4 Wound Too Tight

CHAPTER FOUR WOUND TOO TIGHT One day Franny walked up the stairs to her room after a long day at school followed by bagpipe lessons. She had a lot of homework ahead of her and knew she had forgotten to take care of some of the lab stuff earlier that morning.

Her thoughts were scattered. She was thinking about everything all at once. She went over to the centipede's cage and milked it. Then she shaved the soy plant and put shoes on the slugs. She gave a monster a bowl of dog food and was just preparing to run a jillion volts of electricity through Igor before she realized that she had gotten everything all mixed up.

"Oh, no!" she groaned. "It's too much," she said. "That kind of electricity would have fried you like a potato chip, Igor. I'm wound up too tight to think clearly. I have to talk to Mom."

The next day, Franny told her mom about the mix-ups in the laboratory. "Igor could have been vaporized. The soy plant is mad because it was really trying to grow a mustache, the slugs are after me to make them some feet to go with their new shoes. And who in their right mind is ever going to drink two gallons of centipede milk?

"Mom, I think this all happened because I'm so busy. Do you think it would be okay if I took a break from the bagpipe lessons for a while?" "But Franny," her mom said. "How else will you learn? The bagpipe is a beautiful instrument, and music teaches you self- control and how to perform with confidence."

"Okay," Franny said with a sigh. "Then how about if we skip the gourmet-cooking class?"