The next morning at school, everyone was talking about the tornado.
"It went right over Willow Creek!" exclaimed Carlos. "It was great!"
"Oh, Carlos," said Katie, rolling her eyes.
"People aren't supposed to like tornados."
"Well, I do," said Carlos.
"Tell me about your family tornado safety teams," Mr. Higgins said.
"Did you all have a plan?"
"Katie was our captain," said Joy, smiling at her sister.
"Everybody worked together," added Katie.
"Mom and I made a first aid kit."
"But luckily, we didn't need it," Joy said.
"And Joy found Jellybean after the storm!" Katie announced.
"Well, Dad and I did," said Joy shyly.
"My house doesn't have a cellar," said Carlos.
"So we decided that a hallway would be the safest place.
There are no windows there."
"Flying glass can be dangerous during a tornado," said Mr. Higgins.
"What about your family, Luke?"
"He forgot to make a plan," tattled Katie.
Luke made a face at her.
"I was at the coffee shop when we heard the tornado warning," he said.
"Mom gave everyone a free fried pie and took them to the basement."
"My dad actually saw the tornado," said Larry Ferguson.
"We all went down into the storm cellar.
But just before Dad shut the door, he looked up.
The tornado was coming right across the field!
Our barn went up in the air and crashed down hard.
It broke into a hundred pieces."
"Were there any cows in the barn?" asked Carlos.
"No," said Larry, "just my bicycle.
We haven't found it yet."
"Larry, I'm sorry to hear your barn was destroyed," said Mr. Higgins.
The class nodded.
"Thank you," said Larry.
"But our neighbors are coming over today.
They're going to help Dad build a new barn."
"That's great," said Mr. Higgins.
"It's a big help when people work together."
Then Mr. Higgins asked Larry what the tornado sounded like.
Larry thought for a moment.
"It sounded like . . . like a . . ."
"Like a train!" said Katie. "Roar!"
"It even whistled like a train!" said Joy. "Woo-woo!"
"I think it sounded like a jet plane," said Carlos. "Varoom!"
"It made a noise," said Laura, "like when we go fast in the car with the windows down. Whoosh!"
"It was like a wild animal . . . a lion!" said Luke. "Grr!"
Everybody started making scary sounds.
"TAKE COVER!" cried Katie.
That made everybody laugh.
Suddenly Mr. Higgins waved his arms.
"Quiet, please!" he called. "Quiet!"
They heard a knock on the door, and Ms. Olson stepped into the classroom.
She looked at Mr. Higgins.
"I thought I heard a tornado as I came down the hall," she said.
Everybody laughed again, and Ms. Olson smiled.
"Mr. Higgins," she said.
"The school yard is covered with tree branches that were blown down during the storm.
Would your class like to help clean up the playground?"
"Yes!" cried all the boys and girls. "We'll help!"
So when recess came, Mr. Higgins led the class out to the playground.
They gathered all the branches into a big pile.
Mr. Higgins carried the heavy branches.
Laura helped Joy carry a big branch.
Carlos found one blue sneaker.
Katie found a broken umbrella under the slide.
Then the kids stood in front of their mountain of tree limbs.
Ms. Olson took a photo.
The next day, she put the photo on the bulletin board in the hall.
Under the photo, she pinned up big letters that spelled "TEAMWORK WORKS!"