The Calm Before the Storm: A Night in Sleepy Hollow
Homework Horrors Carter Lewis yawned so wide his jaw cracked He absolutely positively had to get this book read before Monday When his teacher assigned it she had pop quiz written all over her face Carter didn’t dare crash and burn during another pop quiz He yawned again and wondered how anyone could think it was interesting to ramble on and on about how a town got its name Who cares if Tarry Town used to be called Greensburgh Besides why talk about these other towns if the story takes place in Sleepy Hollow Carter knew there was supposed to be some kind of a chase scene Ms Mendelsong had peered over her glasses as she told the class Washington Irving’s use of a supernatural 4
chase makes The Legend of Sleepy Hollow similar to folktales of the time She’d said a bunch of other stuff too but that was all Carter remembered Carter wasn’t sure he’d ever get to the chase since he couldn’t get past the fi rst page with its description of the quietest place in the whole world Who wanted to read about the quietest place in the whole world He was hoping for a good zombie attack or maybe vampires swooping down on someone Even a werewolf would be okay as long as it actually chased someone down and ate him He groaned and tossed the book onto his desk At least it was Friday He still had two days to slog through the story before class on Monday Carter jumped when the pocket of his cargo shorts rattled against his leg He’d put his new cell phone on vibrate because he was grounded Technically he wasn’t supposed to use the phone but how could a guy live like that Hey he said quietly 5
It’s Isabelle You need to come to Uncle Dan’s house tomorrow Oh I’m fi ne Carter said Just enjoying being grounded And how are you Izzy His cousin groaned Just come to Uncle Dan’s tomorrow Why Is he back Carter asked eagerly No he’s still tracking down the guy who hacked his virtual reality program Isabelle replied Apparently Storm is pretty hard to fi nd even with Uncle Dan’s connections But that doesn’t matter I fi nished clearing out all the bad code The program’s clean and I found something cool I need you to come over so we can test it Carter frowned Isabelle’s defi nition of cool tended to be pretty different from a normal person’s Not that it mattered really He sighed Can’t Grounded Ms Mendelsong sent home a note about my lack of preparation in her class And Mom is patrolling downstairs while Dad works outside I can’t manage a prison 6
break this time This kind of thing wouldn’t happen if you did your reading Isabelle said in her most annoying know-it-all voice No one normal could read this stuff Carter complained Anyway I have to fi nish The Legend of Sleepy Hollow before Monday My Spidey sense is telling me she’s going to hit us with a pop quiz or an instant essay on Monday If I fl unk another Mendelsong surprise I’m going to be grounded until Christmas How far have you gotten Carter thought about lying but then he decided he didn’t care what Izzy thought I’m almost through the fi rst page Oh come on his cousin said That’s a cool story It’s got a ghost and one of the fi rst literary nerds It’s fun The fi rst page isn’t Carter answered Hey I have a great idea Isabelle said Tell your folks you’re meeting me so we can work on your English homework They’ll like that 7
