Chapter 1 Mouse-napped Monday March 3 8:45 a.m. Whoa What do you think is in that whispered Jeremiah Ms Abaza had arrived in the fifth-grade classroom carrying a big cardboard box Everyone in the class was thinking the same thing Ms Abaza was a really exciting teacher She often brought in strange and wonderful things to show the class or she took them to visit amazing places One year she took her whole class to climb a mountain But that’s another story Today the strange and wonderful thing arrived in the form of a big cardboard box And everybody was super curious about what was inside Maybe it’s a cake asked Tom hopefully Or a big box of Pop-Tarts with enough for all of us He sat up taller in his seat to see Behind him Mara groaned and leaned back in her seat Tom
was tall enough as it was and now she could barely see anything over his shiny blond hair Don’t be silly said Yolanda rolling her eyes behind her thick-framed glasses Pop-Tarts are only for breakfast Not for me they’re not said Tom He held on to his rumbling rumbling belly The class erupted into animated curious whispers The only person who didn’t join in was Jedda She was new in class and still a bit too shy to share her opinions with her classmates She shook her curly brown-and-gold hair so it hung further over her face picked up her marker and made a start on her biology project The rest of the class grew louder and louder Children Ms Abaza said holding up her hands for quiet As she did so her phone dropped from the pocket of her colorful dress Jeremiah rushed to retrieve the phone As he did so he tried to take a sneaky peek in Ms Abaza’s box It was no good There was no way to see what was inside But he did notice that he could hear a faint scuffling noise Thank you Jeremiah Ms Abaza said smiling Back to your seat now Mara wrinkled her nose Ew I can smell something coming from the box It smells like pee She pulled out a bottle of bubble gum-scented body spray and spritzed it in the air She was trying Lab Mice Heist
to be sneaky about it but the whole room suddenly filled with bubble-gum scent as if it had been transformed into a candy store Maybe it is said Ms Abaza laughing Her big dark eyes twinkled She put the box down on her desk adjusted her embroidered embroidered pink hijab and turned to the class with one eyebrow raised And please put down the spray bottle Mara I’m pretty sure what I have in the box isn’t a fan of bubble gum Does pee like bubble gum asked Mara looking confused She took hold of one of her long red pigtails and began twirling it around her finger an annoyed expression on her face Wait so you’re saying it’s not pee Because pee doesn’t like like anything right Ms Abaza shook her head at Mara and moved over to the whiteboard She drew a circle with some lines coming from its sides Then she drew something beneath the circle that looked almost like a mouth And then yes Those were definitely paws And a belly and back and big round ears Finally she drew a long tail that looked like a worm That looks just like Peter Pack Rat Yolanda said When her classmates looked at her blankly she added From the old Atari game Oh my gosh you guys are more clueless than a Magikarp who never gets to be a Gyarados While they just continued staring blankly Yolanda looked hopefully at Ms Abaza Is it a Mouse-napped
