I sat in my fourth-grade classroom, doodling with a pencil.
Our teacher, Mrs. Romano, was writing on the whiteboard.
She was teaching us how to solve word problems with answers in the millions.
I couldn't see the whiteboard too well though.
Molly's headband was in the way.
She had decorated it with a huge pink flower from the Dollar Delight store.
The flower had fallen off twice that morning, but Molly kept putting it back on.
Now it bobbed in front of me.
"Remember, class, we have a math test one week from today," said Mrs. Romano.
A few kids groaned, but I just went back to doodling.
I wasn't worried about the math test.
I'm pretty good at math.
I can easily add up numbers in the millions.
In fact, I can even add up numbers in the billions!
"If only I could think of a million new inventions," I thought.
"But lately I can't even think of one."
My cousin Oliver had visited this past winter.
During his visit I had invented The Amazing Attitude Adjustor.
It worked great.
But now it was spring, and I had not thought up one single new invention since Oliver left!
I was getting pretty worried about it.
"Don't worry, Iggy,"
Molly had said last week on the way to school.
"You're just going through a fallow time."
"What's a fallow time?" I asked.
Molly shrugged. "I have no idea.
But sometimes my dad has trouble thinking up new ideas at work.
Whenever that happens, he says he's going through a fallow time."
Soon our math lesson was over.
"Class, please come to the rug," said Mrs. Romano.
"We have time to read one more chapter in our science fiction story."
As we all walked over to the rug, Molly's flower fell off her headband again.
Evan accidentally stepped on it.
"Hey, watch out for my flower!" said Molly, picking it up.
"It's the only one I have."
"Why don't you plant it?" joked Colby.
"Then you'll have a whole garden of flowers!"
"Fake flowers don't grow in gardens, silly," said Molly.
Mrs. Romano sat in her chair and opened the book we'd been reading this month.
It was a cool story about aliens landing on Earth.
They get lost in a zoo and have adventures with all the animals.
"Oh dear." Mrs. Romano glanced around.
"I think I misplaced my glasses again."
"I'll help you look for them," said Jake, jumping up.
Everyone joined in the search.
We looked on Mrs. Romano's desk and under her chair.
"I always lose my glasses." Mrs. Romano sighed.
"I wish someone would invent a way to find lost glasses."
Finally Ruby found Mrs. Romano's glasses on the bookshelf, right behind Mrs. Romano's chair.
Mrs. Romano put them on.
"It's so hard to find lost glasses," she said.
"Because when you aren't wearing your glasses, you can't see anything!"
I glanced at the big pink flower on Molly's headband.
At that moment something amazing happened.
An idea for a new invention popped into my head.
It was one of the best inventions I had ever thought of!
While Mrs. Romano read to us, I kept thinking about my new idea.
I couldn't wait to tell Molly about it.
"Molly!" I said when we lined up after recess.
"I'm not having a fallow time anymore.
I got an idea for a fantastic new invention!"
Molly grinned and gave me a high five.
"That's great!" she said. "Iggy the incredible inventor is back!"