by Stan Kirby
Table of Contents
1. Weather or Not, Here We Come!
2. It Was Quiet. Too Quiet
3. Snow News Is Good News!
4. Calling All Friends
5. To the Rescue!
6. The Frosty Freezing Freezeness of the Frostbiter!
7. The Evilest Thing Evil Ever Eviled!
8. Snowball Fiiiiiiight!
9. A Case of Frozen Identities!
Meanwhile, at Sunnyview Elementary
About Stan Kirby and George O’Connor
If there was ever a worse thing for a teacher to say than, “Everyone, take out your math books,” Eugene McGillicudy hadn’t heard it.
Eugene reached into his desk and pulled out his math book. As he did, a folded square of paper fell out and dropped to the floor.
A NOTE.
Eugene looked around the room at his classmates. Who sent me a note? he wondered.
Whenever Super Dude got a note, it was usually a secret message. A warning of evil! A clue!
What’s that, you say? You’ve never heard of Super Dude?! Do you live on a space station orbiting Galaxian 459 on the other end of Black Hole 22? Super Dude is only the greatest superhero in the history of comic books! It was his adventures that inspired Eugene to become his own superhero, Captain Awesome, the fighter of all that’s evil in Sunnyview. Then his best friends joined him. Charlie Thomas Jones was Nacho Cheese Man and Sally Williams was Supersonic Sal.
Together, they were the Sunnyview Superhero Squad, protecting their school, their town, and the whole universe from evil.
And right now, Eugene was convinced that there was evil in this note. His Awesome Sense was tingling.
He began to unfold the piece of paper, but then stopped. Super Dude had once fought The Amazing Hypnotattler in Super Dude No. 48. The Amazing Hypnotattler’s power lay in secret notes that hypnotized people into doing whatever the note said. Perhaps the Hypnotattler was hypnotizing superheroes in Sunnyview!
I have to get rid of this before anyone else reads it and falls under its spell, Eugene thought. He slid off his chair.
“Eugene, where are you going?” Charlie whispered. “Bathroom break isn’t for ten minutes.” Charlie pointed to his watch. “I keep track.”
“I’ve got to throw something away,” Eugene whispered. “The Sunnyview Superhero Squad is in danger!”
“You’ll get caught,” Sally whispered back. “Ms. Beasley has Teacher Radar.”
Ms. Beasley’s back was to the class as she wrote on the whiteboard. Eugene tip-tip-tiptoed toward the trash can.
“Where are you going, Eugene?” Ms. Beasley asked without turning around.
Eugene froze. How does she do that?! he wondered.
When Ms. Beasley did turn around, she said, “Is that a note in your hand?”
Eugene gulped. “Y-y-yes.”
“You know my rule about passing notes,” Ms. Beasley said.
Eugene’s shoulders slumped as he placed the note in her hand and returned to his desk. It was all over now. The Hypnotattler had won and there was nothing Eugene could do to stop him.
Ms. Beasley carefully unfolded the note. “ ‘What did one pencil say to the other?’ ” she read.
The whole class leaned forward in their seats, wanting to know the answer.
“ ‘You’re looking sharp,’ ” Ms. Beasley read. “Oh my, that’s clever!”
The class burst into laughter, and even Eugene chuckled.
“I knew you’d like it, Eugene,” whispered Sally. “But why were you trying to throw my joke away?”
“Your joke? You put it in my notebook?” Eugene was shocked. “I thought it was an evil hypno-spell from the Hypnotattler.”
Sally laughed. “Not everything is evil, Eugene.”
RING!
RECESS TIME!
Ms. Beasley looked out the window. “Looks like we’re going to have recess in the gym today, class.”
Everyone excitedly ran to the windows and pressed their noses against the cold glass. Snow flurries fluttered across the playground.
“If this keeps up, maybe tomorrow will be a snow day!” Charlie said hopefully.
“Don’t count on it,” said Eugene. “Evil will make sure we’re back in this classroom tomorrow.”
