ELEVEN

It’s me again, Brainy Janey. I’ll take it from here . . .

Adam Bomb grabbed the TV remote from Wacky Jackie’s hand and clicked off the TV.

Jackie tried to grab it back. “Why’d you turn it off?” she demanded. “There’s another Jonny Pantsfalldown coming on after the commercial.”

“This is the episode where his pants fall up!” Junkfood John said. “It’s a riot.”

Adam was red in the face. “I’m trying to explain to you we have a real emergency on our hands. If Mr. and Mrs. Perfect find out we have no parents here, we’ll all be sent away. We’ll lose everything.”

Babbling Brooke chimed in. “Do you think they’ll send us someplace nice? Like Pupick Falls?”

“No,” I said. “They’ll split us up, Brooke. The city of Smellville will find homes for us. We’ll never see each other again.”

“Do you promise?” Cranky Frankie said. Then he added, “Joking. Just joking. Man, everyone’s a critic.”

We’re all used to Cranky Frankie’s jokes. They’re not funny at all.

Junkfood John jumped up from the couch. “I’m going to the kitchen for some snacks,” he said.

“Could you bring me the bag of Fruit Smash-Ups?” Handy Sandy asked.

“I already smashed them and ate them,” Junkfood John replied. He then burped the alphabet.

Adam Bomb grabbed John and pulled him back to the couch. “We don’t have time for snacks,” he said. “The Perfects will be here any minute.”

We all turned to the door. Silence. No one was knocking.

“Adam is right,” I said. “We need to have a meeting right now. I’m sure we can put our heads together and think of a way to stop the Perfects.”

It got quiet, and everyone was staring at me. “Not literally,” I explained. “We need to brainstorm and come up with a plan.”

“All this talk is making me nervous,” said Nervous Rex. He sat on the floor clinging to Pooper as if he was drowning and the dog was a life preserver.

“You’ve got to calm down, Rex,” I said. “You even tremble and shake when you’re asleep.”

“My dreams make me nervous,” he said.

“What do you dream?” I asked.

“I always dream that I’m nervous.”

“Well, this isn’t a dream,” Adam interrupted. “The Perfects are real.”

“I heard their dog barking this afternoon,” Babbling Brooke said.

“No you didn’t,” Adam said. “Why do you think they named their dog Good Boy? He’s so good, he only barks if they ask him to.”

“Adam is right,” I said. “The dog really is perfect. When they give him a dog biscuit, he says grace before he eats it.”

The Perfects have two pets: Good Boy, the dog. And their cat, Mister Purrfect.

I know, yucky name, right?

“So let’s all think,” I said. “How can we keep the Perfects from finding out we don’t have any parents?”