“Crap! Why didn’t I close the door?” he hollered as the trash bin chomped down on his foot. “Ow! Let go, you crazy thing!” He jerked his foot around until he was finally able to yank it free. He then kicked out at the trash bin several times, taking a moment to relish his victory as a well-aimed kick dented its side and sent it smashing into the opposite side of the stall.
Dropping to his stomach, he slithered underneath the thin partition separating the stalls. His sneakers squeaked and skidded as his feet clawed frantically for some kind of toe-hold on the slippery vinyl floor.
He finally made it into the next stall, where he pulled himself into the corner next to the toilet. He huddled there with his arms wrapped around his legs. Why in the world was that thing so mad at him, anyway? He rubbed his sore ankle. Maybe it was sick and tired of eating garbage every day.
Chase heard the trash bin banging and scraping against the wall on the other side. He may be safe for the moment, but it sure was determined to sink its hideous metallic jaws into him again. He had to get it switched off.
Pressing his fingers to his temples, he took a deep breath. “Um…um. Come on! What is it? What is it?” He drew in another deep, calming breath. “Okay, I just need to relax and it’ll come to me,” he murmured. “It’s…Stop, Trash bin.” The noise instantly ended. He dropped his head against the wall and took a few seconds to enjoy the wonderful peace and quiet.
“That was easy! Why didn’t you do that in the first place?” he scolded himself. Because you’re an idiot, he finished in his head. After all, it wasn’t as if he’d never been in that magical room. “Wait a minute!” Chase thought. He had Aunt Augusta’s power to make objects come to life. How cool! Well…maybe it would be cool if he wasn’t so lame when it came to controlling it.
He pulled himself to his feet and peeked around the corner into the next stall. The trash bin’s mangled lid was tipped at an awkward angle, while paper towels and moldy banana peels stuck out from underneath. Looking at it now, no one would believe that moments earlier it had been pursuing Chase around the restroom, seriously bent on killing him.
He was inching past it, holding his nose just in case he had the urge to sneeze again, when the bathroom door swung open.
“Wow! What happened in here?” asked a strange voice.
Oh, great, thought Chase. How do I explain this one? Actually, he had no good excuses. Making a hasty exit seemed to be the wisest thing to do. So, head down, he hurried across the floor and pushed past the goggling boy. “Beats me,” Chase mumbled. “It was like this when I got here. Crazy vandals, anyway.”
He strode down the hall, glancing over his shoulder every now and then. He wanted to put a lot of space between himself and the messed up bathroom as soon as possible. It was a good thing that kid hadn’t come in earlier. Now that would’ve been hard to explain.
Chase skidded around a corner. He saw several kids chattering in the hallways and caught snippets of their conversations as he whisked by. “—Danny broke up with her in the middle of—” “—can you believe Britney asked him to the dance—” “—threw his meatloaf across the cafeteria and—”
Chase shook his head. Sometimes he felt like some sort of bizarre creature from outer space when compared to the kids whose only worries were cafeteria food fights, dances, break-ups, and other normal everyday activities. I’m sure they’ve never been almost stomped to death by a live trash can, he thought huffily.
His teacher, Mrs. Murphy, was seated at her desk when he finally made it back to the classroom. When she beckoned to him to join her, he slipped his hands into his pockets and trudged past the aisles of students’ desks to stand at her side.
“Chase Tinker, we seem to be having issues with your mathematics,” she said as she peered at him over the top of her glasses. “What do you propose we do about it?”
Chase gazed at the chalkboard, dotted with the day’s lessons, and wished he was anywhere but there. “Umm…I guess I should study more?”
“Hmpf! Brilliant deduction,” said Mrs. Murphy, a wry twist to her lips. “Yes, studying is a marvelous thing. Doing your homework and paying attention in class are also two wonderfully good suggestions.”
He turned his head to stare at her. “But I do pay attention.” He licked his dry lips. Uh…sometimes, he thought. “It’s because—” he began strongly and then ended by mumbling, “—math’s not very fun.” He didn’t want to admit it to anyone, but it wasn’t that he didn’t want to do his math. He just had a hard time understanding most of it.
