Nutty Study Buddies Read online

  CHAPTER 7

  “AHHHHH!” Merle screamed as he scrambled back to the air vent, his paws slipping on the wood floors.

  Before he could reach the safety of the hole in the floor, Mr. Nemesis pounced onto the vent, blocking Merle’s escape!

  “AHHHHH!” Merle screamed again, turning to escape in the opposite direction.

  In the quiet of Michael’s room, Pearl heard a faint sound through the wall. She casually looked up from the math book and asked, “Merle? Did you say something?”

  Meanwhile, Merle was running for his life! Feathers flew as Mr. Nemesis chased Merle over Jane’s bed pillows, the cat’s claws tearing the pillowcases and releasing their plumes. Merle dove into Princess Pretty-Pretty’s castle and slipped out through the drawbridge as Mr. Nemesis landed on top of the main turret, causing the castle to topple over. Merle scurried under the bed as Mr. Nemesis regained his footing and followed. As Merle came out from under the bed, he spotted the vent opening. The coast was clear! He made a mad dash, running faster than he had ever run in his life. Approaching his target, he leaped into the air and performed a perfect swan dive into the duct. Mr. Nemesis, so focused on catching Merle, failed to realize a cat is much too large to fit into a floor vent. The cat pounced high into the air and landed front paws and head first into the vent with a loud THUMP!

  “MEOOOOOWWWWW!!!” yowled Mr. Nemesis, his head and front legs wedged into the vent, his back legs kicking wildly, trying in vain to free himself.

  “YEE-HAW!!!” Merle yelled in relief as he scurried back through the vent toward Michael’s room and safety.

  CHAPTER 8

  “Fractions! That’s what you call them.” Pearl pushed together two halves of a walnut. “Two halves of a nut equal one whole nut.” Using her paws and repeating what she was learning out loud helped Pearl remember it.

  “Pearl!” Merle popped his head out of the vent into Michael’s room.

  “AHHHHH!” yelled Pearl, startled. “Don’t scare me like that!”

  “Don’t scare YOU like that?! I’m the one who was almost bitten in half!” Merle crawled up out of the grate, Mr. Nemesis’s loud meows echoing from the floor vent.

  “That’s funny!” Pearl said. “I was just studying fractions.”

  “Yeah—hilarious,” Merle responded sarcastically.

  “How’s the plan coming?” Pearl asked. “Did you find a place for us to live?”

  “Nope,” Merle said. “Unless you count inside a cat’s stomach.”

  Just then, the door opened. Merle and Pearl were relieved to see that it was Michael, home from school. “Hey, guys, how was your day?” he asked.

  “MEOOOOOWWWWW!!!” Mr. Nemesis’s voice rang out.

  Next came a shout from Jane: “MOOOOOM! Mr. Nemesis is stuck!”

  “Coming, sweetie!” called Mrs. Gomez.

  Michael shot Merle a questioning glance. Merle shrugged and smiled innocently.

  “Well, Michael, are you ready to study for your math test?” Pearl asked. “I think I’ve got it figured out!”

  Michael sighed and dropped his backpack on the desk. “I guess so.”

  CHAPTER 9

  “Let’s start with long division!” Pearl said cheerfully.

  “You sound way too happy when you say that,” Michael grumbled.

  “What can I say?” Pearl grinned. “Math makes me happy!”

  “Ugh!” Michael groaned as he plopped down next to Pearl at the desk. The two began studying. Pearl turned out to be a good teacher, and Michael made some progress, but then he noticed his soccer ball sitting in the corner of the room.

  “Where are you going?” Pearl asked as Michael stood up from his chair and walked toward the ball.

  “You can ask me questions while I practice my footwork.” Michael began juggling his soccer ball.

  Pearl frowned. “I don’t think you’ll be able to concentrate on your math while you’re doing that.”

  “What?” Michael asked, distracted.

  Merle, helping out, grabbed the ball as it left Michael’s foot and pointed him back toward the desk.

  “Ugh!” Michael repeated and plopped back down next to Pearl.

  “All right. Maybe we should work a little on fractions?” she asked.

