by Nancy Krulik
“I’ve been doing more research about burping,” Alex told George. “Burps are actually caused by gas.”
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” George said. “I feel fizzy gas all the time.”
“Yeah, but did you know that the gas is made in your stomach and your intestines when your body breaks down food into energy?” Alex asked him.
George started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Alex asked.
“Intestines,” George said. “It’s a funny word.”
“Now listen, you can’t eat anything at the party,” Alex said. “No food. No burp. Simple.”
It did sound simple. Except for one thing: It was a party, and a party meant pizza and birthday cake.
But George would give them up if that was the way to keep Pirate Island a belch-free zone.
The banner for Louie’s birthday was the first thing George saw when he, Alex, and Chris entered Pirate Island Water Park later that morning. There was no way anyone could miss it. Alex’s mom told the man at the ticket stand that the boys were part of the birthday party. Then they each held out their hand to get stamped with an image of a pirate’s head.
“This place is the best,” Chris said. “The Barracuda Blast log flume is awesome. My little brother threw up on it!”
“Drop your loot right in here,” Louie said with a smile.
Louie was standing right inside the entrance wearing a giant pirate hat. Max and Mike were standing beside him holding a large laundry bag.
“Loot is pirate talk for presents,” Max said.
“Yeah,” Mike added. “Pirates have their own talk.”
Duh, George thought to himself as he put his CD into the bag with the rest of gifts. But he didn’t say that. He was being the new, well-behaved George. Even at the water park.
“Oh, and there’s no gum-chewing in the water park,” Louie said. “That means you can’t work on breaking your world record today.” He gave Alex a nasty grin.
Alex shrugged. “That’s okay. I got time.”
“This is going to be the best party ever,” Louie said. “You can go anywhere you want in the whole park.”
Wow! George liked the sound of that.
“Of course, I’m the only one with a golden ticket. My parents paid a whole lot extra. Like fifty bucks or something. But it means I automatically go to the front of the line on any ride,” Louie continued. He shoved the plastic card that hung from a rope around his neck in George’s face. “You guys all have to wait in line.”
Then Louie passed out a map to each of the guests. The map showed pictures of all the attractions in the park. There was a giant waterslide nearby and a log flume right next to it. The map also showed three wild water coasters, a rope swing over a river, and a long, rambling creek that circled the whole park.
“Hey, Ma, hurry up!” Louie started yelling. “Everybody’s here.”
“I’m coming, Loo Loo Poo,” Louie’s mom shouted.
George turned and spotted a woman rushing over to them. She was balancing trays with paper cones of cotton candy stuck upright.
The woman had yellow hair, and she was wearing a big green sun hat. There was something familiar about her.
Oh man. It was the lady who been in Tyler’s Toy Shop the day George had had that major burp attack. Gulp. Quickly George turned his back to her.
“Ma!” Louie grumbled. “I said to hurry up! I want my cotton candy. Did you get me a purple one?”
Oh no! The woman in the hat was Louie’s mom! Double gulp.
“It’s right here, Loo Loo,” she said. “And it’s the only purple one. The birthday boy’s cotton candy has to be special.”
Suddenly Louie’s mom stopped in her tracks and took a good, hard look at George. “Don’t I know you?” she asked.
Triple gulp. “Me? No, no. I’m new in town,” George said.
Louie’s mom continued staring. “Now I recognize you! You’re that crazy kid from the toy store. The one who practically ran me over. Aren’t you a little old for a tricycle?”
Busted.
“I’m going to keep an eye on you,” she told him.
I will not burp . . . I will not burp . . .
George kept telling himself as his hand shot out toward the tray of cotton candy cones. But Alex grabbed him before he took one.
“No way, dude,” Alex whispered inGeorge’s ear. “Cotton candy is a burp waiting to happen.”
“Oh, right,” George said unhappily. He put his hand down and said “no thanks” to Louie’s mom.
“Don’t you like cotton candy, George?” Sage asked him.
George shook his head. “I don’t want to go in the water right after eating. I could . . . uh . . . get a cramp or something.”
“You’re not going swimming,” Louie said. “It’s just a slide.”
“Sliding,” Max said.
“Not swimming,” Mike added.
“I heard him the first time,” George told Mike and Max. He really had to get out of there. Louie’s whole mouth was turning bright purple from his cotton candy. It was making George sooo hungry.
“Okay, kids,” Louie’s mom told everyone. “You are free to walk around the park by yourselves and go on any ride you like.”
“You guys ready to go on the H2-Oh No slide?” George asked Chris and Alex.
“Yeah!” Chris and Alex said at the same time.
“Then come on,” George said.
“Wait up!” Sage shouted after the boys. “I want to go on the H2-Oh No slide with you!”
Oh man. Was Sage going to be following George around all day long?
“It’s a really big slide,” George told her. “And it goes really fast.”
“That’s okay,” Sage said, hurrying to keep up as George and his friends raced to the H2-Oh No slide. There was already a big line. Sage stood beside George and smiled in a way that made him kind of sick to his stomach.
