THE SQUID
Cody reached in the water and grabbed for the phone and the glasses. No luck.
“How will we ever get home without my phone?” Carlos moaned.
“That phone was a crazy gamble from the beginning,” Sully snapped. “Without my glasses, I’m as blind as a jellyfish!”
Cody reached in again, and this time he felt something brush his arm. “Ew,” he said. “There’s something in there, all right.” He fished around more but felt no sign of the phone or the glasses. But when he pulled his arm up . . .
They got the slimy, wriggling thing off Cody’s arm. Victor held it out for all to see. Its tentacled arms reached for him. “That’s a squid,” he said. “My uncle took me ocean fishing once, and we caught one.”
“My mom took me to a Chinese restaurant once, and I ate one,” Ratface said. “But I never knew they looked like that.”
“Squids in a swimming pool?” Carlos said. “Why?”
“This must be what Nurse Bilgewater’s been dumping,” Sully said. “I wonder how many of them there are in the pool.”
Victor grabbed a pool net from the wall. “I’ll find your glasses, Sully,” he said.
He plunged the net into the water. Down, down it went, till Victor was holding the handle by its very end. “It still hasn’t touched the bottom,” he said.
They trotted over to investigate. Cody pulled Sully by the arm so he wouldn’t slip into the water. Without his glasses, he was helpless.
Ratface held up his discovery. “It’s like something from a museum,” he said. “Look! Oxygen tanks and everything!”
“Looks pretty old,” Carlos said. “Like a costume from an old sci-fi movie.” His face was downcast. “Who cares about any of this stuff? Without my phone, we’re still prisoners.”
“The phone’s probably ruined by the water, anyway,” Sully said. “Forget the stupid phone. It’s my glasses that matter.”
“Whaddaya mean by ‘stupid phone’?” Carlos retorted. “It was a brilliant idea! And I don’t see you coming up with any escape plans.”
“That’s because I’m not an idiot!” Sully yelled. “I can face facts. We’re stuck here forever until we get turned into monsters or turned into lunch. But I’d still like to be able to see. Farley sure won’t buy me a replacement pair of glasses. That creepy, old vampire will probably be happy I’m as blind as a bat.”
“What I don’t get,” Ratface said, “is what Farley’s doing with a diving suit. We’re miles and miles from any ocean. Plus I thought vampires hated water. What good is it to him?”
“It’s good for us in one way,” Cody said. “I’m gonna use that diving suit to go down and find the glasses and the phone.” He started pulling the aqua suit on over his clothes. “Pee-yew, it stinks!”
“You can’t go down there,” Carlos said. “Are you scuba trained? Do you even know how to dog-paddle?
“Be careful down there, Cody,” Victor said. “Don’t drown.”
“C’mon, it’s a swimming pool,” Cody said. “Ten feet deep, maximum. What can go wrong? If any teachers show up and you need me to come back, just yank on the breathing tube.”
“Look, an underwater flashlight,” Ratface said, switching it on. “With working batteries! That’ll come in handy.”
Cody fastened his helmet over his head. He felt like a goldfish in a bowl—for the second time today. He just hoped there weren’t any anglerfish at the bottom of this pool waiting to eat him. He checked to make sure he could breathe, then tugged on the oxygen hose connecting him to the surface.
ody windmilled his arms and legs to try to swim. He shone the flashlight down. No sign of a bottom to this pool. Just swimming squids for as far as the eye could see. He shone it up, but there was no way to tell how deep he’d gone. At least I’m still connected to the surface. But how will I ever find Sully’s glasses in all this water?
He shone the light around. Then something caught his eye. It was Carlos’s phone, with lights still flashing. Cody aimed his flashlight toward it. A squid was holding the phone! The squid was even bigger than he was! Cody swam over swam over to where the squid hovered in the water. The creepy creature was actually rying to punch buttons on the phone with one of its pointy arms! And wrapped around its tubular head were Sully’s glasses!
