Eerie Elementary #1: The School Is Alive! (A Branches Book) Page 3
Antonio cut him off. "Sam, everyone will
think we're crazy. I'm still not sure we aren't."
60
Sam sighed. He knew Antonio was right.
"Besides," Antonio said, "I've got my lucky
peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my pocket!
What could go wrong?"
Sam rolled his eyes. "Lucky sandwich . . ."
Before Sam could say anything else, the
lights dimmed. The audience went quiet. The
play was about to start.
Lucy rushed over. She pulled Antonio
toward the stage. "Wish us luck, Sam!" she
whispered as she and Antonio marched out
onstage.
Sam sighed. "Good luck. . . ."
Two hours later, Sam was smiling from ear
to ear — he couldn't believe it: The play was
actually going okay! Lucy was saying her lines
perfectly, Antonio made an awesome Peter Pan,
and the audience was clapping a ton.
Maybe he had been worried for nothing.
The next scene was the most exciting part
of the play: the big finish. Antonio and Lucy
were strung up on wires high above the stage
like they were flying.
62
"Sam!" Ms. Grinker said. "It's your turn
onstage!"
"Oh, right," Sam muttered.
He stepped out into the spotlight and began
to say his lines: "I am Noodler, Captain Hook's
friendly pirate. And I order you to —"
Sam stopped. He felt something move
below his feet. . . .
RUMBLE
RUMBLE
RUMBLE
63
With horror, Sam realized the school had
been waiting for him. Now that he was onstage,
the school was coming to life!
This was it.
There were some whispers in the audience.
People thought Sam had forgotten his lines.
But Sam didn't care about his lines.
He cared about what he saw next:
A trapdoor in the floor
was opening!
From up high, Lucy and Antonio saw it, too.
The trapdoor was opening wider and wider.
It was like the wooden stage was suddenly
made of rubber.
64
Sam's heart pounded as he looked down
into the darkness below. There, he saw the
true terror. . . .
65
Beneath the stage, hundreds of metal folding
chairs were opening and closing like a set of
giant jagged teeth!
And high above this
hungry mouth, Antonio
and Lucy were dangling
on their wires. They
were about to be
eaten alive!
67
SWISSHH!!
The big red curtains swooshed shut. The
audience gasped. They could no longer see
the stage.
A closet door banged open behind Sam.
Then the floorboards lifted up to form a slide.
Ms. Grinker and the other students tumbled
backward into the closet.
WORM MOUTH
1
3
From offstage, Mr. Nekobi yelled, "Sam! It's
happening!" He ran toward Sam. But the
curtain ropes grabbed hold of him. The ropes
flung Mr. Nekobi inside
the closet, too. The
door snapped shut.
Next, the lights
went out. Only one
spotlight stayed on. It
was pointed at Sam,
Lucy, and Antonio.
The audience can't see the
stage, and the teachers and students
are trapped in the closet! Sam thought.
I'm the only one who can save everyone!
The chair mouth began
to climb up out of its
hole in the floor —
like a worm
coming up out of
the ground!
70
Lucy and Antonio began kicking and
screaming. "What is that?!" Lucy yelled.
Antonio thrashed on his wire, trying to
get away from the huge teeth. As he swung,
his lucky peanut butter and jelly sandwich
slipped from his pocket. It fell down into the
giant mouth. The sandwich splattered against
the chair teeth.
71
Sam got an idea.
"I'll be back!" he shouted up to his friends.
"Don't leave us, Sam!" Lucy cried. She was
fiddling with her wire, trying to untie herself.
"Just trust me," Sam said. He leapt over the
giant mouth.
Everyone in the audience gasped as Sam
jumped out from behind the closed curtain.
He sprinted out of the dark auditorium and
into the hallway.
When Sam reached the end of the hall, he
pushed open the lunchroom door. It was quiet
and dark, but as soon as Sam stepped inside,
the lunchroom came alive. The chairs shook.
The long tables buckled up and down, and
the ceiling lamps swung.
A deep moaning sound came from a speaker
on the wall. Eerie Elementary was howling.
73
Sam needed to get into the kitchen, but
every step he took seemed to make the
school angrier. Packages of cookies exploded.
Tables flipped over. Light bulbs above his
head shattered!
Suddenly, the vending machine began firing
bottles of water at him. One blasted Sam in
the chest, knocking him onto his back.
I'll never make it all the way to the kitchen, he
thought. Unless . . .
74
Sam thought back to his training. He
remembered Antonio telling him to use what
was around him.
Sam leapt to his feet, grabbed an orange
lunch tray, and held it over his chest. He
hopped up on a table and sprinted down the
length of it! As he charged toward the kitchen,
the vending machine fired more water bottles
at him.
75
The bottles bounced off his shield.
Sam jumped off the end of the table, hit the
ground, and rolled into the kitchen.
Then he saw it: the one thing that could
save his friends.
POW!
POW!
76
Sam stared up at a giant drum of peanut
butter. It was stacked high atop a table full
of food supplies. He shook the table, then
jumped back. Jars of secret sauce and cans of
soup crashed to the ground — along with the
peanut butter drum.
