by Greyson Mann
I actually went online and found the wings. I clicked on them to put them in my shopping cart. I even called Mom into my room to see if I could give her emeralds in exchange for her buying the wings with her credit card.
But Pete kept interrupting us. “Pete is home! Pete is home!” I guess he was reminding me of the MOST important thing—that he was back. “Thanks to Sam and Willow,” he squawked.
Well, he didn’t really say that last part. But my ears heard it anyway—like my bird was scolding me for not remembering my friends.
What did he want me to DO? It’s not like I had enough emeralds to buy wings for Sam and Willow too.
Okay, that wasn’t Pete talking. That must have been my conscience. Mom says there’s this little voice in your head that tells you the RIGHT thing to do, even when you don’t want to hear it.
I tried not to listen. I squeezed my eyes shut, as if THAT would help. But a conscience is kind of like a squawking parrot. You can’t make it be quiet—or make it say what you WANT it to say.
So when Mom asked what I wanted to buy online, I told her that . . . I’d changed my mind. (SIGH.)
After Mom left the room, I duked it out with my conscience for about half an hour. But that little dude is TOUGH! So finally I threw in the towel and texted Sam. I offered to chip in on his new tablet. Then I hit SEND before I could change my mind again.
Now I’ve got to count my emeralds. Because if Sam and I have enough, my buddy and I are heading back to Mob Mall—TONIGHT.
DAY 28: FRIDAY
You have never SEEN a slime as bouncy as Sam was when we came back from the Mob Mall last night. I had to tell him to settle down so he didn’t BUST his brand-new tablet.
But I’ll tell you what, those were the best emeralds I EVER spent. Sam keeps talking about everything we’re going to do, now that he has a tablet again. I mean, sure, we’ll take some videos of his cat, Moo. And Sam wants to make DIY slime videos too. (I guess if he can’t sell the stuff anymore, he at least wants to get famous for his special recipe.)
But Sam ALSO said he’d help me take videos of Pete the Rapping Parrot and post them on to his mom’s special MooTube channel. Mrs. Slime posts lots of videos on MooTube of Sam’s little brothers, and I guess the triplet mini slimes get a TON of likes. So if Mrs. Slime posts one of our rapping parrot videos on her channel, it could go viral for sure!
I’m pretty pumped up about that. So if I have to suffer through a goopy slime video or two first, NO worries. I’ll survive.
In fact, now that I got my buddy Sam back, my big IDEAS are back too. Like last night, after I got back from the mall, I found Mom sorting through all her Restore Your Health Incorporated stuff. She said she isn’t going to sell any more of it, because it ended up costing her more than she earned. So she’s going to GIVE some of the stuff away to her friends.
She pulled out a couple bottles of fish oil for Mrs. Zombie, because I guess it helps her peeling skin or something. (And zombies don’t mind smelling like dead fish.) Then Mom pulled out a box of dandelion tea for Aunt Constance.
“Does Aunt Constance have a gas problem?” I asked, because you know, the tea is supposed to be good for stuff like that.
And Mom said NO, thanks for asking, and that Aunt Constance was going to use the dandelion tea to dye her yarn yellow for knitting.
“So you’re just GIVING all this stuff away?” I asked. I couldn’t stand the thought of Mom losing out on all those emeralds she should have been making.
But she just shrugged. “Mrs. Zombie will probably drop off some carrots and potatoes from her garden,” she said. “You know, like a trade.” Then her eyes lit up and she said something about Aunt Constance maybe knitting me a sweater.
Well, that was my cue to leave the kitchen. I’ve already got WAY too many ugly sweaters from Mom’s knitting kick. The last thing I need is a bright dandelion-yellow sweater to add to my collection.
But Mom’s dandelion tea got me to thinking. My genius brain fired up, and I thought about my buddy Sam, who always makes the SAME green slime. So I told Mom maybe I could bring a box of that tea to Sam so he could try a new color for a change. And she said sure.
That’s how Sam and I ended up making a “Dandelion Slime” video. I mean, I was the behind-the-scenes camera guy, because slime is really Sam’s thing. But after his mom posted the video, we got 41 likes JUST last night.
You’d think Sam and I had earned 41 EMERALDS the way we were dancing around his living room! I kept thinking about how popular my rapping parrot was going to be, with the help of Sam’s mom and her followers.
Sam kept saying thank you and asking if I wanted emeralds for that box of tea. “Because I might need more,” he said, “to make more videos.”
But I told Sam no—that he could consider that tea “interest” for what I owed him on the tablet. I don’t even really know what that means, but Dad said it a couple of nights ago when Chloe asked for an advance on her allowance.
I guess Chloe’s running out of emeralds now that she can’t sell her gunpowder. And she’s back to making homemade slime too. (In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve got some of it stuck to the bottom of my foot right now.)
That’s when my conscience struck again. “She’d still be selling her gunpowder if it weren’t for your little fireworks disaster.”
AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!! How do I shut this dude up?
Finally I said, “Sam, there IS something I’d take in exchange for that tea. Maybe I could bring home a hunk of your Dandelion Slime for Chloe.”
It wasn’t any big thing. In fact, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore. But let’s just say that Chloe will go BANANAS when she sees that slime. And maybe my conscience will give this whole guilt-trip thing a rest.
Anyway, that’s when Willow showed up at Sam’s house. We showed her the Dandelion Slime video, thinking she’d be as pumped up about it as we were.
But Willow was in a funk. Even her nose drooped.
“What gives, Willow?” I finally asked, because I could tell she wanted me to.
