Instead, his eyes were dancing with excitement and he was grinning from ear to ear.
We were total jerks! Evan thought sadly. Kermit is loving this!
Kermit pulled out a cloth and cleaned his glasses. “What a mess!” he declared, gazing around the room. “Evan, you’re going to be in major trouble when Mom gets home.”
Evan swallowed hard. He had forgotten about Kermit’s mom.
She had given him one last chance to prove that he was a good baby-sitter.
Now she was going to come home to a basement splattered with sticky yellow goop from floor to ceiling. And Kermit was sure to tell her the whole thing was Evan’s fault.
Aunt Dee will tell everyone in the world why she had to take the job away from me, Evan thought unhappily. And I’ll never get another baby-sitting job as long as I live.
Bye-bye, video game, he thought grimly. No way he’d ever earn the money for one now.
“This is your fault!” he snapped at Andy, pointing an accusing finger at her. A spot of yellow dough stuck to his fingernail.
“My fault?” Andy shrieked. “You’re the one who wanted to teach Kermit a lesson!”
“But you’re the one who wanted to use the Monster Blood!” Evan cried.
“Look at my hair!” Andy wailed. “It’s solid goop! It looks like I’m wearing a helmet! It’s ruined! Ruined!” She uttered an angry growl.
Kermit giggled. He bent down and picked up a chunk of the sticky yellow dough. “Think fast!’ he shouted—and heaved it at Evan.
The dough ball hit the front of Evan’s T-shirt and stuck there. “Stop it, Kermit!” he shouted angrily.
“Let’s have a dough fight!” Kermit suggested, grinning. He scooped up another handful of the stuff.
“No! No way! Stop it!” Evan cried. He pulled the dough ball off his T-shirt. “This is dangerous! We’ve got to clean this up!”
Kermit flung another big chunk of yellow goo at Evan.
Evan tried to dodge out of the way. But his sneakers slipped on a big, slimy puddle of goop, and he hit the floor hard. He landed on his side with a loud “OOF!”
Kermit let out a gleeful laugh. “That was awesome!” he declared. “What a shot!”
Andy hurried over and helped tug Evan to his feet. “Maybe we can vacuum it all up,” she suggested. She turned to Kermit. “Where does your mom keep the vacuum cleaner?”
Kermit shrugged. “Beats me.”
Evan leaned against the lab table. His hand rested in a puddle of dough, but he didn’t care.
He suddenly felt strange.
His entire body started to tingle. His stomach felt queasy. He shut his eyes, trying to force the strange feeling away.
But the tingling grew stronger.
He heard a shrill whistling sound in his ears. His muscles started to ache. He could feel the blood throbbing at his temples.
“Maybe we can mop it up,” Evan heard Andy say. But her voice sounded tiny and far away.
He turned to see her pick up a mop and bucket from against the basement wall.
That bucket is too tiny, Evan thought. Why does Andy want to use such a tiny mop?
The room tilted—to the right, then to the left.
Evan blinked hard, trying to straighten everything out.
His whole body buzzed, as if an electrical current were shooting through him. He shut his eyes and pressed both hands against his throbbing temples.
“Evan—aren’t you going to help me?” Andy’s voice sounded so faint, so far away. “Evan—?” he heard her call. “Evan—?”
When he opened his eyes, he saw that Andy and Kermit were staring up at him. Their expressions had changed. Their eyes bulged in fright and surprise. Their mouths were wide open.
“What’s going on?” Evan demanded. His voice boomed through the basement, echoing off the concrete walls.
Andy and Kermit stared up at him. The tiny mop fell out of Andy’s hand and clattered to the floor.
Such a tiny mop, Evan thought again, staring down at it. Such a tiny bucket.
And then he realized that Andy and Kermit were tiny, too.
“Oh!” A cry of surprise escaped Evan’s throat.
Everyone is so small. Everything is so tiny.
