Joe didn’t have to look to know who it was. “Adam Ackerman,” he muttered through gritted teeth.
Adam stormed over to Frank, Joe, and Chet. Right behind him were his equally bully-ish friends, Seth and Tony.
“I heard getting Skeeter in the contest was your idea,” Adam snapped at Joe.
“What if it was?” Joe demanded.
“It was a dumb idea,” Adam said angrily. “Because that hairball hacker is going down!”
“May the best skateboarder win, Adam,” Frank said, “whether he has two legs—or four!”
Adam huffed off, Seth and Tony behind him.
“Who cares about them?” Chet said. “Because Skeeter is in the house!”
Chet pointed to Carlos in the distance, holding Skeeter. The celebrity cat was trying to lick its paws, as if he were getting ready for his big moment in the spotlight.
“There’s the real champ!” Frank declared.
“I’m looking at you, Skeeter, dude!” Joe shouted to the cat. “Knock ’em off their wheelies!”
Skeeter’s meow was followed by the crackle of the loudspeaker. It was an announcement from the owner of Easy Cheesy, Lou Simonetti.
“Before we begin the first annual Bayport Skateboard Challenge,” Lou boomed, “let’s give a big cheer for Easy Cheesy’s awesome new outdoor space!”
While everyone cheered, Frank asked Joe, “Where did Aunt Trudy go?”
Joe didn’t see her either. “Maybe to get some mac and cheese?” he guessed.
Lou introduced two judges seated at a table behind the skateboard course. They were Brad Lopez, a national skateboard champ, and Linda Blake, the owner of the Complete Athlete store. One more chair stood empty for the third judge, Lou himself.
Frank, Joe, and Chet listened to Lou describe the rules: contestants would be judged for skill, speed, and tricks. It was up to each skater whether to use the ramps, rails, or obstacles.
“So let the first annual Bayport Skateboard Challenge begin!” Lou declared.
Frank checked his watch. “Eleven o’clock, right on time,” he said, impressed.
The first contestant was a middle schooler named Felicia Singh. Felicia skated from the ramp to the rail, wrapping up her routine with an awesomely high kick-flip.
“Go, Felicia!” Joe cheered along with the others. She was good, but wait until everyone saw Skeeter!
Next up was a boy from Frank’s fourth-grade class. Marco Arroyo jumped every single obstacle before performing a coconut wheelie down the rest of the course.
“Cool,” Joe said. “But I’ll bet Skeeter can do all that.”
“We’re about to find out,” Frank said.
Carlos carried Skeeter and his skateboard to the starting line. A team of cheerleaders waving pom-poms and wearing go skeeter T-shirts began to chant, “Two, four, six, eight—we think Skeeter’s really great!”
With a meow, Skeeter hopped up on his board. Carlos gave his cat a thumbs-up, then stepped back. After a few seconds the starting bell rang. Skeeter was about to kick off when—WHOOSH—something small and gray with a long, skinny tail whizzed right by his skateboard.
“Is that a mouse?” Joe gasped.
Skeeter let out a loud HISSSS. He then leaped off his skateboard to chase the runaway rodent!
“This can’t be good,” Chet said.
Frank and Joe turned to look for Carlos. The first person they saw was Adam Ackerman, laughing it up. But then Carlos rushed forward, a frantic look on his face.
“Somebody get my cat!” Carlos cried as Skeeter chased the mouse into a thick clump of bushes. “Somebody get Skeeter!”
Chapter 3
CAT ’N’ LOUSE
“We’ll get him, Carlos!” Frank promised.
In a flash, he and Joe raced through the bushes after Skeeter. They found the cat in a clearing, the gray mouse between his paws.
Skeeter greeted them with a quiet “Meow.”
“What’s that whirring noise?” Frank asked.
“It’s coming from the mouse,” Joe said. “But it’s not a mousy noise.”
Skeeter didn’t protest as Joe picked up the mouse. It was made out of metal!
“This thing is mechanical,” Joe said. “That means someone ran it past Skeeter on purpose.”
“We don’t know for sure,” Frank said. “But if somebody did do this, we’d better find out who.”
The mouse stopped whirring in Joe’s hand. “Let’s do that later, Frank,” he said. “Skeeter’s still got a contest to win.”
