Bug Girl Read online

  “You’re right,” Bug Girl started to say as one of the giant bugs lumbered over to her. “Karate chop!” Bug Girl shouted as she demonstrated a dazzling insecto-tackle. In no time flat, the bug was down, its legs kicking. Finally realizing it was helpless, it stopped moving.

  * * *

  INSECTS

  • Three body parts: head, thorax, abdomen

  • Six legs

  • May have wings

  • One pair of compound eyes

  • Two antennae

  ARACHNIDS

  • Two body parts: abdomen, cephalothorax

  • Eight legs

  • No wings

  • One to six pairs of simple eyes

  • No antennae

  * * *

  “Okay! Here’s what we’ll do,” Bug Girl said to Emily. “You and I will take care of the scorpions and centipedes. We can get everyone else to work together to put the insects on their backs. Teamwork!”

  “Teamwork,” Emily repeated, bracing herself for the ickiness. “I’ll touch them. And when this is over, I’m taking the longest bath in the history of the universe.”

  Bug Girl inhaled deeply.

  “Everyone!” she shouted authoritatively, addressing the panicking crowd. “We need your help to defeat The Exterminator’s army! Work in teams to flip the giant beetles over, like this one here.” She pointed at the sad excuse for a mutant that was still idle on its back. “My partner and I will wipe out the big, ugly, nasty ones. Then we’ll bring that geezer to justice and return Megawoman and Dragonfly to Oyster Cove!” There was a small, frightened cheer. “I want to see you ALL working,” Bug Girl ordered, striking a heroic pose, hands on hips, just for a moment. Then she punched the air and added, “Let’s go!”

  Tentatively at first, but then with what looked like growing enthusiasm, the people of Oyster Cove turned on the bugs that had been chasing them. Soon the entire beach was a rush of bug-flipping fanatics, some keeping count of their victories, but all cheering as each new mutant was flipped and rendered immobile.

  Meanwhile, Emily and Bug Girl started in on the arachnids and myriapods. Emily hurled Oyster Cove trophies, giant vegetables, homemade jams, and Skee-Balls—anything she could get her fiercely accurate hands on—at the beasts. But the frenzied crowd of beetle flippers was getting in her way.

  Bug Girl zoomed overhead, her wings a blur—but she wasn’t sure how to knock the scorpions out with her tymbals without also blasting bystanders. Her tentative blasts only seemed to be angering the creeps and making them scramble madly after her, stingers pointed skyward.

  Bug Girl felt through her antennae that Emily was trying to get her attention. She looked down and saw the silver girl pointing toward The Exterminator’s sinkhole workshop. Good idea.

  “Okay, let’s show these fools who’s boss,” Bug Girl shouted, racing earthward.

  Working quickly, Bug Girl landed on the beach. She mercilessly teased and taunted each and every mutant with eight legs or more until they were all pursuing her. “Come on, you chilopodic creeps!” she shouted. “You, too, arachnidic chumps!” When she was certain that every single one was focused on wiping her out, she led them Pied Piper–style toward the crater and began circling.

  With the mutants all surrounding Bug Girl on the edge of the pit, Emily stormed over. Then the angry super–sixth grader put her foot down. Emily stomped again and again, throwing a temper fit the likes of which had never been seen before.

  The massive hole began to collapse, sucking the mutants into it like sand through an hourglass. Gone and buried. To make extra sure there was no chance the creeps would resurface, Emily compacted the dirt with several ultrapowerful jumps.

  The Oyster Cove Day celebrants were silent for a moment; then they burst into a momentous cheer. People stood, dusted themselves off, and began shaking hands. Emily and Bug Girl walked to the center of the throng, and the ovation grew louder. With the bugs on their backs and the rest of the mutations underground, it seemed like the day had been saved.

  Then a speaker crackled.

  “Ugh,” Bug Girl and Emily groaned in unison.

  Chunks of rock and debris rained down from the cliff as The Exterminator’s giant contraption pulled itself to standing. Light leaked from the seams in the hull, and with a sonic boom, the outer shell split off to reveal a smaller, sleeker ship—an escape pod within.

