18 - Monster Blood II (8 page)

The two front paws pushed against the cage wires.

The wires bent away.

Cuddles grunted again, wheezing loudly, excitedly.

He pushed the cage wires aside. Then he started to squeeze his big,
fur-covered body through the opening.
What do I do?
Evan frantically
asked himself.
What do I do now? Cuddles is escaping!

“So what did you do?” Andy asked.

They were sitting together in the tall grass of the tiny park, watching the
brown creek trickle past. The late afternoon sun felt warm on their backs.
Crickets chirped in the trees behind them.

Three boys rolled past on bikes on the other side of the creek, heading home
from school. One of them waved to Evan. He didn’t wave back.

Andy wore a bright red sleeveless T-shirt over white denim jeans. She had
slipped off her yellow sneakers and was digging her bare feet into the soft
ground.

“So what did you do?” she repeated.

Evan picked up a hard clump of dirt and tossed it into the creek. Then he
leaned back, his hands planted firmly behind him on the ground.

“I got a dog leash,” he told Andy. “In the supply closet.”

Andy’s eyes widened in surprise. “Murphy keeps a dog leash? What for?”

Evan shrugged. “He has all kinds of junk back there.”

“So you put the leash on Cuddles?”

“Yeah,” Evan told her. “He was just the right size. As big as a dog. Maybe a
little bigger.”

“As big as Trigger?” Andy demanded.

Evan nodded. “Then I tied the other end to the leg of Murphy’s desk—and I
ran out of there as fast as I could.”

Andy laughed. But she cut it short when she caught Evan’s angry glare. “What
happened when you went to science class?” she asked, turning back to the creek.

“I didn’t,” Evan muttered.

“Huh?”

“I didn’t go,” Evan said softly. “I was afraid to go. I didn’t want Murphy to
start blaming me in front of everyone.”

“So you cut class?” Andy asked, startled.

Evan nodded.

“So what did you do?” Andy asked. She pulled up a handful of the tall grass
and let it sift through her fingers.

“I sneaked out and came here,” Evan replied, frowning.

“Everyone was talking about Cuddles all day,” Andy reported. Her dark eyes
flashed. She couldn’t keep an amused grin off her face. “Everyone had to go in
and see him. The stupid hamster practically caused a riot!”

“It isn’t funny,” Evan murmured.

“It’s
kind
of funny!” Andy insisted. “Mr. Murphy was bragging that
Cuddles could beat up any other hamster in the country. He said he was going to
try to get Cuddles on TV!”

“Huh?” Evan jumped to his feet. “You mean Mr. Murphy wasn’t upset?”

“I heard that he was at first,” Andy replied thoughtfully. “But then I guess
he got used to Cuddles being so big. And he was acting kind of proud. You know.
Like he had the biggest pumpkin at the fair or something. A blue-ribbon winner!”
Andy snickered.

Evan kicked at the grass. “I know he’s going to blame me. I know it!”

“Everyone was feeding Cuddles carrots all day,” Andy said, not seeming to
hear Evan’s unhappy wails. “The hamster ate the carrots whole. One big chomp.
Then it made this really gross swallowing sound. It was a riot.”

“I can’t believe this!” Evan groaned. He lowered his eyes angrily to Andy.
“Why did you do it? Why?”

Andy gazed up at him innocently. “I wanted to give you a laugh,” she replied.

“Huh? A laugh?” he shrieked.

“You were looking pretty down. I thought it might cheer you up.”

Evan let out an angry cry.

“I guess it didn’t cheer you up,” Andy muttered.

She pulled up another handful of grass and let the blades fall over the legs
of her white jeans.

Evan stomped over to the edge of the creek. He kicked a rock into the water.

“Come on, Evan,” Andy called. “You have to admit it’s a
little
funny.”

He spun around to face her. “It’s not,” he insisted. “Not funny at all. What
if Cuddles just keeps growing and growing? Then what?”

“We could put a saddle on his back and give everyone hamster rides!” She
giggled.

Evan scowled and kicked another rock into the creek. “You
know
how
dangerous that Monster Blood is,” he scolded. “What are we going to do? How are
we going to get Cuddles back to hamster size?”

Andy shrugged. She pulled up another handful of grass.

The sun sank lower behind the trees. A shadow rolled over them. Two little
kids chased a white-and-red soccer ball on the other side of the creek. Their
mother shouted to them not to get wet.

