Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 THE JUNIOR MONSTER SCOUTS COULD hardly contain themselves over the next couple of weeks. They were so excited that Neveen was coming to stay with them that every day felt like a hundred days. Franky had drawn a big red circle on the day she was due to arrive, and every morning they put an X on the current day's spot. Every day they got closer and closer to Neveen arriving. The only thing keeping them from going completely bonkers was watching the construction of the new factory being built in the village.

A new factory? In the village? That is exactly what it was, and where it was. After Baroness Von Grumpier left the windmill and slammed the door (twice), she went directly to the mayor. First she complimented the mayor's magnificent

mustache. The easiest way to get the mayor to agree to anything was to compliment him on his mustache. He was very fond of it. Then Baroness Von Grumpier told him that she wanted to build a new factory. A cheese factory. And that she wanted to build it right there in the village. "But why here?" the mayor asked. "Because here is where you make cheese," Baroness Von Grumpier had said. "We could make a lot of cheese," said the mayor. "Wheels of cheese as far as the eye can see," said Baroness Von Grumpier. "It'll be noisy," the mayor said. "Factories make noise, you know. All those machines clanking and whirling and slamming and spinning." "I know," said Baroness Von Grumpier, smiling. "It'll be busy," he said.

"Oh, I know," Baroness Von Grumpier said, smiling even more. "And it will definitely bring more people to the village." "I'm counting on it," said Baroness Von Grumpier, smiling so wide that the corners of her mouth touched her ears. And just like that, the very next day there were bulldozers and dump trucks and construction workers in hard hats hammering and sawing. It was busy, it was noisy, and it was driving Baron Von Grump bananas! But we're not going to pay too much attention to Baron Von Grump right now. I think we're both more interested in what the Junior Monster Scouts were doing. They were watching the days of the calendar pass by, anxiously waiting for Neveen to arrive. And when they weren't doing that, they watched the ongoing

construction in the village. There were lots of workers and lots of machines, and the new building was going up fast. It was going to be a big factory with three giant chimneys and lots and lots of room for making cheese. Trucks would come from far and wide to pick up the wedges and wheels and drive them off to faraway places. Honking trucks. Rumbling trucks. Trucks with backup beeps and smoggy smoke belching out of them. One day while the Junior Monster Scouts watched a crane hoist one of the chimneys into place, Vampyra noticed someone waving her hands in the air and jabbing her finger at the map the mayor held. "Who is that lady standing by the mayor?" Vampyra asked. "She looks very familiar," said Wolfy. "She kind of looks like Baron Von Grump," said Franky.

"Oh yeah," said Boris, the leader of the village's rats and the head of garbage removal, "that's Baroness Von Grumpier. The baron's cousin. She's the one building the cheese factory." He rubbed his belly and licked his lips. Boris loved cheese. "To celebrate the village's soon-to-be new factory, she's hosting a Villager Appreciation Day tomorrow. She's going to give out all kinds of free cheese!" But free cheese or no free cheese, the Junior Monster Scouts had other plans: tomorrow was the day that Neveen was finally going to arrive!