by Katie Tsang
‘I can’t believe your grandma just ate a fish eyeball,’ said Bernard.
‘I can,’ said Zoe, looking at Na-Na with new-found respect.
Luckily, everyone liked the fish. And everything else! After dinner, we had ice cream and watched an episode of . It had been a very good evening.
And tomorrow we’d go into school and save the day.
My mum couldn’t believe it when Lucy and I were up and ready to go to school by the time she came downstairs the next morning.
‘We’ve already had our breakfast,’ I said proudly. ‘I made cereal.’
‘Well done, Sam,’ said my mum. ‘I’ve never seen you two get ready for school so fast.’
‘I have a test and I don’t want to be late,’ I said. It wasn’t totally true7 and I felt bad for telling my mum a fib, but I didn’t know what else to do.
‘And I want to see my friends before class,’ said Lucy.
‘I’m not complaining,’ said my mum. ‘I’m just glad I didn’t have to drag you both out of bed like I usually do in the mornings!’
I thought we were in the clear till we got in the car. Butterbutt chose that moment to start meowing from inside Lucy’s backpack. Luckily, I was sitting in the front seat, so I turned on the radio super loud.
‘Sam!’ Mum said, wincing at the music and turning it down. ‘That’s way too loud.’
‘I like it!’ shouted Lucy.
‘You don’t even know this song,’ said my mum, laughing.
‘I don’t know it, but I like it!’ Lucy yelled.
Between Lucy’s shouting, the music and the rumbling of the car, you could barely hear Butterbutt.
As soon as we pulled up to the school, we hopped out of the car before my mum had a chance to hear the tiniest meow.
Lucy unzipped her backpack and let Butterbutt poke his head out.
‘I had to take all my books out of my backpack,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to tell my teacher I forgot them.’
I felt a little bit bad for dragging Lucy into all this. The last thing I wanted was for her to get in trouble.
‘Thanks for helping us, Lucy,’ I said. ‘You’re a real member of the team now.’
She beamed.
‘Now let’s go find Zoe and Bernard,’ I said with a smile.
It turned out that Butterbutt did not like getting wrapped in tinfoil.
‘Hold still,’ I said, trying to wrap tinfoil around his front leg. ‘This is for your own protection!’
‘You’d better hurry up,’ said Bernard, looking at his watch. ‘School starts in ten minutes. We don’t have much time to sneak in before everyone goes inside.’
In the end, I had to wrap Butterbutt up like a burrito and leave his head, legs and tail sticking out.
A small bell hung around his neck. He glared at me and whisked his tail back and forth to show exactly how much he did not like his protective suit. ‘I’m sorry, Butterbutt,’ I said. ‘It’s for your own protection. And if you behave, I’ll give you lots of treats after school today.’
Butterbutt swatted at me.
Lucy grabbed Butterbutt up and looked directly in his eyes. ‘Okay, Butterbutt,’ she said. ‘It’s very important for you to find the tarantula. Do you understand?’
‘Of course he doesn’t understand,’ said Zoe. ‘He’s a cat.’
‘He understands.’ Lucy scowled. ‘I know he does.’
‘Okay, crew,’ I said before a fight broke out over how smart Butterbutt actually was. ‘We don’t have much time. Are we ready?’
Everyone nodded.
We crept to the door, and slowly pulled it open.
‘The coast is clear,’ said Bernard, peeking in.
Lucy put Butterbutt on the floor inside the school. Butterbutt didn’t go anywhere, but meowed and turned round, headbutting Lucy’s shin.
‘Go on, Butterbutt!’ I said. I didn’t know what would happen if other kids started to come in.
He just stared up at me.
‘I thought you said this was a foolproof plan,’ said Zoe.
I was starting to sweat. ‘Come on, Butterbutt,’ I said, leaning down and nudging him forward.
Then his ears perked up, and he got his ninja-cat expression. His whiskers twitched.
‘I think he senses Tulip!’ I said excitedly.
And then Butterbutt shot off down the corridor, just as the first bell rang and kids swarmed in.
