16 FEELING ANTSY

CHAPTER 16 FEELING ANTSY A gazillion ants streamed out of Mr. Plunkett's broken ant farm. "GRAAAR?" The candy-saurus picked up one foot. Then the other. Soon it was doing a little dance. Within seconds, the candy monster was up to its gumdrops in ants. The candy-saurus roared one last time before it was completely covered with hungry ants.

Alexander untied Rip from the tetherball pole. Thousands of ants chomped away at the taffy that was holding Nikki down. She ran over to Alexander and Rip. "Guys, look!" Alexander said.

The candy-saurus was gone. The ants had eaten the entire monster, from snout to tail. All that was left was a single sourball. "I wonder why the ants didn't eat that," said Nikki. Rip picked it up, brushed it off, and GLOMP!- popped the sourball into his mouth. Alexander and Nikki stared at him. "What?" said Rip. "Candy is candy!" Alexander and Nikki looked at Rip again. He swallowed. "What?!" he said. "So it came from a monster! No big deal."

"I guess we'll find out," said Alexander. He took the notebook from his backpack and— "YOU THREE!" shouted a voice. Ms. Vanderpants came storming across the playground. "Explain yourselves!" she said. "Uh, we didn't do this," Alexander said. "At least, not all of it!" Ms. Vanderpants frowned. "I know you didn't do this," she said. "But you shouldn't be on school grounds on a Saturday. We're dealing with a major"— she glanced at the crack in the building "pest problem."

"Um, sorry, Ms. Vanderpants," said Alexander. He turned to his friends. "We were just leaving. They got out of there. "Pest problem?!" said Nikki. "What was that about? And besides— she should be thanking us! We saved the school!" "Totally!" said Rip. "The S.S.M.P. bashed the mighty P-rex and licked the candy-saurus!" "Yeah!" said Alexander. "It was pretty sweet!" He grabbed his pencil and made a new entry.