  “Or maybe I can just eat a pound of raw brussels sprouts?” Michael said sarcastically.

  “Ooh! That sounds delicious, but let’s do fractions first,” Pearl said.

  Again, the two were making good progress, but before long, Michael was flat on his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling. “Can you ask me questions while I lie here?” he asked.

  “You can do this!” Pearl said, frustrated. “You just need to put more effort into it.”

  KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

  Merle and Pearl scrambled to hide, but then they heard a familiar voice call through the door, “Can we come in?”

  “Come on in!” Michael replied, and Justin and Sadie entered the room.

  “I see you’re studying hard!” Sadie said, noting the math book open on the desk.

  “He could be studying harder,” Pearl muttered.

  “Well, we’re done studying, and we wanted to celebrate by going roller-skating!” Justin said.

  “Roller-skating?” Merle asked.

  “It’s where you put wheels on your feet and roll around,” Michael explained.

  “Why would you want to do that?” asked Merle.

  “Because it’s fun!” Sadie said.

  “Well then, count me in!” Merle said. “It’ll be nice to get out of the house.”

  “Great! Wanna come, Michael?” Justin asked.

  “Michael, you still have to—” Pearl began to say, but Michael cut her off.

  “I don’t have any money to get in,” he said.

  “I can loan you the five bucks,” Justin offered graciously.

  Michael thought of the $10 bill waiting for him on the refrigerator. “Cool. Thanks, Justin. I can pay you back once I get a B on the test.”

  “I don’t know if you are quite ready for the test,” Pearl said. But Michael was already on his feet and heading for the door.

  “Hold on!” Pearl said. “Merle, do you remember the Thessalonians?”

  CHAPTER 10

  “Do I?!” Merle exclaimed. “Best baklava ever!”

  “What’s baklava?” Sadie asked.

  “Nuts and honey on a light, flaky crust!” Merle licked his squirrel lips.

  “Merle!” Pearl said. “Not the dessert—the people.”

  “Oh yeah. Them, too. Nice folks.”

  “Yes, nice, but some of them weren’t the hardest workers,” Pearl said. “Not long before our raft ride to the Dead Sea, the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the new Christians in Thessalonica. Some of the people in the church there had stopped working and were just taking it easy.”

  “Why’s that?” asked Michael.

  “Before he wrote the letter, a few years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Paul had visited the people in Thessalonica to tell them about what Jesus had done. He also told them that Jesus would be coming back soon,” Pearl said.

  “Some of them figured, ‘Our troubles will be over soon, so why bother breaking a sweat? Might as well just relax!’” Merle said.

  Pearl continued, “Paul told them, ‘We hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living. As for the rest of you, dear brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.’”

  Merle added, “That’s not too different from what King Solomon said: ‘Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.’ We’re squirrels, so we should know. If we work hard collecting our nuts in the fall, we’ll have a good winter.”

  “God wants us to work hard in serving him and others. That includes doing your best and studying hard in school!” Pearl concluded.

 
“I love that!” said Sadie.

  “I couldn’t agree more,” added Justin.

  Michael looked at his friends. “Are we going skating or what?”

  CHAPTER 11

  Merle and Pearl had never roller-skated before, for two reasons: (1) skates don’t come in squirrel size and (2) skates weren’t even invented until the 1700s. However, riding in the backpack of someone wearing roller skates can be just as much fun.

  “Wheeeee!” Merle yelled as Michael made his way around the rink, loud pop music blaring, Justin and Sadie close behind. “This is amazing!”

  “Merle, get down—someone’s going to see you!” Pearl pulled Merle back down into Michael’s backpack.

  “I wanna skate!” Merle said. “I wanna skate like the wind!”

  “They don’t make skates in your size,” Pearl reminded him.

  “I’ll make my own!” Merle responded. “Wheels for your feet! Why didn’t I think of that?! Brilliant!”

  The music changed to a slow ballad as a voice rang over the loudspeaker: “Okay, grab your sweetie. It’s time for a couples’ skate . . .”

  Pearl noticed Sadie glancing over at Michael with a shy smile.

