Claws! by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online Page B

for Amanda.
    A huge red-and-yellow poster was strung along the ceiling. It read: support the snakes! That’s our team name—the South Middle School Rattlesnakes.
    Our yearbook is called
The Venom.
Really.
    Everyone loves snakes at my school. I think it’s kind of weird.
    I waited another five minutes. The lunchroom was filling up with kids. I still didn’t see Amanda.
    I opened my backpack to get my lunch bag. I gazed inside.
    My breath caught in my throat. I started to choke.
    I stared into the backpack in shock.
    Stared at the orange cat gazing up at me.
    And as I stared, the cat’s eyes began to glow— until they blazed bright red. The lips pulled back, baring yellowed fangs. And the cat opened its mouth wide in a furious
hissssssss.

22
    “N-no!”
    I tried to scream, but my cry came out in a choked whisper.
    The glowing red eyes seemed to burn my face.
    I jumped up. Sent my chair toppling onto its back. I staggered away from the table, my eyes on the open backpack.
    I spun to the door and saw Amanda enter the lunchroom with two or three other girls. I ran to her, stumbling over a kid’s backpack.
    “Hey, watch out!” he shouted.
    Some kids meowed. Someone threw an empty milk carton at me. It bounced off my shoulder.
    “Amanda!” I called breathlessly. “Come here. You—you have to see this. I found the cat!”
    I pulled her away from her friends. She gave them a helpless wave. “Catch you later,” she called to them.
    She turned to me. “What’s your problem, Mickey? Why are you freaking out? Are you having a total meltdown?”
    “Don’t talk,” I said. I pulled her through the crowded aisle between tables to the back of the room. “Don’t talk, Amanda. Just look.”
    I grabbed the backpack off the table. I held it up to her and pulled it open so she could see inside.
    She lowered her eyes. Blinked a few times. Gazed into the backpack. And uttered a startled cry. “Wow,” she murmured. “Mickey—wow.”

23
    “I don’t see anything,” Amanda said. “Am I missing the joke?”
    “J-joke?” I stammered. I jerked the backpack away from her and gazed inside.
    I saw my binder, a few books, and my brown lunch bag.
    “But—but —” I sputtered. “There was a cat in there. Listen to me, Amanda. When I opened it, I—I saw an orange cat. It must be the one I kept hearing in class. And —”
    “Sit down,” she said sharply. She grabbed my arm and pulled me down to a chair. Then she dropped into the chair beside me.
    “What’s up, Mickey? You’ve been totally berserk all morning.”
    I slid the backpack closer and dug my hand around in it. “I’m not making it up,” I said.
    “Just tell me what’s going on,” Amanda insisted.
    Some girls from our class waved to her at the next table. But she kept her eyes locked on me.
    I shoved the backpack across the table. “I—I don’t know what’s going on,” I stammered. “It started last night.”
    I told her how I kept hearing a cat meow in my room. And how I searched everywhere and couldn’t find it. I told her about the shadow. And about my goldfish. How I found chunks of fish floating at the top of the tank.
    Amanda made a disgusted face. She stuck out her tongue.
“Bleccccch.”
    “It’s not a joke. It really happened,” I said. “And I didn’t tell you the weirdest thing of all.”
    She squinted hard at me. “You’re not making this up? You’re not trying to scare me?”
    I raised my right hand. “I swear.”
    She pressed her hand to my forehead, pretending to take my temperature.
    “Then I kept hearing a cat in class this morning,” I said. “That’s why I jumped up like that. Maybe it was the cat in my backpack. I’m not making any of this up. I’m totally freaking out, Amanda.”
    She stared at me. “You’re just stressed and upset,” she said finally.
    “Upset?”
    “Yes. Because of the switch we pulled with Bella,” Amanda said. “First, the cat was killed.The cat we were responsible for. That’s very