16 FINAL CURTAIN

CHAPTER 16 FINAL CURTAIN KER-SMASH! The principal-nabbing monster crashed through the back wall of the stage. Mr. Hoarsely rushed onstage. "Alexander!" he cried. "What have you done?" "But—" began Alexander. "We thought—" said Rip. "She—" added Nikki. Mr. Hoarsely shook his head. "You trapped the wrong monster! Ms. Vanderpants wasn't the boss-monster!" he said. "She was trying to stop the boss-monster!"

Rip looked at the monster-shaped hole in the wall. "You mean, that big ugly green arm—" "Yes," said Mr. Hoarsely. "Ms. Vanderpants has been trying to defeat the boss-monster for years. And now you just handed her over!" The S.S.M.P. stood in silence as rubble fell. Rip's ants back to normal size— crawled up his leg. He no longer tried to brush them off. "So we still have to find our notebook," said Nikki. "Yeah," said Alexander. "Just as soon as we save our principal." Alexander turned over a 100th Day program and sketched some notes about the nar-madillo. Then he handed a program to Rip, to write his own entry.