18 - Monster Blood II (3 page)

“That’s an old joke!” a girl called to Robbie.

“Thanks for your help!” Evan shouted sarcastically. He ran over the pitching
mound and had crossed second base when he realized he had lost sight of Cuddles.

He stopped and spun around, his heart thudding wildly in his chest. He
searched the grass of the infield. “Where—where is he?” he stammered. “Do you
see him?”

But the kids had returned to their softball game.

I can’t lose him now! Evan told himself, choked with panic. I
can’t!

Sweat poured down Evan’s forehead. He mopped it with one hand, brushing back
his curly, red hair. His T-shirt clung wetly to his back. His mouth felt dry as
cotton.

Jogging into the outfield, he searched the grass.

“Cuddles?”

No sign of him.

A round, brownish lump in the grass turned out to be someone’s baseball
glove.

“Cuddles?”

A kickball game was underway on the opposite diamond. Kids were shouting and
cheering. Evan saw Bree Douglas, a girl from his class, slide hard into second
base just before the ball.

“Has—has anyone seen Cuddles?” Evan gasped, trotting onto the diamond.

Kids turned to gawk at him.

“Out here?” Bree called, brushing off the knees of her jeans. “Evan, did you
take the hamster out for a walk?”

Everyone laughed. Scornful laughter.

“He—he got away,” Evan replied, panting.

“Is
this
what you’re looking for?” a familiar voice called.

Evan turned to see Conan Barber, a pleased smile on his handsome face, his
blue eyes gleaming.

Gripping it by its furry back, Conan held the hamster up in one hand.
Cuddles’ four legs scurried in midair.

“You—you caught him!” Evan cried gratefully. He let out a long sigh of
relief. “He jumped out the window.”

Evan reached out both hands for the hamster, but Conan jerked Cuddles out of
his reach. “Prove it’s yours,” Conan said, grinning.

“Huh?”

“Can you identify it?” Conan demanded, his eyes burning into Evan’s,
challenging Evan. “Prove this hamster is yours.”

Evan swallowed hard and glanced around.

Kids from the kickball game were huddling near. They were all grinning,
delighted with Conan’s mean joke.

Evan sighed wearily and reached again for the hamster.

But Conan was at least a foot taller than Evan. He lifted the hamster high
above Evan’s head, out of Evan’s reach.

“Prove it’s yours,” he repeated, flashing the others a grin.

“Give me a break, Conan,” Evan pleaded. “I’ve been chasing this stupid
hamster for hours. I just want to get him back in his cage before Mr. Murphy—”

“Do you have a license for him?” Conan demanded, still holding the squirming
hamster above Evan’s head. “Show me the license.”

Evan jumped and stretched both hands up, trying to grab Cuddles away.

But Conan was too fast for him. He dodged away. Evan grabbed air.

Some kids laughed.

“Give him the hamster, Conan,” Bree called. She hadn’t moved from second
base.

Conan’s cold blue eyes sparkled excitedly. “I’ll tell you how you can get the
hamster back,” he told Evan.

“Huh?” Evan glared at him. He was getting really tired of Conan’s game.

“Here’s how to get old Cuddles back,” Conan continued, holding the hamster
tightly against his chest in one hand and petting its back with the other. “Sing
a song for it.”

“Hey—no way!” Evan snapped. “Give it to me, Conan!”

Evan could feel his face growing even hotter. His knees started to tremble.
He hoped no one could see it.

“Sing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’, and I’ll give you Cuddles. Promise,” Conan
said, smirking.

Some kids laughed. They moved closer, eager to see what Evan would do.

Evan shook his head. “No way.”

“Come on,” Conan urged softly, stroking the hamster’s brown fur. “‘Row, Row,
Row Your Boat.’ Just a few choruses. You know how it goes, don’t you?”

More cruel laughter from the others.

Conan’s grin grew wider. “Come on, Evan. You like to sing, don’t you?”

“No, I
hate
singing,” Evan muttered, his eyes on Cuddles.

“Hey, don’t be modest,” Conan insisted. “I’ll bet you’re a great singer. Are you a soprano or an alto?”

Loud laughter.

Evan’s hands tightened into hard fists at his sides. He wanted to punch
Conan, and punch him and punch him. He wanted to wipe the grin off Conan’s
handsome face with his fists.

