Professor Gargoyle Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Yeah.”
    The 12:30 bell rang. Normally it would be time for lunch but today there was an early dismissal. Outside the bathroom, the hallway was filled with the noise of kids opening lockers and chatting about their weekends.
    “So, can I go now?” Robert asked.
    Mr. Loomis studied his face, as if he were literally searching for the truth. “Robert, you need to be focused on your schoolwork. Not worrying about bullies. I can make this problem go away, but I need you to tell me what’s going on.”
    It was the opportunity Robert had been waiting for. Here was a teacher willing to listen and capable of stopping Glenn once and for all. And yet Robert was too ashamed to tell him the truth.
    Boys were supposed to stand up for themselves. If Robert told Mr. Loomis everything—if he told him about the gummy worms and the dweeb tax and all the name-calling—he knew he would sound pathetic. It was too humiliating.
    He could feel the creatures in his backpack squirming, getting restless.
    “There’s no problem,” Robert said. “Can I go now?”

SEVEN

    He ran all the way home, bolted upstairs to his bedroom, kicked off his sneakers, lay down on his bed, and gently unzipped his backpack.
    The two heads emerged—first one, then the other—and inquisitively sniffed the bedroom air. “Come on out, little guys,” he said. “You’re totally safe here. This is my room. No jerks allowed.”
    The rats stepped cautiously onto the blankets. Robert petted their necks and soon they were purring again, happy to be lounging on his bed.
    “Now first things first,” he said. “You need a name.”
    He’d considered all kinds of options while racinghome—he thought Double Jeopardy sounded the coolest—but decided that he needed to pick two names. One for the left head, and one for the right.
    Mario and Luigi?
    Phineas and Ferb?
    Stars and Stripes?
    None of them seemed quite right. And then inspiration struck. He addressed the rats one at a time, first the left head and then the right. “You’re going to be Pip, and you’re going to be Squeak. Together, you’re Pipsqueak!”
    The rats seemed to love it. In fact, Squeak squeaked his approval several times, as if trying to prove he understood Robert’s decision.
    “Now stay here,” Robert said, “while I get some food.”
    He ran downstairs to the kitchen, where his mother was standing over the stove, stirring a pot of soup. “There you are!” she exclaimed. “How was your day, sweetie?”
    “Good.”
    “What are you doing?”
    Robert was already inside the refrigerator and loading his arms with two apples, a brick of cheese, a handful of lettuce, and a bag of baby carrots. “Just grabbing a snack. Thanks, Mom. Call me when dinner’s ready, okay?”
    In a flash he was back on his bed, sharing the food with Pip and Squeak. Clearly they were hungry; they leapt upon the apple, gripping it with their claws and gnawing it to the core. Robert watched them, mesmerized. Each head moved independently of the other; sometimes Pip would eat while Squeak rested, and vice versa.
    The food was gone in just ten minutes. Pip and Squeak looked to Robert with pleading eyes. “I’ll bring more after dinner,” he told them. “If I do it now, my mom will be suspicious.” Robert knew his mother wouldn’t tolerate a pet rat in the house, let alone a two-headed mutation.
    He found a cardboard box in his closet, then shredded the pages of an old loose-leaf notebook, arranging the scraps of paper into a sort of nest. Then he placed asmall bowl of water in one corner. “This is where you’ll sleep at night,” he explained.
    Pip and Squeak grasped the idea immediately. They climbed up into the box, settled into a corner, smiled at Robert, and chattered their teeth. It was a weird clicking noise that seemed to indicate they were happy.
    “You guys are going to be nice and cozy here,” he promised. “And it’s Friday, so we’ve got all weekend to play. Maybe we’ll go in the backyard