Abracadabra! Binny-Boom-Bop! Eugene waved his fingers over his vegetables. “Be gone, vegetables, be gone!”
“What are you doing, honey?” Eugene’s mom asked.
“I’m trying to make these evil vegetables that are disguised as dessert disappear,” he replied. “But my Captain Awesome powers have failed me.”
“It’s just zucchini cake, Eugene,” his mother replied. “And you can hardly taste the zucchini.”
“But I can see the little green pieces in there, hiding, ready to leap out and take over my stomach,” Eugene pointed out.
“Oh, I can make this disappear,” said Eugene’s dad. “I’ll just use my Super Dad powers.” Eugene’s dad jabbed at the zucchini cake with his fork and took a bite. “Delicious!”
Score! Eugene thought. “Can I go upstairs now?” he asked his parents.
Mr. and Mrs. McGillicudy said he could as long as he brushed his teeth before getting into bed.
Eugene did as told. As Super Dude would have said, “Parents know best—usually.” Then Eugene climbed into bed and settled in to read the Super Dude Winter Spectacular No. 26. He got to the part where Super Dude was about to battle the evil Elfenstein, and then—
ZZZZZZZZZZZ.
He fell asleep.
The next morning, Eugene opened one eye. It was quiet. Too quiet. He opened his other eye. He looked around. His school clothes weren’t laid out on his Super Dude chair. He didn’t hear Queen Stinkypants crying downstairs for her breakfast. Eugene rolled over and looked at his Super Dude alarm clock.
8:30?
8:30!
Eugene gasped. Right now he should be avoiding Little Miss Stinky Pinky and racing to his desk.
What was going on? Could it be? No, it couldn’t be . . .
Eugene ran to the window. It was!
SNOW!
And that meant only one thing:
SNOW DAY!
Snow day! It’s a snow day! SNOWWWW DAYYYY!” Eugene cheered and ran downstairs, taking the steps two at a time.
“Good morning!” Eugene’s mom said cheerily.
“Today’s a snow day, right, mom?” Eugene asked, hoping he wasn’t still dreaming.
“Yep, it’s a snow day. School is officially closed. And not only that, we’re having chocolate-chip pancakes!” Eugene’s dad confirmed.
Things just keep getting better! Eugene thought.
There was only one question left to be answered. “Can I invite Charlie and Sally over?” Eugene asked.
“We’re already here!” Charlie walked into the kitchen with Sally next to him. “I must have gotten your brain-wave message that told me you’d want us to come over.”
“And I’ve been up since six!” Sally said. “I knew it was going to be a snow day! I even used my super speed to shovel my driveway super speedily!”
“That gives me a great idea,” Eugene said.
“We’re not going to shovel more driveways, are we?” Charlie asked.
“No,” Eugene said. “Are you forgetting who we are?”
“Uh . . . eight-year-old kids?” asked Sally.
“Queen Stinkypants’s only friends?” asked Charlie.
“We’re superheroes!” Eugene reminded his friends. “And we’re going to spend our snow day doing what superheroes do . . .”
“We’re going on patrol!” shouted Charlie and Sally.
“We need to make sure Dr. Yuck Spinach doesn’t try to stink up our school with his Leafy Okra Pellets or Lima Bean Traps!” cried Sally.
“We don’t have school today,” Charlie pointed out. “But maybe Mr. Drools will try to take over the neighborhood with his radioactive drool!”
“But that snow’s piled pretty high, even for Mr. Drools,” said Sally.
Hmmm . . .
Suddenly, a shadow hopped past the kitchen window and then disappeared.
“Evil!” the three friends cried.
Eugene threw on his snowsuit and then he, Charlie, and Sally ran outside. The bushes under the kitchen window were shaking.
The trio tiptoed through the snow. The bushes shook some more.
“Evil’s on the move!” Eugene said.
“It’s moving to the front yard,” said Charlie.
Eugene, Charlie, and Sally chased the evil creature around the house and arrived just in time to see the creature emerge from the bushes.
