That’s when I saw Kristen. She didn’t appear to be a zombie… yet. She was waving her arms frantically. Could I trust her? I decided that I had to. I had no choice. I noticed Kristen appeared to be sobbing on the ground. But wait—no. She was laughing. Our friends are monsters trying to murder us and she was laughing? She pointed back towards Jeff and Amy, and they were on the ground laughing, too. “We got you… so… good!” Amy said, laughing so hard she could barely finish speaking. “You did what? Are you kidding me?” “It’s a joke!” she said. I was so incredibly I mean, I was really livid! My face felt hot and flushed. “What’s wrong with you?” I asked them. Amy came toward me, wiping away the fake foam from her mouth. Jeff was removing contact lenses. “You smell horrible!” I said. “Yeah, uh. We kind of rubbed some spoiled milk on our clothes before we came. You know, to get the full effect,” Amy said. “You’ve got to it was pretty brilliant,” Jeff said. “You really tricked me, you guys.” “We’re sorry,” Kristen said. “But I watched the whole thing. You owned that obstacle course, and you did it under pressure!” “Well, I that’s true. I’m not nervous about the race any more!” “You’re going to be amazing, and we’ll be there to cheer you on! In zombie makeup, of course.” I started to laugh a little bit. I was still fuming mad and didn’t want to laugh. I just couldn’t help it. “I knew real zombies didn’t say BRAINS!” I said. “You guys are hacks!” “BRAAAAINS!” said Amy, holding out her arms to my neck. I couldn’t hold in the laughter any more.
The summer before, Patsy and her mother had driven to the other side of the lake to buy shampoo at the drugstore. The other side of the lake was nothing too exciting: strip malls and gas stations, with a shopping mall in the middle. But before she told Bart the truth, she wanted to know what he was imagining. It would be more fun to burst his bubble that way. “Describe it to me,” she said. “Tell me everything that’s on the side of the lake.” “Fish, obviously. But much bigger ones, I bet. The kind we saw at the natural history museum last year—like the kind that have the little lamp hanging in front of their eyes. I bet there’s a whole bunch of those. And birds, too—obviously—but great big huge ones. Not just seagulls and stuff—falcons, hawks, and snowy owls.” “And bald eagles, too, I bet.” “Tons of them.” “Do you know what they call a group of eagles?” “I don’t know…a flock?” “A convocation.” “No way.” “It’s true! I learned it in science class last year.” “So if I went to the other side of the lake, I’d see a convocation of eagles?”
“Uh…I don’t know.” Bart tossed a rock into the lake and watched the ripples slowly to the dock. He was appearing to lose interest. “Come on, Bart! Let your imagination run wild. Anything in the world could be over there. So what do you want to see?” “Well, uh…an ice cream store.” “What kind of ice cream store? The best one in the world?” “Definitely.” “What makes it the best one in the world?” “Well, uh—all the ice cream costs 25 cents. And if you ask for a free sample, they give you a whole scoop. And they have all kinds of crazy flavors, like butternut peanut butter walnut, and triple chocolate marshmallow fluff surprise.” “Triple chocolate marshmallow fluff surprise? What’s the surprise?” “More marshmallow.” Patsy felt her stomach give a rumble. “Huh. That actually sounds really good.” “Of course. And next to the ice cream store is a roller coaster park.” “And all the roller coasters are free?” “Yep. And each one has a double loop-the-loop.” “You’d better ride that before you go to the ice cream store, not after.”