A Friendly Town That's Almost Always by the Ocean! Read online

  “Snort,” protested Earl Grey.

  Nia and Ms. Grimalkin pulled and tugged at the hoop until it finally slipped off. With a dignified grunt, Earl Grey trotted out the door, teacup swinging from his curly tail. He reappeared at the window a moment later.

  Talise went next. She dragged a huge coil of rope to the front of the class.

  “I see you’ve brought more bathy-matry equipment, Talise,” Ms. Grimalkin said.

  “I did,” Talise said. “And it’s pronounced ba-THYM-etry.”

  Quincy smiled. He still wasn’t entirely sure what bathymetry was, but Talise did know a lot about the bottom of the ocean. Everyone leaned forward in their desks in anticipation as she cleared her throat.

  “This is called a sounding line,” she said. “It measures how deep the water is.” She stretched the rope out, showing the class the weight tied to one end. The rope had markings like a measuring tape. Talise explained how to throw the weight into the water so it sank to the bottom.

  When she finished, Quincy leaned over. “Maybe Talise can find out how deep your locker is, Demetrius,” he whispered. “She’s great at diving.”

  “It’s Davy,” Demetrius whispered back. “Do you think Talise could get my books for me?”

  Quincy shook his head. “Locker combinations are top secret. Sharing them is against school rules.”

  “Quincy, it’s your turn to show and tell,” Ms. Grimalkin said.

  Quickly, Quincy picked up his notebook and headed to the front of the class. He loved watching Show-and-Tell, but presenting made him nervous. His classmates all had such fascinating hobbies, like watch-hog training and bathymetry and investigative reporting. Quincy always struggled to find something as interesting to share.

  Pushing his glasses up his nose, Quincy began to read.

  “Did you clean your room?

  “Is it time for lunch yet?

  “When’s your birthday?

  “Aren’t you allergic to that?

  “Where does it end?

  “Where did that tall man come from?

  “Can you please stop writing and just listen?

  “Fries or clams?

  “Isn’t it opening soon?

  “Can the PTA do anything to stop it?

  “Why is the wall so sticky?

  “Did it just lick me?

  “Do you hear that scraping noise?

  “What’s that leaking out from under the door?

  “Is that true?

  “Is that red?

  “Is that what I think it is?

  “Did someone just knock?

  “Should I answer?”

  When Quincy finished reading, the class applauded.

  “That’s quite a collection of questions, Quincy!” said Ms. Grimalkin. “I’m very impressed.”

  “Thank you.” Quincy felt relieved.

  Recess was Quincy’s favorite time of the day. During class, Ms. Grimalkin was more interested in answers than questions. And sometimes it was hard to understand questions at lunch, what with all the mouths full of fries or clams. But recess was another story.

  The kids ran to the jungle gym to play Walk the Plank. Seaweed Season had just ended, and stubborn strands still clung to the swings, making it hard to swing high. More seaweed hid under the slide, where Quincy knew it was waiting to grab ankles and wrists.

  It made him a little anxious. So he sat on a bench and listened, pen poised over his notebook.

  “Avast, best matey!” Runa waved a wooden sword and poked Finn, who giggled. “Are ye ready to jump, or should I release the hog?”

  Quincy wrote down her question.

  Earl Grey trotted forward (a little unsteadily, thanks to his eye patch) and nudged Finn, who hopped off the plank and into the sand. “Ooh!” he said, pointing at his foot. Something glittered in the sand beside it.

  “Is that my lost treasure, best matey?” Runa called. “Did anyone warn you that it’s cursed?”

  Quincy laughed as he added those questions. Runa was always exaggerating and telling tales.

  “Do you usually find cursed treasure in the schoolyard?” Davy asked.

  Smiling, Quincy added Davy’s question, too. Quincy really liked the new kid. He asked lots and lots of questions.

  Talise picked up the gold coin by Finn’s foot and brushed it off. “Didn’t Jules find similar currency last week?”

  “Wasn’t that a doubloon?” Nia asked.

  Jules took the coin from Talise. “No, it was a silver dollar, remember?”

