Sinister Substitute Read Online Free PDF Page B

Damien Black wouldn’t let a little thing like following the wrong boy stop him. Damien Black would return to school! And he’d keep coming back until… until Ms. Krockle was freed and could tell the police that he was a madman! The police would arrest him and this time they’d
keep
him behind bars!
    Dave hated to admit it, but Sticky was right. Freeing Ms. Krockle was
his
ticket to freedom, too.
    Now, while these gears were grinding in Dave’s head, Sticky watched.
    And waited.
    And when he saw that Dave had reached theinevitable conclusion, he gave Dave a sage little smile. “It may be ugly-buggly,
señor
, but it needs to be done.”
    Dave pushed off on his bike. “I can’t believe it,” he grumbled. “I’ve got to save
her
?”
    “It’s the right thing to do,
señor.”
    “How can you
say
that?” Dave glanced over at the gecko on his shoulder. “How can you of all people—well, of all
lizards
—say that?”

    Sticky shrugged. “He’ll kill her if you don’t.”
    “Do I care? Do I really care? How many things has she killed?
    How many frogs has she cut up? She’s evil, Sticky. She’s mean.”
    “Don’t I know,” Sticky repeated. “But it’s still the right thing to do.”
    “There has to be a better way,” Dave grumbled. “There just has to!”
    And so, to avoid facing the inevitable, Dave did
not
sneak out that night to rescue Ms. Veronica Krockle. Instead, he did his homework, did his chores, and went to bed before being told to.
    I should, perhaps, point out that it wasn’t fear holding him back.
    It was the idea of rescuing Veronica Krockle.
    Can you imagine a task so distasteful, so repulsive, so
counterintuitive
that you would do your homework
and
your chores
and
go straight to bed, all without being asked?
    I thought not.
    Now, it’s a well-known fact that sleep has many healing properties. Most people are aware that sleep is the time for your body to make repairs, but it is also linked to fighting off cancersand bolstering memory and (believe it or not) losing weight.
    As you can see, sleep is amazing, powerful stuff.
    What sleep
cannot
do, however, is change reality.
    It can only help you avoid it.
    Until you wake up, that is.
    And then you’re right back where you were.
    Dave did, in fact, wake up the next morning.
    And Dave did, in fact, find himself in the midst of his same dilemma:
    Should he save the Crocodile?
    Or risk facing off with Damien Black?
    But… wouldn’t he also have to face off with Damien Black if he went to the mansion and set Ms. Krockle free?
    Wasn’t saving her like two hazards in one?
    Well… not if he went to Damien’s house while Damien was substituting at school. That might work.
    Might
.
    More confused than ever, Dave did what any sensible boy of thirteen would do in such circumstances:
    He buried his head under the covers.
    “If you play hooky,
señor,”
Sticky whispered through a slit in the blankets, “you will give yourself away.”
    “He can’t keep coming back!” came Dave’s muffled response.
    “Sure he can,
señor.”
    “The school’s gotta figure out that he’s a phony sooner or later!”
    “Most likely later,” Sticky grumbled. He crawled under the covers and began pulling on Dave’s ear.
“Ándale, hombre!
Quit being such a
bobo
slowpoke.”
    Pulling on Dave’s ear was something Sticky did out of desperation. Usually because, say, a boulder was about to smash them to mush. Or a snake was about to strike. Or Dave was lookingleft when a semitruck was bearing down on them from the right.
    He also did it when Dave was being just plain stubborn.
    As you might imagine, Dave hated it when Sticky pulled on his ear. Not only was it annoying, it reminded him of being a little kid.
    Of being at the market with his grandma.
    (His grandma who, it’s sad to say, had long since died.)
    “Stop that!” Dave said, flailing under the covers. “Leave me alone!”
    Unfortunately for Dave, his mother (who had just opened his door) came