“Oh, let him try!” Andy interrupted. She rubbed her smooth arm. “Kermit is a genius, Evan. You have to let a genius work.”

Evan glared at her. “Whose side are you on?” he demanded in a loud whisper.

Andy didn’t answer. She unzipped her orange-and-blue backpack and pulled out some papers. “I think I’ll do my math homework while Kermit mixes up his hiccup cure.”

Kermit’s eyes lit up excitedly behind his glasses. “Math? Do you have math problems?”

Andy nodded. “It’s a take-home equations exam. Very hard.”

Kermit set down the test tubes and beakers. He hurried out from behind the lab table. “Can I do the problems for you, Andy?” he asked eagerly. “You know I love to do math problems.”

Andy flashed Evan a quick wink. Evan frowned back at her. He shook his head.

So that’s why Andy is being so nice to Kermit! Evan told himself. It was all a trick. A trick to get Kermit to do the math test for her.

Kermit could never resist math problems. His parents had to buy him stacks and stacks of math workbooks. He could spend an entire afternoon doing all the problems in the workbooks—for fun!

Dogface hiccupped.

Kermit grabbed the math test from Andy’s hand. “Please let me do the equations,” he begged. “Pretty please?”

“Well … okay,” Andy agreed. She flashed Evan another wink.

Evan scowled back at her. Andy is going to get in trouble for this, he thought. Andy is a terrible math student. It’s her worst subject. Mrs. McGrady is going to get very suspicious when Andy gets every problem right.

But Evan didn’t say anything. What was the point?

Kermit was already scribbling answers on the page, solving the equations as fast as he could read them. His eyes were dancing wildly. He was breathing hard. And he had a happy grin on his face.

“All done,” he announced.

Wow, he’s fast! Evan thought. He finished that math test in the time it would take me to write my name at the top of the page!

Kermit handed the pencil and math pages back to Andy. “Thanks a lot,” she said. “I really need a good grade in math this term.”

“Cheater,” Evan whispered in her ear.

“I just did it for Kermit,” Andy whispered back. “He loves doing math problems. So why shouldn’t I give him a break?”

“Cheater,” Evan repeated.

Dogface hiccupped. Then he let out a pained howl.

Kermit returned to his lab table. He poured a yellow liquid into a red liquid. It started to smoke. Then it turned bright orange.

Andy tucked the math test into her backpack.

Kermit poured the orange liquid into a large glass beaker. He picked up a tiny bottle, turned it upside down, and emptied silvery crystals into the beaker.

Evan stepped up beside Kermit. “You can’t feed that to Dogface,” Evan insisted. “I really mean it. I won’t let you give it to him.”

Kermit ignored him. He stirred the mixture until it turned white. Then he added another powder that made it turn orange again.

“You have to listen to me, Kermit,” Evan said. “I’m in charge, right?”

Kermit continued to ignore him.

Dogface hiccupped. His white furry body quivered and shook.

“Let Kermit work,” Andy told Evan. “He’s a genius.”

“Maybe he’s a genius,” Evan replied. “But I’m in charge. Until Kermit’s mom gets home, I’m the boss.”

Kermit poured the mixture into a red dog dish.

“I’m the boss,” said Evan. “And the boss says no.”

Kermit lowered the dog dish to the floor.

“The boss says you can’t feed that to Dogface,” Evan said.

“Here, boy! Here, boy!” Kermit called.

“No way!” Evan cried. “No way the dog is drinking that!”

Evan made a dive for the bowl. He planned to grab it away.

But he dove too hard—and went sliding under the lab table.

Dogface lowered his head to the dog dish and began lapping up the orange mixture.

Evan spun around and stared eagerly at the dog. All three of them were waiting … waiting … waiting to see what would happen.

Dogface licked the bowl clean. Then he stared up at Kermit, as if to say, “Thank you.”

Kermit petted the big dog’s head. He smoothed the white, curly fur from in front of Dogface’s eyes. The fur fell right back in place. Dogface licked Kermit’s hand.

“See? The hiccups are gone,” Kermit declared to Evan.

Evan stared at the dog. He waited a few seconds more. “You’re right,” he confessed. “The hiccups are gone.”

“It was a simple mixture,” Kermit bragged. “Just a little tetrahydropodol with some hydradroxilate crystals and an ounce of megahydracyl oxyneuroplat. Any child could do it.”

“What a genius!” Andy exclaimed.

Evan started to say something. But Dogface interrupted with a sharp yip.