five

“Whoa, whoa, April. Let’s start from the beginning.” Grace took a few deep breaths, and slowly sat on the chair in front of her computer. Her eyes stayed glued on the dog. “I’m scared to ask, BUT what happened on the bus? The one day I go to the doctor I miss all the good stuff.”

“So, Austin sat next to me—” April started.

“OK. That’s not a crime.” Grace threw her hands up in the air.

April rolled her eyes. “I know. Let me finish.”

“Sorry . . .”

“You know I broke my glasses last week. That’s why I’m wearing these huge ugly red ones. I mean, seriously, what other fifth grader has big red glasses?”

“You’re right! NO ONE else does,” Grace agreed. “They kinda look like red hula hoops.”

“Thanks, Grace.”

Austin let out a little whimper, which almost sounded like a laugh.

“Seriously? You’re a dog. How can you laugh?” April flopped onto the bed. Her feet just touched the carpet. “So . . . he said, ‘Hey, Awkward Appleton, can you see the ants on the ground outside the bus—since you’re wearing magnifying glasses?’” April made her voice deeper and lifted her shoulders, trying to mimic Austin.

Austin let out another little laughing whimper.

Grace shot Austin a cold glare.

“Then he started making fun of my braces, calling me ‘metal mouth’ and ‘brace face.’” She looked down at her hands.

“That is SOOO mean!” Grace said, quickly moving her eyes from April to Austin. Austin groaned and turned his head away.

“AND, this morning he only left me crumbs in the cereal box . . . on purpose. He had two bowls of cereal and only left a few drops of milk! I had to eat oatmeal with water. He knows I hate oatmeal, and I hate it even more with water.”

“Geez! Older brothers are so annoying. But you’re luckier than me. You could have Michael as an older brother. The other day he came into my room, farted, then ran right back to his room.” Grace wrinkled up her nose.

“EWWW! That’s gross. I guess you’re right. It could be worse. When Austin and I were younger, we played together a lot. And, that was fun . . . then,” April said, glaring at the dog. “He’s become such a mean pain in the butt. Remember last week?”

“What? I forget . . .”

“He asked me if I wanted to do an art project. I said ‘yes.’ You know I love art. It’s my fave.” April took a deep breath.

“He gave me a plain white t-shirt and asked me to put it on. I thought—stupid me—he was spray painting on the back or something. He told me to lie straight back on a sheet of white paper he said he put on the rug. I didn’t check—stupid me. He told me it was a new technique he learned in art class. I tried to turn around to look at the paper. But he told me if I moved too much I might mess up the picture he painted on the shirt. So, I lay straight back. He pulled my hair, said ‘I’m the Prankster of the Year.’ Then he ran away. When I tried to get up, I couldn’t. I was stuck to the rug! He covered my back with instant dry glue. There was no paper. It was so traumatizing!”

“Oh my . . .” Grace covered her mouth with her hand.

April looked down at the rug, wringing her hands. “My mom had to come get me. She helped me slide out of the shirt. She had to use paint thinner to get the shirt off the rug. He got in a lot of trouble, but I felt like such a nothing. That’s when I Googled that spell,” April said. “But I never, ever imagined it would work, let alone in the school bus! I just thought of the spell in my head and . . . poof! It happened! I’m just glad nobody noticed and I was able to sneak him quickly into my backpack.”

Grace put her face right in front of Austin’s. “Well, maybe now you’ll stop playing jokes on April.”

“Grrr . . .”

Bam!

April and Grace stared at each other without blinking. They turned to the closed bedroom door.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Mr. Galapagos called.

Grace turned to the computer and started typing super fast. “We’ll have to talk about this more later. We need to start searching NOW.”