  Quincy wrote down Jules’s question. He wrote down everyone else’s questions, too. Soon his hand started to cramp and his chest felt all tied up in knots. Keeping up with so many questions was stressful!

  “What if it really is buried treasure?”

  “Can I keep it?”

  “Shouldn’t Finn get to keep it?”

  “Finders keepers, right?”

  Suddenly Quincy remembered something. He flipped back a few pages in his notebook and stood up, clearing his throat.

  “Has anyone seen my bottle cap?”

  “That’s right!” Finn piped up. “I lost the cap on my bottle last w—”

  “Hang on!” Jules interrupted. “This is a smashed-up seaweed soda cap. Hey, Finn, didn’t you lose the cap on your bottle last week?”

  Sometimes the other kids had trouble hearing Finn. He sighed and nodded. “Yes. But you can keep it.”

  “Thanks!” Jules pocketed the cap. “I’ll use it at the arcade.”

  “I thought the arcade was closed,” Davy said.

  “We know a way in as long as you don’t mind spiderwebs,” Jules said. “And hey, good investigating, Quincy!”

  Quincy blushed.

  There was one problem with question collecting: Quincy wasn’t nearly as diligent about writing down the answers.

  After recess, Ms. Grimalkin pulled down a giant map of the world over the blackboard. “Let’s review our lesson on geography,” she said. “I hope everyone’s been taking notes! Quincy, can you tell us where Vienna is?”

  Quincy froze. “Um. Oh. Er.”

  “Check your notes,” Ms. Grimalkin suggested. Quincy flipped quickly through the pages, his heart hammering.

  “Have you ever tried Vienna sausages?” he read aloud.

  Ms. Grimalkin smiled. “Yes, they’re delicious. But the answer is Austria. Let’s try another city. How about Brussels?”

  Shuffling back a few pages, Quincy scanned more questions. “Don’t you think brussels sprouts smell like dirty socks?”

  “I do,” Ms. Grimalkin agreed. “But we’re talking about geography, not food. What’s the capital of Peru?”

  Quincy turned another page. His hands were starting to sweat. “Are those lima beans?”

  “That is incorrect,” Ms. Grimalkin said. “The answer is Lima. Where is Budapest?”

  “Hungary,” Jules announced, waving her notes in the air.

  “Too bad, we already had lunch,” Ms. Grimalkin told her. “Quincy, I bet you can answer this one. What is the capital of India?”

  “Have you tried the new deli?” Quincy read from his notebook. His voice was shaking now.

  Ms. Grimalkin nodded. “Yes, the curry was delicious. But the correct answer is New Delhi. Can you name a city in France?”

  “Dijon?” squeaked Finn, but no one heard him.

  “Lyon?” Davy tried.

  Ms. Grimalkin shook her head. “We already covered animals, Dupin. Quincy, I know you can answer this one! Santiago is the capital of which country?”

  “Is the chili vegetarian?”

  “No, it’s Chile,” Ms. Grimalkin said with a sigh. Shaking her head, she rolled the map back up. “I don’t understand, Quincy. You take such excellent notes on my questions. Why don’t you ever write down the answers?”

  Quincy didn’t answer. He was too busy writing down her question.

  IT’S RAINING CATS AND CRABS!

  by Jules, Fifth-Grade Star Reporter

 
Today we received an update on the thousands of mysterious crabs that appeared on the beach a few days ago. The crabs have migrated from the beach over to the rocks. So far, the rock cats seem to be getting along really well with the crabs. Which is good news, but also kind of surprising. After all, everyone knows crabs are rock cats’ second-favorite meal.

  So what’s the deal with these new crabs? Why are they here? Where did they come from? What do they want?

  As many of you know, this reporter’s stepsister is almost a professional journalist. Her advice was to “follow the story”—and that’s exactly what this reporter tried to do, until her father caught her sneaking out to the rocks with her sleeping bag last night. Apparently sleeping with the crabs is too “risky,” even in the name of journalism. Rest assured, this reporter will come up with another way to study the crabs up close. This story isn’t over yet, folks!

