5 Zombie Lunch Lady

ZOMBIE LUNCH LADY

On Wednesday and Thursday, Virginia Dare School read books. Funny books. Mystery books. Adventure books. Kids read at lunch. They read at recess. They read at after-school care. Even between soccer games and piano lessons. Stink read to Toady. Stink read to Astro. Stink read for one hundred eighty-seven minutes in just two days! At last it was Friday: Read to a Zombie Day! Stink ran downstairs. He popped a waffle into the toaster. "Where's my lunch?" he asked Mom, looking for his lunch box. "I'll have anything but baloney, please." "I, uh, thought you and Judy could get hot lunch today," said Mom. "I left some money on the

table." "Aw, Mom. You know I hate hot lunch. The lunch lady always makes me take mountains of spinach and piles of wrinkly old carrots." "It won't hurt you to eat school lunch just this once. Who knows? Maybe today will be your lucky day and they'll serve something really interesting." "You mean like mini cupcakes with no sneaky carrots in them? And no raisins?" "Remember how we talked about eating more fruit, Stink?" "Bus. Bye!" said Stink. He grabbed the money, gave Mom a kiss, and ran out the door.

Stink read Dr. Decay and the Zombies of Doom all the way to the bus stop. He read it on the bus. He read it in the hall on the way to Room 2D. "Hey, Zink!" somebody called. "Talk. Bad. Read. Good!" said Stink. Morning announcements. "Attention zecondand zird-graders," said the principal. "Are you ready to read to a zombie? Only six thousand four hundred ninety-three minutes to go! Please make your way down to the K-1 classrooms. Let's get reading!"

"I read two hundred forty-seven minutes so far this week," Sophie told Stink. "Way to go!" said Stink. "Now there's only six thousand four hundred ninety-nine minus two hundred and forty-seven minutes to go!" When Class 2D got to the kindergarten classroom, twenty-two little green-faced zombies sat cross-legged on carpet squares. There were zombie princesses and ballerinas, pirates and astronauts. Stink sat down next to a boy named Zack in a train outfit. "I'm Thomas the Tank Zombie," said the boy. "I like your costume," said Stink. "I never saw a zombie train before." Zack nodded. Stink started to read. He read The Very Hungry Zombie Caterpillar. It was just like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, only he threw in the word zombie a lot. And at the end, the caterpillar ate a brain instead of a green leaf.

Riley Rottenberger went to get more books from the library. When she came back, she whispered to Heather Strong. Heather whispered to Webster.