Case File 13 #3 (8 page)

“Maybe not,” Angelo said. “This is just a hunch. But if they are related to the mandragoras, it's entirely possible that they can't survive long away from where they were originally grown.”

“Oh, no,” a voice said.

Nick and Angelo turned to see Carter standing by the kitchen door. Neither of them had heard him come in. He clutched his backpack to his chest and something moved inside it.

Nick put his hand to his mouth. “Tell me that isn't what I think it is in there.”

Carter bit his lip and looked away. “Guys, we might have a little problem.”

“How could you do it?” Angelo demanded, his eyes blazing behind his thick glasses. “We specifically told you to leave the homunculus in the woods. Don't you realize you could make it sick or even kill it by taking it out of its natural habitat?”

Carter scratched at the white stripe down the middle of his hair and hung his head. “I was planning to let him go. Really. But then he looked up at me with those sad little eyes of mine—I mean his—and I thought, what if by feeding him we made it so he can't survive on his own? How would I feel if I did something to hurt the little guy?”

Nick was so mad he could feel his pulse pounding in his head. “So you thought you'd just bring it home and what? Make a pet out of it? Where did you think you were going to keep it, a hamster cage?”

“I didn't think about any of that!” Carter shouted. “I just opened my pack and he climbed in.”

Mom stuck her head into the kitchen. “Everything okay in here?”

“We're fine,” Nick said, shooting Carter a dark look. “Carter was just telling us about a movie where a dumb kid brings home a wild animal and learns what a bad idea that is.”

“Well, you better get out the door or you're going to be late.”

Glaring at one another, the three boys walked out the door and started toward school. As soon as they were out of sight of the house, Carter turned to Nick. “I'm planning on taking Carter Junior back, okay? I knew it was a bad idea to take him as soon as I got to the campsite. But by then that guy was screaming at us and I was afraid to let him see what I'd done.” He looked down at the backpack, which was wriggling more and more. “The thing is, I think there's something wrong with him.”

Angelo stepped forward. “What do you mean? Is it sick?”

Carter's pack shook and a little voice called out, “Is it sick?”

Nick stared at Angelo. Angelo stared at Carter. Carter stared down at the pack. Slowly he unzipped the back pocket and a tiny head popped out. It rubbed its glasses, looked owlishly at the boys, and said in an all-too-familiar voice, “It's entirely possible that they can't survive long away from where they were originally grown.”

It was a little Angelo.

Angelo blinked at the miniature version of himself. The little Angelo blinked back at him. “It's . . . it's me.”

Nick couldn't help laughing. “It looks exactly like you. It even has a tiny monster notebook.”

Carter gulped. “That's what I've been trying to tell you guys. It keeps changing. First it was me. Then it was Angelo. Then—”

“It looks exactly like you,” the tiny Angelo said. Except it wasn't Angelo anymore. So quickly Nick hadn't seen it happen, the homunculus had turned into a copy of him.

The mini Nick put its hands on its hips, frowned, and growled, “Where did you think you were going to keep it, a hamster cage?”

He gawked at the little him. “That doesn't sound like me.”

“It really does,” Angelo said. “It looks like you too. All the way to the hair sticking up in the back.”

“That doesn't sound like me,” the homunculus said in Nick's voice. Instantly it changed back to Angelo. “It really does,” it said in Angelo's voice. “It looks like you too.”

Angelo flipped open his notebook. “When did this start?”

“Last night. About an hour after I got home.” Carter patted the homunculus's head. “I was sitting in my room, trying to figure out what to do, when Carter Junior changed into Angelo. At first it was kind of funny. He sounded just like you. ‘Technically, the statistics point to a probability of—'”

“Technically, the statistics point to a probability of,” the homunculus said, waving its monster notebook theatrically in a perfect imitation of Angelo lecturing.

Carter looked down at it, his face a mask of worry and guilt. “Do you think I did something to him? He's still eating and sleeping. But the changes have been coming faster and faster.”

Angelo's brow wrinkled in concentration. “It's possible this is normal behavior. Or even a stage of development. But there's no way of knowing. We've got to return it to its home as soon as possible.”

Nick glanced at his watch. “Not to break up the party, guys, but if we don't book it now we're gonna be tardy.”

“Book it,” the homunculus said in Nick's voice. “Do you think I did something?” it said, changing into Carter.

Angelo sighed. “We can't take it to school like that.”

“I can keep him quiet,” Carter said. “He really likes black licorice and playing with my Nintendo DS. If I turn the sound off and sneak him food, no one will even know he's there.”

Nick and Angelo shared a concerned look.

“I can't leave him home,” Carter said. “And if I miss one more day of school before the end of the semester, I'll get suspended.”

There didn't appear to be much choice. “All right,” Nick said. “We'll take him to school. But you have to make sure
nobody
sees him.”

Running the whole way, they managed to get to class just before the bell rang. As they came through the door, Angie Hollingsworth and her friends Dana and Tiffany were waiting. The girls considered themselves at least as knowledgeable about monsters as Nick, Angelo, and Carter. The two groups had been archenemies until recently, when they'd had to work together to save another student from an evil mad scientist. Now there was a kind of truce that no one seemed completely comfortable with.

