4

I squeezed my eyes shut.

The rock landed on my forehead—and bounced off.

I opened my eyes. Kara laughed like a hyena. She picked up the rock and dropped it on my face again. It bounced off, just like the first time.

Lauren grabbed it. “It’s made of sponge,” she announced. She squeezed it in her hand. “It’s a fake.”

Kyle laughed. “It’s a movie prop, moron.”

“You should’ve seen your face,” Kara added. “What a chicken!”

I kicked Kyle off me and pounced on him again. This time I was so mad I had the strength of two Kyles. I wrestled him to the ground. I had him pinned!

“What’s going on, guys?”

Uh-oh. Dad.

I leaped to my feet. “Hi, Dad. We were just kidding around.”

Kyle sat up, rubbing his elbow.

Dad didn’t even seem to notice that we’d been fighting. He was excited about something.

“Listen, kids—I have great news. Wilderness magazine just called. They want to fly me to Alaska!”

“Great, Dad,” I said sarcastically. “You get to go on another exciting trip while we stay here and die of boredom.”

“And heat,” Nicole added.

Dad laughed. “I called Mrs. Hitchens to see if she could come stay with you again—” he began.

“Not Mrs. Hitchens again!” I cried. “Dad, she’s horrible! I can’t stand her cooking. I’ll starve to death if she stays with us!”

“You will not, Jordan,” Nicole said. “Even if you ate only bread and water, you could survive a week easily.”

“Nicole? Jordan? Hello?” Dad said, knocking lightly on our heads. “Will you please listen to me? I haven’t finished yet.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“Anyway, Mrs. Hitchens can’t come. So, I guess you two will just have to come along with me.”

“To Alaska?” I cried. I was too excited to believe it.

“Hurray!” Nicole yelled. We jumped up and down.

“You guys are so lucky!” Lauren said. Kara and Kyle stood by. Saying nothing.

“We’re going to Alaska!” I shouted. “We’ll get to see snow! Tons of snow! Alaskan snow!”

I was thrilled. And Dad hadn’t even told us the interesting part yet.

“It’s a strange project,” Dad continued. “They want me to track down some kind of snow creature—an Abominable Snowman.”

“Wow!” I gasped.

Kyle and Kara snorted.

Nicole shook her head. “An Abominable Snowman? Has anybody really seen him?”

Dad nodded. “Some kind of snow creature has been spotted. Who knows what it really is. Whatever it is, the magazine wants me to shoot photos of it. I’m sure it’s a wild-goose chase. There’s no such thing as an Abominable Snowman.”

“So why are you going?” Nicole asked.

I poked her in the ribs. “Who cares? We’re going to Alaska!”

“The magazine is paying a big fee,” Dad explained. “And even if we don’t find a snow creature, I’ll still get some great shots of the tundra.”

Lauren asked, “What’s a tundra?”

Dad began to reply, but Nicole stepped forward. “I’ll handle this one, Dad,” she interrupted. I felt like screaming. She does that in school all the time, too.

“A tundra is a huge frozen plain. It exists in the Arctic, in Alaska, and in Russia. The word tundra comes from the Russian, meaning—”

I clapped my hand over her big mouth. “Any other questions, Lauren?”

Lauren shook her head. “That’s all I needed to know.”

“Egghead here goes on forever if you don’t stop her.” I let go of Nicole’s mouth. She stuck her tongue out at me.

“This trip is going to be great,” I cried happily. “We’ll see ice and snow for real! We’re going hunting for an Abominable Snowman! Awesome!”

An hour earlier we’d been bored out of our minds. Now suddenly everything had changed.

Dad smiled. “I’ve got to go back to the darkroom for a while. Don’t forget—we’re going out to dinner tonight.” He wandered back across the lawn and into the house.

As soon as Dad was gone, Kara started laughing. “An Abominable Snowman! What a joke!”

Typical Kara—she was too chicken to say a word while Dad was around.

Kyle made fun of me, jumping up and down and squealing, “Alaska! Alaska! I’ll get to see snow!”

“You both will probably turn blue and freeze,” Kara sneered.

“We’ll be fine,” Nicole said. “It’s your turn to freeze!” She grabbed Kara’s Super Soaker and sent a spray of water into Kara’s face.

“Stop it!” Kyle shouted. He dove at Nicole. Nicole laughed and ran away, turning around to soak them every few feet.

“Give that back!” Kara yelled.

The Millers chased Nicole. Kyle raised his Super Soaker and let Nicole have it in the back.

Lauren and I ran after them. Nicole raced into our backyard. She turned around and squirted the Millers again.

“You can’t catch me!” she cried, shooting and walking backward.

She was backing right into Dad’s compost heap.

Should I warn her? I thought.

No way.

“Take that!” she shouted, blasting the Millers with water.

Then she slipped and fell backward—into the compost heap.

“Yuck,” Lauren groaned.

Nicole stood up slowly. Greenish-brown slime oozed in her hair and dripped down her back, her arms, and her legs. “Ugh!” she screamed, frantically wiping the glop off her hands. “Uggghhh!”

We all stood and stared. She looked like some kind of Abominable Snowman herself. All covered in glop.

We were still staring when Dad popped his head out the back door. “You kids ready to go to dinner?” he called.

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