7 Ch7-Busted!

Chapter 7 Busted! Life without candy and soda pop is a horrible, meaningless existence. Now that the junk food machines were gone from the vomitorium, I was left with no choice. It was time to resort to extreme measures. I decided to sneak in junk food from home. The next morning I stuffed a bag of Cracker Jacks into my backpack. I jammed some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in my pencil case. I put some popcorn in my pants pockets. I had a Charleston Chew in my shoe and gummi bears in my underwear! "I'm a walking candy store," I whispered to Michael and Ryan as we went through the front doors of school. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Bells started ringing and sirens started blaring. "JUNK FOOD ALERT!" announced this computery voice. "JUNK FOOD ALERT!" Suddenly some guy in a police uniform jumped out from behind the door. He had a gun, handcuffs, and one of those clubs they use to beat up the bad guys on TV. "Freeze, dirtbag!" he yelled. "Huh?" I asked. "Who are you?" "My name is Officer Spence!" he said, pulling my hands behind my back. "I'm the new security guard here. Are you hiding any junk food on your person, young man?" "You are so busted, A.J.," said Ryan. I emptied my pockets for Officer Spence. I handed over the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, the popcorn, the gummi bears, the Cracker Jacks, and the Charleston Chews, too. "Step away from the junk food," ordered Officer Spence, "and nobody gets hurt." By that time a crowd of kids had gathered around to see what all the excitement was about. "Is Arlo going to jail?" Andrea asked with a huge grin on her face. "I'm going to let you off with a warning this time, young man," Officer Spence told me. "But don't bring any more junk food to school. That is, if you know what's good for you." "Yes sir," I said meekly. Ryan and Michael were laughing their heads off like it was the funniest thing in the history of the world. But it wasn't funny to me. I thought about running away to Antarctica to live with the penguins, but it would probably be even

harder to get junk food there. "I have to run some tests on this evidence to make sure it's not poisoned," Officer Spence said as he bit into one of my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. "You can't be too careful, you know." "Hey, that's my candy!" I complained. "There might be a bomb in these Cracker Jacks," Officer Spence said, ripping open the bag. "I'd better test them." He stuffed a fistful of Cracker Jacks into his mouth. "This batch is clean," he said. "Lucky I was here to make sure." Officer Spence makes no sense! But there was something else I still didn't understand. What the heck was it that started beeping when I went through the front door? That's when Mr. Klutz came running down the hall. He was all excited. "The new infrared heat-sensing digital junk food detector works!" he said. "Mrs. Yonkers is a genius!" What?! This was one of Mrs. Yonkers's inventions? It was a horrible, terrible, mean invention, if you ask me. I was really mad at Mrs. Yonkers.