  The smaller craft was black as obsidian and glistened in the late-afternoon sun. Its engine roared to life, and it blasted off into the sky. After a brief aerial tour of the damage, the craft hovered over the heroic girls, who were rolling their eyes. They could sense a speech was coming.

  “Testing, testing. Is this thing on? Oh good, it’s working again,” The Exterminator spat into his microphone as his escape craft hovered over the frenzied masses below.

  “Oh, you insufferable children,” The Exterminator’s voice blurted over the loudspeaker. “Just look at what you’ve done to my beautiful plan. No matter. I’ve still got your mothers. And if I’m going to lose, then so are they! You see, children, I’ve just activated what would be called Phase Three of my Sinister Plan—or was it Phase Four? Oh, I can’t remember. It’s a contingency phase, anyway, which I hadn’t expected to have to bring into play. But since you ghastly things have defeated my beautiful army, it looks like I have only one option left.”

  Emily and Bug Girl glanced at each other. This wasn’t going to be good.

  “I’m going to detonate this ship and take Megawoman, Dragonfly, you two foul little urchins, and every other disgraceful troglodyte in Oyster Cove with me! Then we’ll see who was right all along. And in case you’re wondering, the answer is me. The world will have me to thank when they are rid of this horrid town with its ice cream socials and pumpkin-carving contests and contra-dancing festivals and quilting bees. Disgusting!”

  The black saucer touched down on the beach, and a computerized voice began a countdown. They had only sixty seconds!

  There was no time to think or plan. Emily raced over to the contraption and, bracing herself beneath its hind end, pushed up with all her might. She groaned and screamed but managed to lift the ship up above her head. Her knees shook with the effort. In fact, her whole body quaked. It looked to everyone on the beach as if she might actually be crushed beneath the weight of the explosive escape craft!

  “Your outfit is completely unflattering!” Vincent screamed from behind a group of terrified Oyster Covians. Emily’s legs grew still.

  “Where did you get it, at the Thrif-T Bargain Barn?” he yelled disgustedly.

  Several people in the crowd glared at Vincent. How dare he heckle a hero? But Bug Girl knew what he was doing and grinned.

  “You look like a baked potato!” he hollered.

  That did it. With supernatural strength, Emily sent the disc spinning like a Frisbee past the pier, beyond the bay, and out into the ocean. Then she whirled and fixed her detractor with a look.

  Vincent smiled and waved back, waggling his fingers, and Emily’s expression softened. Little Vinnie had given her the rage boost she’d needed to save the town from the explosion. And judging by the cheers of the rescued crowd, she’d looked good doing it.

  Bug Girl didn’t let Emily bask in the glory for long. Taking off (she had this down now), she grasped Emily under the arms and wheeled out over the ocean, picking up speed.

  “We’ve got to get our moms out of that thing before it blows!” she shouted.

  30

  The Exterminator’s last-ditch detonation vehicle bobbed on the waves, several miles from the coast and Oyster Cove. Bug Girl touched down on the smooth black surface and released her grip on her partner. The eye that had been their mothers’ prison was now the cockpit of this new craft. She could see Megawoman and Dragonfly clearly, still bound and gagged inside. Standing between them, The Exterminator waved and tried to crack his haggard face into a smile. Jerk.

  But the computerized countdown continued: forty-four … forty-three
… forty-two …

  Bug Girl didn’t know a thing about deactivating bombs. What she did know was that she had to free their mothers before they were blown to bits.

  “Emily, punch the roof off. We’re going to need it to get out of here,” Bug Girl said. A plan was forming.…

  In a whir, Emily slammed through the roof as if she were opening a can of soup, drilling her fists in a wide circle all the way around. She ripped the perforated top free and flung it into the water beside the ailing craft, where it bobbed like a raft. Thirty-two … thirty-one … thirty …

  Meanwhile, Bug Girl ruptured the glass of the cockpit with her handy-dandy tymbals. As soon as the glass split, water began streaming into the vehicle, but that did not slow Bug Girl. She rushed inside and grabbed her still-bound mother and then Emily’s, flinging them out of the sinking ship. Then, begrudgingly, she rescued The Exterminator. “You’re lucky I’m nice,” she said to the grouchy geezer as he glared at her, waving his arms wildly and yelling insults.