“Where’s the Monster Blood can?” Evan demanded, standing over Andy. “Maybe it
tells the antidote on the can. Maybe it tells how to reverse the whole thing.”

Andy shook her head. “Evan, you know it doesn’t say anything on the can. No
instructions. No ingredients. Nothing.” She climbed to her feet and brushed off
the legs of her jeans. “I’ve got to get home. My aunt doesn’t
know where I am. She’s probably having a cow.”

Evan followed her toward the street, shaking his head. “How big?”
he muttered.

She glanced back at him. “What did you say?”

“How big will Cuddles be tomorrow?” Evan asked in a trembling voice. “How big?”

“Andy—will you hurry up?”

Evan had agreed to meet Andy at her aunt’s house the next morning so they
could go to school early. But Andy had found a spot on her jeans and had gone
back up to her room to change.

And now they were no longer early.

“Sorry,” she said, hurtling down the stairs two steps at a time. She had
changed her entire outfit. Now she had on a red-and-black-striped vest over a
yellow T-shirt, pulled down over pale blue shorts.

“Didn’t you leave out a color?” Evan demanded sarcastically, grabbing Andy’s
backpack for her and hurrying to the front door.

She made a face at him. “I like bright colors. It suits my personality.”

“Your personality is
late!”
he declared.

She followed him out the door and down the front lawn to the sidewalk. “At
least I
have
a personality!” she cried. “What’s your hurry, anyway?”

Evan didn’t answer. He adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, then began
running toward school.

“Hey—wait up!” Andy called, running after him.

“How much Monster Blood did you give Cuddles, anyway?” Evan demanded without
slowing his pace. “The whole can?”

“No way!” Andy called breathlessly. “Just a spoonful. He seemed to like it.”

“I guess he liked being as big as a dog, too,” Evan said, turning the corner.
The tall, redbrick school building came into view.

“Maybe he’s back to normal today,” Andy said.

But as they came near the building, it was easy to tell that things were
not
normal.

Evan heard a loud crash from the side of the building. It sounded like glass
shattering.

Then he heard excited shouts. Loud kids’ voices filled with alarm.

“What’s going
on
?” Andy cried.

They dove up the stairs and burst into the building. Running full speed, they
turned the corner and made their way to the science classroom.

Evan reached it a few steps ahead of Andy. Hearing excited shouts and cries,
he lurched into the room—and then stopped with a startled cry.

“No! Oh, please—no!”

“Stand back! Everyone stand back!” a red-faced Mr. Murphy was screaming.

Cuddles uttered a loud grunt and flailed his giant legs wildly in the air.

“He—he’s ten feet tall!” Evan heard Andy scream at his side.

“Al-almost!” Evan stammered.

The grunting, groaning hamster towered over Mr. Murphy. Its pink paws batted
the air. Its monstrous mouth opened wide, revealing two enormous, sharp white
teeth.

“Back! Everyone back!” Mr. Murphy shrieked.

The terrified kids in the classroom pressed back against the walls.

Mr. Murphy picked up a wooden chair in one hand, the torn dog leash in the
other. Holding the chair by the back, he came at the grunting monster like a
lion tamer.

“Down, Cuddles! Get down! Sit! Sit!”

He poked the wooden chair up at the giant hamster and snapped the dog leash
like a whip.

Cuddles’ watery black eyes, as big as soccer balls, glared down at the
red-faced teacher. The hamster didn’t seem terribly impressed with Mr. Murphy’s
lion-tamer act.

“Down, Cuddles! Get down!” The teacher’s chins quivered, and his big belly
bounced up and down beneath his tight gray knit polo shirt.

Cuddles pulled back his huge lips and bared his white teeth. He let out a
growl that made the light fixtures shake.

Terrified cries rang out through the room. Evan glanced back to see a
horrified crowd of teachers and students jammed in the doorway.

“Down, Cuddles!”

Mr. Murphy shoved the wooden chair up at the raging hamster. He cracked the
dog-leash whip near the hamster’s throbbing, fur-covered belly.

The huge black eyes stared down angrily at Mr. Murphy. The pink hamster paws
clawed in the air.

Andy grabbed Evan’s shoulder and held on tight. “This is terrible!” she
cried. “Terrible!”

Evan started to reply—but frightened shrieks drowned out his words.

Cuddles grabbed the chair with both paws.

