2 GOING, GOING, GOON!

CHAPTER 2 GOING, GOING, GOON! The next morning, Alexander was running late. He double-checked his backpack to make sure he had his two most important items: 1. The monster notebook. 2. His animal report. Then he hopped on his bike and rode to school. Alexander coasted over to the bike rack. He set his bike lock. February 29th, he thought. Mybirthday is easy to remember!

CLICKETY-CLICK! Alexander scrambled the numbers on his lock. Then he froze. Something wobbled around, off to his left. Something green and wiggly. Alexander jumped. A snake? SWISH! The green thing flopped beneath a hedge. Snakes don't move like that, he thought. Maybe it's a monster! School was about to start. But Alexander knew that stopping a monster was more important than being on time to class. The green thing wriggled through the hedge. Alexander ran to the other side. His jaw dropped.

The green thing wasn't a snake. It was an arm! The flippy, flapping arm of a balloon goon! BALLOON GOON Wiggly-wobbly air-sucking monster The goon fixed its googly eyes on Alexander. Alexander had battled balloon goons before. In fact, they were the first monsters he had run into when he'd moved to Stermont. "I thought we popped all you goons," he said, pulling a sharp pencil from his backpack. "We must have missed one." The goon bounced around the corner of the school. Alexander ran after it.

But there was no monster behind the school. Just a huge garbage dumpster. CLANG-CLONG! Something banged against the other side of the dumpster. Alexander snuck over. He leaped out with a battle cry. SCRISSHIII! Alexander's pencil tore through something shiny and plastic. A garbage bag. An overstuffed garbage bag in the arms of a tall, white-haired man. "Eep!" The white-haired man flailed his arms, flinging garbage everywhere. "Mr. Hoarsely?!" shouted Alexander.

MR. HOARSELY School secretary, janitor, nurse, bus driver, and gym teacher Former S.S.M.P. member Only grown-up who can see monsters? HUGE fraidycat "I was just taking out the trash!" cried Mr. Hoarsely, pulling a banana peel off his shoulder. "Why did you attack me?" "Sorry! I thought you were a balloon goon," Alexander said. He looked around. "Did you see one wobble this way?" Mr. Hoarsely swallowed. "What?! N-n-no! I thought you guys destroyed every last one of those horrible things!" "Yeah," said Alexander. "I thought so, too." BRINNGGGGG!! Mr. Hoarsely jumped again. "The late bell," he said. "I'll clean this up— you get to class!"