by Debbie Dadey
Penny buried her face in Kirin’s mane. Buttercup chewed right through one of Natalie’s shoelaces. Luke hugged Dracula. “What are we supposed to do now?” Luke whispered.
5
The three kids sat down on the wooden floor of Mr. Leery’s small living room.
“There’s only one way to figure out how to save our town,” Penny said, patting a stack of Mr. Leery’s books about magical creatures. “By using these books.”
Natalie shook her head. “Action is what we need. I say we spy on Mrs. Bender and the rest of the teachers. They’ll lead us straight to the Boggart Queen.”
Action sounded a whole lot better to Luke than sorting through a bunch of dusty old books. “Maybe Natalie’s right,” he said. “Looking through those books could take forever.”
Natalie hopped up from the floor and dusted off her pants. Today she wore her usual style: pink jeans, a pink flowered top, pink headband, and a matching watch. “We have to hurry. The Queen is taking over adults faster than we can speed dial for pizza.”
Luke nodded. “We have to work fast because I haven’t even started my science project and Mr. Crandle is piling on more work every day.”
Penny couldn’t believe her ears. Luke always sided with her, never Natalie. She looked closely at her friends. Could the Boggart Queen have turned them into changelings? She felt a cold shiver run down her back. “You guys go ahead. I’ll do the research myself.”
“Are you sure?” Luke asked, feeling guilty for leaving Penny to the big stacks of books.
“Don’t worry,” Kirin said, nudging close to Penny. “I’ll help her.”
“Let’s go,” Natalie said. “The teachers won’t be at school much longer.”
“Me go! Me go!” Dracula said, bouncing around the room, knocking over a pile of dusty books.
Luke shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dracula. You can’t go this time. Stay here with Penny.” Dracula sat on the floor with steam rising in sad little spurts from his nose. His eyes watered and Luke felt doubly guilty for leaving.
“Come on,” Natalie said, pulling on his sleeve. With one last look, Luke followed Natalie out the door.
Natalie trotted down Rim Drive with Luke at her heels. He was surprised that such a prissy girl could move so fast in sparkly pink tennis shoes. The two of them slipped behind the Morgantown Elementary sign and between some trees until they were right beside the window to the principal’s office. “She’s not in there,” Natalie said.
“Come on.” Natalie pulled Luke by the shirt. “Let’s try the teacher’s lounge.” They slid along the outside wall of the school until they found the room with the soda machine and copier. They peered through the open window. They couldn’t believe their eyes.
Inside the room their teacher, Mr. Crandle, danced on a table with a rose in his mouth. The librarian, old Mrs. Williamson, pranced around beating a tambourine. A handful of fourth and fifth grade teachers were clapping and singing. Even Mrs. Morton from the cafeteria was hitting a big pan with a wooden spoon to the beat. “More homework. Pile on the work. Load them up. We’ll teach those jerks.”
“Did you hear that?” Luke whispered, ducking his head back down.
“I not only heard it,” Natalie said, slapping her pink phone shut and squatting beside Luke, “I have it on video. Wait until I show my father.”
“Shhh,” Luke said. “We still haven’t seen Mrs. Bender. Maybe she’s already left. Let’s check the parking lot.”
The kids found Mrs. Bender’s green hybrid SUV parked in the principal’s spot. “Now what?” Luke asked.
“Listen,” Natalie said. The kids stood still for a minute. The unmistakable sound of Mrs. Bender’s nasally voice echoed from the new nature center. She was singing the same song as the teachers, but every once in a while she stopped to laugh. It was the kind of wicked laugh a witch does in a scary movie, but with a strange sweetness to it.
“That laugh sounds so familiar to me. Where have I heard it before?” Luke searched his memory, but couldn’t figure it out.
The kids tiptoed up behind a group of evergreen trees. The young trees weren’t very tall; they had branches hanging low to the ground, so they were more like bushes. Natalie parted the branches just enough for them to catch a glimpse of their principal.