Mrs. Murphy sighed. “I appreciate that for some people, mathematics can be challenging, but it is something you’ll find useful in your life. Plus, it’s a good workout for the brain.”
Chase nodded. “I’ll try—A-AAACHOOOOOOO!” He grabbed onto the edge of the desk as a bunch of papers flew off and fluttered to the floor. It was as though a mini hurricane had exploded from him.
“Ex-excuse me, I—” He paused when he noticed that his teacher was no longer in her chair. “Mrs. Murphy?” He glanced around. Where the heck did she go?
Then he heard a squelchy, sucking sound. He bent down and peered under the desk. “Holy cow!” he yelled. Mrs. Murphy was no longer Mrs. Murphy. She was now a big puddle of green, slimy goop. He knew it had to be her because her glasses were perched there in the goo, like a couple of huge, shiny eyeballs.
He watched in horror as the thick goop oozed across the floor and curled around his sneakers. “Yuck! Get away!” He leaped onto the desktop. Hunched up as if he was afraid the goo might attack him, he peered over the edge. “Oh no! Oh no! Why does this keep happening?”
Things were getting completely out of hand. He had to get his new powers under control. When the sneezing had first started, the magic had happened to only him, but now it was affecting other people and things, too. It’s like it’s getting stronger every day, he thought.
Chase was so lost in his thoughts, he almost jumped out of his skin when a voice across the room asked, “Chase, what are you doing on top of the desk?”
He whipped his head around. “Persephone! Am I glad to see you. It’s—it’s Mrs. Murphy! I changed her into a puddle of goo!”
“You did?” exclaimed Andy as he followed Persephone into the room to check things out. “Why’d you do that?”
“It wasn’t on purpose! It’s these magical sneezes,” said Chase. “They’re driving me nuts!”
“Maybe you should clamp a clothes pin on your nose,” said Andy.
“Great advice, Andy,” Chase answered, his voice filled with sarcasm. “Do you want me to look like an idiot?”
“Oh, and hanging out on the teacher’s desk like a big dodo bird isn’t doing that already?” said Andy, smirking.
Chase’s face burned fiery red as he jumped off the desk and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans.
“Why are you freaking out, anyway?” asked Persephone. She swished her hand at him. “Just say the counterspell to change her back. You do remember it, don’t you?”
“Uh…yeah…uh…no.”
Andy rolled his eyes. “We were in that power’s room a few months ago. The counterspell is: Ungoo, Mrs. Murphy. Remember?”
Looking relieved, Chase nodded and repeated the words.
The goo oozed up and transformed into a befuddled Mrs. Murphy, her glasses dangling off one ear. “What? Where? Oh, my! Mazel tov, munchkins,” she said as she staggered to the chalkboard and began drawing squiggly, upside-down stick people. “Please stand on your heads for the fire drill. I’m sure it will stop singing soon. And don’t forget to pack a lunch of snakes and snails and dragons’ tails. It’s too dry on the roof when it’s snowing gravy.”
The three kids exchanged worried glances.
“Why’s she acting so weird?” whispered Chase.
“Maybe magic does weird stuff to non-magical people if they’ve never had it done to them,” answered Persephone. “Remember when you teleported Doctor Dan the first time? He acted out of it for a while,
too.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Andy, nodding. “He couldn’t remember who he was and he thought it was all a dream.”
“I wish this was a dream,” muttered Chase as he backed away. “C-come on, you guys. Maybe we should get outta here while we have the chance.”
He grabbed his backpack off his desk and shot Mrs. Murphy one last look before following Andy and Persephone from the room.
“I hope she’ll be okay soon,” said Persephone as they dashed down the hallway and out a side door. “She’s such a nice teacher.”
“When she comes back to her senses, I’ll probably have detention for the rest of my life,” moaned Chase.
“And why did you have detention in the first place?” asked Persephone.
