5 SHOUTING

Chapter five, shouting. Pip waved his hand back and forth. "I was right about here when it happened." I looked around—nothing. I bent down and looked closely at the ground and the plants—nothing. I listened quietly—nothing. What was I going to tell Pip? How was I going to fix this for him? "Mrow?" Sassafras pointed his ears over to a section of the forest farther away. "Do you hear something, buddy?" I strained my ears, and I still didn't hear

anything. But Sassafras blinked up at me once and took off through the forest. "Hey, wait for us!" I called. I jogged after my cat, and Pip hopped alongside me, green curls bouncing. "WHOAAAAA!" I turned around a tree and almost ran into two forest monsters who were having a big fight. "UGHHH, stop touching me!" shouted the girl monster. "YOUUUU stop touching me!" the boy monster shouted back. "AAAAGHHH!" they both screamed as Sassafras skidded to a stop at their feet. I dashed forward and scooped up a loudly purring Sass. "Sorry about my cat." I held my squirmy Sassafras just a little tighter. "I'll make sure he stays over here. Is everything OK?" The two monsters shook their heads no at the same time. "I was just playing with my brother," said the girl monster. "Yeah, and then she wouldn't stop grabbing my hand," said the brother.

"No, you wouldn't stop grabbing my hand!" said the sister. I plopped Sassafras down and wagged a finger at him. "You stay here!" Then I turned to the monsters. "Can I take a closer look at your hands?" They nodded at the same time. "What happens when you try to pull them apart?" They pulled back a little and I bent over and looked really closely. It kind of looked like gum or glue was in there because their hands wouldn't come apart at all. "Are you sure you didn't touch anything? Like a strange plant? Neither of you was chewing gum or anything like that?" They shook their heads. This was definitely weird. "My mom might know a way to get your hands unstuck. Do you want to come back to my house?"

"Yes, please!" said the girl monster. The boy monster nodded. As the group of us walked back toward my house, my mind was spinning. Was Pip's hair related to these stuck hands? Were two different things going wrong? What was happening in our forest!?