Luke had to hold his nose to keep from sneezing. Something about evergreen trees always made him sneeze. He saw the principal patting the ground before taking something out of her purse. “She has something,” Luke whispered to Natalie.
Natalie leaned out just a bit further to see. She froze solid when she saw exactly what Mrs. Bender was looking through. “My notebook!” Natalie squealed at exactly the same time that Luke sneezed.
Mrs. Bender looked up and said, “Who’s there?”
Both kids scrambled as fast as they could to the parking lot. They hid behind Mrs. Bender’s car. What they didn’t know was that Mrs. Bender’s car had a security system. The minute Luke’s hand touched the door, an alarm went off. “Intruder. Intruder!”
“You’re the worst spy ever!” Natalie snapped, and she dragged him behind the school Dumpster. They held their breath because the Dumpster smelled really horrible. Mrs. Bender walked over to her car and looked all around the nearly empty parking lot. She clapped her hands. Immediately the alarm was quiet. She walked quickly away, but not before the kids saw what was tucked under her arm. It was Natalie’s pink notebook, complete with a pink pencil and bouncing ogre eraser.
Luke had to hold Natalie back until Mrs. Bender walked around the building.
“I can’t believe she has my notebook,” Natalie fumed. “I’m going to get it back right now. Wait until I tell my father about this. I should call the police.”
“Why would the principal care about your notebook?” Luke said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Since when does a principal have to make sense?” Natalie snapped.
“What exactly did you have in that notebook anyway?” Luke asked.
Natalie looked away from Luke. “Just stuff I noticed about people and about our town. Like how Mrs. Bender is always making up new rules, and how the teachers dream all night about work, work, and more work for us.”
Luke groaned and slapped his forehead.
“What’s wrong with you?” Natalie asked. “I’m the one who’s been wronged here. That mean old principal took my property and I’m going to get it back.”
Natalie took off toward the front door, but Luke stopped her. “Don’t you get it?”
“No, but I’m getting it right now. I’m going to demand my notebook back.”
“You can’t,” Luke said.
“Of course, I can,” Natalie said. “I can do anything I want.”
“Not this time,” Luke told her, “because I just remembered where I heard that laugh before.”
“Where?” Natalie asked.
“In the caves on the other side of magic. When the Boggart Queen thought she had us trapped for good, she laughed.”
Natalie’s face paled at the memory. “And she laughed just like Mrs. Bender.”
“Exactly,” Luke said. “Mrs. Bender isn’t Mrs. Bender at all. She’s really the Boggart Queen and she’s using the information in your notebook to help with changelings,” Luke told her. “She thinks what you wrote is the way they’re supposed to behave. Can you remember anything else you wrote? Anything that the Queen can use against us?”
Natalie’s brown eyes clouded. “Oh no, we’re in big trouble.”
Meanwhile, back at Mr. Leery’s house, Penny was having trouble of her own. Mr. Leery and Mo were sleeping on the couch. Every once in a while one of them would moan. Penny kept looking through the dusty books; unfortunately she found absolutely nothing helpful. Some of the books weren’t even in English, but Penny kept trying. Finally, she opened a book that had green lettering. The pages were terribly faded and Penny had to squint to read it. She was so engrossed in reading that she jumped when a loud bang came from the door.
> Penny looked at Mr. Leery. He and Mo were still in a deep sleep. Even Kirin and Dracula had gotten so bored they had curled up beside the couch and were snoring soundly. Penny stood up and reached for the doorknob.
6
Wham!
Penny fell away from the door. Something had knocked her to the floor.
“Kirin!” Penny snapped. “Why did you do that?”
“You don’t know who’s out there,” Kirin said. “Don’t you have enough sense to at least look out the window before opening the door to the Boggart Queen?”
“The Boggart Queen!” Penny said with a gulp. She pulled back the curtain just enough to see who was at the door. “Grandma!”
Kirin peered over Penny’s shoulder.
“Does she look like the Boggart Queen to you?” Penny asked Kirin.
“Humph,” Kirin said, tossing her white mane and pushing Dracula into the bedroom with her horn. “You never know. It could’ve been the Queen.”
