“On purpose!” Andy declared. “He got them wrong on purpose. He made up answers for all of them! He didn’t even read the problems. He just wrote down stupid answers.”
“But why?” Evan demanded.
“Why? Why? Because he’s Kermit!” Andy screamed.
Evan swallowed hard. Poor Andy, he thought. Now she will fail in math.
“What a mean, rotten trick!” Andy shrieked into the phone. “Mrs. McGrady called me up to her desk and asked me to explain my answers. She asked me how I could possibly be so totally off on every single equation.”
Andy sighed bitterly. “Of course I couldn’t answer her. I just stood there with my mouth open. I think I drooled on her desk!”
“After we left his house, Kermit probably laughed his head off,” Evan said.
“That brat has such a sick sense of humor,” Andy wailed. “We have to pay him back, Evan. We really have to.”
“Yeah. We do,” Evan agreed.
“We have to get out the Monster Blood,” Andy urged. “We have to use the Monster Blood to pay him back.”
“Yeah. We do,” Evan agreed.
Evan called Andy back later that night. “I changed my mind,” he said. “I don’t want to use the Monster Blood.”
“What’s your problem?” Andy demanded. “Kermit deserves it. You know he does.”
“Monster Blood is too dangerous,” Evan told her. “It turned Cuddles the hamster into a giant, roaring monster. I don’t want to turn Kermit into a giant, roaring monster.”
“Neither do I!” Andy exclaimed. “I don’t want to feed it to him, Evan. I just want to slip a tiny bit into one of his mixtures. He thinks he’s so smart and can do anything. I want to see Kermit’s face when his mixture goes berserk!”
She laughed gleefully.
What an evil laugh, Evan thought.
“It’ll be awesome!” Andy exclaimed.
“Forget about it,” Evan insisted. “I have nightmares about Monster Blood almost every night. I don’t want to see that stuff again, Andy. I really don’t. Leave it locked up—please!”
“But you said we could do it!” Andy pleaded.
“I made a mistake,” Evan told her. “Don’t take it out of the closet, Andy. Leave it safe and sound in its can—okay?”
Andy didn’t reply.
“Okay?” Evan demanded. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Andy finally agreed.
* * *
“We’re going to play outside today, Kermit,” Evan said firmly. “It’s a beautiful day, and we’re going to go out and not stay in the stupid basement. Get it?”
It was a sunny, warm Thursday afternoon. Golden sunlight filtered down through the dust-covered basement windows up near the ceiling.
Standing behind his lab table, arranging his jars and bottles of chemicals, Kermit muttered something to himself.
“No argument,” Andy added. “We’re going outside even if Evan and I have to drag you out.”
“But I have a mixture I want to try,” Kermit whined.
“You need some sunshine,” Evan told him. “Look how pale you are. You look just like a white mouse.”
Kermit was wearing a huge olive-colored T-shirt over baggy brown shorts. With his white-blond hair, beady eyes, and buck teeth, he looked more like a rat in human clothes.
He frowned, hurt by Evan’s description.
“Okay. I’ll go outside with you,” he murmured unhappily.
“Yaay!” Andy whooped. It was the first time Kermit had ever agreed to leave his basement lab.
“But first I have to have a drink,” Kermit said. He stepped out from behind the lab table and made his way toward the basement stairs. “You want an orange soda?”
“Yeah. Sure,” Evan replied. He and Andy followed Kermit up the stairs to the kitchen.
“I can’t believe he agreed to go out and play,” Andy whispered. “Do you think he’s sick or something?”
“Maybe he feels bad about the mean tricks he’s pulled,” Evan whispered.
