Purple Climbing Days — Patricia Reilly Giff

What's worse than a blue Monday? For Richard "Beast" Best, it's a purple Monday spent climbing a fat brown rope with fat brown knots.

Beast wishes he could climb up that rope like Emily Arrow and Matthew Jackson. Just looking at it hanging down from the gym ceiling makes him dizzy.

Beast is afraid and hopes his friends won't find out. But Mrs. Miller, the meanest substitute teacher in the whole school, finds out his secret and tells him to meet her in the gym after school. Miller the Killer. What will she do to him?