‘After that cat!’ I yelled, chasing him down the corridor. Zoe raced ahead of me. More and more kids were coming in, from all directions, and it was almost impossible to dodge them. Butterbutt ran between their legs. I could hear people exclaiming as a cat wrapped in tinfoil ran by them.
‘Where’s he going?’ I huffed.
Lucy and Bernard were right behind me. And Butterbutt was still in our line of sight – just. The second bell rang. If the third bell rang and we weren’t in class, we would all be in a lot of trouble. But we couldn’t stop now!
Just then Butterbutt turned a corner and scrambled into an open door. There was a shout.
We all ran after the sound and into the room.
‘That’s my classroom!’ said Lucy. We ran in and the whole class stared up at us.
Lucy’s teacher was so surprised by our entrance, even she just stared at us!
‘We’ll just be a minute,’ I said, frantically looking around. ‘Sorry to interrupt, class. Back to . . . erm . . . whatever you were doing.’
‘Lucy Wu, what’s going on?’ spluttered her teacher.
‘She’s helping us with a very important mission, miss!’ I said.
‘Well, it’s funny you ask that, miss,’ said Lucy, ‘because it’s a really long story and FIRST OF ALL . . .’
While Lucy kept her teacher occupied with the longest explanation in the world about exactly what we were all up to (none of which was true), I looked madly round the classroom for Butterbutt – without any luck. Where was he?
But then there was a commotion in the corner. I swung round to see Butterbutt crouched right next to the class rabbit cage, swatting at the door.
‘Butterbutt can’t open that, can he?’ said Bernard nervously.
I shook my head and dashed forward. We didn’t have time for Butterbutt to be distracted by a bunny rabbit.
But somehow by the time I’d got to Butterbutt, he had managed to open the rabbit’s cage! The bunny came bounding out and Butterbutt started to chase it around the room and under tables and chairs.
‘Oh no,’ I moaned.
All the kids in the class began screaming and either jumping up on tables or running after Butterbutt and the rabbit in a crazy kind of chase. The teacher, who had just figured out what had happened, shouted, ‘Someone close the door!’
But it was too late – Butterbutt had chased the bunny out into the corridor.
Just as the third bell rang.
‘I’ll get them!’ cried Zoe, and she leaped over two kids and into the corridor.
We all ran after her. And I mean everyone. The entire class ran out into the corridor after Butterbutt and the bunny, Zoe leading the way. There was a trail of pieces of tinfoil scattered all along the corridor floor, so I knew we were going the right direction.
The teacher was still shouting, but nobody was listening to her. Other classroom doors opened to see what all the commotion was, and then Butterbutt chased the bunny into another class!
There were shouts of surprise, and then Zoe ran in, with me right behind her. I turned into the classroom just in time to see Zoe dive on top of the rabbit. ‘Sam!’ Zoe yelled. ‘Grab Butterbutt!’
I flung myself forward and snatched up Butterbutt in my arms. He yowled loudly and wiggled, but I had a good grip on him.
Lucy’s teacher burst into the room, holding Lucy by the hand.
‘What is going on here?’ she demanded.
Lucy and I stared at each other and I wished that we could communicate telepathically like sometimes they can do on .
I couldn’t let Lucy
take all the blame herself. Especially because this whole thing was my fault.
‘It was my idea,’ I said, jumping in. ‘I thought we could dress up our cat like an astronaut and then Lucy could bring him in for show-and-tell.’
Lucy’s teacher frowned. ‘Sam Wu, I don’t think it’s very sensible to dress your cat up in tinfoil, let alone bring it into school.’
I shrugged. ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ Which was sort of true. Even though we knew bringing Butterbutt to school hadn’t been the best idea, it was the only idea we’d been able to come up with. We had no idea it was going to go so wrong.
‘Miss,’ said Zoe, holding the squirming rabbit, ‘where should I put this bunny?’
‘Bring it back to our classroom, please,’ said the teacher. ‘And the cat too, I suppose.’
‘I can take Butterbutt!’ said Lucy, reaching out to me.
Butterbutt calmed down once Lucy was holding him.
‘Lucy,’ said her teacher, ‘I’m going to have to call your parents and ask them to come and get your cat. Can you please wait up in the office?’