But he remembered what it had felt like to punch Conan. It had felt like
hitting the side of a truck.

He took a deep breath. “If I sing the stupid song, will you really give me
back the hamster?”

Conan didn’t reply.

Evan suddenly realized that Conan wasn’t looking at him anymore. No one was.
They had all raised their eyes over Evan’s shoulder.

Confused, Evan spun around—to face Mr. Murphy.

“What is going on here?” the teacher demanded, his tiny black eyes moving
from Evan to Conan, then back to Evan.

Before Evan could reply, Conan held up the hamster. “Here’s Cuddles, Mr.
Murphy,” Conan said. “Evan let him get away. But I rescued Cuddles just as he
was going to get run over.”

Mr. Murphy let out a horrified gasp. “Run over?” he cried. “Cuddles? Run
over?”

The teacher reached out his chubby pink hands and took the hamster from
Conan. He held the hamster against his bulging shirt and petted it, making soothing sounds to
it.

“Thank you, Conan,” Mr. Murphy said after calming Cuddles. He glared at Evan.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Evan.”

Evan started to defend himself. But Mr. Murphy raised a hand to silence him.
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Right now I must get poor Cuddles back into his
cage.”

Evan slumped to the ground. He watched Mr. Murphy carry the hamster back to
the school building. Mr. Murphy waddles just like the hamster, Evan realized.

Normally, that thought would have cheered him up.

But Evan was far too unhappy to be cheered up by anything.

Conan had embarrassed him in front of all the others. And the big, grinning
hulk had managed to get Evan in trouble with Mr. Murphy
twice
in one
afternoon!

The kickball game had started up again. Evan climbed slowly to his feet and
began trudging to the school building to get his backpack.

He couldn’t decide who he hated more—Cuddles or Conan.

He had a sudden picture of Cuddles stuffed inside a muffin tin, being baked
in an oven.

Even that lovely thought didn’t cheer Evan up.

He pulled his backpack out of the locker and slung it over his shoulder. Then he slammed the locker shut, the sound
clanging down the empty hallway.

He pushed open the front door and headed for home, walking slowly, lost in
his unhappy thoughts.

What a horrible day, he told himself. At least nothing
worse
could
happen to me today.

He had just crossed the street and was making his way on the sidewalk in
front of a tall hedge—when someone leaped out at him, grabbed his shoulders
hard from behind, and pulled him roughly to the ground.

Evan let out a frightened cry and gazed into his attacker’s face.
“You!”
he cried.

“Here’s a little advice, Evan,” Andy said, grinning down at him. “Don’t go
out for the wrestling team.”

“Andy!” Evan cried, staring up at her in surprise. “What are
you
doing
here?”

She reached out both hands and helped tug him to his feet. Then she tossed
back her short, brown hair with a flick of her head. Her brown eyes flashed
excitedly.

“Didn’t you read any of my letters?” she demanded.

Evan had met Andy the past summer, when he’d stayed with his great-aunt for a
few weeks. He and Andy had become good friends.

She was with him when he bought the container of Monster Blood. She shared
the whole frightening Monster Blood adventure with him.

Evan liked Andy because she was funny, and fearless, and kind of crazy. He
never could predict what she would do next!

She didn’t even dress like other girls Evan knew. Andy loved bright colors.
Right now she was wearing a sleeveless magenta T-shirt over bright yellow
shorts, which matched her yellow sneakers.

“I
told
you in my last letter that my parents were sent overseas for a
year,” Andy said, giving Evan a playful shove. “I
told
you they were
sending me to Atlanta to live with my aunt and uncle. I
told
you I’d be
living just three blocks away from you!”

“I know. I know,” Evan replied, rolling his eyes. “I just didn’t expect to
see you jump out of the hedge at me.”

“Why not?” Andy demanded, her dark eyes exploring his.

Evan didn’t know how to answer that question.

“Glad to see me?” Andy asked.

“No,” he joked.

She pulled up a thick blade of grass and stuck it in the corner of her mouth.
They began walking toward Evan’s house.

“I’m starting at your school on Monday,” she told him, chewing on the blade
of grass.

“Thrills and chills,” he replied, snickering.

She shoved him off the sidewalk. “I thought people were supposed to be polite
in the South.”

