08 Pickle Chicle

Pickle Chicle "Ciao! I'm home!" called Judy as she walked in the door. Stink came pounding downstairs. When he saw Judy, his mouth dropped open. "Stink? Are you trying to catch flies?" said Judy. "Your mouth's way open." He laughed and pointed. There was gum in her hair, gum on her nose, gum on her pants, gum on her coat. "What happened to you?" asked Stink. "Attack of the Killer Gumball?" "Hardee-har-har, Stink. I was making gum at Amy Namey's with my Make-Your-Own-Gum Kit. It was way fun."

"Aw, you didn't wait for me?" "No, but I made some special just for you. My own secret recipe." Judy opened up the wax paper and held out the gum for Stink to see. He saw pink gum, brown gum, gray gum, green gum. And gum with lumps. "Eeuww! I'm not eating that lumpy, bumpy gum!" "Yours is the green one," said Judy. Stink picked up the green gum like he was picking up a worm.

"Just try it!" said Judy. "You'll like it!" She blew a bubble and popped her own gum. Stink put the gum in his mouth. He rolled it around on his tongue. He chewed it. Once, twice.

"BLUCK!" said Stink, sticking out his tongue. "It's really sour. Worse than sourballs. What is this, anyway? Salt gum?" "It's Pickle Chicle!" said Judy. "Get it? Pickle- flavored gum! I made it with pickle juice!" "BLAH!" went Stink, spitting the gum across the room. Mouse pounced on it. "Gross!" said Judy. "Stink," said Dad, "pick that up and put it in the garbage can." "Isn't Judy even in trouble? She tricked me with pickle gum!" said Stink. "I think you'll live," said Dad.

"It probably had spider eggs in it!" "Spider eggs?" "That's my fault," said Dad. "I was telling Stink how when we were kids, there were all these rumors that gum had spider eggs in it," said Dad. "We were actually afraid to chew gum." "Weird!" said Judy. "Speaking of spiders, guess what I got at Fur& Fangs!" said Stink. "You mean Toady won the race?" asked Judy. "Not exactly," said Stink. He held out a sandwich bag with a gross-looking spider skin in it. "It's a molted spider." "A melted spider?" asked Judy. "Gross!" "Mol-ted. It's just the skin. Spiders have their skeleton on the outside, and they shed."

"Rare," said Judy, peering into the bag. "Toady wouldn't even hop once when it was time for the race. So the kid who won the tarantula gave it to me. I think he felt sorry for me." "Tarantula!" cried Judy. "Holy macaroni! I was so busy at Amy's house, getting the scoop on the My-Name-Is-a-Poem Club and tricking Stink with pickle gum, that I forgot I was supposed to go to Rocky's! To practice the tarantula. I mean, the tarantella. Now I'm