The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon Korman

Author:Gordon Korman [Korman, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443128056
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Published: 2013-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Under Contract

The next morning found Bruno and Boots seated in the outer office in response to a summons from the Headmaster.

“I can’t figure out why The Fish wants to see us,” said Bruno in perplexity. “We haven’t done anything lately.”

Boots emitted a nervous laugh. “We haven’t, eh? So soon you forget. What about last night?”

Bruno shrugged. “The Fish couldn’t know about that. Even if Miss Scrimmage squealed, Hank the Tank was the only person she saw, and he’d never turn us in.”

Mr. Sturgeon opened his office door and invited both boys inside. Instinctively they seated themselves on the hard wooden bench directly across from the Headmaster’s desk — Macdonald Hall’s hot seat.

“Walton, O’Neal — allow me to regale you with a little tale. At one o’clock this morning, I received a telephone call from Miss Scrimmage. It was difficult to put together her story exactly, but it had to do with a double kidnapping masterminded by Mr. Carson, and a marauding street gang, whose members all, for some reason, were wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night.”

Bruno grinned in spite of himself. “But sir,” he said carefully, “what does this have to do with us?”

The Headmaster smiled back, a dangerous smile. “The two kidnappees were Miss Burton and Miss Grant. You will forgive me for immediately thinking of you two as soon as their names came up.”

Bruno fell silent. Boots emitted an audible gulp. “So you will now explain to me the events of last night and put my mind at rest. Shall we start with the street gang?”

“That was us, sir,” Bruno admitted. “We were celebrating the game yesterday, and it went kind of late. That’s why you can’t blame Hank the — uh — Mr. Carson. When we weren’t in our rooms for his bed check, he went to look for us at Scrimmage’s because of — last time.”

“But we weren’t there,” put in Boots quickly. “We were still on campus.”

“How admirable,” said the Headmaster sarcastically. “No doubt Miss Burton and Miss Grant were joining in the festivities. I don’t suppose you’d care to furnish a list of the other merrymakers.” There was dead silence. “I thought not.”

“So it’s pretty straightforward,” Bruno concluded. “Miss Scrimmage caught Mr. Carson and was taking him over to your place. So we were going to confess, but Miss Scrimmage thought we were a street gang and passed out.”

“And the sunglasses?” Mr. Sturgeon prompted.

“Oh, right. Well — remember Elmer’s Manchurian bush hamsters? The ones you wouldn’t let him keep in the dorm? They got lost, so Elmer gave us infrared goggles so we could look for them in the dark.”

The Headmaster sat forward in alarm. “And did you find them?”

“Well, no. Miss Scrimmage messed everything up. But we’ll keep looking.”

“Do that, Walton,” sighed Mr. Sturgeon, feeling rather uncomfortably that this was his fault. “Please tell Drimsdale that I shall notify the local authorities to be on the lookout for them as well. You are dismissed.”

Gratefully Bruno and Boots scurried off.

* *

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