Freddie Ramos Makes a Splash (4 page)

Noise always opens doors at Starwood Park. Gio’s big sister, Maria, came out.

“What happened?” she asked.

Maria was in my class during the school year. She was also in the Tadpoles with me at summer camp.

Gio told her about the girl on the green bike.

“I saw her through the window,” Maria said. “Her name is Erika. The girls at summer camp say she’s mean.”

Summer camp? Suddenly, I remembered where I’d seen Erika before. She was a Frog! Her group went into the pool right after the Tadpoles!

I felt as stiff as a telephone pole. Erika said she was going to make me pay. And I was going to see her the next day at summer camp!

“Freddie!” Maria called. “What’s wrong with you? You’re not moving.”

“You look frozen, Freddie,” Gio agreed.

Superheroes can’t be scared, especially not in front of their friends. What should I say? I looked down at my feet and found an answer.

“My shoe has bubble gum on it.” I pulled it up to show the sticky purple strings.

“I’ll get a stick,” Maria said.

A few minutes later, Maria had helped me clean the gum off my shoe but not the gunky feeling in my chest. What was Erika going to do to me tomorrow at summer camp? Was she going to throw me in the pool? I couldn’t swim yet!

“See you tomorrow at camp, Freddie!” Maria said. She and Gio went into 28G.

I went home to 29G. The phone was ringing when I opened the door. It was my mom, calling to check up on me from her office.

“How was camp?” she asked. “Did you put your face in the water?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “But I kicked good.”

“I’ll be home in one hour,” Mom said. “Te amo. I love you.”

An hour is a long time if you’re worried about a bully. I tried drinking milk. I tried watching TV. I tried petting my guinea pig, Claude the Second. I even asked him what I should do about Erika at summer camp.

“Are superheroes allowed to hide?”

Claude the Second didn’t have any answers. He just twitched his whiskers and looked cute.

Maybe Mr. Vaslov could help me. He had lots of good ideas. After all, he invented my super zapatos. I gave Claude the Second a carrot and left 29G.

Mr. Vaslov was not at his toolshed, where he invented things. He was probably still fixing the leaky bathtub in 15C. I turned to go there when I heard a rumbling noise. The metro train was passing Starwood Park on its overhead track.

My feet tingled in my super zapatos, itching to race the train. Even before I got my Zapato Power, I would run beside the track every afternoon with my arms out, pretending to be an airplane. That’s why Mr. Vaslov gave me the super zapatos he invented. He figured that any kid who ran just for fun would know how to take care of special shoes.

The second I started running, I felt better. My whole body filled with power as my feet moved faster and faster, racing the train.

Rápido! I zoomed ahead in a swirling cloud of smoke until the train was far behind. Zapato Power! I had super speed! A train couldn’t beat me! Maybe a bully couldn’t either.

I was ready for the next day at summer camp.

In the morning, I dashed out of 29G with my white backpack on my shoulders and my purple sneakers on my feet. Maria met me on the sidewalk.

“Are you going to put your face in the water today?” she asked.

That was a good question. I wished I had a better answer. “Maybe.”

“Use your silver goggles,” Maria suggested. “They’ll protect your eyes.”

“Good idea.” My Uncle Jorge in New York had sent me the goggles for swimming lessons. But I’d been so busy using them with Zapato Power, I didn’t always remember to use them for summer camp.

Maria and I walked down the street toward the high school, where summer camp was, until we came to Adriana’s building. We saw her opening the door just as Mr. Vaslov came around the corner. He had a pooper-scooper.

“Are you cleaning dog poop today?” Adriana asked him.

“No,” he grumbled. “I’m cleaning bubble gum. Somebody at Starwood Park has been making a mess.”

Erika! Suddenly, I realized something bad. Erika wasn’t just a problem at summer camp, she was a problem at Starwood Park. She must live here, too. People were always moving in and out. But most of them were nice. They didn’t mess up everything with sticky wads of purple bubble gum that stopped my Zapato Power.

“Can I help?” I asked Mr. Vaslov. After all, I needed the same thing—clean sidewalks.

He handed me his pooper-scooper. “Thanks, Freddie! You’re super!”

I told Maria and Adriana to go on without me, and I got right to work.