‘Am I in trouble?’ Lucy asked, her lower lip trembling.
Her teacher sighed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘But next time, please ask permission first. From both me and your parents.’
Lucy nodded.
I felt awful.
‘It’s because I brought my snake to school once,’ I said. ‘So I thought it would be okay.’
‘Sounds like you have quite the zoo at your house,’ said Lucy’s teacher with a smile. ‘Now you three . . .’
She glanced around, but there was no sign of Bernard. ‘I swear there were three of you.’
‘Right here, miss!’ said Bernard, running up behind us. ‘Sorry, I was in the bathroom.’
I frowned. Bernard had gone to the bathroom while I’d been wrapping Butterbutt in tinfoil. He must have drunk a lot of juice at breakfast.
‘You three should get to your class. Thank you for helping us catch the cat and the rabbit. I’ll write your teacher a note to explain why you are late. And I’ll take the rabbit,’ Lucy’s teacher said, reaching for it from Zoe.
‘Thanks, Lucy,’ I whispered as we walked by her. She grinned and raised her finger in the air like a rocket ship taking off. It took me a second, and then I realized she was doing the for the universe gesture from ! I didn’t even know that she knew it. She must be paying more attention than I’d thought.
I grinned and did it back.
Ms Winkleworth was very confused about why my sister had brought her cat to school, but at least we didn’t get in trouble for being late.
But we still were nowhere close to catching Tulip! I knew we had to come up with a new plan.
At recess we met at our usual spot by the fence.
‘Well,’ said Zoe. ‘That didn’t go as planned.’
We all looked at each other and burst out laughing. In hindsight8 it really had been a terrible idea to bring Butterbutt to school to help us catch Tulip.
‘I can’t believe we didn’t get in trouble!’ I said once we’d stopped laughing.
Just then, Regina ran towards us. ‘What happened?’ she said breathlessly. ‘Did you find Tulip? I’m sorry I couldn’t come over yesterday to help come up with a plan!’
‘That’s okay,’ I said with a smile. ‘And no, we haven’t found Tulip.’
‘Do you think she is still on the loose?’ said Regina with wide eyes.
Bernard nodded. ‘I can, in fact, confirm that she is. I didn’t actually go to the bathroom earlier while you were chasing Butterbutt and the bunny. I went to the sixth-grade science lab. I thought I should just check to see if Tulip had been found.’ He lowered his voice.
‘Her tank is still empty, and Mr Dougal looked like he had been up all night searching for her!’
‘Excellent investigating!’ I said, giving Bernard a high five.
Bernard grinned at me. ‘I thought it was the most logical thing to do. No point in looking for a spider that has already been found.’
‘So what now?’ said Regina.
‘The search must go on,’ I declared. ‘We just need another plan.’ I wasn’t going to give up now. Not after I had decided that we had to be the ones to find Tulip. If I caught a missing giant spider, nobody could ever call me Scaredy-Cat Sam again!
‘A better plan,’ said Zoe.
‘Do you remember, when we were trying to catch the ghost in Sam’s house, how we used honey?’ said Bernard slowly.
Zoe groaned. ‘Honey isn’t going to attract a spider.’
‘It might!’ said Bernard.
‘And remember, we said that everything likes honey. Why not spiders? What’s that saying? You catch more flies with honey than vinegar?’
‘I’ve never heard that saying,’ I said.
‘My dad says it,’ said Bernard. ‘I’m not sure what it means, but I know it is true. Anyway, what do all spiders like? Even tarantulas? FLIES. We don’t need the honey to attract the actual spider – we use it to catch flies, and then those flies will attract Tulip! And as an added bonus, the honey will work like a Tulip trap too. Even if Tulip doesn’t get stuck in it, she will leave a honey trail and we can follow it to wherever she’s hiding!’
‘Bernard,’ I said. ‘You’re a genius!’
‘I know,’ said Bernard with a smile.
‘So we’re just going to dump honey all over the school and hope for the best?’ said Zoe, throwing her hands up in the air. ‘This might be an even worse plan than sending Butterbutt in to school after Tulip!’