Frank carried the mouse out of the bushes while Joe carried Skeeter. As they returned to the skateboard course, another skater was wowing the crowd with fancy moves. It was Diesel Diffendorfer.
The brothers watched wide-eyed as Diesel performed an awesome Caballerial—a 360-degree turn on a ramp while riding backward!
Diesel rode his board off the ramp to thunderous applause. He pumped his fist in the air and took a bow.
“See, Hardy-har-hars?” Adam shouted. “When the cat’s away, the real champ will win!”
Frank noticed Adam’s smug expression. Did he have something to do with the mechanical mouse? And where were Seth and Tony?
“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Ackerman!” Joe shouted back. He lifted the cat in his arms. “Skeeter is back and better than ever.”
“Not anymore,” a sad voice said.
Frank and Joe turned to see Carlos, a frown on his face. “While you were in the bushes, the judges told me Skeeter is disqualified for running away.”
“Disqualified?” Frank exclaimed.
“No way!” Joe protested.
The next skater zoomed onto the course while Carlos took Skeeter from Joe’s arms.
“Not only was Skeeter disqualified,” Carlos said sadly, “his reputation as a YouTube star is ruined!”
“It’s not Skeeter’s fault, Carlos,” Joe said. “As our aunt Trudy says, cats are cats. And cats chase mice.”
“Mechanical mice!” Frank said, lifting the fake mouse by its tail.
Carlos stared at the mouse. “You mean it’s fake?” he asked. “Somebody did it on purpose?”
“Looks that way, Carlos,” Frank admitted.
Carlos narrowed his eyes. “Then Bayport is the meanest town I ever lived in!” he said angrily.
“No, it’s not,” Frank said.
“It’s got great people,” Joe insisted. He glanced sideways at Adam and said, “Minus one or two.”
“Well, now I hate it here,” Carlos cried. “And I wish I’d never listened to you guys. I wish I’d never entered Skeeter in the contest!”
With his free hand, he picked up Skeeter’s skateboard. The cat meowed as Carlos huffed away.
“Now Carlos hates Bayport,” Frank sighed.
“That stinks,” Joe said.
Chet walked over, sipping cold lemonade from an Easy Cheesy paper cup. “I heard what the judges told Carlos,” he said. “Bummer.”
Joe turned to the café tables in front of the Easy Cheesy truck. The once-filled tables were now empty.
“What happened to all the people?” Joe asked Chet. “The ones eating mac and cheese?”
“They saw the mouse and left,” Chet said. “No one wants to eat at a place that has mice.”
“But it was fake!” Joe said.
“Too late,” Frank sighed. “The damage to the Easy Cheesy truck has been done.”
“Oh, well,” Chet said with a smile. “Fewer people equals more macaroni and cheese for us!”
Frank didn’t feel like eating. Neither did Joe. Someone had run a fake mouse past Skeeter to get him out of the contest—and that someone had to be caught!
“No mac and cheese for us, Chet,” Frank said. “Joe and I have work to do.”
“Right!” Joe said as he pulled out his clue book. “Detective work!”
The brothers said good-bye to Chet and left the park, not staying to watch the rest of the contest. While Frank studied the mouse, Joe flipped to
a clean page in his clue book.
“This mouse doesn’t have buttons or a key,” Frank pointed out. “How do you think it runs?”
“Probably with a remote control,” Joe decided. “So whoever had the mouse still has the remote.”
“And a reason for ruining Skeeter’s chance in the contest,” Frank added. “Now we have to figure out who has the remote plus a motive.”
Joe stopped walking to write the word Suspects at the top of the page. He immediately wrote the first name on the suspect list: Adam Ackerman.
“Adam wanted Skeeter out of the contest so Diesel could win,” Joe said. “If you ask me, he’s guilty as charged.”
“Not so fast,” Frank said. “Adam may have a reason—but we don’t know if he has the remote.”
The brothers continued walking. Joe smiled at the mouse in Frank’s hand.
“Phil would love that thing,” Joe declared. “He’s got all kinds of gadgets and gizmos—”
“Phil!” Frank cut in.
“What about him?” said Joe.
“Remember how scared Phil was of Skeeter stealing Champ’s spotlight?” Frank asked. “He also said we’d soon find out who the real Bayport celebrity pet was.”