Cody grabbed for the squid, but it pushed him away with its powerful arms and shot, torpedo style, across the pool. Shoot. He should have thought first before alerting the squid to his presence. Boy, that was one smart squid, pressing buttons just like a person! Was this typical squid behavior? Cody didn’t think so. Why would a squid try to wear glasses?
Cody swam in pursuit. The squid appeared to have forgotten about Cody. Ithovered upside down, still probing the phone with its wiggly arms. Cody snuck up behind it and grabbed one of its arms, yanking hard. The squid swam off, taking the phone and Sully’s glasses with him.
Finally Cody reached the bottom of the pool and retreived Sully’s glasses.
CHAPTER NINE
THE CAVE
“Is Cody okay down there?” Ratface asked. “Should we haul him up?”
“It’s taking him a long time,” Sully said. “Please, oh please, oh please, find my glasses!”
“The tube is still moving around,” Victor pointed out. “That must mean Cody is, too. And if he’s moving, then he must be okay.”
“I wish there was some way to see what he’s up to,” Carlos said.
“Quit bragging about seeing,” Sully muttered.
Just then, overhead, the pool lights flipped on. Footsteps echoed across the pool deck. A familiar voice broke the silence. “What in the name of Jupiter?”
“Bilgewater!” Ratface warned. “Quick, everybody hide!”
Meanwhile, down at the bottom of the deep pool, Cody had a decision to make. The squid had disappeared through the crack in the pool floor. Cody wanted to go after it and explore what was under the crack. It must be big if the squid can swim right through. We need that phone, he thought. It’s our only chance to get out of here. Still, there was no telling where this crack might lead. It could go to some kind of vicious sea monster’s lair. Don’t be silly, Cody thought. It’s not like I’m in a hurry. I’ve got a breathing tube. I could stay down here for hours. What’s the harm in exploring?
Cody yanked on his oxygen hose to make sure there was plenty of length available. It’s just a crack in a pool, he thought. How big can it be? I’ll catch that squid in no time.
Cody decided to take the plunge. He took a deep breath, held tight to Sully’s glasses, and dived down through the crack.
It was even darker down there. The beam from his flashlight seemed puny, and it faded before it ever found an edge to the hole. The temperature felt colder through his suit.
What is this place? Cody thought. The water goes on and on forever! This is one seriously leaky pool.
A treasure chest! With gold coins! Cody felt around to see if his suit had any pockets. It didn’t.
Small fish by the dozens swam over to Cody to investigate his flashlight. Just like the anglerfish, he thought. It must always be dark down here. This is maybe the first light they’ve ever seen! Just then, a floating, glowing school of pink jellyfish bobbed by. No, there were other things that glowed down here, too. Cody was glad he had a suit on to protect him from the stinging jellies.
The floor of the underwater cave was like a gigantic fish tank. There was still no sign of the squid with the cell phone. Then Cody saw a greenish light in the distance. It might be the phone, he thought. He set off to investigate.
It was no mere cell phone. This was something big looming in the distance. A sea monster? Cody approached cautiously.
When he got closer, he dropped his flashlight in astonishment.
It was a submarine! With lights on inside!
Cody peered through the windows. Who could have left a submarine here? Why would someone have a submarine underneath the broken, abandoned swimming pool?
Cody
’s mind started spinning. All this water under here had to have come from the ocean. Shipwrecks, jellyfish . . . there was no other explanation. This was an underground ocean cave, maybe, mysteriously reaching for miles, all the way to Splurch Academy. And here was a submarine. Never mind cell phones . . . this was a real way out! Somehow, if he could just get everybody down here, they could sail away under the sea to freedom!
Bilgewater’s sensible nursing shoes clicked across the pool deck. She sniffed the air, her nostrils flaring wide. She carried a huge pail of mackerel. She grabbed one and munched it like a candy bar. Then she tipped her pail into the pool.
“All right, come out,” she called. “Where are you? I know there are stinking boys down here somewhere.”
Then Nurse Bilgewater caught sight of the breathing tube running down into the pool.
“Aha,” she cried. “Something fishy’s going on here.”
