Project Jackalope by Emily Ecton Read Free Book Online Page A

must be planning to come back.”
    No duh, since he pretty much said that in his note. “Well, good. I just wish he’d hustle.” The jackalope gave a big kick and shook the backpack in my hand, like he was trying to bust his way out of a cocoon. “The faster the better.” Twitchett was just lucky Mr. Jones had turned out to be such a jerk—if he’d been an okay guy I would’ve handed over the jackalope in a heartbeat, reward or no reward. Twitchett was so not worth all this trouble.
    A shadow passed across the window and we heard someone whistling outside. “Bob!” Agatha said. “He’ll know where Twitchett is!”
    She shoved me out into the lab area and slammed the door to Twitchett’s office just as Bob unlocked the lab door.
    Bob turned out to be this skinny, frizzy-haired guy wearing a faded Slayer T-shirt. He had these watery blue eyes behind a pair of black hipster glasses and was holding a fancy camera. Everything about him screamed “trying to be cool.” Basically, the kind of skeezy creep I do my best to avoid. I’m not a total Neanderthal, though. I can be polite. I stuck my hand out to introduce myself. “So you’re Bob? I’m—”
    “Agatha?” Bob interrupted, in this reedy voice that would’ve made me snicker any other day. He pushed past me, totally dissing my attempt to be cordial. “What are you doing here? You’re banned, remember?”
    Agatha shrugged. “Well, yeah, but, Professor Twitchett? He hasn’t been around, and I thought…so where is he?”
    Bob put his satchel down on the lab table and glanced around nervously. “I think he made himself pretty clear.”
    “Don’t you know where he is?” Agatha blinked up at him with big puppy eyes. No one can resist that.
    Bob shook his head. “Yeah, it’s funny. I don’t. Some guys were looking for him. But I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”
    Yeah, right, Bob. Way to lie, buddy. His Adam’s apple was bobbing around like it was Halloween.
    Bob held up the camera apologetically and then shoved it into a drawer behind him. “Polar bear photos. Gotta keep up to date, you know.” He laughed awkwardly. Like we cared what he’d been taking photos of. “Anybody want a soda? Jeremy? Agatha?”
    Agatha shook her head. “We’re pretty worried. And we need to talk to him about…”
    I kicked Agatha in the shin, hard. I didn’t even try to be subtle.
    Agatha glared at me, but she got the point. “A project. Just an idea I had.”
    Bob’s watery eyes widened “An idea you had? Oh, the—” He coughed, then reached out and tousled Agatha’s hair. “What do you mean, something for school? You’ve got some big project? Maybe I could help.”
    Agatha laughed and ducked her head away. She was acting jokey, but come on, no one over the age of five wants their hair tousled. What does Bob think,we’re preschoolers? “No, it’s okay, I just need to talk to Twitchett.”
    “Yeah, well, that makes two of us. He’s been super secretive lately, doesn’t share a thing. Not since he won that award for inventing that baboon posterior salve. Just top secret this, top secret that, right?” Bob grinned and stared at Agatha a little too long. There was some weird tension in the air, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, exactly. “Bet Jeremy knows all about it, though, right, Jeremy?”
    He laughed again.
    I shrugged. I was still trying to get over the baboon bomb Bob had just dropped. Posterior salve? Man, Agatha was right. Twitchett was a thief.
    “Right?” Bob’s beady eyes were still fixated on me. Apparently Bob didn’t realize that sometimes a shrug is the only answer you get.
    I rolled my eyes. “Beats me. Bubonic plague?”
    Bob gave me a confused look, but Agatha grabbed me by the arm. “Yeah, thanks, Bob. You’ll let me know if you hear from him?”
    Bob nodded. I didn’t like the way he was watching us, though. And something about the conversation was making all of my red flags shoot up, but I wasn’t sure what. It