Big Eddy was not pleased.
His two henchmen, the salamander and the chameleon, were lurking behind him. Harry was turning blue and green with excitement, and Jason kept rubbing his webbed fingers together.
“Your stupid lunch bit me, dorkbreath,” he growled at Danny.
Danny opened his mouth to say something, but Wendell beat him to it. “His lunch bit you?” said the iguana, voice dripping with scorn. “Do you know how crazy that sounds?”
There was a brief pause.
Looking as if he wished he were somewhere else, Jason rubbed the back of his neck and said, “That, um, does sound a little odd, boss.”
Apparently now that he’d said it out loud, Big Eddy did realize how crazy it sounded. He flushed a little pink around the scales and shuffled heavily clawed feet.
“What did it do, sink little potato-y fangs into you? ”said Danny.
“Are you sure there wasn’t something in it? Like a thumbtack, maybe?” asked Harry, and then promptly turned the color of the floor.
The Komodo dragon flushed harder, but rallied himself, lashing his thick tail. “Doesn’t matter,” Big Eddy said. “Give me your lunch.”
“So you say his lunch bit you,” said Wendell, who was apparently feeling particularly suicidal today, “and now you want to take his lunch again? Talk about not learning from your mistakes . . .”
Big Eddy blinked a few times and ran a finger nervously over his bandage.
“You sure you want it? ” asked Danny. “It’s looking particularly vicious today. . . .” He clutched the edges of the tray as if trying to contain it. (Actually, today’s slice of cheese pizza was completely docile, though the green beans did look as if they might be plotting something.)
Big Eddy actually took a step backward.
There was a quickly stifled snigger from one of his henchmen. The Komodo dragon wheeled around and glared. Even though both the salamander and the chameleon had completely blank faces, the underside of Harry’s tail was suspiciously orange with amusement.
“He’s no giant squid,” said Danny sadly.
“Not even a reef shark,” agreed Wendell.
They carefully stepped around the baffled bully and made their way to the table.
“How long do you think that’ll hold him?” asked Danny, taking a big bite of cheese pizza, which thankfully did not bite back. He wondered briefly how the potato salad was doing, out there in the storm sewers.
“I give it three days, tops,” said Wendell, biting into his own completely dormant sandwich.
“Still, three days is three days . . .”
“Yup.”
URSULA VERNON (www.ursulavernon.com) has written and illustrated one other middle-grade novel: Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew. The daughter of an artist, she attempted to rebel and become a scientist, but in the end couldn’t fight her destiny. She lives in Pittsboro, NC, where she writes, draws, and creates oddities.
1 That’s whale for “Eats-a-lot-of-squid.”
Dragonbreath Page 4