She reached down, grabbed the tube, and yanked it.
Ratface gasped. Victor clamped a hand over his mouth. “That’s the signal!” Ratface breathed. “Cody’s gonna come to the surface now. She’ll catch him!”
Moments before, down at the bottom of the cave, Cody was still peering at the submarine when the squid with the cell phone went gliding past him. He turned and aimed his flashlight at it. In one arm it held the cell phone. In another it held . . . an old ketchup bottle! How weird!
Cody followed the departing creature with his flashlight. Then his heart thumped in his chest. It was only a shadowy movement. He couldn’t be sure. But something larger—much larger than the cell phone squid—swam past the beam of his light.
Was that a ship? A whale? Or could Cody simply be imagining things down here in the murky depths?
Maybe it was time to get out of here.
Just then he felt a sharp tug from the breathing tube.
“Geez, guys,” he muttered to himself. “Tug any harder, and it’ll come off. Then I’d drown down here!”
Kicking, swimming, and climbing up the tube, hand over hand, Cody made his way toward the surface.
Nurse Bilgewater suddenly turned toward where the boys were hiding. She was inches away from discovering them. They could smell her fishy body odor and mackerel breath.
She reached down and tickled the squid. “Where’s your big brother?” she asked. “Is he still being mean to you? The big bully! I’ll give him a talking-to. But first, I have some business to attend to.” She pulled a long, sinisterlooking pair of scissors from her nurse’s uniform pocket and seized the breathing tube. “Choppity chop!”
The boys, watching from behind the box, froze in terror. What about Cody? If she cut the tube, he’d drown down there!
“Whoever’s down there in the water isn’t supposed to be,” she said, loud enough for all the boys to hear. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s rule breakers.”
“We’ve got to stop her,” Carlos whispered. “We’ve got to save Cody!”
Just then a figure emerged from the shadows and spoke.
“Except when you’re the rule breaker. Isn’t that right, Beulah?”
Nurse Bilgewater whipped around to see the newcomer. She rose to her feet, brandishing the scissors.
Bilgewater’s face crumpled with rage. “So you’re the one chomping my baby squiddies!” she screamed. “Vertebrate vermin!”
Eelpot laughed and flexed her arm muscles. “Don’t blow a gasket, cephalopod scum! I wonder what Farley will say when I tell him you’re hiding squids down here in the pool.” She shook her head . . . and transformed into a shark woman!
She chomped her jaws and dived into the pool.
Bilgewater ripped off her nurse’s hat and shoes. “Oh, no, you don’t, you fishy fiend! You’re not gonna munch on my squiddies!” As she spoke, Bilgewater’s legs dissolved into fat, oily octopus tentacle arms.
“Gross,” Ratface whispered to Sully. “Do all girls do that?”
Sully clapped a hand over Ratface’s mouth.
With a colossal splash, Nurse Bilgewater heaved herself over the edge of the pool and into the water, chasing after Eelpot.
Just then Cody’s bubble diving helmet bobbed up to the surface. He climbed out of the pool and popped the helmet off his head.
“Hey! Guys!” he said. “Sully, I got your glasses. You’ll never guess what’s down there!”
Sully grabbed the glasses gratefully. “You’re my hero, man,” he said.
The other boys attacked Cody, unzipping him out of his suit before he could protest.
“You’ll never guess what’s down there,” Victor said. “But we don’t have time to tell you now. Unless you want to be fish food, hurry up. Let’s get outta here!”
CHAPTER TEN
THE MUTANT
“I’m telling you, guys, it’s a working sub,” Cody said. “Probably nuclear powered and everything. It’s all ready to get us outta here once and for all!”
They were huddled around a little fire they’d built on the floor of the stables. Ratface had stolen firewood from the teachers’ lounge and matches and a package of marshmallows from the kitchen. They had to be careful because the stables were full of straw, and if one strand caught fire, the boys would all be charred like cheap hot dogs. Hot dogs . . . too bad they didn’t have any of those to roast over the fire. Boys at Splurch Academy were always hungry. Griselda’s cooking made sure of that. A hot dog with ketchup and mustard sure would hit the spot . . . never mind. When they reached home they’d get to have all the hot dogs they wanted.