Chase chewed on the inside of his bottom lip for a few seconds as he considered telling her the truth or not. “Okay, okay. I didn’t do my math homework,” he decided to admit. “And please don’t lecture or say ‘I told you so.’ I think I’ve been punished enough for one day. Now let’s hurry. We want to have plenty of time to get to the golden chest and enchant things before it’s time for dinner.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Plant Life
Chase, Andy, Persephone, and Maxwell peered into the greenhouse and blinked in the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the tall windows and skylights.
“So why do we need those singing plants?” Persephone whispered.
“Because,” said Chase, tugging on his beanie, which was too warm to be wearing in the house, but he wanted to add some magic to it, “they have to sing a certain song to conjure up the staircase that will lead us to the gold chest.”
“What song do they have to sing?” asked Andy.
“Do you believe in magic?”
“ ‘Course I do, but what’s the song?”
Chase shook his head and grimaced. “That is the song. Do you Believe in Magic?”
“Oh, man! How corny is that?” said Andy, wrinkling his nose.
“Don’t look at me,” answered Chase, holding up his hands. “I didn’t think it up.”
“Uh…do you even know this song?” asked Andy.
“Grandfather sang it to me.”
Persephone grinned. “Wish I would’ve been there to hear that.”
“Actually, he sounded pretty good,” Chase answered with a lopsided smile. He turned back to the room and scowled at all the shrubbery. “I can’t believe those darn things are hanging out in here.”
“Well, it is a room especially for plants,” said Persephone.
Chase watched a bunch of purple snapdragons competing in a spitting contest. He shook his head in disgust when a blob of green gunk sailed across the room and splatted on the wall next to him. “A room full of insane plants,” he muttered.
“So,” said Persephone, “who’s going in there to get them out from under the cuddleupus’s arm thingies?”
“Since she’s your girlfriend, Andy,” said Chase, snickering, “you should be the one. At least she’s napping at the moment.”
Andy gave Chase his fiercest glare. “Hey, here’s a thought. Why don’t you use your telekinesis and float them out of there?”
“Because I don’t want to chance waking up that crazy plant. You’re our best bet.”
“But—”
“Chase has a point, Andy,” said Persephone. “You do have something special she happens to love and adore.”
“Still, I don’t want—oh, all right! But you guys both owe me big time. And don’t think I’ll forget either. And don’t sneeze!” he hissed at Chase before slipping through the doorway. He tip-toed across the room, trying his best to avoid the green spit-wads littering the floor.
“Hey, Cuddly, how ya doin’?” Andy whispered when he reached the huge plant. He carefully parted the plant’s appendages and ducked beneath them. Several tendrils brushed through his hair and tickled his ears. “N-nice plant. You are verrrry sleepy.”
Seconds later, he eased out from under the tendrils and herded the singing plant trio toward the open doorway. “Come on, guys, hurry it up. And whatever you do, don’t start singing.”
He was almost there when a wad of gunk smacked him on the back of the head. “Hey, watch it!” he yelled, forgetting that it wasn’t a good idea to be making any loud noises while still in the greenhouse.
The cuddleupus jerked awake and began waving and snapping its tendrils like whips. Luckily, Chase and Persephone were ready. Persephone zipped behind the plants and shooed them into the hallway. Chase grabbed Andy’s arm and yanked him from the room, just as a tendril reached out to curl around his waist.
“Yuck! I hate that room!” said Andy. He scraped the slimy chunks from his hair and wiped them on his pants. “Okay, where to now?”
“To the teleporting chests,” said Chase. “One of them is going to send us to a secret door.”
The kids had to listen to at least twenty rounds of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” before they were all finally gathered in the shadowy hold of the pirate ship where the chests were stored. If they didn’t need the annoying plants so badly, Chase would’ve happily ripped them out by their roots, tied them into a bunch of mangled knots, and tossed them out a window.
“Quick, let’s find the chest. These plants are driving me insane!” said Chase as he threw back the lid of a sapphire-blue one. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll put the plants in, I’ll get in next and say ‘Secret Door,’ and then if it works, you guys follow as quickly as you can. If you don’t do it right away, the chest will switch to another and you’ll be stuck here.”
