Double Dog Dare by Lisa Graff

Author:Lisa Graff [Graff, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101591024
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

16.

A JAR OF MUSTARD

“You think she’ll be okay?” Kansas asked as Emma helped Francine hobble off to the nurse’s office.

Brendan shrugged. “She’ll probably hurl,” he said.

“Yeah,” Andre agreed. “She’ll hurl for sure.”

“I hope not,” Natalie said, shooting worried glances toward the cafeteria door. “Maybe I should go see if she’s all right.” But she didn’t get up.

“She’s totally gonna hurl,” Brendan replied. “Anyone would barf with eighty-nine packets of ketchup inside them.”

“It was eighty-seven,” Kansas told him. “And I wouldn’t barf.”

“Sure you would.”

Kansas shook his head. “The only dares that ever make me barf are spinning ones. Like one time Ricky and Will dared me to tie my shoelaces to the center of the merry-go-round at the park, and they spun me around a hundred times as fast as they could. And I totally puked.” Luis laughed. “Spinning always makes me puke,” Kansas said.

The bell rang, and Brendan rose to his feet. Andre rose too.

“Whatever, Kansas,” Brendan told him, tossing an empty ketchup packet across the table.

Kansas threw his head back and howled. “Aaaaaaaah-OOOOOOOH!”

“Bye, Kansas!” Andre called as he and Brendan left the cafeteria.

“Aaaaaaaah-OOOOOOOH!” Kansas wailed again.

Luis raised his camera to his face and snapped a picture. “Got it!” he told Kansas. “The perfect shot. You’re really gonna like that one.”

Natalie and Alicia had already left the cafeteria, and Kansas started to leave too, but then he noticed Luis, who was tossing ketchup packets into the garbage. Leave it to Luis to clean up someone else’s mess. Kansas glanced at the cafeteria door, where fourth-graders were streaming out in droves, then sighed and turned to help Luis.

“Hey,” Luis said, scooping a handful of ketchup packets into the trash, “I meant to tell you. My mom moved my party from Saturday to Sunday. The weekend right after school’s out. You think you can come, or is that when you’re camping?”

Kansas focused his gaze on a particularly blobby ketchup stain on the table. “Um,” he said. Kansas didn’t really want to go to Luis’s party. It wasn’t going to be nearly as fun as camping with Ricky and Will. But what else did he have to do? “Yeah. I mean, I guess I can go.”

“Awesome!” Luis said. Kansas did his best to smile.

There was a tap on Kansas’s shoulder. Kansas could tell, by the way Luis’s face drained completely of color, that whoever was standing behind him was someone he absolutely did not want to see.

Slowly, he turned.

It was a large woman with a bulbous nose and thick-rimmed glasses. She was wearing a suit, one of those lady ones with a skirt, and the fabric pinched at every button. She did not look happy.

“Kansas Bloom?” she said.

Kansas didn’t want to, but he had to. He darted his eyes toward Luis, who nodded slowly, his eyes wide with fear. “Aaaaaaaah-OOOOOOOH!” Kansas howled. And then he blinked. “Um, yeah,” he said. “That’s me.”

The woman pursed her lips together into one fierce line. “I’m Mrs. Weinmore,” she told him. “Your principal.”

“Oh,” Kansas squeaked. He’d just howled at the principal? “Um, hi.

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