5 Dodgeball and Electric Eels

CHAPTER FIVE DODGEBALL AND ELECTRIC EELS GYM CAME RIGHT after lunch. It was a dodgeball day. You know what dodgeball is, right? It's when two classes run around and throw balls at each other. Mr. Gumposer (we call him Mr. Bulldozer) picked Katie Cunningham and Burt Glass to be captains. They chose the teams. Katie picked Rosie first, which was kind of weird because Rosie isn't very good. In the first couple of minutes of the game, Rosie,

Simon, and I all got hit. We were the first three out. We did it on purpose—we had things to talk about. We sat together near the stacked gym mats by the basketball hoop. "Okay," I said, looking around at the fifty-seven remaining kids playing dodgeball. "Anybody have any ideas?" Rosie shook her head, but Simon spoke up quickly. "I came up with something," he said confidently. "Awesome," I said. "Let's hear it." "Okay, we need a light that's big and bright to attract lots of fireflies, right?" Simon asked quickly. He talked fast. He had that glazy look in his eyes.

Rosie and I nodded. Ten more kids had been hit in dodgeball. "Okay, we go to the city zoo," Simon began. "When we get there, we head straight to the electric eel tank in the Sea Life exhibit. When nobody's watching, I'll climb up to the top of the tank. Will you two hold my ankles so I don't fall in?" We said we would—although I could tell Rosie, like me, was a little worried about where Simon's idea was going. "Great, thanks," he said and continued. He spoke even faster. "I'll reach into the tank and grab an electric eel. We'll hurry home and put it in a bucket of water in Molly's backyard. It will light up! Electric eels are real bright, I think. Then all the fireflies in the surrounding area will be like, 'Hey, look at that crazy- big light down there in Molly's yard! Let's go check it out!' There you go. Problem solved."

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I looked out at the dodgeball game. Half the kids had been eliminated. We were running out of time. "Umm, Simon," I said. "It's a great idea and everything, but—" I didn't say anything else. Because Rosie interrupted me. "You can't grab an electric eel!" she yelled. The dodgeball game was loud, so only Simon and I heard her.

"I can't?" "No!" Rosie exclaimed. "You'll get electrocuted!" "Oh," Simon said and paused. Apparently, he hadn't thought of that. "Right. Umm, bad idea." "Plus, it needs to be firefly light," I reminded him. "It's not just any light that fireflies are attracted to. It's