“Run!” Kermit screamed. “Hurry! Get out! It’s going to BLOW!”
The liquid swirled and bubbled.
Kermit ducked under the lab table.
With a cry of horror, Evan spun round. Grabbed Andy’s hand. Started to pull her to the stairs.
But he had only taken a step when he stumbled over Dogface, Kermit’s huge sheepdog.
“Oof!” Evan felt the wind knocked out of him as he fell over the dog and landed facedown on the tile floor. He gasped. Struggled to choke in a mouthful of air.
The room tilted and swayed.
“It’s going to BLOW!” Kermit’s shrill warning rang in Evan’s ears.
He finally managed to take a deep breath. Raised himself to one knee. Turned back to the lab table.
And saw Andy standing calmly in the center of the rec room, her hands at her waist.
“Andy—it’s going to BLOW!” Evan choked out.
She rolled her eyes. “Evan, really,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Did you really fall for that?”
“Huh?” Evan gazed past her to the long glass table.
Kermit had climbed back to his feet. He was leaning with both elbows on the table. And he had the grin on his face. That grin.
The twisted grin with the two front teeth sticking out. The grin Evan hated more than any grin in the world.
“Yeah, Evan,” Kermit repeated, mimicking Andy, “did you really fall for that?” He burst into his squealing-high laugh that sounded like a pig stuck in a fence.
Evan pulled himself up, muttering under his breath. Dogface hiccupped. The dog’s tongue tumbled out, and he began to pant loudly.
Evan turned to Andy. “I didn’t really fall for it,” he claimed. “I knew it was another one of Kermit’s dumb jokes. I was just seeing if you believed it.”
“For sure.” Andy rolled her eyes again. She was doing a lot of eye-rolling this afternoon, Evan realized.
Evan and Andy stepped up to the table. It was littered with bottles and glass tubes, beakers and jars—all filled with colored liquids.
On the wall behind the table stood a high bookshelf. The shelves were also jammed with bottles and jars of liquids and chemicals. Kermit’s mixtures.
“I was only a few minutes late getting here,” Evan told Kermit. “From now on, don’t do anything. Just wait for me.” He sniffed the air. “What’s that really gross smell?”
Kermit grinned back at him. “I didn’t notice it until you came in!” he joked.
Evan didn’t laugh. “Give me a break,” he muttered.
Andy scratched her mosquito bite. “Yeah. No more jokes today, Kermit.”
The big sheepdog hiccupped again.
“I’m mixing up something to cure Dogface’s hiccups,” Kermit announced.
“Oh, no!” Evan replied sharply. “No way! I can’t let you give the dog one of your mixtures to drink.”
“It’s a very simple hiccup cure,” Kermit said, pouring a blue liquid into a green liquid. “It’s just maglesium harposyrate and ribotussal polythorbital. With a little sugar for sweetness.”
“No way,” Evan insisted. “You’re not giving Dogface anything to drink but water. It’s too dangerous.”
Kermit ignored him and continued to mix chemicals from one glass beaker into another. He glanced up at Andy. “What’s wrong with your arm?”
“It’s a really big mosquito bite,” Andy told him. “It itches like crazy.”
“Let me see it,” Kermit urged.
Andy eyed him suspiciously. “Why?”
Kermit grabbed Andy’s hand and tugged her closer. “Let me see it,” he insisted.
“It’s just a mosquito bite,” Andy said.
“I have some of that blue shrinking mixture left,” Kermit announced. “The stuff I shrank Conan’s shirt with.”
“Don’t remind me,” Evan groaned.
“It’ll shrink your mosquito bite,” Kermit told Andy. He picked up the beaker.