EAT THIS!
14
77
78
Sam rolled the drum out through the
lunchroom door. He gave it a heavy push. It
barreled down the hall, clearing a path.
POW! The drum knocked a monstrous
chair out of the way.
BOOM! The drum sent a spinning trash
can flying.
KLAM! KLAM! KLAM! The drum blasted
79
through a set of locker doors.
The peanut butter drum crushed everything
in its way!
At last, Sam made it backstage with the
drum. Lucy ran toward him.
"Lucy!" Sam yelled. "How'd you get down?"
/> "I was able to untie myself. But I couldn't
reach Antonio. He's still stuck and —"
80
Sam pushed the drum toward the stage and
looked up. The giant mouth had grown larger!
It was now made of hundreds of folding chairs
that together formed a hundred teeth. Two of
the teeth had hold of Antonio's green pants.
Any second now, he would be eaten alive!
"HELP!" yelled Antonio.
"Sam, what can we do?" asked Lucy.
"Follow my lead," Sam said.
81
The mouth was about to chomp into
Antonio. Just then, Sam shouted, "Hey,
Eerie Elementary! Are you hungry?"
The monstrous chair mouth turned away
from Antonio. It faced Sam and Lucy and let
out a growl.
Sam and Lucy didn't flinch. They stood
perfectly still.
The mouth opened wider.
Lucy grabbed hold of Sam's arm. Sam held
his breath.
As the giant mouth charged toward them,
the stage floorboards were breaking apart.
Sam stared into the center of the chomping,
thrashing mouth. It was upon them.
"
NOW!" Sam screamed.
Together, Sam and Lucy kicked the heavy
peanut butter drum as hard as they could.
It bowled across the stage, right into the
giant mouth! The teeth chomped down on
the drum, and —
85
The drum burst open, and gallons
of peanut butter flew everywhere. The
peanut butter was gumming up the
monster's mouth. The chewing slowed,
then stopped.
Lucy and Sam bumped fists.
"You did it!" Antonio shouted from up
high.
"I couldn't have done it without you
two!" said Sam, smiling.
The sticky mouth slipped back down
through the trapdoor. The trapdoor closed.
The floor returned to normal.
It was over.
Eerie Elementary was silent.
Then — all of the sudden — the stage
curtains swooshed open!
86
The lights came on. The closet door opened.
Ms. Grinker, Mr. Nekobi, and the students
stumbled out.
For a moment, everyone was quiet. The
audience looked around, confused.
Ms. Grinker walked out onstage. "Um . . .
well, uh . . . Let's have a hand for the kids! That
play was amazing!" she said.
SAM GRAVES,
HALL MONITOR
15
87
Sam's mom started clapping. "Wonderful
job, Sam!" she yelled.
Soon, everyone was clapping. No one had
any idea what had just happened.
Lucy helped Antonio down from his wire.
Then she whispered to Sam, "Um, now what?"
Sam smiled. "Now we take our bow."
Backstage, the students were changing out
of their costumes.
Mr. Nekobi took Sam aside. "You did well
tonight, Sam Graves," he said. "Everyone here
is in good hands." Then he walked away.
Sam ran over to his friends. He burst out,
"I told you guys the school was alive! Now do
you believe me?"
Antonio and Lucy were talking so fast
that Sam could hardly understand them.
He laughed and said, "Guys, relax. I'll tell you
everything."
And he did. As they were waiting out
front for their parents, Sam told his friends
everything there was to tell about Eerie
Elementary.
The school cast long shadows, lit by the
moon. Two large windows were open, and
inside two lights burned like eyes, watching the
three best friends.
90
Sam reached into his backpack. He felt the
hall monitor sash that, just a few days earlier, he
had been embarrassed to wear. Now he had a
sudden urge to put it on. He knew it wouldn't
be long before Eerie Elementary would strike
again. . . .
Jack Chabert was a hall monitor
at Joshua Eaton Elementary School in
Reading, Massachusetts. But unlike our
hero Sam Graves's school, Jack's school
was not alive. Jack's life as a hall monitor
was much less exciting than Sam's — and
not nearly as scary!
Today, Jack Chabert monitors the halls of
a different building: a strange, old apartment
building in New York City that he calls home.
His days are spent playing video games, eating junk food,
and reading comic books. And at night, he walks the
halls, always prepared for the moment when his building
will come alive.
Sam Ricks went to a haunted
grade school, but he never got to be the
hall monitor. And, as far as he knows,
the school never tried to eat him.
Sam graduated from the University of
Baltimore with a master's degree in design.
He teaches illustration and design at The
Art Institute of Salt Lake City, Utah. And
he illustrates strange tales from the comfort
of his nearby, non-carnivorous home.
Quicksand is a compound word. A
compound word is made up of two
words that come together to make
one new word. What is quicksand?
Use what you know about quick
and sand to figure out the meaning.
Who is Mr. Nekobi? And how
does he help Sam?
Look at the picture
on page 54. What is
Sam doing?
How does Antonio's sandwich
help Sam save everyone?
Would you want to be the hall
monitor? Use examples from the
book to write why or why not.
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