9. Hunter Talks

Chapter 9 Hunter Talks The kids trekked up Bridge Lane. Pal tugged on his leash, as if he knew exactly where he was going. They stopped in front of the little yellow house on Thrush Court, then walked up the driveway to the garage. The basketball was lying under the hoop. Pal began whimpering and tugging Bradley toward the garage.

Suddenly they heard laughter from inside the garage. Pal began barking and yanked the leash from Bradley's hand. He raced to the garage, barking like crazy. "Pal, stop!" Bradley yelled. He grabbed the leash and pulled his dog away from the door. Two things happened at once: A skinny, barefooted teenager opened the garage door. And Ms. Tery came running out of the house. Anyone could tell she was the teenager's mother. Both were tall with big feet and red hair. The teenager stepped out onto the driveway. He shut the garage door behind him. Bradley noticed a sign on the door. It said DANGER—SPIDERS INSIDE. NO MOMS ALLOWED! "Well, hello there," Ms. Tery said to Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy. "What brings you to my humble home?" "Hi, Ms. Tery," Bradley said. "We came to talk to your son." "I don't even know these kids, Mom," the tall boy said.

Nate held up the sneakers. "Do you know these?" he asked. Hunter Tery blushed as red as his hair. "Those look just like mine!" Ms. Tery said. "Are they yours, Hunter?" "Yeah, they're mine," Hunter said. He took the sneakers and slipped them onto his feet. Pal was barking wildly at the garage door. "Is this your pooch?" Ms. Tery asked Bradley. "What does he want in our garage?" "I'm not sure, but I think our hamster might be in there," Brian said. "Pal can smell her, right, boy?" This made Pal bark even louder. "Do you mean the hamster that got stolen?" Ms. Tery asked. "Hunter, do you know anything about a hamster?" Hunter looked at his feet. "Um, yeah, I guess," he said. "You guess?" his mother said. "Well, I guess I need an explanation." Hunter sighed. Then he pulled open the garage door. "Come on in," he said.

"No way!" his mother said. "You know how I feel about spiders!" "There aren't any spiders, Mom," Hunter said. "The sign was to keep you out." Ms. Tery walked into the garage. The four kids followed her inside. Hunter came last. He left the door open. Two other teenagers were sitting at a workbench. "Hi, Ms. Tery," they both mumbled. "Hello, Will. Hello, Buddy," Ms. Tery said. "What're you fellas working on?" A laptop computer sat on the workbench. Each boy had a notebook in front of him. "It's our invention project," Hunter told his mother. "Oh, yes, the one that's a big secret," she said. "And does this project involve stealing a hamster?" Bradley noticed that Will and Buddy were wearing green-and-orange sneakers, like Hunter's. "Not exactly, Mom," Hunter said. He walked to the back of the garage. There was a sheet covering a lumpy mound on the floor. Hunter pulled the sheet off. Bradley saw the aquarium, a tennis

racket, and a bunch of other stuff. Hunter came back with Goldi in his hands. "Goldi!" the four younger kids cried. Pal nearly went crazy barking. Hunter handed the hamster to Brian, who put him on the floor in front of Pal. Pal got flat on the floor, and Goldi climbed up on his nose. "All the other stuff we took is back there," Hunter said. Ms. Tery gave her son a long look. "Have a seat and explain, please," she said. Hunter folded his lanky body onto the bench next to Will and Buddy. "We belong to the Junior Inventors club at school," he said. "We decided to invent a new kind of sneaker." Will and Buddy held up their feet to show off theirs.

Hunter pointed to his mother's sneakers. "I got the green-and-orange idea from yours, Mom," he said. "Our plan was to invent sneakers that didn't smell, even after you wore them a lot. We call them Sweet Feet. Will is real good in science, and he came up with this formula for the soles. His dad helped us find a company that agreed to make them. But first they wanted us to try them out, so they sent a few sample pairs." Hunter pointed down at his feet. "We were supposed to wear them to see if the formula worked," he went on. "But I decided to hang my pair around town to get people curious. I hung them in trees where people would see them and want to buy them." "What about the little ones?" Brian asked. "The company sent us a bunch," he said. "We decided to leave them at people's houses, to get them interested." "But why take the hamster?" his mother asked. "And those other things?" "That was Buddy's big idea," Hunter said. "But we were going to give it all back, honest! Buddy figured people would notice the miniature