CHAPTER 4
The Two-Headed Horse
Mason scratched his head as twins Mya & Madison walked into Classroom 13. “I don’t get it,” he said. “What’s your costume?”
“Duh,” said Mya. “We’re a horse.”
“One horse?” Mason asked.
“Obviously,” said Madison.
Mason scratched his head again. “I know I’m not the smartest kid in Classroom 13. But I don’t think horses have two heads.”
Mya & Madison took one look at each other and started yelling.
“You were supposed to be the butt!” Mya shouted.
“No, you were supposed to be the butt!” Madison shouted back.
You see, both girls had wanted to be a horse for Halloween. But a horse is a two-person costume. One person wears the head and the front two legs, and the second person wears the back two legs and the butt. But being the butt is hard work. You have to be bent over all day holding the other person’s waist. Plus, you can’t see anything back there.
Neither Mya nor Madison wanted to be the butt. Instead, both of them wore the front half of the costume. So they were a two-headed horse with four front legs and no back legs and no butt.
“You ruined Halloween!” Mya shouted at her twin.
“You ruined our costume!” Madison shouted back.
When the twins began screaming, Ms. Linda peeked out from under her desk. “Oh my!” she said. “Those girls remind me of the terrible wolf that lives in the forest. How frightful! I think I’ll stay under my desk until they’ve gone away.”
“Seriously, Ms. Linda?!” Olivia said. “Stop pretending and start acting like a teacher!”
“I don’t think she’s pretending,” said Preeya. “I think she thinks she really is Little Red Riding Hood.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Olivia snorted. “It’s not possible.”
“Are you sure?” Mason asked. “Look. Hugo turned into a hot dog.”
Hugo had turned into a hot dog. And Liam was about to take a bite. Mason slapped the hot dog out of Liam’s hands. “Don’t eat Hugo!”
Mason put the hot dog in his pocket for safekeeping.
Olivia rubbed her temples. “How did this happen?”
“Who knows?” Dev said, eating some of Classroom 13’s candy. He offered the bowl to the fighting twins. “Hey, ladies. Maybe stop screaming and suck on some sweets?”
The twins devoured several pieces of taffy. They stood back-to-back, chewed their taffy, and refused to speak to each other.
What the twins didn’t notice was that their costume began to change. So did their bodies. Their skin became soft and covered in light brown hair. Then their arms vanished and their legs grew long. Their feet turned into hooves. Their necks stretched and they stopped chewing. Instead, they neighed.
When Mya & Madison finally looked at each other, they discovered they were connected at the waist and had become a two-headed horse. Frightened, they both tried to run away. Since they were attached, they didn’t get far. In fact, they didn’t get anywhere.
The whole class was there to witness the transformation. “Holy guac-a-moly!” said Triple J.
“Someone get those girls to a horse-pital,” Liam joked. “No, seriously, are the twins sick? Maybe they need some cough stirrup. Someone get them some medicine. Hurry now, before they fall down and can’t giddyup!”
“Enough, Liam! This is serious,” Isabella said. “Horses shouldn’t be cramped inside a tiny classroom. They need to be outside with fresh air and grass and a wide-open space to run around in.”
“I’m sorry,” Liam said. “I’ll stop horsing around.” Liam cracked himself up. He couldn’t stop laughing.
While the other students tried to figure out what was going on, the twins forgot entirely that they had once been human girls. Happy with being a horse, they walked sideways to the class plants and began chewing the green leaves. If they were really lucky, someone might even give them a carrot or comb their hair.