2. Mr. Nekobi

2 MR. NEKOBI Just as the quicksand was about to swallow Sam, a hand grabbed his wrist! His eyes shot open. It was Mr. Nekobi, the old man who took care of the school. Mr. Nekobi tugged. Sam was yanked free. Sam gasped for air. "The playground sand," Sam said. "It just tried to eat me!"

Mr. Nekobi slowly got to his feet. He was out of breath, too. His face looked like a piece of paper that someone had balled up and then tried to flatten again. He stared at Sam. His eyes were small and gray. A chill went up Sam's spine. Mr. Nekobi growled, "You should be more careful. Or you won't last long as hall monitor, Sam Graves." "Be careful of what? Be careful because other parts of the school might try to eat me?!" Sam said. Then he paused. "Wait what does my being the hall monitor have to do with this? And why do you care if I stay on as hall monitor or not?"

Mr. Nekobi began walking away. Over his shoulder, he said, "Because I'm the one who chose you." "What does that mean?" Sam asked. But Mr. Nekobi didn't answer. He simply turned the corner, out of sight.

Sam shook his head, thinking, This has been the weirdest day of my life! And it's only 8:30 in the morning! He needed to tell Lucy and Antonio about the quicksand and about creepy Mr. Nekobi. But first he had to ditch the orange sash. Sam darted inside and flung open his locker. Whoa! He stumbled back and threw his hand over his nose. His locker stunk!

The smell coming out of Sam's locker reminded him of rotten chocolate milk or something. "Yikes, what did I leave in here?" he asked. Sam shoved the sash inside his locker. Then he knew what it smelled like: really bad breath.