8 STICKY SITUATION

CHAPTER 8 STICKY SITUATION AI! You're home!" said Alexander's dad. He was on the front porch, reading the latest issue of Captain Cuspid. "How did everything go with your ant farm. "Ant farm?" Alexander asked, looking over his shoulder. "Oh! I forgot about that." "Really?!" said his dad. "What could make you forget something so important! I bet your ant farm was a big smash!"

"Uh, yeah," said Alexander, "you could say that." His eyes darted to the swaying treetops across the street. Alexander gulped. "Dad, uh, can we go inside now?" "Sure thing, AI!" his dad said. "Just as soon as you get that paper off your shoe." Alexander blinked. "Not again!" he said. He pulled the strip of paper from the bottom of his shoe. This time, the paper was bright green, and covered in sticky purple goo. This isn't toilet paper, he thought.

He touched the goo and gave it a sniff: sour grape. Taffy. he thought. More candy! This must be connected to the dino-monster... but how? Alexander looked at his sticky, purple finger. He gasped. Purple thumbprints! He dashed upstairs to his room. He opened the notebook to the trample hamster pages. Purple thumbprints ran along one side. He sniffed. The page smelled grapey. The next two pages were stuck together by purple taffy! He carefully peeled the sticky pages apart. "Aha!" he shouted.

P-REX (Piñata-saurus Rex) The P stands for "piñata," like the colorful paper container you bust open at your cousin's birthday party. Except this piñata is the size of a T-rex.

HOWDY! P-rexes are friendly to smaller piñata monsters. HABITAT Outdoors. They're way too big to come inside. DIET They don't eat anything. That's because they're full of candy! BEHAVIOR P-rexes love smashing things. The bigger, the smarter! WARNING! Whack a P-rex before it whacks you! Here's how: 1. Wear a blindfold and spin around three times. 2. Wallop the P-rex with a stick. 3. watch it break open! (PSSST! SWEET SURPRISE INSIDE!)

Alexander closed the notebook. Everything made sense now: the giant footprints, the piles of candy, the smashed buildings— even the paper stuck to his shoe. He couldn't wait to tell Rip and Nikki!