The Calm Before the Storm: A Night in Sleepy Hollow
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
You’re suggesting I lie Carter said I’m shocked Sure you are she said But this isn’t a lie I can help you with your homework The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is one of the books in Uncle Dan’s program Once you’ve lived the book you’ll breeze through reading it A smile spread across Carter’s face He could imagine the big A inked across a pop quiz and putting an end to his grounding Then the smile slipped Are you sure you got all the mutant killer rabbits and crazy weather references out of the books he asked Wonderland was a little too intense for me last time we played with Uncle Dan’s invention You worry too much Isabelle said When Carter didn’t answer she fi nally added Yes I ran a diagnostic three times The books are clean Now do you want a good grade or not Carter sighed Killer rabbits or not he wanted a good grade I’ll see you in the morning 8
The next morning Carter rode his bike to his uncle’s house He looked for the spare key but Izzy hadn’t put it back Grumbling he hiked his backpack higher on his shoulder and pressed his uncle’s doorbell He held his fi nger against the button until his cousin opened the door That’s obnoxious she shouted over the door chimes ringing behind her She shoved his hand off the button So is not putting the key back Isabelle shrugged and backed up so Carter could pass I guess your parents thought studying together was a good idea Yeah yeah they love you he said Though that is the last time I voluntarily bring up your name and homework in the same conversation You know it would take less energy to just do your homework than it does to avoid it Carter glared at Izzy Thanks for the advice Mom Now didn’t you mention discovering something cool He seriously doubted anything Izzy found was really interesting but it had to 9
