The Summer Experiment Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    I copied Miranda’s address in a new e-mail and then sent it to myself. I had to have more time to think about this. How mean is too mean? I knew all about those kids who were so terrible on Facebook that some teenagers even changed schools just to get away from them. Big, cruel bullies. And adults did it too. There was no way I could be that mean. I wanted to be kind of lukewarm mean. Now that I had the e-mail address I needed, I would plan carefully.
    In the kitchen, Mom had pancakes waiting for us in a dish on the stove. There was a note propped up against the cookie jar.
    Tina and I gone shopping. Fresh fruit and orange juice in refrigerator.
    Love, Mom
    I brought the pancakes over to the table. Marilee was just pulling out a chair.
    â€œLast night sucked,” I finally said, since we weren’t talking. We were reliving the horror instead. The silvery creature. The scary run down a hillside with no path. If I told on Johnny, I think this trick would really get my parents’ attention. They’d punish him good. I could hear my dad’s voice now. “Do you realize your sister and Marilee could have broken a leg or even worse? You need a serious readjustment, buddy.”
    But if that happened, I couldn’t put my payback plan in motion. All I’d get would be a few days of satisfaction in knowing that Johnny wasn’t allowed to go on the Internet for a week or watch his favorite sports shows. I was thinking far bigger than that.
    â€œYou’re up to something,” said Marilee, and I remembered that we were having breakfast together. “I have a hunch it’s not about the science fair and Henry Helmsby’s project.”
    â€œSorry,” I said, “but you’re right. My mind is working on revenge, not science. And it’s gonna be priceless.”
    â€œI have to go,” said Marilee. She seemed upset, and I knew it wasn’t just about last night.
    â€œSomething wrong I don’t know about?” I asked. I could always read her like a bestselling book.
    â€œMy mom says she heard from Dad this morning. He’s getting married next month.”
    I watched out the kitchen window until Marilee’s bike disappeared down the road.
    ***
    First, I rode my four-wheeler out to Frog Hill to pack up our tent and sleeping bags. Then, sleep deprived as I was, thanks to my evil brother, I went out to the swing with a pillow and a notepad. I positioned the pillow behind my back as I began to scribble ideas. So how mean is lukewarm mean? I probably couldn’t use Super Glue or a staple gun. Mom and Dad would really freak out. But I wanted to scare Johnny even more than he had scared me. How? That was my dilemma as I pushed the swing into motion. It was warm and sunny in the yard. I could hear the buzz of bumblebees as they visited Mom’s flower garden. I wondered if other galaxies would have flowers. Or maybe there is a planet of giant orange poppies and all the aliens look like bumblebees! I yawned once or twice before I let the notepad fall into my lap.
    I am running. There are beings chasing me. I can’t see them well in the moonlight, but they have big eyes in big bug-like heads and I am terrified. One reaches out a tentacle and wraps it around my wrist. He is wearing a white jacket and he seems to be the leader. I feel my insides heave up. I am trying to tell this creature, this insect, to let go of me. But it is holding me tight, another tentacle now circling my other wrist.
    And now I see more insects, bug-like things with bug-like hands. They are standing outside a spaceship that looks like a loaf of French bread, long and narrow. I’m screaming and screaming, and now the head insect—maybe he’s a doctor on their planet or something like that?—leans down close to my face. He looks just like a bumblebee! He isn’t saying the words but I can hear them. I can pick up his thoughts, his brain sending them to my brain.