“Wake up, little halflings!”
The next thing I knew, I was in my own bed and Wizzie the alarm clock was waking me up. I opened my eyes and saw Dad leaning over me.
“Hey, Tim. Wake up, buddy!”
I rubbed my eyes. “Is something wrong? Am I fired?”
I could see Mom behind Dad, and they were both smiling.
“No!” Dad replied. “You’re late for work!”
I was confused. “What?”
“It’s Take Your Kid to Work Day! And you’re the kid,” Dad explained.
“You’re officially ungrounded,” Mom added.
I sat up. “Really?”
“Really,” Dad said.
“Can the baby come too?” I asked.
Mom nodded. “I don’t see why not.”
I leaped out of bed. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
“I wish I was that excited for work,” Dad remarked.
Mom and Dad left me to get dressed. I couldn’t believe it! Our plan had worked! I put on my clothes and rushed to tell Boss Baby. He was pretty happy. I helped him get dressed, and he stashed a bottle of his super secret baby formula in my backpack. Then we both put on sunglasses and looked in the mirror—we looked pretty cool, just perfect for our top-secret mission.
After breakfast, Mom and Dad packed us into the minivan and drove to Puppy Co. It wasn’t my first time there. I recognized the main building, which was shaped like a giant barn. Behind it, a bunch of tall buildings stretched into the sky.
“Welcome to Puppy Co., gentlemen!” Dad announced as we pulled up.
The place was pretty crowded with Puppy Co. workers and their kids. The outside courtyard was filled with all kinds of kid-friendly activities. There was a ride with puppy-shaped cars that looped around and around on a track. There were carnival games where you could win a puppy plushy. Instead of a ball pen filled with colorful balls, there was an inflatable pool filled with stuffed puppies.
“Wow, this is awesome,” I said as I pushed Boss Baby in his stroller through the courtyard.
Dad pointed toward a guy walking around in a puppy suit. The suit looked strange, and the guy inside it was laughing in a weird way.
“Hey, you want to get a picture with Puppy Co. Pete?” Dad asked.
“No, thanks,” I said quickly. “It’s probably too scary for the baby.”
“Nice call,” Boss Baby whispered to me.
Mom leaned over to me. “So, Tim, your Dad and I have some work to do. You want to come up to the office and hang out with us?”
“We’ll stick your brother in the Puppy Zone while we have a little Tim time,” Dad said. He nodded toward the entrance to the big room where all the little kids stayed for the day. The entrance looked like the face of a big, happy puppy.
“Look, Dad and I know we haven’t been able to do as much with you as we used to,” Mom said.
It was just what I wanted! It was so tempting, but I had to keep my sights on my goal: getting Boss Baby out of my life forever.
“No thanks,” I said, trying to sound sincere. “I’d rather spend time with the baby.”
“Oh, that’s so cute!” Dad said.
I started to push the stroller.
“Way to keep your eyes on the prize, Templeton,” Boss Baby whispered. “We pull this off and I go home.”
“You guys stay in the Puppy Zone, okay?” Dad said.
“Okay, bye,” I said—but I didn’t mean it.
Mom and Dad watched as I pushed Boss Baby through the mouth of the giant puppy head, into the Puppy Zone. When we were inside, Boss Baby and I looked at each other.
It was time for our mission to begin.
First, we scoped out the place. I spotted a door marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, and I knew that meant the door would take us inside Puppy Co. I ditched the stroller, and Boss Baby and I crawled under a game booth so we could scout it out.
A security guard stood next to the door, making sure no kids opened it. But at his feet, there was a doggy door. Real puppies were going into and out of the door.
“We’ve got to get in so that we can find the secret file on the new puppy,” I told Boss Baby.
“We’ll never get through that door,” he said.
I pointed to the doggy door. “Not that door, the doggy door,” I said.
“But how do we get past the guard?” Boss Baby asked.
I looked up into the game booth we were hiding in. It was one of those games where you toss a ball at a row of dummies, and if you knock one down, you get a prize. The prizes were all plush puppies, clipped to strings that dangled down from the top of the game booth.
I pulled down one of the plush puppies. It was the same size as Boss Baby. I held it out to him and waved the plush puppy’s arms.
Boss Baby shook his head. “No way!” he protested.
Then I took the stuffing out of the puppy toy and dressed Boss Baby in the plush puppy skin. I know it sounds weird, but the toy puppy head dangled over his face, and when he crawled on all fours it looked pretty good, almost like he was a real puppy.
At my signal, Boss Baby crawled out from under the game booth and started moving toward the doggy door. A little girl thought he was a real dog and picked him up, but he bit her arm and she let him go.
“I’ve never been so humiliated in my life,” Boss Baby grumbled.
Then he turned around to see a bunch of real puppies sniffing his butt.
Boss Baby was almost to the doggy door.
“Arf,” he said, when he passed the guard.
The guard thought he was a real puppy. I held my breath as Boss Baby approached the doggy door . . .
Just then a new batch of puppies burst through it from the other side! They tackled Boss Baby, licking him and playing with him.
I grabbed the ball from the game booth and tossed it to the puppies. They ran away from Boss Baby and chased the ball.
Boss Baby was on his feet now, and he ran for the door. That made the guard suspicious, and he picked up Boss Baby.
Boss Baby grimaced, but he started to lick the guard’s face. The guard dropped him and went to the water fountain to wash off. Boss Baby dove through the doggy door, and since the guard was distracted, I made a dash for the door too. I slipped through just in time.
We made it! We were inside Puppy Co!