“I’m new here,” Evan replied.

“How’s Trigger?” she asked, kicking a pebble across the sidewalk.

“Good,” Evan told her.

“Like to talk a lot?” she asked sarcastically.

“I’m in a bad mood,” he confessed. “It hasn’t been the greatest day.”

“It
couldn’t
be as bad as the day the Monster Blood went berserk!”
Andy exclaimed.

Evan groaned. “Don’t mention Monster Blood to me. Please!”

She studied him. Her expression turned serious. “What’s wrong, Evan? You look
really upset,” she said. “Don’t you like it here?”

He shook his head. “Not much.”

As they walked, he told her about all the trouble he was having in his new
school. He told her about Mr. Murphy and Cuddles, and how the teacher was always
on his case.

And he told her about Conan the Barbarian, and how Conan was always picking
on him, always getting him into trouble, always playing tricks on him and making
him look bad.

“And no one will believe me about the Monster Blood,” Evan added.

They were standing at the bottom of his driveway. They glanced up at Evan’s
new house, a two-story red brick house with a sloping red tile roof. The late
afternoon sun dipped behind a large puff of cloud, and a broad shadow rolled
across the lawn.

Andy’s mouth dropped open. The blade of grass fell out. “You
told
kids
about the Monster Blood?” she asked in surprise.

Evan nodded. “Yeah, why not? It’s a cool story, isn’t it?”

“And you expected kids to
believe
you?” Andy cried, slapping her
forehead. “Didn’t they just think you were
weird?”

“Yeah,” Evan replied bitterly. “They all think I’m weird.”

Andy laughed. “Well, you
are
weird!”

“Thanks a bunch, Annnndrea!” Evan muttered. He knew she hated to be called by
her real name.

“Don’t call me Andrea,” she replied sharply. She raised a fist. “I’ll pound
you.”

“Annnnnndrea,” he repeated. He ducked away as she swung her fist. “You punch
like a girl!” he exclaimed.

“You’ll
bleed
like a boy!” she threatened, laughing.

He stopped. He suddenly had an idea. “Hey—you can tell everyone I’m not
weird!”

“Huh? Why would I do that?” Andy demanded.

“No. Really,” Evan said excitedly. “You can tell everyone at school that the
Monster Blood was real. That you were there. That you saw it.”

Andy’s expression suddenly changed. Her dark eyes lit up, and a sly grin
crossed her face. “I can do better than that,” she said mysteriously.

Evan grabbed her shoulder. “Huh? What do you mean? What do you mean you can
do better?”

“You’ll see,” she replied, teasing him. “I brought something with me.”

“What? What is it? What do you mean?” Evan demanded.

“Meet me tomorrow after school,” she told him. “At that little park over
there.”

She pointed to the next block. A narrow park, only a few blocks long, ran
along the bank of a shallow creek.

“But what
is
it?” Evan cried.

She laughed. “I
love
torturing you!” she declared. “But it’s a little
too easy.”

Then she turned and headed down the street, running at full speed.

“Andy—wait!” Evan called. “What have you got? What did you bring?”

She didn’t even turn around.

Evan dreamed about Monster Blood that night.

He dreamed about it nearly every night.

Tonight he dreamed that his dad had eaten a glob of it. Now Mr. Ross wanted
to go to his office, but he had grown too big to fit through the door.

“You’re in trouble now, Evan!” Mr. Ross bellowed, making the whole house
shake. “Big trouble!”

Big trouble.

The words stuck in Evan’s mind as he sat up in bed and tried to shake away
the dream.

The curtains flapped silently in front of his open bedroom window. Pale
yellow stars dotted the charcoal sky. Staring hard, Evan could see the Big
Dipper. Or was it the Little Dipper? He never could remember.

Shutting his eyes and settling back on the pillow, Evan thought about Andy.
He was glad she had come to stay in Atlanta for a while. She could be a real
pain. But she was also a lot of fun.

What did she want to show him in the park after school?

Probably nothing, Evan guessed. It was probably just a dumb joke. Andy loved
dumb jokes.

How can I get her to tell the kids at school about Monster Blood? he
wondered. How can I get Andy to tell everyone that I didn’t make it up, that
it’s true?

He was still thinking about this problem as he fell back into a restless
sleep.