Read The Slime That Would Not Die Online

Authors: Laura Dower

The Slime That Would Not Die (4 page)

BOOK: The Slime That Would Not Die
2.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads
CHAPTER 5
THE GREAT FLOOD
Bluuurp.
I leaned close again.
Peeeeuw!
This really
was
Slimo.
Before I could really do anything, like shut the drain guard, the gross goo sucked itself back down into the pipes under the sink.
“Mom! Dad! Come quick!” I wailed. I clicked off the kitchen lights so I wouldn't have to look at it. I could still hear this gurgling, rushing sound, and my feet and pajamas were starting to get wet. Eww! The goo must be overflowing onto the floor! I screamed again. “Mom! Dad!
HELP!”
The two of them rushed into the kitchen a few moments later, rubbing their eyes.
“What's the matter, Jesse?” Mom asked. “Are you okay?”
Dad yawned. He looked like one of Oswald Leery's Zoltan Zombies standing there. They're the undead B-Monsters brought back to life by the evil Dr. Zoltan in
Zattack of the Zombies.
They are at the top of my list of best bad dudes
ever
.
“This better be good,” Dad grunted.
“Umm . . . something's wrong with the sink,” I warned. I could still hear the dripping.
Dad flicked on the kitchen light switch. Mom let out a shriek.
“Oh!” she cried.
Dad groaned. “Jesse!”
The kitchen was a flood zone. Water ran down the counter and onto the floor like a waterfall! We stood in a large puddle that covered nearly half of the kitchen's tiled surface.
Water, water everywhere. But no slime
anywhere.
I knew I was in big trouble with my parents, but I didn't care. I was just relieved to see water on the floor instead of slime.
“What happened?” Mom cried. She was wide awake now. “Don't you know how to turn off the faucet? Look at this disaster!”
“No! Wait!” I said. “A minute ago this wasn't water. There was something else in the sink. It was green—”
“Jesse Ranger!” Dad barked at me. “Stop making excuses! Go and get some towels!”
“Dad, I swear, there really was something else coming out of the faucet. It was green, just like Slimo, I
swear
!”
“Slimo?” Dad said, incredulous.
“JESSE ANGUS RANGER!” Mom let out an exasperated sigh. “B-Monsters are NOT real! Get to bed. Now!”
I looked over at Dad, desperate for a little backup. But he was on his hands and knees, mopping up the mess with dish towels. He looked up at me with one of those “you're on your own, kid” looks.
I bolted back upstairs to my room.
How could this have happened?
I asked myself. I went over the last ten minutes inside my head. I'd turned on the faucet to find the source of the
bluuurp.
Had I forgotten to turn it back the other way? That must have been why the water kept running.
I was more confused than ever.
And I was still thirsty.
I went into my bathroom, grabbed a paper cup, and turned on the water.
At first, everything was normal. The faucet turned on with no problems and the water ran clear. But then, out of nowhere, it gushed this green, thick goop, all at once! Just like the stuff in the downstairs kitchen!
Quickly, I turned off the faucet and closed my eyes tight.
Sluuurp.
Everything sucked back down the drain again. I quickly checked the faucet. I didn't want to flood the bathroom, too.
“That didn't just happen, that didn't just happen,” I told myself.
I pulled the bathroom door open, backed into my room, clicked off the overhead light, and dove under my covers.
“That didn't just happen, that didn't just happen,” I repeated.
Cautiously, I peeked over the edge of my blanket. The bathroom door was still open just a crack. At first I could hardly see anything, it was so dark. But then I saw something: a neon green, quivering glow.
It was getting brighter. And there was that smell. The same one from the kitchen.
I took a gulp of air and counted to three. Then I jumped out from under the covers and dashed across the bedroom. The creepy green light was definitely coming from the bathroom.
I wanted to yell for Mom and Dad again, but I knew I shouldn't.
I
couldn't.
With all my might, I threw my body against the bathroom door. As it flew open, I threw on the overhead light.
Za-zzzap!
The lightbulb sizzled.
The green was gone!
Now there wasn't a single drop of slime
anywhere
. And it smelled normal again, like those powder-fresh air fresheners Mom plugs into the wall.
Somehow, Slimo had disappeared again!
CHAPTER 6
MY TEACHER IS MISSING!
“Your attention, please. The third floor of the building has been closed, effective immediately. Students are restricted from this area and the upper gym. Classes have been relocated to the library and first-floor assembly rooms. Thank you,” Principal Pickle's nasal voice droned over the intercom the next morning at school.
The halls buzzed. Kids clumped together, whispering in groups. Something was going on. No one knew what it was, but I could tell it had to be BIG.
“Jess!” Garth grabbed my shoulder in the hall outside the locker bank. “Did you hear that announcement?”
“Yeah,” I said.
“Maybe spaceships landed on the roof!” Garth teased me.
“Spaceships?” I quipped. “Let's go upstairs and see what it
really
is.”
Garth made a face. “Are you kidding?”
“Come on! Don't you want a logical explanation for all this chaos?” I said, appealing to the scientist in Garth.
He fell for the bait—and agreed to head for the third floor.
“I'm only doing this because . . .” Garth mumbled. “Hey, why
