5 Frankenspider

Frankenspider

Webster came over after school. Stink took out two squares of origami paper. They stared at the directions for a long time. "There are two halves to the spider: the head and the body. Each half has four legs. Which one do you want to make?" asked Stink. "Head," said Webster. Stink started his half with a frog base. Easypeasy! He turned the paper top to bottom. He grabbed two flaps and pulled them apart. He made a mountain fold. He made a valley fold. He made an inside reverse fold. Voilà! NOT!

"Something's not right," said Stink. "My half looks more like a four-legged pretzel!" Stink and Webster cracked up. Webster started his half with a frog base. He made a valley fold. He repeated the fold, just like the directions said. He turned it over. "My spider head looks like Darth Vader's helmet."

"Maybe if we put the two halves together it will look right," said Stink. He attached the Darth Vader head to the pretzel body. Frankenspider! Stink and Webster started over. They tried again. And again. They folded and refolded. They creased and double creased. They reverse folded and repeated. Finally, Stink had four legs and a body. Webster had four legs and a head. Webster blew into the spider body. Poof! He inserted the spider head into the body. At last! An eight-legged, not-creepy, origami tarantula.

"We did it!" said Webster. "We're the best." "We climbed Level Medium and conquered it like Mount Everest," said Stink. Webster took out a marker and colored the tarantula's toes pink. "Freaky," said Stink. "It looks so real." "It's just paper," said Webster. "Remember, you made it yourself. So it's not scary." "It wasn't scary when it was a pretzel," said Stink. "But now it's a spider!" Webster set the origami spider on Stink's desk. "How about if you start by staring at the spider for three minutes without looking away?" Stink stared at the origami tarantula. He blinked. He blinked some more. But he did not look away. "Good," said Webster. "Now I'm going to make it crawl on your shoe. Ready?"

"Ready," said Stink. Webster made the paper tarantula crawl across Stink's stinky sneaker. "I didn't even get a shiver!" said Stink. "Next the tarantula will crawl up your leg to your knee." "Check me out," said Stink. "No problemo," said Webster. "Now the tarantula will crawl up your arm." "Wait? What?" Webster marched the origami tarantula up Stink's arm. "How's it feel?" "I only got two shivers and three goose bumps!" said Stink. "Hand me the paintbrush."