“It’s a . . . squirrel?” Eugene said.
“And not even an evil alien squirrel or Commander Squirrel and his Acorn Squad,” pointed out Sally.
“Just a regular old squirrel,” said Charlie.
“Look around, Squad,” said Sally.
Eugene and Charlie looked around their neighborhood. The street was covered in snow. No one was walking to work or school or to the store. There were no cars or buses on the road.
“I think even evil’s taking a snow day today,” Sally said.
Sorry, guys, but it’s too cold out,” said Jake Story, still in his pajamas.
Eugene, Charlie, and Sally were standing on the porch at Jake’s house. They had decided that if there was no evil to fight, they might as well hang out with their friends, right?
“But it’s a snow day,” Eugene said.
“And that means it’s also an inside day,” replied Jake.
The trio got the same response all over the neighborhood.
“I’m playing with my new iRobot Dog,” said Gil Ditko.
“I’m watching TV,” said Neal Chaykin.
“Can’t,” said Wilma Eisner. “Just started the latest book in the Rider Woofson series.”
“Three words,” said Dara Sim. “Hot. Chocolate. And marshmallows.”
“That’s four words,” Charlie pointed out.
“And I’m going to enjoy all of them,” Dara replied. “Sorry, guys.”
The click of the door echoed on the quiet, snow-filled street. On the way back to Eugene’s, the members of the Sunnyview Superhero Squad felt defeated . . . and not even by evil! By their friends!
“I can’t believe it!” Charlie said. “It’s a snow day!”
“It’s what we all wanted,” Sally added. “I thought the whole point of a snow day was to play outside. In the snow!”
“They don’t know what they’re missing!” said Charlie. Suddenly, he grabbed a pile of snow in his mittens and rolled it into a ball. Then he put it back down and continued to roll it.
“What are you making, Charlie?” Sally asked.
“The people of Sunnyview will sing songs about what I’m building,” Charlie said.
“But what is it?” Eugene asked.
“Easy! It’s the bottom part of what’s going to be the biggest snowman in Sunnyview!” Charlie gave the giant ball of snow a shove. “We just have to find the right place to build the rest of it.” The snowball started rolling down the sidewalk.
“Uh, Charlie . . . ,” Sally said.
“Look out!” cried Eugene.
The ball was going faster and getting bigger as it picked up more snow. Eugene, Charlie, and Sally raced after it. Sally turned on her supersonic speed and leaped onto the ball.
She clung on as it kept rolling.
“HELP!” she yelled.
Eugene and Charlie ran to Sally and each grabbed a leg, pulling her from the snowball. The three of them fell backward into the snow.
Finally, the giant snowball rolled to a stop right in Eugene’s front yard!
“I think that’s a good place to make Sunnyview’s biggest snowman,” Charlie said.
“Yes!” Sally agreed. “But could we please call it a snowperson, or a snowbuddy, or a snowfriend?”
“Good idea!” Eugene said. “Let’s build a snowfriend!”
“The biggest snowfriend,” Charlie reminded them.
Eugene rolled a big snowball for its stomach. Sally made a smaller snowball for its head. And Charlie found enough sticks for arms, and rocks to give it a face.
“It’s perfect!” said Sally.
“Good work, team,” said Eugene.
“Now what?” asked Charlie.
“Hot chocolate break?” Eugene suggested.
The trio raced into Eugene’s house without another word.
But if they had stayed outside for a moment more, they might have noticed something odd about the snowfriend.
Was it . . . moving?
Three cheers for Super Dude’s Superhot Chocolate!” Eugene thrust his spoon in the air.
Eugene, Charlie, and Sally were enjoying the best hot chocolate ever as they took a break from snowfriend-building. Charlie would take a sip, then add another marshmallow.
SIP.
MARSHMALLOW.
SIP.
MARSHMALLOW.
“Hey, how’d you kids like to go sledding?” Eugene’s dad asked as he entered the kitchen.
