“Yes!” Shivers screamed. “Death to darkness!” He ran down the hall cheering. Which was a nice change, because usually he ran down the hall fearing.
In just a few short steps, he reached his brand-new kitchen. Waiting for him on the counter was his first mate, Albee.
“Albee!” Shivers cheered. “Can you believe this place?”
He looked around the kitchen, which was customized for all of his cravings. He flung open the fridge door and found it fully stocked with his favorite soft snacks from jars of Jell-O to plates of pudding.
The pantry was packed with all kinds of mixes: brownie, pancake, and even trail. Albee had his own shelf, which was stacked with soft butter, his absolute favorite food.
Shivers placed Albee’s bowl on the shelf so he could get a closer look. “This is all for you!”
“You’d butter not touch it!” Albee said. But sadly no one heard him because he’s a fish.
Shivers marveled at the rest of the room. There was a giant microwave so he could make popcorn and heat up old pizza at the same time. The windowsill was decorated with pots full of daisies and sunflowers.
“We got you a flower bed,” said Bob, beaming.
“Awww,” said Shivers. “I’ll have to get some flower pillows and a cozy flower blankie!”
Before Bob could explain what a flower bed actually was, Shivers saw something very disturbing on the counter. “AAAGH! A toaster!” he screamed.
“Don’t worry,” Tilda said, putting her arm around him and walking him carefully toward the device. “It has slow-rise popping action. See?”
Two pieces of bread rose up slowly and silently from the toaster, like a sleepy jack-in-the-box.
Shivers’s eyes popped open in amazement. “It’s a slow-ster! I love it! It’s sooo me!”
And with that, he hopped through the door and out to the main deck, twirling with excitement. Once he reached the deck, he kept on twirling.
“Hey, I could spin out here forever!” he exclaimed.
“That’s what it’s made for! It’s a song and dance deck,” said Tilda.
Shivers stopped short and gasped. The black surface of the deck was shiny and smooth. It stretched out in front of him for what looked like miles.
“Somebody jump on the piano! Key of G!” Shivers opened his mouth to sing.
Bob interrupted him. “Sorry, Shivers, we haven’t gotten you a piano yet. But we did get you this!” He held up a rotting fish skeleton.
“It’s a fishbone xylophone!” said Tilda proudly. “You play it with a wishbone!”
Bob demonstrated, clinking out a few flat notes.
Shivers leaped back in disgust. “Albee would be horrified! You’re lucky he’s busy eating butter right now.”
Bob shrugged and threw the fish carcass over the deck, where it landed on a beachgoer (who quickly became a home-goer).
Tilda smiled reassuringly. “I swear by all the squids in the sea, we’ll get you that piano. But for now, this will have to just be a dance deck.”
Shivers sighed. “I guess I can live with that.”
Tilda knew just the thing to cheer him up. “You haven’t seen what’s in here!” she said, walking across the deck. She opened the door to an enormous closet, and Shivers could see that it was packed to the max with brand-new mops.
Shivers screamed in sheer delight. Next to singing and dancing, mopping was his favorite activity. He sprinted to the closet, leaped inside, and grabbed as many mops as he could. He hugged them all, nuzzling his face into their soft fuzzy mop heads. “You know what they say, ‘Mop till you drop!’” Shivers picked up a bucket and tossed it to Tilda. “You get the water, I’ll choose a mop, we’ll meet back here in eight seconds!”
“No!” said Tilda and Bob at the same time.
“What? You need ten seconds?” Shivers asked.
“Shivers, you can’t mop the deck today!” Bob barked.
“Why not?” Shivers was confused.
Bob’s eyebrows furrowed into a stern scowl. His jawbones tightened with tension. Even his beard bristled nervously. He looked around cautiously, and then in a terrified whisper he uttered, “The Curse of Quincy Thomas the Pirate.”
Shivers dropped all the mops. “The what? . . . of the who?”
Tilda mashed her lips with concern. She hated to tell Shivers about something so scary because he always got so screamy. But it had to be done. “If a pirate lets a single drop of water hit the deck on the day he gets a new ship, he’ll be cursed by the ghost of Quincy Thomas the Pirate.”
“Ghost?!” Shivers shrieked.
“Ghost?!” Bob bellowed, diving into the mop closet.
“Who said ghost?!” Tilda screeched, jumping in after Bob. Shivers followed close behind her and slammed the closet door.
“AAAAAAGGGGGGHH!”
Credits
Cover illustration © 2016 by Anthony Holden
Cover design by Joe Merkel
Copyright
SHIVERS!: THE PIRATE WHO’S BACK IN BUNNY SLIPPERS. Text copyright © 2016 by Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Anthony Holden. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bondor-Stone, Annabeth, author.
Shivers!: the pirate who’s back in bunny slippers / by Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White. — First edition.
pages cm. — (Shivers! ; 2)
“Based on a really funny idea by Harrison Blanz, Age 9.”
Summary: “Shivers, the pirate who’s afraid of everything, is embarking on his second and scariest adventure—this time to save his beloved ship, The Land Lady”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-231389-8 (hardcover)
EPub Edition © February 2016 ISBN 9780062313904
[1. Pirates—Fiction. 2. Fear—Fiction. 3. Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. 4. Humorous stories.] I. White, Connor, author. II. Holden, Anthony, illustrator. III. Title.
PZ7.1.B665Sh 2016 2015009964
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
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16 17 18 19 20 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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The Pirate Who's Back in Bunny Slippers Page 9