Frank narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “And when Phil’s not collecting gadgets, he’s building his own!”
Joe knew what Frank meant. Phil was a gear nut and proud of it. But had Phil built the runaway mouse? Joe sure hoped not.
“We’ve been friends with Phil forever, Frank,” he argued.
“Carlos is our new friend,” Frank said. “We should help him find out who tricked Skeeter out of the contest.”
“Wait, was Phil even at the contest?” Joe asked.
“I didn’t see him, but if he was out to sabotage Skeeter, he wouldn’t want too many people to see him,” Frank said.
“I guess.” Joe held the pen over his suspect list but still couldn’t write Phil’s name.
“Maybe we’ll think of other suspects,” he said, shutting his clue book and dropping it into his pocket.
When the brothers reached their house, the garage door was open.
“Let’s go through the garage into the house,” Frank suggested.
As they walked toward the garage, Frank noticed something sticking out of the recycling bin against the side of the house. It was Aunt Trudy’s protest sign, LET CATS BE CATS!
“Isn’t it weird that Aunt Trudy left before the skateboard contest was over?” Frank asked.
When Frank lifted the sign to get a better look, he spotted something else in the can. It was a shopping bag from Marty’s Meow Mart.
“Isn’t Marty’s Meow Mart the cat store on Bay Street?” Frank asked.
“It sure is,” Joe tapped his foot and got a serious look on his face. “You don’t think . . . ?”
“I don’t think what? What are you looking for?” Frank asked as Joe rummaged through the bag.
“This.” Joe pulled out a receipt.
Joe read the items on the receipt out loud: “Two sisal scratch pads, one kitty nail clipper, one Meandering Mechanical Mouse—”
“Mechanical mouse?” Frank interrupted.
“Uh-oh, I was afraid of this. . . .” Joe shuffled his feet.
Did the mechanical mouse that tricked Skeeter belong to Aunt Trudy?
Chapter 4
MEOW FACTOR
“Why would Aunt Trudy want to sabotage Skeeter?” Frank wondered. “That’s not something she would do.”
“Maybe she wanted to prove cats shouldn’t be skateboarding,” Joe suggested. “She did say cats should be chasing mice instead.”
“I know,” Frank agreed, “but how are we going to question our own aunt?”
“I have an idea,” Joe said. “Let’s just ask Aunt Trudy about the mechanical mouse. It’s probably a coincidence.”
The brothers climbed the stairs up to Aunt Trudy’s apartment over the garage.
Joe rapped four times on the door. When Aunt Trudy didn’t answer, Frank said, “Maybe she’s in the back. Knock louder.”
Joe gave the door three strong raps. The third rap made it fly open.
“Oops,” Joe said. “I guess she didn’t close the door all the way.”
“Aunt Trudy, are you home?” Frank called. There was no response, so the brothers stepped inside the apartment and called again. No answer.
“Where are her cats?” Frank asked, looking around the living room. “And where are all the cat toys?”
Joe didn’t see any evidence of cats either. But he did see a cardboard box on the coffee table. . . .
“Frank!” Joe exclaimed. “It’s the box for the Meandering Mechanical Mouse!”
He shook the box, then peeked inside. “It’s empty,” he declared. “Which means Aunt Trudy probably used it.”
Frank compared their mouse to the one on the box. “The mouse on the box is battery operated,” he told his brother. “Ours runs by remote control.”
“The Meandering Mouse has a cartoony face,” said Joe, pointing to the box. “The one Skeeter chased looks real.”
“Then where is the Meandering Mouse?” Frank asked. “And Aunt Trudy’s rescue cats?”
Suddenly—WHIRRRRRR . . .
“It sounds like it’s coming from Aunt Trudy’s bedroom,” Frank said, looking at the closed door.
“Maybe Aunt Trudy left her TV on when she went to the contest,” Joe figured. “Let’s turn it off for her.”
He pushed open the door, then jumped as a whirring mechanical mouse zipped out. It was the Meandering Mechanical Mouse—followed by a stampede of cats!
“Noooo!” Frank shouted as meowing cats chased the mechanical mouse around the room, knocking down books, sofa pillows—even a glass vase he caught just in time.
