Maybelle Goes to School (3 page)

“ZRRRT!” Maurice buzzed by, and Mr. Peabody flapped his hand in the air.

“ZRRRT! ZRRRT!”

“Shoo! Shoo!” Both Peabodys flapped their hands. “We must guard our cake, Herbert. This place has bugs!” Mrs. Peabody said.

Maybelle could not wait another minute to find Henry.

And so, with the Peabodys much too close for comfort, Maybelle had to sneak down from the top of the Tower of Taste in broad daylight. And scurry through humans, with eyes to see her and feet to squash her, and …

Oh dear! She was
never
going to eat cake again!

 

6

Eight Legs

Maybelle didn't know where she was going, but she intended to keep going there until she found Henry.
With her heart pounding, she skittered out of the lunchroom, down a hall, and into the first room she came to.

“Eyes on your work please, children,” the teacher said.

Small humans! Lots of them! Luckily they paid no attention to Maybelle as she ducked into a row of cozy dark cubbyholes.

“Henry? Are you here?” she called softly. No answer.

Maybelle began to explore. In one cubby there was a little red race car sticking out of a backpack. In another was—
sniff
—a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a brown paper bag. She was on her way to a third cubby when she noticed a terrarium on the shelf above her. A sign said
ROSIE THE TARANTULA
.

“My, my. Aren't you a lovely, plump thing,” Rosie said. “Come a little closer and let me have a look at you.” Rosie was very large and very hairy.

Maybelle crept nearer. “Have you seen a flea named Henry or a Golden Retriever?”

“Sorry, dearie. I can't hear you. You'll have to come closer.”

Maybelle crawled to the side of the terrarium and spoke as loudly as she dared. “I need to find Henry. I want to go home,” she said.

“What was that, darling?” Rosie said.

Rosie's eyes were black and beady. Maybelle didn't like the look of her. But she climbed to the top of Rosie's home, squeezed through the wire cover, and went right up to the spider's face. Rosie could surely hear her now.

“Have you seen a Golden Retriever?” Maybelle shouted up at her.

Rosie crouched ever so slightly on her eight legs. “Humm,” she said. Or was it more like …

“YUM!”

Rosie sprang. Maybelle turned and fled back the way she had come as fast as her six legs could carry her.

Just then, the lunch bell rang.
Clang!
Maybelle dove into the brown bag she'd passed earlier and waited in the peanut butter and jelly to see what would happen next.

 

7

Henry Under Glass

In the lunchroom, Beau Snodgrass wound up his little red car and raced it down the table. Next to him, Samantha Snerdly set out her lunch. While Samantha blew her straw wrapper across the table, Maybelle poked her head out of Samantha's sand-wich and wiped the peanut butter from her eyes. And there, right in front of her, was a stuffed golden dog. It was under the arm of the little human in the next chair. Could it be a Golden Retriever?

“Henry, are you there?” Maybelle said.

Henry's head popped up out of the plush fur. “Golden Retrievers are a big disappointment,” he said. “They are very dr—”

“Wow!” Samuel Snerdly said. He reached over, plucked Henry from the dog's head, and then ran off.

“Oh no!” Maybelle said.

She couldn't go home without Henry. But what had happened to him?

She soon found out.

Samuel Snerdly came back holding a plate with an upside-down drinking glass on it. A little sign scribbled on a napkin said
FLEA CIRCUS: DRESSED FLEA
.

Henry was under the glass. And he was wearing pants!

That was bad enough. But little humans were leaning over and
peering
at Henry. Maybelle almost fainted with the horror of it.

“Don't worry, Henry, I'll get help!”

Henry didn't hear her. He stood gazing down at his pants.

Maybelle wasn't big enough to knock the glass over and free Henry. But she knew someone who was. Someone with stripes.

Clang! Bang! Squeak, squeak!

“Children! Eat every bite of your food if you want to grow up big and strong,” the Lunch Lady said.

It was then that Samantha noticed her sandwich had antennae.
Yuck!
She threw it under the table. She could grow up big and strong another day.

Maybelle struggled out of the sticky peanut butter and set off across the lunchroom. She had to get to Ramona. But she couldn't help noticing all the crumbs along the way. Lunchrooms were delightfully messy.

Of course, she shouldn't think about food with Henry in trouble.

On the other hand, she had to keep up her strength. She snatched a taste of this and a nibble of that as she scurried along beneath the lunch tables.

When she reached the cakes, she climbed up, up, up the Tower of Taste and waited. Maybelle had a plan.

 

8

Yoo-hoo!

“Boys and girls! Here is today's Something Interesting,” said the Principal. “Go ahead, Samantha.”