2 Germy Booger

Chapter 2 GERMY BOOGER "Whoop-de-do!" hooted a tall boy in the doorway. "It's Dandy Andy's garbage gobbler!" The Goa Constrictor quickly twisted itself around the boy's legs. "Hey, Germy," Andrew said to the boy. He clicked the Off button on the remote. The Goa Constrictor lay still. The tall boy shook his black hair away from his eyes. "You're beginning to talk like that tin can in your pocket, Andy." Judy crossed her arms over her chest and frowned. "Stuff a sock in it, Jeremy Bogart," she said. "If you didn't annoy everyone all the time, kids wouldn't call you Germy Booger."

"That's so unkind," said Jeremy. "I'm a really nice kid. I've even done something nice for little Andy." Jeremy stepped into the hall and came back dragging two bulging garbage bags. The sweet- sour smell of garbage filled the room. "See how nice I am?" said Jeremy. "I helped the cafeteria ladies by delivering these bags." "Be prepared to be amazed, Germy," said Andrew, pressing a button on the remote. The Goa Constrictor raised its head and opened its jaws wide enough to swallow a toaster. The

jaws opened wider and wider— wide enough to swallow an oven! meep… "Snakes got special jaws," said Thudd. "Bottom jaw come apart from top jaw. Can open mouth wide, wide, wide!" Andrew dragged one of the garbage bags close to the Goa Constrictor's mouth. "The Goa will make this garbage super-small." "Oooooh!" said Jeremy. "A really creepy garbage gobbler. Everybody will want one." "Listen, Germy," said Andrew, looking Jeremy in the eye. "Every person—including you—makes five pounds of garbage every day. That's thirty- five pounds every week. That's more than eighteen hundred pounds every year for every person! "We need to make less garbage before we get buried in it. But until we figure out how to do that, the Goa can make garbage smaller!" Andrew lifted the garbage bag. He poured a mess of half-eaten hot dogs, brown banana chunks, rotten grapes, chewed French fries, and

ketchup-covered paper napkins into the Goa's mouth. The Goa's bottom jaw moved in and out, dragging the garbage in fast. When it sucked down the last potato peel, the Goa slowly closed its jaws. Ssssssssssss… A giant beach-ball-sized bulge appeared behind the Goa's head and moved slowly through its body. SSSSSSSSSSSS… The hiss sounded like a bucket of water hitting a bonfire. Suddenly the Goa's mouth snapped open. Out swirled a rainbow-colored tornado that smelled like a thousand rotten eggs.