CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
As Elliot walked through the front door of his house, his mother called from the kitchen. “Honey! What kept you so long?”
Elliot looked up at the clock on the wall. Five thirty. He entered the kitchen, which smelled of roast chicken, celery, and carrots.
“I got a call from your teacher, Mr. Fauna, saying you were joining a club of his? I thought you were joining the band!”
“It’s Professor Fauna, Mom.”
“Oh, he’s a professor? Well, this Worm-Nutrition Club sounds very . . . um, interesting.”
“Uh, yeah. It is. I guess.”
“Okay. Well, I suppose I don’t mind you coming home a little late from school. As long as you’re doing something educational. Have you made any friends yet?”
Elliot thought of Uchenna and Jersey and Professor Fauna, of Mitxel and Íñigo Mendizabal, and even of the family of dragons. In his pocket, he felt the cool metal circle of his signet ring.
“Yeah,” he said at last, “I’ve made a few.”
In her house, one block away, Uchenna sat down with her father in front of a plate of grilled fish and sautéed spinach. Her mother was working late again. As Uchenna shook hot sauce onto the fish, her dad studied her.
“Sweetie, did something happen to your head today?” Mr. Devereaux asked.
Uchenna reached up and touched her hairline on the right side of her head. A bump had formed from her fall in the cave. “Yeah, Dad, but it’s no big deal.”
“Did it happen when you were in that club you’ve joined? With Professor Fowler?”
“It’s Professor Fauna. Yeah, Dad. But it’s fine.”
Mr. Devereaux watched her for a moment in silence. Uchenna kept her eyes firmly on her food. She didn’t think she could explain everything that had happened that day. Finally, Mr. Devereaux went back to eating. Uchenna was about to exhale when he said, “I just don’t want you getting into any trouble.”
“Trouble?” Uchenna said nonchalantly. Under the table, she ran her thumb around the edge of her new ring. “Come on, Dad. It’s a club at school. You think they’d let us do anything dangerous?”
He looked up again and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, we don’t. It’s a totally normal club.”
“Mm-hmm,” said Mr. Devereaux, going back to his food.
Uchenna said it again, “Totally, totally normal.”
In a dark hallway of South Pines Elementary School, Professor Fauna walked with a hunch, his eyes wild and wide-open, listening intently.
“Heeeeere, Jersey,” he murmured. “Heeeeere, little Jersey . . .”
The sound of scrabbling to his left made him jump. He ran after it, into a kindergarten classroom.
Had anyone else been in the school, they would have heard the professor’s voice echoing down the halls.
“Not the fish tank, Jersey! Stop! Stop! Those are the kindergarteners’ fishes! JERSEY!”
