CHAPTER 3

Going Batty

I was glad that bus ride was finally over. All that talk of monsters was really scaring me.

I walked slowly to class.

“What are you going to do now?” asked Robbie.

“I don’t know,” I moaned. “I think I’m in big trouble!”

“Well, maybe I can help you,” said Robbie.

“You can?” I said.

“I just have to get my mom to let me sleep over at your house, and then we can go monster hunting together,” said Robbie.

“That would be awesome!” I said. “You’re the best friend ever!”

We had reached the classroom, so we went in, put away our stuff, and sat down on the rug.

“Good morning, boys and girls,” said our teacher, Mrs. Wushy. “Since Halloween is coming up, I thought it would be fun if we learned about some spooky creatures.”

“Like monsters?” said Max.

“Oh no … here we go again,” I whispered to Robbie.

“No! No! No!” Chloe screamed. She put her fingers in her ears and started jumping around. “I do not want to talk about monsters.”

“It’s okay, Chloe. Calm down,” said Mrs. Wushy. “We are not going to be talking about monsters. There is no such thing as monsters.”

“Oh, yes, there is,” I thought.

“How about witches?” asked Jessie.

“No, we are not going to talk about witches,” said Mrs. Wushy.

“Too bad,” said Chloe. “I wanted to learn how to turn Max into a donkey.”

Max jumped up and started waving an imaginary wand in Chloe’s direction. “I’ll turn you into a lizard!” said Max.

“No, you won’t!” said Chloe.

“Yes, I will!” said Max. “Abracadabra …”

“Stop it right now, you two,” said Mrs. Wushy. “That is enough. Max, you go sit over there, and, Chloe, you sit over here. I don’t want to hear another word from the two of you.”

After they sat back down, Mrs. Wushy said, “I thought it would be fun if we learned about real creatures, such as bats and spiders.”

“I love bats and spiders,” said Robbie.

“Today we are just going to learn about bats,” said Mrs. Wushy. “They are very interesting animals. Does anyone know anything about bats?”

Of course Robbie raised his hand. He is a science genius, and he knows everything about animals.

“Bats are the only mammals that fly.”

“Excellent, Robbie,” said Mrs. Wushy. “That is correct.”

“Birds fly,” said Max, “and they are animals.”

“But birds are not mammals,” said Mrs. Wushy. “Most mammals’ babies are born alive. They do not hatch from eggs. And all baby mammals drink their mother’s milk.”

“I know something,” said Jessie. “Bats hang upside down. One time I saw a picture of a whole bunch of bats hanging upside down in a cave.”

“Good,” said Mrs. Wushy. “What else?”

“They live in trees or caves,” I said.

“And sometimes they even live in your attic,” said a girl named Ava. “My grandma used to have bats living in her attic.”

“Does anyone know what bats eat?” asked Mrs. Wushy.

“They suck your blood,” said Max. “They bite your neck with their big fangs and suck out the blood.” He opened his mouth and pretended to bite the air.

“Eeewwwww! That is disgusting!” said Chloe. “I think I’m going to be sick!”

“You’d better watch out,” said Max. “When Dracula leaves his castle at night, he turns into a bat. He might fly into your room and drink your blood.”

“Stop it! Stop it, Max!” yelled Chloe.

I was starting to get a little freaked out myself.

“Calm down, Chloe,” said Mrs. Wushy. “Dracula is not real. He is just a character in a story, and there is only one kind of bat that drinks blood. That is the vampire bat, and it does not live in the United States.”

“Really?” asked Jessie. “I thought all bats drank blood.”

“Most people think that,” said Mrs. Wushy, “because of the Dracula story. That’s why people are so afraid of bats. But they are really very gentle.”

“Then what do they eat?” I asked.

“Most bats eat fruit or insects,” said Mrs. Wushy. “The bats that live around here eat insects.”

“Yuck!” said Chloe.

“I once ate an insect,” said Max. “When I was little, I picked up a cricket and popped it in my mouth. It was really crunchy.”

“I bet he ate more than one,” Jessie whispered to me.

“Yuck, yuck, yucky, yuck!” said Chloe. “You are gross, Max.”

“People don’t like to eat bugs,” said Robbie, “but I’m glad bats do.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because if we didn’t have bats, we would have way too many insects on our planet.”

“Robbie is right,” said Mrs. Wushy. “If you think the mosquitoes are bad in the summer, imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have bats to eat them.”

“I don’t think I want to imagine that,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Jessie, “I’m getting itchy just thinking about it!”

“So bats are really important to people and the planet Earth,” said Mrs. Wushy. “That’s why we need to take care of them and protect them.”

“I know something else about bats,” I said.

“Great!” said Mrs. Wushy. “What is it?”

“Bats are nocturnal.”

“Who remembers what that means?” asked Mrs. Wushy.

“It means that they are awake at night and asleep in the day,” said Jessie, “just like owls.”

“And mice!” I said.

“That is right,” said Mrs. Wushy. “And because they have to fly at night, they use something special to help them find their way in the dark.”

“Oh, I know! I know!” Robbie said. “They use echolocation.”

“Echo … lo … what?” I said.

“Echolocation,” said Robbie.

“What’s that?” asked Jessie.

“A bat makes a high-pitched beeping sound. The sound waves hit an object and bounce back to the bat’s ears, like an echo. The echo tells the bat the size and shape of the object and where it is located.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Wushy. “It’s kind of like a special way of seeing in the dark.”

“I wish I had a special way of seeing in the dark,” I whispered to Robbie. “Then I might be able to find that monster in my attic.”

“Let’s have a sleepover tonight,” said Robbie. “I can’t do echolocation, but I can bring my night-vision goggles. That might help us find the monster in your attic.”

“Great idea!” I whispered back, but I could already feel my stomach doing flip-flops.