At Carlos’s instruction, the boys were attempting to lash snowshoes out of sticks and straw. Carlos, who was always good at making things, was doing a decent job of making his, but Cody’s and everyone else’s looked like bad birds’ nests. Cody humored Carlos, though, because he knew his friend was still sore about the lost cell phone.
Carlos’s new plan was that they’d all escape over the snow using their snowshoes, but Cody knew that was a long shot. The teachers would track them down in no time. On the other hand, sailing away through a hidden ocean cave . . . that was a whole different matter.
“That sub is our ticket home,” he said aloud.
Cody’s friends all stared at him bleakly.
“It was a nice thought, though.” Sully patted Cody’s knee encouragingly. “The main thing is you found my glasses. That was your important discovery under the water.”
“If only you could’ve found my phone,” Carlos said, his voice full of anger. “I’d have fixed the numbers in a jiffy, and our parents would be on their way here to rescue us right now.”
“Not in this blizzard, they wouldn’t,” Victor said.
“I doubt the phone would have survived the water,” Sully said.
“You can still build a communicator,’Los,” Cody said. “You were working on it before we ever got Fronk’s phone. Just go back to your original plan. With the chandeliers and stuff.”
Carlos didn’t look consoled at all. He dropped more sticks on the fire. Sparks flew up in the air, and they all watched carefully to see where they’d land.
“Oh, hey,” Ratface said. “Forgot to show you this. I swiped it off the front hall table today after the mail arrived.” He showed them a postcard of an ancient Greek temple. “It’s from the Priscilla Prim girls.”
“Hmph,” Ratface grumbled. “I’ll bet they didn’t even discover some dumb Greek shrine.”
“Those annoying girls,” Victor fumed. “I’m so glad they’re gone.”
“Especially Virginia,” Cody said. “She’s the worst. Thinks she rules the world.”
They sat staring at the fire, thinking about sunny Mediterranean beaches and feeling miserable.
“Hey, Mugsy,” Cody said. “You’re not saying much.”
Mugsy shrugged.
“Not feeling well or something?” Cody asked.
But Mugsy only grunted.
“The snow’s stopped,” Sully observed.
“You realize what that means?” Cody said. “All the
monsters will be out hunting again tonight. We could go check out the pool again, and if we find a way into the sub, we can break free tonight!”
Ratface ignored Cody. He stood and rubbed a pajama sleeve on a frost-covered windowpane. “Look! There’s the moon,” he said. “It’s kinda pretty on the snow.”
They all stood and gathered around to look out the window.
“It’s just like the holidays,” Carlos whispered. “Makes me want cookies.”
“It’s . . . HOLY CALAMARI!” Ratface shrieked. “Guys! Look at Mugsy!”
They turned toward their friend. He looked sick. Then he looked like something that would make them sick.
His body twitched, his face convulsed. His fingers clenched and clawed the air. The legs of his pants shredded and ripped apart as eight giant tentacle arms appeared where his legs had been.
“Yikes!” Ratface squealed. “Something gross ate Mugsy’s legs!”
“Say something, man!” Victor yelled. “Does it hurt?”
Carlos elbowed the others aside. “He wasn’t eaten. He’s turning into an octoboy!” he said. “Like Nurse Bilgewater.”
Sully shook his head. “She’s part octopus, but Mugsy is part squid.”
“We’ve got to make it stop!” Cody cried. “This is Mugsy we’re talking about. We’ve got to fix him! Get him back to normal.”
“But how?” Ratface said. “How could this have happened?” He patted himself all over, making sure he still had human legs. “Are we all next?”
Mugsy, meanwhile, was having trouble standing on his squid legs. He kept skidding and slithering around and collapsing to the floor.
“Speak to me, Mugsy,” Cody cried. “Are you okay? Are you still in there?”
The Trouble with Squids Page 4