7

I called Mom to tell her we were going to crash at Gramma's for the night. But Mom sounded really mad on the phone. She said it was a school night, and that we had to get home right that instant. So that meant we were gonna have to make a run for it. I looked out the window, and this time, I didn't see the truck. But I knew those guys were hiding somewhere and were just trying to draw us out. So we snuck out the back door, hopped over Gramma's fence, and ran all the way to Snake Road. I figured our chances were better there because there aren't any streetlights. Snake Road is scary enough on its own without having a truckload of teenagers hunting you down.

Every time we saw a car coming, we dove into the bushes. It must've taken us a half hour to go 100 yards. But believe it or not, we made it all the way home without getting caught. Neither one of us let our guard down until we got to my driveway.

But right then, there was this awful scream, and we saw a big wave of water coming toward us. Man, I forgot all about Dad, and we totally paid the price for it. When me and Rowley got inside, we laid out all our candy on the kitchen table. The only things we could salvage were a couple of

mints that were wrapped in cellophane, and the toothbrushes Dr. Garrison gave us. I think next Halloween I'll just stay home and mooch some Butterfingers from the bowl Mom keeps on top of the refrigerator. November Thursday On the bus ride into school today, we passed by Gramma's house. It got rolled with toilet paper last night, which I guess was no big surprise. I do feel a little bad, because it looked like it was gonna take a long time to clean up. But on the bright

side, Gramma is retired, so she probably didn't have anything planned for today anyway. Wednesday In third period, Mr. Underwood, our Phys Ed teacher, announced that the boys will be doing a wrestling unit for the next six weeks. If there's one thing most boys in my school are into, it's professional wrestling. So Mr. Underwood might as well have set off a bomb. Lunch comes right after Phys Ed, and the cafeteria was a complete madhouse.

I don't know what the school is thinking having a wrestling unit. But I decided if I don't want to get twisted into a pretzel for the next month and a half, I'd better do my homework on this wrestling business. So I rented a couple of video games to learn some moves. And you know what? After a while, I was really starting to get the hang of it. In fact, the other kids in my class had better look out, because if I keep this up, I could be a real threat.