  Twenty-three … twenty-two …

  Emily, who had jumped onto the getaway flotsam, caught each of the individuals as they were ejected through the portal and hauled them aboard the makeshift dinghy. The bomb craft began to sink, and Bug Girl fluttered out to take her place at the bow of the roof raft.

  “Emily! Get in the water. I need you to be the rudder,” she called.

  Seventeen … sixteen …

  Bug Girl flapped. She beat her wings as fast as she could, propelling the raft over the water.

  Ten … nine …

  “Kick!” Bug Girl yelled to Emily. “Get it moving, already! COME ON!”

  Emily didn’t care for Bug Girl’s tone. Agitated, she fluttered her feet at maximum power—which sped things up considerably. In no time at all (4.2 seconds, to be exact) they were a safe distance from the ship’s crash-down site.

  The Exterminator screeched as the choppy water splashed in his face. “You even ruined my Contingency Phase! I’ll see that you pay for this if it’s the last thing I do!”

  “Yeesh. Do you ever stop? No one cares!” Bug Girl shouted, still concentrating on getting them away from the explosive.

  “Yeah, put a cork in it!” Emily added, not wanting to miss out on the fun of tormenting their captive.

  They were about a mile away when the sinking ship’s timer went off. The surface of the ocean churned slightly, some lazy bubbles gurgled forth, accompanied by a puff or two of smoke, and then the waters went back to their regularly scheduled ebb and flow.

  “Some bomb,” Emily guffawed.

  The Exterminator’s shoulders slumped. “I can’t be perfect at everything,” he managed to say before covering his face with his hands.

  Emily and Bug Girl knelt down beside their mothers, Megawoman and Dragonfly, who were still bound by The Exterminator’s magical spider thread. The moms’ eyes were no longer filled with terror, but with absolute and beaming pride.

  “Okay, Bug Girl,” Emily said, pointing to the binds. “Cough up some of those potent loogies.”

  “Stop calling them that!” Bug Girl snorted. She and Emily helped the mothers stand up, and then, with concentration, she spat precision bombardier beetle spittle. As Bug Girl’s acid weakened the binds, Emily pulled them apart, snapping the compromised threads. Finally, Oyster Cove’s beloved superheroes, and Emily and Amanda’s beloved mothers, wrapped their arms around their daughters and saviors! They were free. They were safe.

  The group was still a good distance from the shore when a police boat caught up to them. Frida—dressed in a military uniform with a swish red beret and matching lipstick—Poppy, and Vincent were all aboard, along with several police officers who snatched the deflated Exterminator up and handcuffed him, dragging him into a cell somewhere deep within the ship’s hull.

  “Take me away. I’m too embarrassed,” The Exterminator whined, his lips pulling back as he began to cry.

  “Ugh, those teeth,” Emily groaned, hiding her face in her mother’s cape.

  “Candy corn,” Bug Girl said, nodding. “They look like candy corn. The brown kind.”

  Emily and Bug Girl giggled together for the first time in over a year.

  Amanda hugged her mom tighter than she ever had in her entire life. She looked over and saw Emily doing the same. There were even tears streaming down Emily’s face.

  “Oh, honey, we are so proud of you,” Amanda’s mother said, pulling back enough to get a good look at her. “Thank you for saving us. I knew you could do it.”

  The four heroes stood on the boat’s deck and watched as Oyster Cove came closer into view. Next to them stood the three freshest sidekicks anyone could hope for: Frida, Poppy, and Vincent, silent and beaming.

  The police boat pulled up to the dock. Officers dragged The Exterminator from the bowels of the ship and prepared to load him into an armored car. He would be spending the rest of his years in a maximum-security prison where no insects were allowed. “Foul children!” he wheezed as he was pushed toward the vehicle. “Poltroons!”

  Amanda stepped closer. “You know, I’m sorry about your dog and all,” she admitted. “But you just can’t treat living things like … that. You have to be nice,” she explained, certain her words were falling on deaf ears.

  The Exterminator was uncharacteristically silent. He was gazing at her with an odd look on his face. Like admiration. And when he spoke, Amanda was surprised.

  “Bug Girl,” he rasped, “may I touch your wings?”