  “Oh man!” Michael complained. “Not couples’ skate!”

  “Time for Skee-Ball!” Justin said.

  Sadie shrugged and followed the boys off the rink and onto the carpeted floor. Pearl couldn’t help but think that Sadie looked a little disappointed.

  “I’ll make a pair of skates for you, too,” Merle offered.

  “Thank you, dear.” Pearl squeezed his paw.

  Merle thought Skee-Ball looked almost as fun as skating and begged the kids to let him try. To prevent other skaters from seeing Merle, Michael, Justin, and Sadie circled around the foot of the game to form a squirrel-obscuring human shield.

  “Hrrrgh!!!” Merle grunted as he rolled the wooden ball up the track—and right into the gutter. However, after a few tries, he got the hang of it and started racking up points. By the time the couples’ skate had ended and the kids were ready to return to skating, Merle had cashed out 150 tickets. “What are these for?” Merle asked.

  “You trade them in for toys,” Michael told him.

  “This is the happiest place on earth.” Merle wiped a tear of joy from his eye.

  CHAPTER 12

  “Please put your book and all your notes away,” Ms. McKay told the class. “It’s time to start the test.”

  Michael swallowed hard. “Here we go . . .” He knew he should have stayed home and studied last night rather than go roller-skating, and now he was beginning to regret it. He didn’t feel prepared for the test, but he was still hoping he might be able to squeak out a B. That way, he could collect his $10 reward and pay Justin back.

  “Good luck!” Pearl whispered, popping up from his backpack. Since Jane didn’t have preschool today, Michael couldn’t risk keeping the squirrels in his room, so he’d brought them to school with him again in his backpack.

  “Thanks,” Michael whispered back. He knew he would need it. Pearl ducked back down into the backpack as Ms. McKay walked by and placed Michael’s test on his desk.

  The first three questions were easy. Simple division—he remembered that from fourth grade. He breezed through them.

  “Good job!” Pearl said.

  “I think I’m gonna go grab some chicken nuggets,” Merle said from the bottom of the pack. Merle and Pearl had collected an enormous amount of leftover food from the lunchroom a few days before.

  “Don’t overdo it!” Pearl warned. “Just a few.”

  “Got it!” Merle crept from the backpack and out of the classroom window, being careful to not be seen by Ms. McKay and the other students.

  “Oh no,” Michael whispered as he stared down at question 4.

  Pearl peeked up at his test. Long division. She had helped Michael with a similar problem last night and knew exactly how to solve it. Pearl covered her face as Michael answered the question . . . incorrectly.

  It was all downhill from there, and not in a good way. More in a way a train with no brakes runs downhill through a big pile of fractions and off a cliff. The answers were all painfully obvious to Pearl, who had put in the work of learning how to solve the problems. She sank back into the backpack with a groan as Michael stood up to turn in his test.

  CHAPTER 13

  “Hrrrgh!” PLOP! Merle slung a greasy brown paper bag onto the windowsill of Ms. McKay’s classroom. Fortunately for Merle, the kids were reading their English assignment and Ms. McKay was grading tests, so nobody saw the squirrel making his way back into the room. He slid quietly back into Michael’s backpack.

  “I said just a few!” Pearl whispered as she noticed the size of the bag Merle was carrying.

  “Sorry! I couldn’t help myself. There were so many lost and lonely nuggets.”

  “They smell,” Pearl complained.

  “I know. Isn’t it wonderful?” Merle took a big breath of deep-fried goodness.

  “Okay, class. I have your tests for you,” Ms. McKay said. “Some of you did very well. Congratulations! Some of you . . . well, we still have some work to do.”

  Merle and Pearl peeked their heads out of the backpack just in time to see Ms. McKay set Michael’s graded test facedown on his desk. Michael looked down at the squirrels with a grimace before reaching to turn it over. “Well, here goes . . .” he whispered.

  There’s nothing that takes your breath away like getting a cold bucket of water dumped on your head, except for maybe seeing a big, red F on your math test. “What?!!!” Michael exclaimed, just as the bell rang and the kids gathered their things to leave for the day.