Eugene hadn’t thought there could be anything better than Super Dude’s Superhot Chocolate until . . . SLEDDING!
The three kids bolted for the door.
Ten minutes and thirty-two seconds later, Eugene, Charlie, and Sally raced from the parked car to Cricket Hill, the best sledding hill in all of Sunnyview.
“I hope everyone from school is here!” Charlie said. “If sledding doesn’t get a kid out of the house, nothing will!”
The trio reached the top of the sledding hill and realized that the exact opposite of “everyone” was there.
“No one’s here!” Eugene gasped. “How is this possible? Are we the only ones who realize that snow equals fun?!”
“Maybe we’ve been teleported to some crazy backward dimension where kids hate snow and love school?!” Charlie said, shocked.
“That’s not just crazy, that’s evil!” Eugene cried.
BLAST!
Speaking of evil, the trio was now covered by a wave of snow as someone skidded to a stop directly in front of them.
“My, my, my, if it isn’t Eugerm and the dynamic dunces!” Meredith Mooney sneered as she stood from her sled. “Check out my new sled. As if being all pink wasn’t awesome enough, it’s got a heated seat, cushioned handles, balance gyros, two USB ports, GPS, Bluetooth, and a hot chocolate maker.” Meredith grabbed a cup of hot chocolate as it popped up from her sled. She took a sip.
“Yummmmmm. So chocolatey,” she said.
Eugene looked at his own plastic saucer sled, slightly embarrassed. But he refused to be defeated by Meredith, aka Little Miss Stinky Pinky. “My! Me! Mine! Meredith! I don’t care if your sled makes doughnuts—” Eugene began.
“Oh, it does,” Meredith said as she dipped a glazed doughnut into her hot chocolate and took a bite.
“Well, we can still beat you in a race down the hill because these are . . . FLYING SAUCERS!” Eugene finished.
“BWAHAHAHAHA!” Meredith laughed so hard, bits of doughnut came out of her mouth. “Flying snotters is more like it. You’re on, Eugerm!”
Eugene, Sally, Charlie, and Meredith climbed to the top of the hill, their sleds and saucers tucked under their arms.
“On your marks!” Eugene cried once everyone was seated.
“Go!” Meredith shouted and pushed off.
“Hey! He didn’t say ‘get set!’ ” Charlie called out.
But Meredith was already speeding down the hill. There was no way the others could catch up to her.
Then something strange happened. Meredith’s sled suddenly veered off to the le
ft.
“What is she doing?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t know, but it looks like she might be in trouble,” Sally said as they watched Meredith’s sled suddenly take a quick turn to the right.
“Heeeeelp!” Meredith cried.
“This is a job for the Sunnyview Superhero Squad!” Eugene yelled.
Eugene, Charlie, and Sally leaped behind a bush.
BACKPACK!
UNZIP!
CAPE!
GOGGLES!
CHEESE!
SUPERHEROES!
Captain Awesome, Nacho Cheese Man, and Supersonic Sal jumped onto their sleds and raced after Meredith.
Captain Awesome used his cape to give him extra speed. Nacho Cheese Man shot a burst of Cool Ranch cheese off the back of his sled for a boost. And Supersonic Sal used her own superfast legs to keep her sled racing forward.
Meredith veered to the left. Then she veered to the right. Left! Right! Left! Right!
“Heeeeeeeeeeeeelp!” she cried again.
Supersonic Sal gave herself one last push, then she reached out for Meredith. She grabbed Meredith just in time, and the two of them tumbled into the snow. Captain Awesome and Nacho Cheese Man stopped their sleds next to the girls. Then all four of them watched as Meredith’s sled went straight into a bush with a CRASH!
“You guys ruined my sled!” Meredith yelled. Then, a little more softly, she said, “But thanks.”
“No need to thank the Sunnyview Superhero Squad,” said Captain Awesome. “We’re just doing our job.”
Back at the house, Eugene’s dad pulled the car into the driveway.
Eugene, Sally, and Charlie were glad to have helped Meredith at the sledding hill.