  A MESSAGE FROM THE PTA

  Dairy is very harmful. Many students here at Topsea School are lactose-intolerant. Additionally, it is very easy to choke on a piece of cheddar. Principal King doesn’t seem to understand how dangerous this is. Dairy is for cats, not humans! That’s why your PTA President is currently circulating a petition to have all dairy banned from school property. Please sign and remember, STAY SAFE!

  THE POETRY CORNER

  There once was a teacup pig

  Who grew to be super big

  He’s so NOT a dog

  He’s a clever watch hog!

  Even if he ate Nanny’s wig.

  —Nia

  CAFETERIA MENU

  ~ MONDAY ~

  Snack

  Milk Sampler

  Wry Toast & Chokecherry Jam

  Lunch

  Mystery Meat (with Clue Sauce)

  Stewed Spinach Stew

  Milk or Orange Juice

  ~ TUESDAY ~

  Snack

  Tomato Juice

  Chilled Monkey Bread

  Lunch

  Seaweed Spaghetti & Mystery Meatballs

  Orange or Milk Juice

  ~ WEDNESDAY ~

  Snack

  Apple Juice

  Applesauce

  Apple

  Lunch

  Crab Cakes

  “Cheez” & “Macaroni”

  Juice or Orange Milk

  ~ THURSDAY ~

  Snack

  Pineapple Juice

  Crab Cupcakes

  Lunch

  Seaweed Burger on a Seaweed Bun with Seaweed Ketchup

  Milk or Orangutan Juice

  ~ FRIDAY ~

  Snack

  Cranberry Juice

  Health Cookie (unless you have cat-hair allergies)

  Lunch

  Surprising Tuna

  Fried Clams, Clammed Fries, or Crammed Flies

  Buttermilk (extra chunky)

  All the kids in Topsea enjoyed Runa’s tales. But only Finn believed them.

  Well…Finn usually believed them. He knew his best friend tended to embellish her stories, making them bigger and flashier, adding bells and whistles and glitter and whirligigs. She did the same thing with her artwork. And Finn’s hair. (The hot-pink stripes she’d painted in his auburn locks were finally beginning to fade.)

  But all Runa’s stories had some kind of truth at the bottom. The other stuff was just extra fun.

  “Did I tell you about the time I painted a dragon?” Runa asked as they walked to school. “And the room started filling with smoke?”

  “Wow!” Finn exclaimed. Not very loudly, of course. Finn lived with a chaos of older brothers, each one louder than the last, and he was used to his small voice being drowned out. But Runa always heard him.

  “How about the time I saw a shark fin, way out at sea?” she asked. “Except it was furry and it wagged?”

  “Cool!” Finn exclaimed.

  As they passed the rocks, she talked about the time she made a huge sand castle on the beach, and when she returned the next day, the rock cats were living inside it. As they neared the school, she described the time her grandparents saw a meteor shower in South Korea, but the stars were all the colors of the rainbow.

  “It sounds beautiful,” Finn said. He loved rainbows.

  “And this other time—” Runa stopped. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “A popping sound. I think it came from the chewing gum wall.” Runa pointed down a nearby alley.

  Finn listened. After a moment, he heard it: POP! POP!

  “It’s like it’s calling to us.” Runa smiled. “Have you ever seen it up close, Finn? It’s gorgeous!”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah!” Runa grabbed Finn’s arm. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

  Finn’s older brothers had told him all about the chewing gum wall. Though nobody knew when it had started, everybody figured it’d begun with one wad of gum. One person. Probably not a very nice person. Once a wall is covered in gum, adding another wad doesn’t make much of a difference. But when a wall is just a normal wall, sticking your used chewing gum to it isn’t very considerate.

  Occasionally, one of the parents in town—usually, the President of the PTA—would insist that it needed to be cleaned up.

  A biohazard! they’d call it. Utterly disgusting!

  But cleaning up the chewing gum wall had turned out to be a lot more difficult than it seemed. When Cosmo the janitor had tried, he’d run away screaming. Ricky and Nicky had refused to enter the alley ever again, even after Principal King had offered them a bonus.

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter,” she’d decided. “The chewing gum wall is part of the character of the town. A historical landmark.” She’d even considered honoring it with a plaque. But because nobody in Topsea knew when it had started, she hadn’t known which date to engrave.

