Forever Is Never

Illustrated by Tim Heitz

"**Forever Is Never**" is the third part of the nineteenth chapter of *Wayside School Is Falling Down*.

## Plot

This chapter opens by stating Allison is still stuck on the nineteenth story. Fourteen two-minute breaks have passed since she joined when Miss Zarves says it's dictionary time. Everyone finds a dictionary in their desk. Allison asks what they are supposed to do, and Nick says they have to memorize it. Allison thinks it's impossible, but Virginia says you memorize one word at a time, until the page is done, then you go to the next page. She states she's almost finished with the B's, and she's been doing it for thirty-two years. Allison opens her dictionary and remembers Mrs. Jewls's class, sighing with relief, as she spent the previous six days wondering where she was from. She cries for a moment, remembering everyone in her class, and how important they were to her; even Jason.

During the next two-minute break, Allison decides to talk to Mark Miller, wondering how they got there. Mark suggests they may have died, but Allison interrupts saying it isn't heaven, but Mark says that's not what he was going to say. Allison questions if Miss Zarves could really be the devil, if she's so nice, and wonders what she would do provided she didn't do her work. Mark states that teachers can always find new ways to punish their students and that they're experts at it. Miss Zarves orders everyone to get back to work. Allison tries to figure it out, then realizes that's what Miss Zarves is doing all along: She always assigns lots of busy work so her students won't have time to think, making them memorize stupid things so they forget what's important, and give them good grades no matter what to keep them happy. Finally, Allison has everything figured out and prepares her next move, as risky as it may be.

When Miss Zarves comes over to analyze everyone's work, she notices Allison isn't working. She questions why, and Allison proceeds to reenact some of her old classmates' mannerisms. She sits down on the floor, takes off her socks and shoes, and sucks on her toes. Then she shouts for Miss Zarves to get off her case, which makes Miss Zarves furious. She asks Allison to sit down. However, rather than sitting, Allison climbs on her desk and starts singing Mac's "One Sock" song. Although Mark likes it, the others think she's weird. Miss Zarves has had enough of Allison's weird tricks and decides to count down from ten, hoping Allison will obey her. However, she doesn't stop, putting her socks on her ears and states that if Albert Einstein didn't wear socks, she shouldn't either. As Miss Zarves counts down to one, Allison closes her eyes then feels something step on her foot and something else jam into her stomach.

She falls down three steps and wakes up to see Ron and Deedee. They stop to make sure Allison is okay and apologize for knocking her over, but Allison says it's okay. She offers to race them up to Mrs. Jewls's class, and the three rush upstairs. Rondi enters and says hi to Allison, and Allison says hi back. Allison asks what she missed when she was absent, but Rondi doesn't remember when Allison was absent. Rondi wonders why Allison isn't wearing her socks or shoes, but she decides to put her socks on her ears and claim it's the new style. Mrs. Jewls claims Allison has a bad case of the sillies, Jason enters the room carrying a goldfish in a bowl. Jason asks where to put it, and Mrs. Jewls tells him to put it on top of the coat closet. As he tries to push it over the edge, Allison watches intently, not wanting to miss it this time.

## Characters

* Allison
* Miss Zarves
* Nick
* Virginia
* Mrs. Jewls
* Jason
* Mark Miller
* Ray Gunn
* Albert Einstein (mentioned)
* Deedee
* Ron
* Rondi

## Trivia

* A pun is involved in the chapter numbers for this chapter, "A Bad Case of the Sillies," and "A Wonderful Teacher." All three are chapter nineteen, as the plot involves a student getting stuck on the nineteenth story. So similarly, the reader is stuck on the nineteenth story when reading these three chapters.
* While technically the twenty-first chapter of *Wayside School Is Falling Down*, it is labelled as the nineteenth, as is true for "A Bad Case of the Sillies," the actual nineteenth chapter, and "A Wonderful Teacher," which is actually the twentieth. The twenty-second chapter, "Eric, Eric, and Eric," is labelled as chapter twenty, twenty-one, and twenty-two simultaneously.
* The three chapters of Allison stuck on the nineteenth story are similar to the 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Both Allison and Alice end up in "some strange world" and return to their own thinking it was all just a dream. Conveniently, Alice is short for Allison, they also both have blonde hair and wear blue.
* This is the first known instance of a student escaping the nineteenth story. Mark Miller would later escape in "The Lost Ear," and in "Dana Checks Out", an episode of the cartoon, Nick escapes the nineteenth story, though Nick is the same character as Louis in the show.
* "Leslie" is the only chapter from *Sideways Stories from Wayside School* that is referenced in this chapter.

## Gallery

Joel Schick illustrationAdam McCauley illustration
### Foreign editions

Peter Allen illustration (UK)Satoshi Kitamura illustration (Japan)Unknown illustrator (China, Simplified Chinese)