“Grandfather sure made it difficult to get to those rooms, didn’t he?” said Andy.
“After everything that happened with James,” said Persephone, “I don’t think any of us can blame him.”
“Yeah,” said Chase. “We found them way too easily last time.” He flicked his finger. The plants drifted up and into the first chest. Maxwell clung to his shoulder as Chase climbed in after and, feeling silly, curled up next to them. Their soft leaves tickled his face and ears. “Okay, here goes. Secret Door.”
“You didn’t go anywhere,” Andy commented unnecessarily.
Chase sighed, uncoiled himself and stepped from the chest. “Crap! We couldn’t get lucky enough to have it be the first one. Okay, come on, plants.”
Nine chests, two ounces of perspiration, and a whole barrel full of irritation later, a lid slammed shut over him at last. Chase squinched his eyes shut as his molecules flew apart, zoomed around, and whipped back together all in one heart-stopping moment.
Before he’d even had a chance to figure out exactly where he’d landed, he heard two loud thumps.
Andy gave an ear-splitting howl that made Chase’s ears ring. “Ooowww! My eyeballs! Where are you guys?”
“I’m right here!” said Chase as he clapped his hands over his own eyes.
It was awful! Grandfather hadn’t said it would be this bad.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The Magic Touch
“Chase! What’s happening!” screamed Persephone. “How do we turn it off?”
The radiance was so intense, it was as if someone had switched on a million-watt light bulb. Even with his eyes covered, Chase was unable to stop the brightness from leaking through.
Good question, he thought wildly. “Um—um.” Oh no! What was he supposed to say to extinguish it? He couldn’t think straight. He was sure his brain was frying in the hot, blazing light. It’s—it’s…oh yeah! “It’s Chase Tinker! We aren’t here to do evil!”
The light immediately dimmed to something much easier on the eyes.
Chase took his hands from his face and blinked away the dark spots bobbing in front of him like helium-filled balloons.
“Took you long enough,” grumbled Andy, rubbing his eyes with his fists. “I think my eyeballs were turned into a couple of fried eggs.”
“It’s a wonder we weren’t burned into piles of ashes!” added Persephone, staring at Chase. Her angry g
aze was almost as scorching as the light had been.
Maxwell hissed in Chase’s ear, showing he was just as upset as the other two.
“I’m sorry, guys, but I had a huge brain freeze.” He squinted and glanced around.
They were crouched in a small, square room. In front of them was an enormous wooden door; the kind that in horror movies you would not want to open. It looked as if it belonged in a creepy old castle. But even with that, the most surprising thing about this door was the dozens of door knobs dotting practically every inch of it.
“Whoa! Door knobs,” said Persephone.
“Wow! Get a load of this one!” exclaimed Andy. He stretched out his arm to grasp a glowering dragon’s head that had glowing red eyeballs and gray smoke drifting around its many pointed teeth.
“Wait!” shouted Chase. “Don’t touch it!”
But he was too late. Right as Andy’s fingertips grazed it, the dragon’s mouth snapped open and then chomped down on Andy’s hand. Within seconds, his arm, his head, and then half his body were sucked inside.
Persephone lunged forward and latched onto one of Andy’s legs. “Chase, grab his other leg!”
Chase shoved aside the plants and jumped to his feet. Together, the two kids pulled, using all their strength. It was a bizarre-looking kind of tug-of-war, with Andy stretched out like a thick rubber band. And even though it was two large people against one small knob, the dragon’s head was winning.
“Oh no! Chase! Help!”
A long, fiery-red tongue had slipped from the mouth and curled around the leg that Persephone clutched. With a slurping hiss, it slithered up and looped itself around her arm and neck like a boa constrictor. She gagged and gurgled as the tongue tightened its death grip on her. “Chase!” she squeaked out. “Do some—thing!”
Chase’s eyes darted back and forth from Persephone to Andy, who was quickly slipping away. “But what?”
“Use one—one of your p-powers!”
Chase Tinker and the House of Secrets Page 11