am
I doing this?”
“Maybe something exploded,” I said.
“Nah,” Garth said, making a face. “If that were true, we would have heard the actual explosion.”
Just then, some guy hustled past us with a very big video camera. The back of his shirt said
news 12.
“Whoa,” Garth said. “That must be serious.”
“Where's he going?” I wondered aloud.
“Third floor,” Garth said. “The place we're not supposed to go. Remember?”
“Hurry up before we lose him!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Principal Pickle waving his arms all over the place.
“Out of the way! Clear the halls!” he cried.
We dodged out of the way. Coming down the hall behind Principal Pickle was Security Guard Spiker. Three police officers barreled down the hall with him.
“Get to class, kids,” Principal Pickle yelled as he ran.
“That means
you
,” Spiker barked at Garth and me as he and the police went by.
Garth looked at me. I looked at Garth. We broke into nervous giggles.
“Come on,” I pleaded, watching them head up the main stairs.
“Come on
what
?” Garth cried.
“Let's follow them,” I said. “We can take the side stairs instead.”
Garth pursed his lips. I knew he was going to say
no
. And then he surprised me.
“Okay,” Garth blurted. “But just for a second.”
We ignored the class bell, sidestepped the other kids lurking in the hall, and slipped into a side stairwell.
The walk up to the third floor took only a few seconds. We took two stairs at a time. At the top, Garth cracked open a heavy door. We peeked out.
“Cops!” I whispered. “They're everywhere.”
I could see them telling the guy from
NEWS 12
to go back downstairs.
Garth tugged on my shirt. “I don't like this,” he said. “We're going to get caught.”
“No, we won't!” I said. “There's a bathroom around the corner. We can make a break for it.”
“What if the door's locked?” Garth asked.
“It won't be!” I cried, shoving him. “Come on!”
We both ran as fast as we could, past a water fountain, closed classrooms, and a huge garbage can, and then ducked into the bathroom.
“
That
was wicked!” I exclaimed, hopping up onto a sink ledge.
“Yeah, that was wicked, all right,” Garth said. “Wicked
stupid
. They could have seen us! Now what do we do?”
I looked around for a way out. That's when I saw feet in one of the bathroom stalls. My gut twisted into a knot. We weren't
alone
?
“Yo, Ranger!” a voice said from the stall. “That you?”
I cringed. Not
again.
The stall door slammed open and Damon Molloy, Enemy Number One, walked out with two of his backup posse. I have all the luck.
“Who invited you two to our stakeout?” Damon cracked.
I groaned. “Who invited
you
?”
“Whoa,” Damon snapped, crossing his arms. He flicked at my ear. “This is
our
stakeout. Not yours. Scram.”
“We can't go back out there!” Garth babbled. “There are cops out there.”
“Cops?” Damon looked surprised. “What cops?”
“Outside. Right now,” I said.
“Whoa!” Damon said. “I guess Principal Pickle called the police once he realized our teacher was missing,” Damon said.
“A teacher is missing?” I asked. “Who?”
“Mr. Bunsen vanished into thin air this morning, moron,” Damon replied. “Where have
you
been? Under a rock?”
“Mr. Bunsen?” I said.
“Yeah, the teacher with the secret briefcase,” Damon said. We made fun of Mr. Bunsen on a regular basis. He had crazy silver hair and always wore lab coats and these ugly blue and green sneakers.
“I heard he's an undercover spy,” said one of the kids in Damon's posse.
“And I heard he's billionaire rich with a hidden laboratory,” said another one.
“Are you guys serious?” I asked.
My head reeled. I had heard loads of Riddle rumors about Mr. Bunsen and some of the other teachers before now. I always wondered if there was any truth to them. And what about the night before, when I saw Mr. Bunsen on the library steps? What did
that
mean?
Just then we heard a sound in the hall. Someone was opening the bathroom door!
Garth cried, “The cops!” but I held my hand over his mouth. The five of us panicked, crammed into the biggest bathroom stall, and then waited.
And waited.
But no one came in.
“There are no cops coming, dorkus,” Damon growled at Garth.
“So now what?” I asked.
“We should go scope out Bunsen's classroom,” Damon suggested.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrring.
The second-period bell rang. We didn't have much time.
Damon puffed out his chest and shoved me forward. “Move it or lose it,” he ordered, poking Garth and me in our backs. We were like his human shields as we ducked back into the hall. I half-expected Spiker or the cops to jump us. But the hall was empty.
We walked toward Mr. Bunsen's classroom.
“Ewww, do you smell that?” Damon said.
“Whew,” I gasped. It smelled like armpits or my Dad's old sneakers. But Garth said he didn't smell anything.
We approached the doorway slowly, just in case someone was there. But we were alone. The cops were gone—at least for now.
As we stepped into the room, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was slime all over! The entire science lab—walls, floor, ceiling—was splattered with some kind of goo. It stank
bad
.
BOOK: The Slime That Would Not Die
2.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Cat and the King by Louis Auchincloss
Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey
Creep Street by John Marsden
Anna in Chains by Merrill Joan Gerber
Fyre by Angie Sage