“You’re so brave, George. I bet you’re not scared to go on anything! I’ll close my eyes and hold on to you. I know you’ll keep me safe.”
George pretended not to hear. And he pretended not to notice Alex, Chris, and Sage finishing their cotton candy. Instead, he waited patiently as the line snaked up the stairs to the top of the slide. He was thinking about how far up he was and how fun this ride was going to be.
It was a four-lane slide. Each path looped around in a different, crazy direction.
At the very top, George, Alex, Chris, and Sage lay down on their backs. Sage reached for George’s hand.
George did NOT reach back. Sage was going to have to go it alone.
“Ready?” the pirate at the top of the slide asked.
“Oh yeah!” George cheered. He was totally ready to slide down the H2-Oh No. This was gonna be fu-u-un!
Wheee! The next thing George knew, he was zooming down the slide. Water was splashing all around him. He was zooming over bumps and zigzagging around turns.
“AWESOME!” George shouted out, although nobody could hear him. He closed his eyes. It made the ride even scarier!
Splash! George landed in the big pool of water at the bottom of the H2-Oh No slide.
Splash! Alex plunged into the pool right behind George. Splash! Down came Chris. Splash! Sage landed last.
“Yo, Sage, your face is green,” George told her as they all climbed out of the pool at the end of the plunge and returned their mats.
Sage didn’t answer for a moment. Then she said, “I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.”
“Cool,” Chris said.
“Want to go down again?” Alex asked.
“Maybe let’s go for a water coaster.” Chris answered.
“Yeah!” George cheered. “How about the one that turns upside-down in the middle?”
Now Sage looked really green. “I think I’ll go to the arcade. I need to stay on dry land for a while.”
“Okay, see you later,” George said happily. As she walked away, he added, “All it took
to get rid of Sage was a little ABS cotton candy”
“ABS?” Alex asked. “What’s that?”
“Already been swallowed,” George said. “And then it got thrown up and swallowed a second time.”
“Gross, dude,” Alex said. But he was laughing, too.
Chapter 8
“Louie, Louie . . . Aye yi yi yi.”
The words to the classic rock song blared out from the speakers all around the water park. No way was George—or anybody else—going to forget that it was Louie’s birthday.
And then there were the posters. They were everywhere, too. As George, Alex, and Chris floated in their inner tubes around another turn in Castaway Creek, there was Louie’s big, goofy face on a poster, saying, Have You Seen This Guy? If You Do, Wish Him a Happy Birthday!
Still, George and his pals were having a great time. It was sunny and hot—but not too hot. They were all sitting in their own bright orange inner tubes, riding around in a shallow stream of blue water.
Every now and then, the water would start bubbling beneath their rear ends—on purpose! It was supposed to make them feel like they were riding in rapids. And then as their tubes went around the bend, a big rush of water would fall from overhead—as if they were going under a giant waterfall.
“Glub! Glub! Glub!” Chris shouted as he opened his mouth and swallowed water from the waterfall.
That looked like fun. George started to open his mouth, too. Suddenly, he got a fizzy feeling in his gut.
George shut his mouth quickly.
Oh no! There was no way. George hadn’t had anything to eat or drink. No cotton candy. No root beer. So this couldn’t be the super burp.
Or could it? Already bubbles were bouncing around like crazy inside him. Oh yeah! It was definitely the super burp. And it wanted out. NOW!
George’s eyes opened wide. He waved his arms in Alex’s direction, trying to get his buddy’s attention. Alex had to help him keep the burp from bursting.
But Alex was too busy paddling his way over toward a pirate cannon on the side of the creek that was shooting cold water at people.
Bing-bong. Ping-pong. The burp was up in George’s mouth now. It was zigzagging its way between his teeth and over his tongue.
All of a sudden, Alex spun around. He’d heard what happened and started paddling frantically toward George.
Too late. George had already let out a burp so loud it drowned out “Louie Louie” on the loudspeakers.
George opened his mouth to say, “Excuse me.” But that’s not what came out. Instead, George’s mouth shouted, “SHARK!”
Everyone turned to stare at him. One little kid, who was sharing a double tube with his dad, burst out crying.
The burp was in control now. George’s legs leaped from his inner tube.
“Dude, no!” Alex shouted.
The lifeguards began blowing their whistles. But if George’s ears heard the whistles, they weren’t listening. His body was way too busy playing shark attack in Castaway Creek.
George’s body dived underwater. He swam underneath Chris’s inner tube. Then his fingers pinched Chris’s rear end.
George’s head popped up from under the water. “Shark attack!” he shouted at Chris.
The lifeguards blew their whistles again. One was shouting through a megaphone, “No fooling around in the water. Stop this instant!”
George the shark wasn’t going to stop attacking. He swam around, ducking underwater and pinching rear ends.
“Ouch!” a huge man shouted.
“Shark attack!” George’s mouth shouted back.
“Somebody do something about this kid!” a woman in a flowery bathing cap called to the lifeguards.
Suddenly, four lifeguards jumped into the shallow water. They started running toward George.
George’s eyes looked left.