  “It’s even more gorgeous than I remembered!” Runa said. “Just look at all those swirls and splotches.”

  Usually, Finn loved how Runa found beauty and excitement in unexpected places. But a wall covered in used chewing gum was taking it a little far. “Yeah, neat,” he managed.

  Runa sighed dreamily. “It’s like a Vincent van Gogh painting.”

  Finn rubbed his ear. “Maybe.”

  “Try relaxing your eyes a little bit.”

  He tried to relax his eyes. The different-colored splotches blurred together. It really did look like a painting, he decided—like one of Runa’s, when she piled on lots of paint. “I guess it is kind of pretty.”

  “I told you!” Runa grinned.

  Finn took a step closer. With his eyes still relaxed, the wall appeared to be pulsating. Breathing, even. “It’s almost like it’s alive.”

  A bubble rose to the surface with a POP!

  “Maybe it is.” Runa’s eyes grew brighter. “Maybe everybody’s spit mixed together in some sort of magical science experiment—”

  “Magical science experiment?”

  “Yes. And it created a new kind of life-form. And it’s just waiting for the final piece of gum to bring it entirely to life, so it can slither off the wall and down the street….”

  “Dare me to touch it?” Finn asked.

  “Eww!” Runa exclaimed.

  “It’s just gum.”

  “Gum that’s been in other people’s mouths.” Runa shook her head. “Fine! I dare you to touch it.”

  Finn’s older brothers were always daring him to do things. Usually, he was too afraid. But with Runa beside him, Finn always felt braver. He took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes, and poked the gum with his index finger.

  Runa shrieked in laughter. “What did it feel like?”

  “Used chewing gum,” Finn said.

  “Very funny. All right, we’d better get going. The bell’s going to ring.”

  Runa started to walk away. Finn was still staring at the chewing gum wall. It had felt like used chewing gum. But not old gum. This gum was damp and warm, as if it was freshly chewed. Except that wasn’t possible, right?

  Finn rea
ched out and touched the wall again.

  Definitely damp and warm. And sticky. He pressed his whole hand flat against it.

  “Weird,” he said.

  The first bell rang, echoing into the alley. “Finn!” Runa called from the street. “Hurry up! We’re going to be late for school. One time I was late, and Principal King had padlocked all the doors, and I had to break into the school’s basement and climb through a trapdoor into our classroom….”

  Finn pulled his hand away from the wall. The gum stuck to his palm, stretching in gooey, multicolored strings.

  “I’ll be right there!” he called to Runa.

  With his other hand, he tried to scrape away the strings. Gum stuck to that hand, too. He tried to use his foot to push off the wall, but the gum stuck to his shoe. Before long, Finn was entirely covered in chewing gum. He couldn’t move.

  “Runa!” he shouted.

  Runa heard him. She ran back into the alley, skidding to a stop in front of him. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Let me help you—”

  “Wait! I don’t want you to get stuck, too.”

  Runa pulled back her hand just in time. “I need to find something to pry you loose.” She scanned the junk-filled alley. “Ooh! A spork. My favorite utensil.”

  “Ooh, mine, too,” Finn said.

  “Maybe that’s why we’re best friends. Okay, here goes…” Runa jammed the spork into the gum. Instantly, the gum sucked it up.

  Finn frowned. He thought he’d heard…a swallowing sound. “Do you have any other ideas?”

  “What about ice water?” Runa suggested. “That’s what my mom used when my sister got bubble gum stuck in her hair. You should have seen the bubble! It was bigger than a basketball, and it took five tries to pop it—”

  “Runa,” Finn said.

  “Oh, sorry.”

  She scampered off. A few minutes later, she came back lugging a bucket.

  “The gum stuck in my sister’s hair was just one wad,” she explained. “But this gum is all over you. Brace yourself.”

  She tossed the bucket of ice water all over him.

  “Aiiiieee!” Finn yelped.

  “Sorry,” Runa said. “Did it help?”

  Finn wriggled as hard as he could. Then he shook his head. Or tried to shake his head, since it was stuck to the wall, too. “It just feels like the gum is squeezing me tighter,” he said. And now he was also cold and wet, but he decided not to mention it.