‘That’s not the whole plan,’ said Bernard, sounding a little defensive. ‘We’ll also have to get Tulip back into her cage once we catch her.’
‘We’ll obviously need protective gear,’ I said. ‘Can you get some kind of gloves tonight?’
Bernard nodded. ‘My dad will definitely have gloves I can use.’ Bernard’s dad is a palaeontologist and he spends a lot of time looking at dusty dinosaur bones and fossils.
‘I’ll try to find some at my house,’ said Regina.
‘My brothers probably have some kind of sports gloves I can steal,’ said Zoe. ‘So this is our plan? Use honey to catch Tulip, and then use gloves to pick her up?’
The thought of actually picking up Tulip the tarantula made me feel a bit queasy, but I swallowed hard. ‘I think that’s the best plan we’ve got.’
‘Are we sure it has to be us who catch Tulip?’ said Zoe.
I took a deep breath. I knew we couldn’t give up. I knew I couldn’t give up. Spaceman Jack never gives up. I gestured around at the rest of the school yard. ‘Who else is going to do it? Mr Dougal clearly can’t. And I don’t see anyone else trying. It has to be us. We’re the only ones with the proper experience.’
‘We don’t have any spider-catching experience!’ said Zoe.
‘But we’ve got all kinds of other experience that has prepared us for this,’ I said. ‘We’ve outsmarted sharks—’
‘You have?’ said Regina with wide eyes.
‘Not exactly,’ said Zoe. ‘We just didn’t get eaten by any.’
‘I think that counts as outsmarting them,’ said Bernard.
I cleared my throat and went on with my inspirational speech. ‘We’ve hunted ghosts, wrangled snakes, solved mysteries in the dark! It’s like when Spaceman Jack encounters a new species of alien. Even if he hasn’t met that exact kind of alien yet, he has experience from other planets that he can use.’
Zoe frowned. ‘I don’t know if that totally makes sense, but I guess you’re right.’
I beamed. ‘ is always right.’
‘There’s only one small issue with this plan,’ said Bernard. ‘Where are we going to get all the honey that we need?’
‘Leave that to me,’ I said. ‘I know just the place.’
After school I went into the garden to find Na-Na.
‘Na-Na,’ I said, ‘can we go to visit your friend Melinda?’
Na-Na paused her digging, an
d looked up at me. ‘Why?’ she asked.
I’ve learned that sometimes it is best to be honest with Na-Na.
‘There’s a giant spider on the loose at school. I need to catch it and Bernard thinks we should use honey. I know Melinda has a LOT of honey.’ I eyed Na-Na’s gardening gloves. ‘Also, could I borrow your gardening gloves?’
‘You know, your sister is great with spiders,’ said Na-Na.
I nodded. ‘I know,’ I said. ‘But this spider is bigger than her whole head. I don’t think it’s a job for her.’
‘But it’s a job for you?’ asked Na-Na, sounding dubious.
I nodded again, more vigorously this time.
‘Well,’ said Na-Na, putting down her gardening shovel, ‘I can take you to Melinda, and I can lend you my gloves, but you know it’s going to cost you.’
That’s the thing with Na-Na – she never does anything for free.
‘I know,’ I said.
She looked up at the sky and did some rapid Na-Na calculations in her head. ‘One week of weeding the garden, AND you have to go with me to the market this weekend and help me carry the groceries.’
I stuck my hand out. It was a good deal.
Na-Na grinned. ‘Let me wash my hands and then call Melinda to see if she’s home.’
Melinda is Na-Na’s best friend. She lives on the next street over. She’s got an even bigger garden than Na-Na, and is always making concoctions from the things she grows. Soups, candles, lotions – all kinds of things! She might be a wizard. But she also might be a spy – she seems to know everything that is happening in the neighbourhood.
She is also a beekeeper. She had to get special permission to have a small hive in her garden. But Na-Na says nobody, not even the city council, says no to Melinda. So I knew she would have plenty of honey.
Melinda was home, so Na-Na and I walked over together. It was a sunny day, and if I hadn’t been so stressed about the spider on the loose, I might have asked if we could go to the park too.
