You Can't Scare Me! Read Online Free PDF Page A

me a shove. “We’d better hurry.”
    â€œDon’t push me,” I grumbled.
    We made our way to the tarantula cage, on a metal table against the wall. It was actually a rectangular plywood box with a wire mesh top.
    A loud crash made me stop a few feet from the cage. I gasped and turned to Hat. “What was that?”
    The sound repeated. We both realized it was a venetian blind, blown by the wind, banging against the open window behind us.
    I breathed a long sigh of relief. I stared at Hat and he stared at me. He nervously adjusted his baseball cap over his forehead. “Eddie, maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” he whispered. “Maybe we should get out of here.”
    I was tempted to agree with Hat and run out the door as fast as I could. But then I remembered Courtney’s smug smile as she climbed down from the tree with the cat. “Let’s stick to the plan,” I said.
    I really wanted to scare Courtney. More than anything else in the world.
    Hat and I peered down through the wire mesh at the two tarantulas. The bigger one was crawling along one end of the cage. The smaller, browner one was sitting like a lump at the other end.
    â€œYuck,” I said in a low voice. “They really are gross.”
    Their legs were all hairy and prickly looking. Their bodies looked like disgusting brown hairy sacks.
    â€œLet’s take the big one,” Hat urged, reaching for the lid. A grin spread across his face. “It’ll make a nice
plop
when it lands on Courtney’s head.”
    We both laughed. Hat made some funny plopping sounds.
    He lifted up the wire mesh top of the cage. He reached a hand in to grab the bigger tarantula. Then he suddenly stopped, and his grin faded.
    â€œWe’ve got a little problem,” he said.
    â€œHuh? What?” I glanced nervously back to the doorway. No one there.
    â€œWhat are we going to put it in?” Hat demanded.
    My mouth dropped open. “Oh.”
    â€œWe forgot to bring something to put it in,” Hat said. He lowered the top of the cage. Both tarantulas were crawling slowly toward each other now.
    â€œYeah. Well, we need a bag or something,” I said. My eyes searched the tabletops.
    â€œA bag isn’t any good,” Hat replied, frowning. “Tarantulas can tear right through a bag.”
    â€œOh, yeah. You’re right.”
    â€œWhy didn’t we think of this before?” Hat demanded. “Why were we so stupid? What did we think we were doing? You can’t just put a tarantula in your backpack and carry it around!”
    â€œCalm down,” I said, motioning for him to lower his voice. I could see he was starting to panic. “There must be
something
to keep a tarantula in up here.”
    â€œThis is really stupid,” he grumbled. “Did you think I was going to keep it in my pocket?”
    â€œWait,” I told him. I hurried over to the next table and picked up a plastic container. It was the size of a cottage cheese container and had a plastic top. “This is perfect,” I whispered, holding it up to show him. “I’ll just poke holes in the top.”
    â€œHurry,” Hat urged. He pulled off his cap and scratched his dark hair.
    I poked several air holes in the lid with a pencil. Then I carried the plastic container over to the cage. “Here,” I said, handing it to him.
    â€œYou have to hold it,” Hat told me. “I can’t hold the container and pick up the tarantula.”
    â€œOh,” I replied unhappily. I didn’t want to be that close to the tarantula.
    My hand started shaking a little. But I held the container close to the cage, ready to snap the lid over it as soon as Hat dropped one of the ugly creatures inside.
    He pulled up the lid and reached into the cage. Hat was really brave. He wrapped his hand aroundthe bigger one’s body and lifted it up easily. Hat didn’t even hesitate or make a disgusted