A heavy silence fell over the backyard. All three of them stared at Conan’s broad, bare chest for a few moments.
Conan broke the silence. “That was my best muscle shirt,” he told Evan through gritted teeth.
“Uh-oh,” Evan uttered.
* * *
“I like your nose that way,” Andy told Evan. “It kind of tilts in both directions at once.”
“I think it will go back to the way it was,” Evan replied, patting his nose tenderly. “At least it stopped hurting so much.” He sighed. “All the other cuts and bruises will go away, too. In time.”
It was two days later. Evan sat across from Andy in the lunchroom at school. He stared down sadly at the tuna fish sandwich his mom had packed for him. He hadn’t taken a bite. His mouth wasn’t working exactly right yet. It kept going sideways instead of up and down.
Andy wiped a chunk of egg salad off her cheek. She had short brown hair and big brown eyes that stared across the table at Evan.
Andy didn’t dress like most of the other kids in their sixth-grade class. She liked bright colors. A lot of bright colors.
Today she wore a yellow vest over a magenta T-shirt and orange Day-Glo shorts.
When Andy moved to Atlanta in the beginning of the school year, some kids made fun of her colorful clothes. But they didn’t anymore. Now everyone agreed that Andy had style. And a few kids were even copying her look.
“So what happened after Conan the Barbarian pounded your body into coleslaw?” Andy asked. She pulled a handful of potato chips from her bag and shoved them one by one into her mouth.
Evan took a few bites from a section of his tuna fish sandwich. It took him a long time to swallow. “Conan made me promise I’d never look in his yard again,” he told Andy. “I had to raise my right hand and swear. Then he went home.”
Evan sighed. He touched his sore nose again. “After Conan left, Kermit helped me hobble into his house,” Evan continued. “A little while later, Aunt Dee got home.”
“Then what happened?” Andy asked, crinkling up the empty potato chip bag.
“She saw that I was messed up,” Evan replied. “So she asked what happened.”
Evan shook his head and scowled. “And before I could say anything, that little rat Kermit piped up and said, ‘Evan picked a fight with Conan.’”
“Oh, wow,” Andy murmured.
“And Aunt Dee said, ‘Well, Evan, if you’re just going to get into fights instead of taking care of Kermit, I’m going to have to talk to your mom about you. Maybe you’re not mature enough for this job.’”
“Oh, wow,” Andy repeated.
“And the whole thing was Kermit’s fault!” Evan shouted, pounding his fist so hard on the table that his milk carton tipped over. Milk spilled over the tabletop, onto the front of his jeans.
Evan was so upset, he didn’t even move out of the way. “And do you know the worst thing?” Evan demanded. “The worst thing?”
“What?” Andy asked.
“Kermit did it deliberately. He knew what that blue mixture would do. He knew it would shrink Conan’s shirt. Kermit wanted me to get pounded by Conan. He did the whole thing to get me in trouble with Conan.”
“How do you know?” Andy asked.
“The smile,” Evan told her.
“Huh? What smile?”
“The smile on Kermit’s face. You know that twisted little smile he has where his two front teeth stick out? That’s the smile he had when he helped me back to the house.”
Andy tsk-tsked.
Evan finished the section of tuna fish sandwich. “Is that all you’re going to say?” he snapped.
“What can I say?” Andy replied. “Your cousin, Kermit, is a weird little dude. I think you should teach him a lesson. Pay him back.”
“Huh?” Evan gaped at her. “How do I do that?”
Andy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you could … uh …” Her dark eyes suddenly flashed with excitement. “I know! Doesn’t he have a snack after school every day? You could slip some Monster Blood into his food.”
Evan gulped and jumped to his feet. “Hey—no way! No way, Andy!” he shouted.
Several kids turned to stare at Evan, startled by his loud cries.
“Don’t even think it!” Evan shouted, ignoring the stares. “No Monster Blood. Ever! I never want to hear those words again!”
“Okay, okay!” Andy cried. She raised both hands, as if to shield herself from him.
“By the way,” Evan said, a little calmer, “where is the Monster Blood? Where did you hide it? You didn’t take any of it out—did you?”
“Well …” Andy replied, lowering her eyes. A devilish grin spread across her face. “I put a little bit of it in the tuna fish sandwich you just ate.”
