9. Ms. Leakey Is Everywhere!

Chapter 9 Ms. Leakey Is Everywhere! That night I was lying in bed. It was hard to fall asleep. All I could do was think about candy, cookies, cakes, ice cream, and junk food. I just wanted to taste something sweet again. Then, suddenly, a lightbulb appeared over my head. I remembered something. A few months back, on Halloween, I'd taken a Hershey bar out of my Halloween candy and hidden it in my closet. I'd known there would come a day when I would want candy after Halloween was over. I had forgotten about it all this time. The Hershey bar was still in my closet! I could eat it now! This was the greatest night of my life! I got out of bed and opened my closet

door. There's a lot of junk in there, but finally I found the Hershey bar. I climbed back into bed with the Hershey bar. I unwrapped the Hershey bar. Ummm. It smelled good. I was about to take a bite of the Hershey bar when the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. Ms. Leakey jumped out from under my bed! "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed. "DROP THAT HERSHEY BAR, A.J.!" Ms. Leakey said. I dropped the Hershey bar. She picked it up. "Why are you hiding under my bed?" I asked her. "How did you get in here?" "I climbed in the window," she told me. "Do you know the average person eats

twenty-two pounds of candy every year?" "But I just…" "Well, if you'll excuse me," Ms. Leakey said, "I need to go do some squat thrusts."

I had no idea what a squat thrust was, but it didn't matter. Ms. Leakey opened my window and climbed out. She was gone. I was still sitting up in bed when my door opened. It was Mom and Dad. "A.J., are you okay?" Mom asked. "We heard a scream," said Dad. "Ms. Leakey was here!" I told them. "She was hiding under my bed! I went to eat a Hershey bar, but she grabbed it out of my hand! And then she ran away!" "There, there," my mom told me as she stroked my head. "You were just having a bad dream. Everything's fine, A.J." "See?" my dad said. "Ms. Leakey isn't under your bed. It was just a nightmare." "No, she was really here!" I insisted. "She ran away! She climbed out the window!"

"Sure she did," Dad said.

"You go back to sleep, A.J." said my mom. "In the morning you probably won't even remember that this happened." Oh, I'll remember. I know what I saw. Ms. Leakey was hiding under my bed, just like she was hiding under the candy in the supermarket. She was following me! She was watching my every move to make sure I didn't eat candy, cookies, or junk food. She probably put a GPS in my brain so she could track me. Ms. Leakey was everywhere.