His eyes looked right.
There were lifeguards coming from every direction. There was no way out.
And then . . .
Whoosh! Suddenly, George felt something pop in his stomach, like someone had punctured a balloon. All the air rushed out of him. The super burp was gone!
But George was still standing in Castaway Creek. He was surrounded by angry lifeguards and furious people in inner tubes.
“Get out of the water—now!” one of the lifeguards told him.
George lowered his head. He grabbed his empty inner tube and climbed out of the creek.
Alex got out, too. He shouted to Chris that they’d meet up with him later.
“Now you see what I’m up against,” George said.
“You ate something didn’t you?” Alex asked as they returned the tires. “Come on. Admit it.”
“No! I haven’t eaten a thing since we got here,” George said.
“It could have been your breakfast,” Alex said. “Delayed reaction.”
They turned a corner to return their tubes, and there was Louie.
“I knew it! I knew it had to be you! You’re trying to ruin my party!” Louie was screaming so loud his face was turning red.
Louie was standing right next to a poster of himself. A little girl looked at the poster, then at Louie and said, “Hey, happy birthday!”
Louie’s face got even redder. “Ma!” he shouted across the creek. “Over here! Now! He’s doing it again!”
Louie’s mom was in an inner tube in the middle of the creek. At the sound of Louie’s voice, she leaped out of her tube and ran through the water, pushing people out of the way with every turn until she reached the exit.
“One more stunt like that, and I’m sending you home,” Louie’s mom scolded George. “You’re not ruining my darling boy’s birthday!”
“So much for the not eating thing,” George whispered to Alex a little later.
“I was so sure it would work,” Alex said.
“I told you, this is no ordinary burp,” George told him.
“No kidding,” Alex said. “The burp lasted twenty-two seconds. I timed it on my watch!”
“Now do you believe it’s magic?” George asked. “It’s going to take a lot more than not eating to squelch these belches.”
“There has to be a scientific reason,” Alex insisted. “We just need more time. Some scientists take years to figure stuff out.”
Years? That was way too long. George didn’t want to be burping his way through college.
They stopped talking because Chris had just come out of the bathroom and saw them. “Hey, look what I found on the paper towel dispenser,” he told Alex. “A big wad of ABC gum.”
“I thought people weren’t allowed to chew gum here,” George said.
“I guess somebody needed to get rid of it,” Alex said. He took the wad from Chris.
“Where are you going to keep it?” Chris said.
Alex bent down and stuck the gum to the bottom of his flip-flop. “It’ll be safe there.”
“So, you guys ready for the Stingray Slam?” Chris asked. “I know I am.” Then he looked at George and shook his head in admiration. “That shark attack was so funny. Dude, you had me laughing so hard, I swallowed water and started choking.”
George didn’t answer. It hadn’t seemed as funny to him.
Alex checked his map. “The Stingray Slam’s not far from here. The line’s going to be long. But it sounds like it’s worth waiting for.” Alex read aloud the description. The Stingray Slam was a way-cool water coaster with lots of twists and turns. But the best part came at the end—a final drop that was three stories tall! You had to be fifty-one inches to ride on it. George would just make it!
He only hoped he could leave the super burp behind.
Chapter 9
“This ride was amazing. I’ve been on it twice already,” Julianna told George, Chris, and Alex as the boys approached the Stingray Slam. “You’re going to get soaked.” She shook her wet hair. Water dripped all over George and his friends.
“Whoa! Check it out!” Chris exclaimed.
The Stingray Sl
am was definitely impressive.
It looked like a regular roller coaster with cars that looked like manta rays. But the tracks were all filled with water. Lots of water.
George looked over to his left. There was another poster with Louie’s goofy, smiling face on it.
But on this one, somebody had drawn bunny ears and a moustache on Louie’s face. Hilarious!
“Who did you go on the Stingray Slam with?” Alex asked Julianna.
“Sage was supposed to go with me,” Julianna explained. “But when we got to the front of the line, she wimped out.”
“You want to do it again with us?” he asked her.
“Sure,” Julianna said. “I’d go on this a million times.”
A few moments later, George, Alex, Julianna, and Chris were ready to get into the first car of the Stingray Slam. Each car had fins on the sides that looked like manta ray fins.
George was so excited, he didn’t even care that at the last minute Louie flashed his golden pass so that he, Max, and Mike could push ahead of them in line. They piled into the first car.
George and his pals got into the next car. Everyone waited until all the cars were filled.
“Let’s get going!” Louie shouted at the guy running the ride.
“I’m not so sure about this,” Max said, looking at the drop.
“Me either,” Mike added.
“Yes, you are,” Louie told them. “You guys are totally psyched.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” Max said. “I’m psyched.”
“Me too,” Mike agreed. “I was so psyched I forgot I was psyched.”
“All right, everybody, hold on tight,” the guy running the ride said.
And they were off!
The water coaster boat started out slowly, climbing up, up, up through the river of water. Then without any warning, it twisted to the right.
Splash! A big shower of water came sloshing into the boat. It hit George in the face.
