Bad Roberta goes to work

Bad Roberta goes to work

      Bad Roberta was so bad that after she had been going to school for a while, none of the schools in the city would let her come back. Her parents hired tutors to teach her at home, but Roberta was so bad that soon no tutor would come and teach her. In desperation, Bad Roberta's father took her with him to work while they tried to decide what to do.

     Bad Roberta's father worked in a big office building downtown.

      Bad Roberta and her father rode the bus to his office. At least, they tried to. But when a little old lady got on the bus, wearing a hat with flowers on it, Bad Roberta stuck out her leg and tripped the old lady.

     Then she tripped a little boy, a postal carrier, and three people wearing suits. She was very bad! 

     The bus driver said that Roberta would have to get off the bus. They had to walk to work.

     It took a really long time, and when they got there, Bad Roberta's father was late.

     "Why are you so late?" asked the guard at the front desk. Bad Roberta's father explained what Roberta had done on the bus.

     "You are a very bad little girl!" said the guard. Bad Roberta kicked her in the shin. The guard chased Bad Roberta around and around the lobby, until the guard got dizzy and fell into a big display of roses. All of the flowers were smashed, and the guard had dirt and rose thorn holes all over her white uniform.

     Bad Roberta's father hurried her to the elevator to take her up to his office before she could cause any more trouble. As soon as they got on the elevator, Bad Roberta pushed all the buttons so they stopped at every floor.

     "Roberta, why are you so bad?" asked her father.

     On the second floor, she ran out of the elevator, drew with a crayon on the wall, and then ran back onto the elevator before the doors closed.

     On the third floor, she drew on the shirt of a man waiting in the elevator lobby, and when he tried to chase her, the door closed on his nose.

     Bad Roberta did a bad thing on every floor all the way up to the 25th floor. That was where her father's office was. When they got to his office, Roberta's father was very glad to get away from where they would see other people. He did not want Roberta to be bad any more where other people could see her.

     Bad Roberta's father sat her down at his drafting table and he worked at his desk. For a while, Roberta was very quiet. Her father got worried about what she might be doing, so he came over to see. She had drawn with crayon on all the pages of all of his books!

     "Roberta! How can you be so bad all the time? Don't you get tired of it and want to be good?!" He shouted.

     "No," said that Roberta.

     Just then, there was a knock on the door.

     "Come in," said Bad Roberta's father.

     The door opened and a giant pile of pizzas walked in. Then Roberta's father could see that it was not a giant pile of pizzas, but a man carrying about 400 pizzas.

     "Someone here order 398 anchovy pizzas, and two with pepperoni and sausage?"

     Bad Roberta's father looked at Bad Roberta. She smiled.

     "I was hungry," she said.

     Bad Roberta's father never took her to work with him again!