“Look who's here,” Angie said with a smirk. “I guess I lose a chocolate cupcake.”

Nick raised a single eyebrow—something he'd been working on over the past few weeks. “Do I even want to know why?”

Angie flipped back her red hair and grinned. “I bet Dana that at least one of you would get lost in the woods and they'd have to send out search-and-rescue.”

“Nice to know you cared,” Nick said, the sarcasm in his voice thicker than caramel on a banana split.

Carter pulled a piece of licorice out of his jacket, slipped it into his pack, and whispered something toward the back pocket.

“What's with him?” Dana asked.

Angelo's right eye twitched. “Uh, nothing.” He looked toward the front corner of the room, where a group of girls were crowded around a desk. “What's going on over there?”

Tiffany sniffed. “Kimber Tidwell is such a twit. She's decided that hats and puffy skirts are now in fashion. Although where she came up with such a ridiculous idea, I have no clue. Not a single fashion designer has said anything of the kind.”

Tiffany was a nut about fashion trends. But Kimber had been the most popular girl in the school since kindergarten. Anything she and her friends Torrie and Rebel decided was cool suddenly became trendy whether Tiffany liked it or not.

“Take your seats, please,” Ms. Schoepf said.

As Nick went to his desk, he mouthed to Carter, “Keep it hidden.”

Carter gave a thumbs-up. But the homunculus was already squirming around in his backpack. It would be a miracle if someone didn't notice it—especially Angie and her friends, who had eagle eyes when it came to figuring out what the boys were up to.

Fortunately, Ms. Schoepf kept them all busy with a math test, a history pop quiz, and a long lecture on the importance of the semicolon. Even Nick didn't have time to think about the homunculus.

It wasn't until the lunch bell rang and the kids began heading out the door to the playground that he remembered to check on Carter.

“How's it going?” he asked.

“Not good,” Carter whispered. “Carter Junior's been restless. I don't think the licorice agreed with his stomach.”

“No kidding,” Nick said. “Did it ever occur to you to try feeding it something healthy? Like, say, vegetables?”

“Vegetables are for rabbits and hamsters,” Carter said.

“Keep your voices down,” Angelo said. He glanced over at Kimber, Torrie, and Rebel, who were flouncing around in skirts that could have fit at least three girls each from what Nick could see.

“I'm telling you,” Kimber told anyone who would listen. “Soon everyone will be wearing puffy skirts. It's going to be like polyester in the seventies.”

“If you mean ugly, uncomfortable, and something you'll want to hide pictures of in
the future, I'm sure you're right,” Tiffany said.

Rebel lowered her sunglasses and peered out from under a floppy hat with a huge orange sunflower on the side. “Look. It's the wannabe patrol. Where's your I-wish-I-was-cool-too badge?”

Torrie spun around, making her pink skirt open like a carnation around her legs, and glared at Tiffany. “By the time the
masses
realize what's cool, we'll be wearing the next new thing.”

“Just ignore them,” Angie said. “They'd wear cardboard boxes if they thought it would get them attention.”

“Trust me,” Kimber said. “We'd look better in cardboard than you look in those . . .” She waved her hands at Angie's clothes. “. . . whatever you call that.”

Angelo nodded toward the far corner of the schoolyard and whispered to Nick and Carter, “Let's get away from everyone else and get a look at the you-know-what.”

Making sure no one was following them, the boys crossed the basketball courts and sat down beneath the shade of an old oak. Carter unzipped his pack and eased the homunculus out. “How are you feeling, little guy?”

Angelo studied the creature, which at the moment looked like Carter. “Its skin seems kind of green.”

“Maybe we should try giving it medicine,” Nick said.

Angelo immediately shook his head. “It would be impossible to know how it might react. Plus, how would you calculate the right dose?”

The homunculus clutched its stomach and moaned. It was pitiful to hear. “We can't just let him suffer,” Carter said.

The three boys stared at the little creature, unsure of what to do. Before they could come up with a plan, the little Carter opened its mouth and let out a belch that echoed across the playground.

“Whoa,” Carter said. “That was awesome, little dude. I guess it wasn't the licorice after all. Maybe I gave him too much Mountain Dew.”

Angelo slapped a hand to his forehead. “You've been feeding him candy
and
soda? What were you thinking?”

Carter held out his hands, palms up. “I figured since he looked like me, he should probably eat like me.”

The homunculus looked up and gave a wide grin. “I'm hungry.”

“See,” Carter said. “It takes one candy-aholic to know one.”

“What
is
that?” a voice asked.

Nick and his friends turned to see Angie, Dana, and Tiffany standing right behind
them.

Nick immediately moved between the girls and the homunculus. “You were spying on us!”

“As if,” Tiffany said, shaking out her dark hair.

“Why would we want to spy on
you
?” Dana asked.

“Then get lost,” Nick said.

“We were coming to see if you were going to Monster Movie Madness Saturday at the mall,” Angie said. “But we're not going anywhere until you tell us what you were doing with that doll.”

“It's not a doll,” Carter said as Angelo tried to hush him.

“It's not
anything.
Now scram,” Nick hissed.

“It's not anything,” a miniature Nick repeated, jumping onto Nick's shoulder.