As soon as the links were safely inside the bedroom, Penny opened the front door for her grandmother.
“Grandma, I’m so glad you’re here,” Penny said. “I have to talk to you.”
“Hi sweetie. How is Evan?”
“Who’s Evan?” Penny asked.
Grandma giggled. “Why, Mr. Leery, of course.”
Penny felt her face get red. “Oh, he’s sleeping. He doesn’t seem to be getting any better.”
“These fall colds are so nasty, but my homemade vegetable soup will fix him up,” Grandma said as she held up another pot of soup. “It’s an old family secret.”
“Come on, let’s put it in the kitchen,” Penny suggested. “I have some questions to ask you.”
Grandma put the pot on the stove, then started wiping down the counters. Grandma had trouble sitting still. She was always working at something. Once she had told Penny how she used to get spanked in school for getting out of her seat too much. “Some people just need to move. Why can’t teachers understand that?”
Right now, Penny needed her grandmother’s undivided attention. “Grandma, sit down here for a second. I need your help.”
“Penny,” her grandmother said with a concerned look on her face. She sat down at the table and took Penny’s hands. “What’s wrong?”
Penny wanted to tell her grandmother that the Boggart Queen was taking over Morgan-town, but when Penny looked at her grandmother’s sweet, soft face, she couldn’t do it. Instead she lied. “Grandma, I want to write a story about changelings. Can you tell me more?” Immediately, Penny decided she’d write a story so it wouldn’t be a lie.
Grandma Gertie laughed. “So that’s the problem. Changelings got your tongue?”
“What?”
Grandma shook her head. “Just a silly saying. Now let me see, I think I’ve told you everything I know.”
“What about getting rid of them?” Penny asked. “Isn’t there a cure? Or a secret code or a magic spell that will make them go away? A tea made from frog warts or something like that?”
Penny’s grandmother frowned and scrunched up her brow. “Just a minute,” she said.
She got up from the table and washed the dishes in the sink. Penny wanted to scream. Didn’t her grandmother know that she needed answers and she needed them now? But of course her grandmother didn’t know. Penny also knew that her grandmother thought better when her hands were busy, so Penny bit her lip and waited.
“Oh, I just remembered something,” Grandma Gertie said. “There’s a legend that cooking food with eggshells in it will keep changelings away.”
“That’s it?” Penny said. “Eggshells?”
Grandma nodded. “When I was growing up, anytime a new baby was born, we cooked eggs and left some of the eggshells in to protect the baby. Of course it’s a silly tradition, but just the same, I did it for your mother and I did it for you.”
“For me?” Penny said, touched by her grandmother’s caring.
“Why, of course,” Grandma said, giving Penny a hug before glancing at her watch. “I’ll come back later to check on Evan. I have bridge club in ten minutes. Are you staying here?”
Penny shook her head. “No, I’m leaving soon, too.”
Penny stared out the window after her grandmother left. Kirin and Dracula joined her in the living room. Kirin nuzzled against her side.
“It’ll be dark soon,” Kirin said softly.
“Where’s Luke?” Dracula asked. “And Natalie? Where? Where? Where?”
“I’m sure they’ll be here in a little while,” Penny said to calm Dracula, but she wondered what was taking them so long.
“Don’t worry,” Kirin said. “We’ll keep watch over Leery and Mo.”
Penny turned back to the books. She flipped through page after page for anything about eggshells. Before long, the snores of Kirin and Dracula echoed around the small living room. Finally, in a green book with faded letters, Penny found just the page she needed: Changeling Cures.
Mr. Leery and Mo both moaned. They weren’t soft, gentle moans. They were loud and full of pain.
Kirin leaped to her feet, ready to protect them.
“They aren’t getting any better, are they?” Penny asked her unicorn.
Kirin shook her head sadly. “I wish I could help them.”
“Maybe I can.” Penny made up her mind; she couldn’t wait any longer. She knew three ways to get rid of changelings: two from the green book and the one that her grandmother had told her. She wasn’t sure how to do the first two, but she did know how to cook eggs.