  “Ohhhhh . . . Wow . . .” Justin said as he stood up and glanced at Michael’s grade. “Sorry, dude.”

  “What did you get?” Michael wondered, hoping he was not alone in his grief.

  “I did . . . okay,” Justin said apologetically.

  “Let me see!” Michael demanded.

  Justin reluctantly showed Michael his test. A big, fat A with a smiley face covered the top.

  “What?!!! No fair!” Michael griped.

  “Michael, can I see you at my desk, please?” asked Ms. McKay. Michael sighed and stuffed his test in his backpack—covering Merle and Pearl—before zipping it closed and heading to the front of the class.

  “Yes, ma’am?” Michael answered sheepishly as he approached Ms. McKay’s desk.

  His teacher gave him a stern look. “I know you can do better than this.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Michael agreed halfheartedly.

  Ms. McKay folded her hands on top of her desk and leaned forward. “I’m going to make you a deal.”

  CHAPTER 14

  “What did Ms. McKay say?” Sadie asked as the kids walked home from school.

  “She told me I can take the test again,” Michael answered. “She’s giving me a second chance.”

  “That’s great!” Merle said, his mouth full of chicken nugget. Merle was beginning to like going to school. Even if it meant spending most of the day crammed into a backpack, he could reward himself with chicken nuggets on the way home.

  “Remember, Michael, if you work hard, you will prosper!” Pearl reminded him.

  “I will, Pearl. Ms. McKay said the highest grade I can get on a retake is a B, but that’s still a good grade,” Michael said. “I’m ready to study hard!”

  Just as Justin and Sadie were ready to break off to head to their own houses, a man in a suit and sunglasses, walking a dog, approached the friends on the sidewalk. Something about him seemed odd to Michael. It was a cloudy fall day, the type of day when most people wouldn’t be wearing sunglasses. Plus, who wears a suit when they walk their dog? Merle and Pearl ducked back into Michael’s backpack as the two passed, the man’s dog sniffing at the air. The dog began to bark, but the man said nothing and kept on his way.

  “I think I’ve seen that guy somewhere before,” Michael said quietly to his friends once the man and his dog were out of
earshot, “but I can’t remember where . . .”

  “So, I did some research, Merle and Pearl,” Sadie said, changing the subject. “You said you saw Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount, which was around AD 27. And that you were around when Paul wrote his letter to the Thessalonians, which was sometime around AD 53. So, I’m guessing you must have gotten lost in that cave somewhere around AD 70.”

  “What year is it now?” Pearl asked.

  “2020,” Justin said.

  “That’s . . .” Pearl paused, then got an idea. “Michael, how many years since we got lost in the cave? Math question.”

  Michael thought a moment before responding, “It was 1,950 years ago. 2020 – 70 = 1,950. That’s easy. Just subtraction.”

  “We’re off to a good start!” Pearl said.

  CHAPTER 15

  Michael entered the kitchen, where his mom and Jane were eating an after-school snack. “Cookies, would you like a cookie?” Mrs. Gomez asked.

  “Mom!” Michael protested. “Don’t call me Cookies! It’s embarrassing!” Over the last year or so, he had grown to not like his mom’s nickname for him.

  “Oh, come on, it’s cute. You’re cute!” Mrs. Gomez offered him two cookies on a plate.

  “I don’t want to be cute! I’m in the fifth grade.”

  “You can be in the fifth grade and still be cute,” his mom assured him.

  As Michael reached for the cookies, Mr. Nemesis, who was perched on top of the refrigerator, leaped onto Michael’s backpack. He had been waiting all day to get another chance at the squirrel who had eluded him the day before.

  “MEOOOOOWWWWW!” Mr. Nemesis growled, wiggling his head into the partially unzipped top of the backpack. Merle and Pearl found themselves face-to-face with the angry cat! “MEOOOOOWWWWW!” Mr. Nemesis said again, which in cat meant, “Aha! I knew you were in here! I smelled you!” The squirrels were trapped against the bottom of the backpack, but thankfully, the opening in the top was too small for more than just Mr. Nemesis’s head to fit through.