercise our brains!"
The kids looked at each other.
"Our brains? Does that mean we're doing math?" Nina asked, frowning.
Bobby groaned.
"Not quite. I have a bucket here full of brain teasers."
Miss Shelly held up a bucket of cards.
"Here, Nina," Miss Shelly said.
"Pick a card and read the brain teaser to yourself.
Then choose someone to answer it."
Nina took a card and read it silently.
Then she grinned.
"I choose Bobby," she said.
"How many letters are in the alphabet?" Nina asked.
"That's easy. 26," Bobby answered.
Nina burst into giggles.
"Nope. 11! T-h-e-a-l-p-h-a-b-e-t.
Get it? That's 11!"
She smiled at Miss Shelly.
"This is fun."
"Okay, Bobby, you're next.
Pick a card," Miss Shelly said.
Bobby took a card and read it.
"Jason!" he said, turning to his friend.
"What goes up but never comes down?"
Jason shrugged. "A hot air balloon? Clouds?"
"You can only have one answer!" Bobby said.
"Okay, clouds."
"Nope. Your age!" Bobby waved the card in front of Jason.
"My turn," Jason said, taking a card out of the bucket.
"Aha! This is a good one." He turned to Izzie.
"What doesn't get any wetter, even in the rain?"
Izzie thought for a moment.
"An umbrella?" she guessed.
"No. Water!" Jason said happily.
"Okay. Here I go.
Nina, what is full of holes but still holds water?" Izzie asked.
"There's a hole in the bucket . . . ," Nina began to sing softly.
"A basket!" she cried.
"No, but good try!
The answer is a sponge," Izzie told her friend.
"Miss Shelly, now it's your turn!" Jason said.
"Okay. Here I go."
Miss Shelly took a card, closed her eyes, and spun around in a circle.
When she stopped, she was facing Bobby.
"Bobby," Miss Shelly said.
"The more of them you take, the more you leave behind.
What are they?"
Bobby thought.
"The more of them you take, the more you leave behind," he repeated to himself.
"I take showers . . . I take naps . . . I take steps . . . Steps! Footsteps!
That's the answer, Miss Shelly," Bobby said.
Miss Shelly clapped her hands and laughed.
"Well done!" she said. "You got it."
"These were hard brain teasers," Nina said. "My head hurts!"
"Miss Shelly, can I take home the brain-teaser bucket?" Bobby asked.
"I'm going to learn every brain teaser in the world!"
[caption_out@