She opened Mr. Leery’s refrigerator, not knowing exactly what she would find. Once, Mo had opened it and a secret room had appeared. But today, Penny found exactly what she needed—a carton of eggs.
“What are you doing?” Kirin asked, peeking over Penny’s shoulder.
“I’m cooking up a cure for changelings,” Penny told her.
She used the whole carton and all the shells to make a microwaved mess. Then she washed her hands in warm water. Luke and Natalie still hadn’t come back, so Penny put the dish of cooked eggs in a brown paper bag.
“Do you think they have to eat the eggs?” she asked her link. “If they’re just around them, do they work? Maybe I should throw them in their faces.”
Kirin shook her long mane. “I don’t know, but this sounds dangerous. You should wait for the others.”
“I can do this,” Penny said. She had her fingers crossed behind her back for luck because she wasn’t at all sure she knew what to do, but she had to try.
Penny trotted down Rim Drive toward the school, leaving a very upset unicorn behind. A loud booming voice stopped her. “Shouldn’t you be doing your homework?”
Penny stared as Officer Lumpkus pointed his nightstick at her and walked across the street. The police officer’s shirttail hung loose and his hair looked like it had been electrified. When he passed under a streetlight, his face glowed green. Penny gasped.
Officer Lumpkus was a changeling! And he was coming after her.
Penny swallowed. “I made a special treat just for you.” She handed the officer the bag.
Officer Lumpkus took the bag and looked inside. “No,” he said. “No. Not this. Anything but this!”
He jerked his hand, like he was trying to throw the bag down. But the bag stuck tight to his hand like glue. Officer Lumpkus lifted his head up and howled like a wolf in terrible pain. He lurched away, his hand still clutching the bag.
“It worked!” Penny said to herself. “He can’t stand eggs.”
Officer Lumpkus walked faster and faster. Soon, he was running toward the end of Rim Road, straight for the border. He ran so fast, Penny could barely see his legs. In a few seconds, he disappeared all together.
“I must get more eggs,” Penny said, but she didn’t get the chance. Luke and Natalie grabbed her.
“What are you doing out here?” Luke asked. “I thought you were reading.”
“And why do you smell like rotten eggs?” Natalie said.
“I found out how to get rid of changelings,” Penny told them, glancing around to make sure no one else was close. The sidewalks were clear and the houses quiet.
“Great,” Natalie said. “Let’s go get rid of Mrs. Bender. That old biddy has my notebook.”
“You’re kidding,” Penny said.
Natalie clenched her fists and punched the air. “Luke figured it out. She’s really the Boggart Queen pretending to be our principal, and she’s using my notebook for tips on how the changelings should act.”
Luke nodded. “We have to get the notebook before she uses it to take over the world.”
“We can’t get it now,” Penny said. “We need to cook eggs.”
“I’m starving, too,” Luke said. “But we have more important things to do than eat a snack.”
“They’re not to eat,” Penny explained. “Follow me and I’ll tell you more.”
On the way to her house, Penny told them she had discovered three ways to get rid of changelings. “Eggs are one way,” she said. “Actually, eggshells. They can’t stand the crunch!”
Unfortunately, Penny was totally out of eggs at her house. Luke didn’t have any either.
“Natalie, we have to go to your house,” Penny said after slamming Luke’s refrigerator door closed.
Natalie shook her head. “It wouldn’t do any good. We don’t use eggs. We use egg substitutes because my mom has high cholesterol.”
The three kids left Luke’s house and squeezed through the bushes into Mr. Leery’s backyard. Kirin and Dracula hurried over to their links. Even Dracula’s slobbery licks couldn’t keep Luke from groaning. “Now what are we going to do?”
“We’ll have to go to the store and buy a bunch of eggs,” Penny said.
Natalie glanced at her brand-new atomic watch. “No good. By the time we get home from the store, the teachers will have left the school.”
“Then we’ll just have to go to Plan B,” Luke said.
7
“Plan B?” Penny asked.