She let out this ginormous sigh and said she missed the market. “What are we supposed to DO for the rest of the summer?” she said. “I have all these bottles of potion and not a single mob to sell them to. I can’t even earn emeralds to buy new ingredients. I ran out of gunpowder this morning, so . . . no more splash potions for me.”
Was she still trying to make me feel guilty for ruining the whole market thing at the mall? I dunno, but I had to put a stop to it—PRONTO.
“I’ll get you some gunpowder,” I promised her. “Chloe’s got a ton of it. Maybe she’ll trade me some of it for Dandelion Slime.” (And, I mean, if she didn’t, I could always hang out with Baby Cammy for a while and collect my own.)
Willow perked up after that, especially when Sam said maybe we could make a potion-brewing video to add to his mom’s MooTube channel. I almost protested. I mean, when were we going to make MY rapping parrot video? I think the slime is kind of getting ahead of himself.
But that’s okay. At least Sam and Willow are acting normal again. And hanging out with them sure beats sitting around, stewing about a lost bird, right? RIGHT.
So now I’m home, and it’s time to go see a creeper twin about some gunpowder . . .
DAY 29: SATURDAY
Well, wonders never cease.
That’s what my Grandpa Gerald used to say when something amazing happened. And those are the words that almost popped out of MY mouth when Chloe gave me a whole BARREL of gunpowder for Willow.
I think it’s because Chloe was THRILLED with the Dandelion Slime. You’d think I just handed her the world’s largest emerald or something. She stared at it, and stretched it, and nearly kissed it, I swear. Then she said I could have all the gunpowder I wanted, as long as I kept bringing her Sam’s latest slime creations.
So I hauled that barrel off to Sam’s, and went through that celebration fest all over again with Willow. She couldn’t believe I’d give her that whole barrel of
gunpowder for FREE.
She offered to give me potion in exchange for it, but I just kind of shrugged. I mean, it was Chloe’s gunpowder, not mine. I was only the middleman. And besides, Willow DID bring home my parrot, safe and sound. So, whatever—we were even.
Then Willow said something like, “We all got what we wanted, didn’t we?”
I guess we did. I got my rapping parrot. Sam got his tablet, plus an idea for a new kind of slime.
Willow got her new cauldron, plus gunpowder to brew more splash potions. Even Chloe got her Dandelion Slime.
But I’ll admit, I’m the kind of creeper who has to have the last word. So I MIGHT have said something about not getting my Elytra Wings. I wasn’t being crabby about it. It’s just a fact.
I hopped online and showed the wings to Sam and Willow, and they thought they were pretty cool too. (I mean, who WOULDN’T???)
“Guess you’d better start saving your allowance,” Willow said.
REALLY??? “Thanks, Mom,” I joked.
Then I thought we were all done with that conversation. I ran home to get Pete the Parrot, because Sam said we were finally going to make my rapping parrot video. YAAASSSS!!!
But you know what happened?
Sam and Willow had a SURPRISE waiting for me when I got back to Sam’s house. Willow handed it to me with a huge smile. “Potion of leaping,” she said.
HUH?
“It won’t make you FLY exactly,” she said. “But you can leap pretty high.”
Well, I couldn’t WAIT to try that stuff out. I didn’t even mind the nasty taste—I took a big swig.
Then I started to run. And my jog turned into a sprint. And then my steps turned into leaps. And pretty soon I felt like SuperCreep, able to leap tall buildings (or at least Sam’s trampoline) in a single bound!
Pete the Parrot started flying after me, squawking. I think he was saying, “Wait for me! Wait for me!”
So I did. I waited just until my parrot landed on my shoulder, and then I took off again.
I could have kept leaping FOREVER, I swear. But when the potion wore off and I came back down to earth, I screwed the lid on that potion bottle and tucked it safely in my backpack. That’s the kind of stuff you want to save, to make it last all summer.
I guess Sam got a VIDEO of my leaping too. He says he’ll show me tomorrow.
So I’m in bed now, my legs still twitching after all that leaping. Pete looks pretty happy too, strutting around his cage. And I’m thinking Willow was right. We DID all kind of get what we wanted.
I mean, I didn’t get those Elytra Wings. But the potion of leaping is pretty cool, and it cost a LOT less than those wings—no emeralds required. (So maybe I AM finally learning the value of an emerald. The old man would be proud.)
YAWN.
Gotta sleep now. More leaping and video-making to do tomorrow . . .
DAY 30: SUNDAY
Sometimes I wake up with Baby Cammy in my face. She crawls all over my head, laughing. It’s not the best way to wake up, but it’s not the WORST way either.
Tonight when I woke up, it was CHLOE in my face. And she was grinning like a geek. WHY?
“Your video went VIRAL!” she said.
HUH?
She shoved the phone in my face.
I expected to see my rapping parrot. Or maybe Sam’s Dandelion Slime. Or even Willow’s potion brewing. I mean, we’d made so many videos by now, it could have been any ONE of them.
Except it wasn’t. It was some superhero creeper, soaring high above the ground with a . . . bird on his shoulder.
“That’s ME!” I cried, grabbing the phone.
Sure enough, it was me and my parrot, leaping above Sam’s backyard. And when I looked below the video, I saw it go up to 957 likes. Count them! 957!!!
I guess mobs have never seen a leaping creeper before. At least not one with a parrot sidekick.
I leaped right out of bed, no potion required. Why? Because I was wasting moonlight with every second I stayed in bed.
See, the way I figure it, I’ve got two months of summer left. My friends and I have already come up with a money-making BUSINESS, taught a parrot how to RAP, invented a new kind of SLIME, taught a creeper how to FLY, and made a video go viral OVERNIGHT.
So, I’m just sayin’ . . . who KNOWS what we’ll think up next? This creeper can hardly wait to get started!!!
