The GREAT-GREAT-GREAT Escape
The next few days, I was HAPPY-HAPPY-HAPPY all the time.
I thought about how happy Mrs. Brisbane would be on Friday when the whole class shouted, “Surprise!”
When my friends whispered about presents, I thought about how she’d smile when she opened her gifts.
I even practiced the birthday song in my mirror. This time, I squeaked it forward, not backwards.
But I was puzzled by a few things that happened during the week.
On Tuesday, Sayeh and Seth suddenly started measuring my cage with a ruler. They also measured Og’s tank.
“It’s for a math problem,” Sayeh told us.
Sometimes Mrs. Brisbane has students measure things for math, so I guess that made sense.
On Wednesday, Mandy raised her hand and asked how to spell my name.
Mrs. Brisbane wrote Humphrey on the board. She also let the students work a lot longer than usual on their art. And some of them worked with their backs toward me so I couldn’t see what they were doing. They’d never done that before.
On Thursday night, I made myself get some sleep. Even though hamsters like me are often awake at night, I didn’t want to be tired during Mrs. Brisbane’s surprise party the next day.
I dozed for a while, and I had very strange dreams.
First, I dreamed about YUMMY-YUMMY-YUMMY dancing cupcakes.
Then I dreamed about the look on Mrs. Brisbane’s face when she saw her gifts and cake and we all squeaked “Happy Birthday” to her.
Suddenly, I woke up with a terrible thought.
“Og!” I squeaked. “We forgot something.”
Og splashed around in his tank.
I jiggled the lock on my cage door. It seems tightly locked, but I have a secret way to open it. That’s why I call it the lock-that-doesn’t-lock.
I jiggled the lock some more and the door opened. I hurried across the table to Og’s tank.
“Og, we forgot to get a present for Mrs. Brisbane!” I told him. “Just like I forgot to get one for Kirk!”
“BOING-BOING!” he answered loudly.
“We have to give her something so she’ll know we’re glad she’s our teacher,” I explained. “But what?”
Og stared at me from his tank, but he didn’t answer.
I guess it was up to me to think of an idea.
We couldn’t buy something from a store, so we’d have to make her a gift.
I looked up at the chalkboard, with the row of cupcakes above it.
“I know,” I said. “Let’s make her a cake. After all, you can’t have too much cake at a birthday party!”
“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og hopped up and down.
“Of course, we can’t bake a cake,” I said. “But we can make her a hamster-and-frog kind of cake.”
“BOING!” Og agreed.
I went back into my cage. I was delighted to see that my food dish was full of crunchy Nutri-Nibbles. They are YUMMY-YUMMY-YUMMY!
They aren’t soft enough to make into a cake, but I had an idea.
One by one, I put a few Nutri-Nibbles in my cheek pouch. I carried them out of the cage and set them down in front of Og’s tank. After a while, I had a nice stack of them.
“I need your help, Og,” I said.
“BOING-BOING!” he answered.
“Splash a lot of water so it goes on the Nutri-Nibbles,” I said. Then I scampered out of the way because water isn’t good for hamsters.
Og’s tank has a lid, but it’s full of holes. So if he splashes hard enough, some of the water can fly out of the top.
He splashed . . . and splashed some more.
Soon, the pile of Nutri-Nibbles was nice and wet.
“Thanks, Og,” I said.
Then I went straight to work. With my paws, I patted and smoothed the Nutri-Nibbles into a circle.
“It looks like a cake,” I said. “But it’s awfully plain.”
“BOING-BOING,” Og agreed.
So I went back into my cage and dug around in my bedding. Sometimes I store food there.
I found two dried strawberries and three raisins and pressed them into the top of the cake.
Next, I scurried to the back of the table, where Mrs. Brisbane keeps food and supplies for Og and me.
There were big bags of Mighty Mealworms, Healthy Dots, Nutri-Nibbles, Hamster Chew-Chews and nice, soft hay. Yum!
I also found a box of Og’s Froggy Fish Sticks and a can of crickets!
(Yep, that’s what frogs eat. Eww!)
The Froggy Fish Sticks didn’t look like anything I’d want to eat, but they did look a lot like birthday candles. I held my breath and stuck my head into the box.
I grabbed a Froggy Fish Stick and quickly came up for air. They smelled even worse than I’d imagined.
Then I scrambled back to the top of the cake. I stuck the stinky stick right in the middle.
“BOING-BOING-BOING!” Og called out. “BOING-BOING-BOING-BOING!”
I thought the cake looked great, but Og seemed a little too excited about it.
“Just one more thing,” I told him. “I think a few Healthy Dots would look nice.”
Healthy Dots are good for hamsters. Also, they are many different colors and look like candy.
Og splashed crazily in his tank, but I scurried to the back of the table once again.
I was trying to work out how to close the box when I heard people talking.
Then Og started twanging. “BOING-BOING-BOING!”
I couldn’t see anything, but when I heard A.J.’s loud voice, I knew my friends had come into the classroom.
I looked up at the window. It was already light outside!
Then I heard Mrs. Brisbane say, “Good morning.” And the bell rang.
The school day was starting and I was nowhere near my cage!
I was STUCK-STUCK-STUCK.