  Amanda thought of wind and clouds and kites soaring sky-high. Her wings fluttered open, and The Exterminator reached out a thin hand. His touch was gentle, and brief. And Amanda thought she saw him smile as they closed and locked the car door.

  As Bug Girl and Emily stepped off the dock, all of Oyster Cove burst into applause.

  The mayor greeted the two new heroes. He brought them through the crowd to the Oyster Cove Day bandstand, where they received the ovation they deserved. Bug Girl and Emily took their bows before waving their mothers onstage with them. Citizens went even wilder, seeing their beloved Megawoman and Dragonfly freed from danger. All was well.

  “Thanks to you, young heroes, our wonderful town has been saved! And Dragonfly and Megawoman have been returned. Let us celebrate these brave girls! I declare this the best Oyster Cove Day ever!”

  As the townspeople cheered, clapped, and called, the four amazing superheroes stood together, proud and safe.

  “You two newfangled youngsters sure showed The Exterminator a thing or two,” Poppy chuckled as the heroes exited the stage. “How about a spaghetti dinner?”

  “Great idea,” Emily shouted. “I’m starving!”

  Frida and Mrs. Battfield sandwiched the sparkly hero in a hug. “You’re wrinkling my unitard,” she hissed jokingly.

  Vincent was too choked up to speak, but the look he gave Amanda said it all: Dang, girl. In contrast, Amanda’s mom could not stop talking.

  “Oh, Sweet Potato! Just look at you!” she gushed at Amanda. “Antennae? Wings? Oh, I could just burst! I knew it was a good idea to feed you extra protein and bee pollen. You and Emily are heroes, just as we knew you would be!” Amanda’s mother squeezed both girls’ shoulders. “And you are friends again, too!”

  Bug Girl looked at her partner with a grin so big, it threatened to split her face—her happiness was clear.

  Emily’s expression was unreadable. Her smile was reserved. “About that,” Emily said under her breath. “We’re cool and all. But don’t talk to me at school, okay?”

  Bug Girl stared—her smile frozen. Seriously?

  EPILOGUE

  Amanda Price’s seventh-grade year started out as expected. Terribly.

  School had only been in session for a week, and Mr. Schenkenclabber had already assigned oral reports in science class. Having experienced rather strong reactions to past reports, she had chosen what she viewed as a relatively mundane topic—Trash Bugs: Vampires of the Insect Kingdom.

  After delivering her r
eport about the hoboesque insects that hobble around with their victims’ exoskeletons piled on their backs, Amanda took her seat. Some of the students stared at her nervously, as if her topic were weird.

  Then it was Vincent’s turn. Amanda’s best friend had chosen a more controversial topic, based on his new obsession with the exploration of the great unknown.

  “Mokele-Mbembe: the Last Living Dinosaur,” Vincent read aloud from the podium. “That’s pronounced Moe-kay-lay Em-bem-bay,” he repeated. Amanda gave him an encouraging look.

  Vincent continued. “The last living dinosaur, a brontosaurus, to be exact, is rumored to be hiding out in the African Congo. Lake Tele, its reported home, is a massive circular body of water surrounded by near-impenetrable forest. A Japanese expedition to the lake garnered some blurry film footage, but all other explorers have either failed to reach the lake or come up with inconclusive results.”

  Amanda sat rapt as Vincent showed slides of what the beast was rumored to look like. She relished the idea of sharing the world with as-yet-undiscovered creatures. But apparently not everyone was as smitten with the idea.

  “Who cares about some tacky dinosaur?” someone blurted from the back. “That’s about as scientific as a report on aliens. They don’t exist. F-plus, if you ask me.”

  Amanda turned, a sour look on her face. You didn’t interrupt Vincent Verbiglia when he was speaking as far as Amanda was concerned.

  But when she saw the flap jaw that had so rudely offered unwanted commentary, she froze. The buttinsky was none other than Geraldine Atrixious, or Geri, as she had asked to be called.

  Geri was a new student at Oyster Cove Middle School. She had taken the school by storm and risen through the social ranks with lightning speed. The new reigning queen was holding court at the back table, surrounded by the popular girls—every single one of whom would do Geri’s bidding if she so much as crooked a little finger. Everyone, including Emily.