But even if Ralph wasn’t always my friend, Regina was. And I had a feeling that whatever was bothering Ralph would be bothering her too. Plus, I’d learned from SPACE BLASTERS that sometimes being a good Captain is checking in on all of your crew, even the ones you don’t like as much.
“Because we’re in the same crew,” I said.
Ralph snorted (like I said, he is the master of snorts) and rolled his eyes. “That was one camping trip in the woods,” he said. “And don’t think it means we’re best friends or anything now. Because we’re not.”
“Suit yourself,” I said, and turned to organize some paint brushes. I tried to whistle too, to show how much I wasn’t bothered, but I don’t know how to whistle, so instead I kind of just blew air out of my mouth and hooted a bit.
“Why are you making train noises?” Ralph said. “You are so weird.”
“I’m just whistling,” I said. “Minding my own business.”
Ralph scowled. “Fine! I’ll tell you. Regina will probably tell you anyway. She’s convinced that you and your friends are the only ones who can help us. I don’t know why.”
“Really?” I said, standing up a little straighter. It was nice to feel appreciated.
Ralph paused and then looked around to make sure nobody could hear him. “Do you remember what Regina said is trapped in our basement?”
I gulped. Ralph couldn’t be talking about what I thought he was talking about . . . could he?
“You don’t mean . . . ” I couldn’t even say it.
Ralph nodded solemnly.
“It’s louder than ever. We can’t sleep at night because we’re worried it’s going to get out.”
I gulped again.
“And eat us,” he added, in case it wasn’t clear. “We don’t know what to do.”
“Well,” I said, trying to show how brave I was even though I was starting to sweat, “the first thing we need to do is to get everyone in our crew back together if we’re going to face . . . THE ZOMBIE WEREWOLF.”
WHAT EVEN IS A ZOMBIE WEREWOLF?
My best friends Zoe and Bernard couldn’t believe it when I told them we needed to have a top-secret meeting with Ralph and Regina that day at lunch.
“What?” said Zoe. “But Ralph just got you in trouble!”
“Trust me,” I said. “It’s serious. They need our help.”
“With what?” asked Bernard. “Being their personal alarm clocks?”
“Yeah, why do they keep falling asleep in class?” said Zoe.
“They need help with the zombie werewolf,” I said, waggling my eyebrows to make sure Zoe and Bernard knew exactly how serious this was.
“Ohh!” said Zoe, and Bernard’s mouth dropped a little bit open.
They definitely knew what I meant. Regina had been telling us for a while about this mysterious zombie werewolf in their basement, and each time she did, I said that of course we’d come to help her. But I never thought we actually would have to. Captain Jane on SPACE BLASTERS says that you should never offer something if you can’t follow through, and I guess I’m learning that the hard way.
“Sam, we don’t know anything about zombie werewolves!” Zoe said, looking nervous. “That is too serious and too dangerous for us.”
“We’re official Ghost Hunters! And Spider Catchers! And snake wranglers! If anyone can do it, we can,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. Another thing I’ve learned on SPACE BLASTERS is that sometimes, even if you are scared, you just have to act like you aren’t, and sometimes you can trick yourself into being Not Scared. This doesn’t always work for| me, but I like to try it anyway.
“What do any of those things have to do with zombie werewolves?” Zoe went on.
I paused.
“Nothing!” Zoe said, throwing her arms in the air.
She was right.
“Well, you might have a point,” I said slowly. “We don’t know anything about zombie werewolves. But we didn’t know anything about sharks or ghosts either, until we did some research.” I turned to Bernard with a big grin. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Bernard?”
Bernard loves research so I thought that this would definitely get him on board.
But he just scratched his head. “I don’t know, Sam. Some things, even research can’t prepare you for. I’m not even sure what a zombie werewolf is. Are you?”
“And what if it’s a trap?” said Zoe. “What if Ralph is inviting us over just to use us as BAIT for the zombie werewolf? That sounds like something he would do.”
This was NOT going well.
“Regina wouldn’t do that,” I said, but I wished Zoe hadn’t put that idea in my head. “And Ralph can be evil, but he isn’t that evil.” At least I hoped he wasn’t.
Just then, Regina bounded over to us, with a huge smile on her face. Ralph was trailing behind her, sulking.
“Ralph told me the good news!” she said breathlessly. “You’re going to help us with our zombie werewolf problem!”
“You bet we are!” I said.
Zoe and Bernard groaned.
“I knew we could count on you,” said Regina.
A very small part of me regretted previously telling Regina so confidently that we could help with the zombie werewolf. I hadn’t