“Drop! Drop!” Mr. Murphy screamed. He struggled to hold on to the chair.

Cuddles pulled the chair. Mr. Murphy desperately held tight. He let the leash
fall so he could hold on to the chair with both hands.

The teacher and Cuddles had a short tug-of-war.

Cuddles won easily. The hamster pulled the chair up, nearly jerking Mr.
Murphy’s arms out of their sockets.

With a loud groan, the teacher toppled heavily to the floor.

Kids screamed.

Two teachers rushed forward to help the gasping Mr. Murphy to his feet.

Evan stared up as the hamster raised the wooden chair to its mouth. The
enormous white teeth opened quickly. The pink nose twitched. The watery black
eyes blinked.

Then Cuddles chewed the wooden chair to pieces.

Splinters rained down on the floor.

The chomping teeth sounded like a lumberjack’s ax biting into a tree.

Evan froze in horror along with everyone else in the room.

Andy was squeezing his shoulder so hard, it hurt. “This is
our
fault,”
she murmured.

“Our
fault?” Evan cried.
“Our
fault?”

She ignored his sarcasm. He saw the fear in her eyes as she stared up at the
hamster. Cuddles had turned the chair into toothpicks!

“We’ve got to do something, Evan,” she whispered, huddled close to him.

“But what?” Evan replied in a trembling voice. “What can we do?”

Then, suddenly, he had an idea.

“Come with me!” Evan cried, tugging Andy’s arm.

She hesitated, staring up at the giant hamster. “Where?”

“I have an idea,” Evan told her. “But we have to hurry!”

Cuddles lumbered over to Mr. Murphy’s desk. The hamster’s heavy footsteps
made the floor sag.

“Here, fella! Here!” Mr. Murphy was tossing handfuls of sunflower seeds up to
Cuddles. Cuddles glared down at him. The seeds were too small to bother with.

“Hurry!” Evan pleaded. He pulled Andy through the frightened crowd of kids
and teachers at the door. Then he began running full speed toward the
auditorium.

“We can’t just run away! We have to
do
something!” Andy cried.

“We’re not running away,” Evan called back to her, turning a corner. “My father’s sculpture—it’s in the auditorium.”

“Huh?” Andy’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “Evan—have you totally
lost
it? Why do you want to look at your father’s sculpture now?”

He burst through the auditorium doors and ran past the dark rows of seats
toward the stage. Several pieces of sculpture had been set up there.

“Evan—I don’t get it!” Andy cried, right behind him.

“Look,” Evan said breathlessly. He pointed to his father’s work near the back
of the stage. “My dad’s sculpture. It’s just like a hamster wheel—see?”

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at it.

“It’s a big metal wheel and it spins,” Evan explained as they pulled
themselves up onto the stage. “Come on. Help me drag it back to Murphy’s room.
It’s big enough for Cuddles.”

“Whoa!” Andy cried. “You want to bring Cuddles a wheel? What for?”

“To distract him,” Evan replied, grabbing one side of the big sculpture. “If
we can get Cuddles running on this wheel, it will give us time to figure out
where to keep him. And it will stop him from chewing the whole school to
pieces.”

Andy grabbed hold of the other side, one hand on the wheel, one hand on the
platform. “Maybe Cuddles will run so hard, he’ll lose weight. Maybe he’ll shrink back to his
normal size,” she said.

Luckily, the platform was on wheels. They rolled the sculpture toward the
stage door at the side. “I just want to distract him,” Evan said, tugging hard.
“I just want to give us time to think, to make a plan.”

“Wow! This is heavy!” Andy cried. They rolled it into the hall. “Heavy enough
for Cuddles, I guess.”

“I hope,” Evan replied solemnly.

By the time they rolled the sculpture to the classroom, the crowd of
frightened kids and teachers had grown even bigger. “Make way! Make way!” they
both shouted, pushing their way through the crowd.

They set the wheel down in the center of the floor and gazed over at Cuddles.
The hamster had two teachers cornered, their backs pressed against the
chalkboard. It was gnashing its huge teeth at them, slapping its pink paws
together as if eager to fight them.

Evan gasped when he saw Mr. Murphy’s desk, crushed flat on the floor.

“I—I called the police!” Mr. Murphy cried, his face beaded with large drops
of sweat. “I begged them to come. But when I said it was a giant hamster, they
didn’t believe me! They thought it was a practical joke!”