Finally, two girls happened to walk by, and they pulled open the locker door.
Evan came bursting out, red-faced, gasping for air.
The girls’ laughter followed him all the way to Mr. Murphy’s class. “You’re late,” the teacher said sternly, glancing up at the wall clock as Evan staggered in.
Evan tried to explain why. But all that escaped his lips was a whistling wheeze.
“I’m really tired of you disrupting my class, Evan,” Mr. Murphy said, rubbing his nearly bald head. “I’m afraid I’ll be seeing you after school again. You can give Cuddles’s cage a double cleaning. And while you’re at it, you can scrub the chalkboards and clean out all the test tubes, too.”
* * *
“It’s so dark,” Evan whispered.
“It usually gets dark at night,” Andy replied, rolling her eyes.
“The streetlight is out,” Evan said, pointing. “And there’s no moon tonight. That’s why it’s so dark.”
“Hide!” Andy whispered.
They ducked behind the hedge as a car rolled slowly past. Evan shut his eyes as the white headlights moved over him. When the car turned the corner, they climbed to their feet.
It was a little after eight o’clock. They were standing in the street in front of Conan’s house. Leaning against the low hedge, they stared across the sloping front lawn into the large picture window in the front of the house.
The lamp in the living room was lit, casting a dim rectangle of orange light that spilled onto the front yard. The old trees at the sides of the small brick house whispered in a hot breeze.
“Are we really doing this?” Evan asked, huddling close to Andy. “Are we really going to break into Conan’s house?”
“We’re not going to break in,” Andy whispered. “We’re going to sneak in.”
“But what if the Monster Blood isn’t there?” Evan asked, hoping she couldn’t see his knees trembling.
“We have to look, don’t we?” Andy shot back. She turned to study his face. He saw that she was frightened, too. “The Monster Blood will be there,” she told him. “It’s got to be.”
Bending low, she started to creep across the dark yard to the house.
Evan hung back. “You checked it out?” he called to her. “Everyone is really gone?”
“His parents left right after dinner,” Andy told him. “Then I saw Conan go out about ten minutes ago.”
“Where?” Evan demanded.
“How should I know?” she asked sharply, putting her hands on her waist. “He left. The house is empty.” She came back and tugged Evan’s arm. “Come on. Let’s sneak into Conan’s room, get the Monster Blood, and get out of here!”
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Evan said, sighing. “We—we could be arrested!”
“It was your idea!” Andy reminded him.
“Oh. Yeah. Right.” He took a deep breath and held it, hoping it would help calm him down. “If we don’t find it right away, we get out of there—right?”
“Right,” Andy agreed. “Now come on.” She gave him a little shove toward the house.
They took a few steps over the dew-wet grass.
They both stopped when they heard the low barking.
Andy grabbed Evan’s arm.
The barking grew louder. They could hear the dog’s heavy paws pounding the ground, approaching fast.
Two angry eyes. A loud warning bark. Another.
The dog attacked at full speed.
“Run!” Evan cried. “Conan has a guard dog!”
“Too late to run!” Andy shrieked.
The dog barked again.
Evan cried out and threw up his hands as the dog leaped for his throat.
The dog wasn’t as big as Evan had thought—but it was strong.
It licked his face, pressing its wet snout into his cheek.
It licked his chin. And then his lips.