“You know what, Frank? ” Joe cried, trying to keep a cat from climbing the drapes. “I think Aunt Trudy has too many cats!”
As the Meandering Mouse zipped between Joe’s legs, a voice shouted, “Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness!”
The brothers spun around. Standing in the doorway was Aunt Trudy.
“Frank, Joe?” Aunt Trudy demanded. “What on earth is going on in here?”
Chapter 5
SLICK TRICK
“Um . . . hi, Aunt Trudy,” Joe said.
“Did you let my cats out of my bedroom?” Aunt Trudy asked. “I keep them in there when I go out so they don’t run wild through the apartment . . . like they just did.”
“Sorry, Aunt Trudy,” Frank said. He pointed to the Meandering Mouse box now on the floor. “We were just looking for that.”
“And we found it,” Joe sighed as the Meandering Mechanical Mouse shot head-on into the wall with a BUMP. “Plus your two hundred cats.”
“Eight cats, actually,” Aunt Trudy said, now smiling.
She went into the kitchen and came out carrying a big bag of kitty treats. Shaking it, she led all the cats into the bedroom, where she filled several bowls.
“There!” Aunt Trudy said, closing the door on her way out. “Those kitties will be too busy snacking to make any more mischief.”
Then she turned to the mechanical mouse. “So, why were you looking for that mouse, guys?” she asked.
Joe explained everything: how they’d seen her at the skateboard contest, how Skeeter had been disqualified for chasing a fake mouse, and finally, how they’d found the receipt.
“We know you didn’t like the idea of a skateboarding cat, Aunt Trudy,” Frank admitted. “So we wondered if the runaway mouse was yours.”
“Of course not! I still don’t really like the idea of cats on skateboards,” Aunt Trudy replied. “But then I saw how happy Skeeter looked at the contest. I also saw how many people loved him.”
“So,” Joe said slowly. “You—”
“Changed my mind,” Aunt Trudy finished. “I decided if skateboarding makes some cats happy, then I’m happy too.”
“Did you stay to watch Skeeter?” Frank asked. “We didn’t see you when the c
ontest started.”
“No, I left early. I decided to make my own rescue cats happy,” Aunt Trudy explained. “So I went straight to Marty’s Meow Mart for something fun they could play with.”
“The Meandering Mechanical Mouse!” Joe confirmed.
“As I said, cats should be chasing mice,” Aunt Trudy said with a smile, “even if they are fake.”
As they helped their aunt clean up the mess, Frank and Joe whispered back and forth.
“I know Aunt Trudy wouldn’t lie to us, Frank,” Joe said. “But how do we know she really left when she says she did?”
Frank wasn’t sure either until he figured out a way to check Aunt Trudy’s alibi. “Give me the receipt,” he told Joe.
Frank studied the receipt and said, “The time on the receipt is eleven thirty. Skeeter’s turn came at eleven fifteen.”
“How do you know it was eleven fifteen?” Joe asked.
“The contest started at eleven,” Frank explained. “There were two skaters before Skeeter, and each had five minutes to run their skateboards.”
“So with a few minutes in between each skater,” Joe said out loud, “by the time Skeeter went, it could have been about eleven fifteen!”
“It takes about twenty minutes to walk from the park to Marty’s Meow Mart,” Frank went on. “So if Aunt Trudy was already buying the mouse at eleven thirty—”
“She would have left the park before Skeeter competed,” Joe cut in. “Aunt Trudy’s alibi checks out!”
Aunt Trudy was too busy picking up knocked-down sofa pillows to notice the boys whispering.
“Boys, don’t tell your mom and dad what happened,” she said. “Or they’ll never let you get a cat!”
“They make mechanical mice,” Joe said with a grin. “Maybe they make mechanical cats, too.”
He and Frank finished cleaning up the rest of the mess. Aunt Trudy thanked them with some chocolate brownies and lemonade.
“I told you Aunt Trudy would never lie to us,” Joe told Frank as they walked down the stairs. They were heading for the house when they saw Chet standing on the doorstep.
“I was just about to ring your bell,” their friend said as he studied Joe’s face. “Are those brownie crumbs on your chin? Where did you get them? Tell me!”
A Skateboard Cat-astrophe Page 2
