Michael Buckley - The Unusual Suspects

"Yee-haw!"he cried, jabbing the heels of his feet into the mouse's side. The mouse squealed in pain, lifted itself on two legs, and kicked wildly, causing Puck to bounce around like a rodeo cowboy and Sabrina to be tossed around mercilessly inside the boy's pocket.

The giant mouse slammed into walls, broke down doors, and put serious dents into a row of lockers. It shattered a trophy case, sending glass, brass track medals, and bowling prizes skittering down the hallway. It crashed into a banner announcing the library's bake sale and ripped it off the wall.

Of course, Puck laughed at every effort the mouse made to buck him off. Sabrina suspected he'd ride the beast all day if it didn't get tired first.

"Puck, cut it out!" she shouted, clutching the top of the pocket, but she knew the boy couldn't hear her over the commotion he was making.

Daphne rushed across the hallway, avoiding the mouse's wicked flapping tail. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her half-full Drink Me juice box and aimed it at the mouse's mouth.

"Daphne, you're a genius!" Sabrina cried.

Daphne reached back like a big-league pitcher, waited for the mouse to open its gaping mouth, and tossed the juice box as hard as she could. Unfortunately, instead of slipping down the mouse's throat, the box bounced off one of the rodent's gnarly yellow teeth and fell to the ground. The mouse stomped down on the box, spraying the contents all over the hallway.

"Uh, what's plan B?" Wendell shouted, just as the mouse headed for the exit door. Unfortunately, Daphne was right in its path.

"Daphne, run!" Sabrina yelled, but there was no way the little girl could move that quickly. Luckily, Wendell raced across the hall and pushed Daphne to safety just as the enormous rodent lumbered past them like an out-of-control train. It slammed into the exit doors, knocking them off their hinges, and stomped outside.

Puck howled and laughed the whole way, until a low-hanging tree with a thick limb knocked him off the mouse. He fell hard on his back, sending his Drink Me box flying and launching Sabrina out of his pocket and onto the lawn several yards away. By the time Sabrina got her bearings, the mouse was already on top of the boy, doing what it could to sink its sharp teeth into him as Puck fought it off.

"Got any more of that juice?" he shouted, as Daphne and Wendell raced to his side. Puck snatched Wendell's Drink Me box with a free hand and squeezed its contents into the mouse's mouth until the box was crumpled and empty. Almost immediately, a ripple ran across the mouse's skin. The rodent shrank rapidly until it was once again a little brown mouse, sitting on the boy's chest.

Puck looked down at it and laughed. Then he ran his finger over the mouse's coat. "Good try," he told the rodent. "You almost had me."

Daphne helped Puck to his feet.

"Where's Sabrina?" she asked.

"Don't worry, marshmallow, she's right here in my pocket," Puck said as he looked inside. "Uh-oh."

"What's uh-oh?" Daphne cried.

"She's not in there," Puck said.

The little girl's eyes got as big as saucers.

"Don't anyone move," Wendell said. "She probably fell out here on the lawn and we could step on her."

"Sabrina!" Daphne shouted.

"I'm here!" Sabrina yelled, waving her hands and jumping up and down, but none of the children could see or hear her.

"What if we've already stepped on her?" her sister cried, as tears streamed down her face.

"Let's check," Wendell said. He slowly lifted each of his shoes. "She's not on mine."

Puck slowly looked under his sneakers. "All clear!"

Daphne checked one foot and then the next. A big smile came to her face.

"See, we haven't stepped on her," Wendell said.

"I think we better get the old lady," Puck said as his wings sprouted. "Best that I fly us out of here so we don't squish her."

In a few moments he had snatched the other children off the ground and they were all flying away.

"Don't you dare leave me out here!" Sabrina screamed, but they were already gone.

She looked around. The school was only steps away for a normal-sized person, but for her it seemed like half a mile. Staying put was probably the best idea, but the air was freezing even with her coat on, so she shoved her hands into her pockets and marched toward the entrance to the school.

When she finally reached the school's main doors, she found them in a heap-knocked off their hinges by the giant mouse- which left the hallway open to the bitter winter wind outside. Her walk had chilled her to the bone, and finding somewhere safe and warm to rest was now her main priority. She remembered that the heat in Mr. Sheepshank's office was always on full blast. If she was going to get warm, that was the place to go, so she ran down the hall, dodging a giant mound of discarded bubble gum, and made her way to the main office door. She'd hoped it would be a safe place to hide until Puck could return with her grandmother, but as soon as she crawled underneath the door she knew she had even bigger problems to deal with.

"There's another roach!" the secretary with the big glasses cried. She reached into a drawer and pulled out an aerosol spray can, shook it vigorously, and got up from her desk. One glance at the can told Sabrina all she needed to know about what was going to happen next. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what ROACH-BE-DEAD meant.

She ran along the rug frantically, racing under the secretary's desk just as the gigantic woman rounded the other side. This was unbelievable. A giant mouse had just been rampaging through the school and these goofy secretaries were worried about roaches? When Sabrina came into the light, the other secretary was there, chomping on a sandwich. She mumbled loudly and pointed at tiny Sabrina, causing the first secretary to come back around. The girl dashed under the desk again, but this time the secretary got down on her knees, pointed the spray can at her, and pushed the nozzle. Sabrina was sure she would soon be covered in a horrible poison and die, but luckily the nozzle was pointed upward and the chemical death landed all over the desk.

"This one's fast." The first secretary scowled.

"Don't send it running over here," the second secretary cried. "Those things give me the heebie-jeebies."

The first secretary raced around the desk just as Sabrina darted behind a file cabinet.

"Where did it go?" she groaned.

The second secretary had gone back to enjoying her sandwich and mumbled an "I don't know" to her coworker.

"I know where the filthy thing went," the first secretary cried. Suddenly, Sabrina's safe hiding place began to rock back and forth. The file cabinet moved several inches before it stopped. "It's heavy."

"I'm not a cockroach!" she shouted, but she knew the woman couldn't hear her. A stream of the poison came showering in from one side of the cabinet. Sabrina darted out of the way, but the secretary seemed to anticipate her escape route and was waiting for her on the other side. The girl looked up to find the nozzle of the can pointing right at her.

"Now I've got you," the woman cried.

But she never got her chance to spray the poison. Sabrina heard the office door open, and Mr. Sheepshank say, "Hello, ladies. The commotion is all over."

"What was it?" the secretary with the roach spray asked.

"Oh, just a big dog some kid let in," he replied. "Scared everybody half to death. Most of the kids have already left for home. Principal Hamelin just told me to let you two go, as well."

"Early dismissal for the grown-ups? I love it!" The roach-obsessed secretary cheered. She quickly forgot about Sabrina and crawled to her feet.