Nutty Study Buddies Read online

  “AHHHHH!” Merle screamed before Pearl put her paw over his mouth.

  “Shhhhh!”

  “Mr. Nemesis! Bad boy!” Mrs. Gomez shouted as she jumped up from the table to grab the cat. “What are you doing?”

  Michael began spinning around, trying to fling Mr. Nemesis off.

  “You’re gonna make him fall!” Jane cried, worried about her cat.

  “Good!” Michael said and spun faster.

  Mrs. Gomez managed to stop Michael’s rotation and grab Mr. Nemesis, yanking his head out of the backpack. “Naughty kitty!” she scolded. “Why in the world are you attacking a backpack?”

  “Who knows?” Michael offered nervously. “Leftover chicken nuggets, maybe? Thanks for the cookies, Mom.” Michael grabbed the cookies and set the plate down on the countertop by the refrigerator, noting the crisp $10 bill hanging from a magnet.

  “Stay here and talk with us for a second,” Mrs. Gomez called after him.

  “Sorry, Mom. Can’t! Gotta study!” Michael said as he headed for his room.

  Mrs. Gomez smiled. “I won’t argue with that.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Although studying for a math test is a really important thing, reading about someone studying for a math test is a really boring thing, quite possibly the world’s most boring thing. Suffice it to say that Michael studied hard. Even when he felt like giving up and juggling his soccer ball, or lying down on his bed, or playing video games, he pushed through and kept on going.

  While Michael and Pearl worked on math, Merle worked on transforming one of Michael’s dresser drawers into a cozy bed. “And it tucks away, too!” Merle said proudly, demonstrating the slider on the drawer.

  “Great job!” Pearl told Michael and Merle as everyone turned in for the night. “We’ve all worked hard.”

  After a good night’s sleep, Michael headed off to school in the morning, leaving his window open for Merle and Pearl.

  As Jane left for preschool, Mr. Nemesis snuck out through her bedroom door, then outside through an open kitchen window. He watched as the squirrels exited Michael’s bedroom window, and then he cleverly crept into Michael’s room.

  Merle and Pearl returned from gathering breakfast walnuts to find a crazed cat waiting for them.

  “MEOOOOOWWWWW!” growled Mr. Nemesis, which in cat means . . .

  “AHHHHH!” screamed Merle and Pearl.

  Fortunately, the squirrels were armed with walnuts. As Mr. Nemesis pounced, they pelted him with woody shells, allowing them to make a break for the air vent and scurry into the ductwork. You would think that Mr. Nemesis would have learned his lesson about diving headfirst into a vent, but when a cat is focused on his prey, memory sometimes fails.

  His head and forelegs once again jammed into a vent, Mr. Nemesis screamed out, “MEOOOOOWWWWW!” You don’t want the translation for that.

  CHAPTER 17

  “Why is there a cat stuck in my floor?” Michael, back from school, looked around his room. Mr. Nemesis was the only animal in sight. “Merle? Pearl?” Michael whispered, concerned. Not hearing a response, he ran over and unplugged Mr. Nemesis from the vent. “What did you do with them?!” Michael demanded, holding the disgruntled cat at eye level.

  “Grrrrr,” Mr. Nemesis growled.

  “Bad kitty,” Michael scolded.

  “We’re in here!” Merle called out from the vent. Hearing Merle’s voice, Mr. Nemesis tried to squirm free. Michael ran to the door and tossed him into the hallway, slamming his door shut before the cat could pounce back in.

  THUD! “Mrrrrr!” could be heard on the other side of the door.

  With the coast clear, Merle and Pearl popped their heads out of the vent.

  “We have got to do something about these living arrangements,” Merle complained.

  “So? How did you do?” Pearl asked Michael eagerly.

  Michael frowned. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper with a sigh.

  “What?!” Pearl gasped. “I was sure that you—” She stopped as Michael handed her the test results. She stared at a big, fat 98 next to a big smiley face.

  Michael cracked up. “Got you!” he said.

  “Ohhhhh!” Pearl scowled. “Don’t scare me like that!”

  “It was a hard test, but studying paid off! Ms. McKay took 15 points off for the retake, which means I got an 83—an official B! Now that $10 is mine, and I can pay Justin back with $5 to spare!”

  “That’s a lot of math right there,” Merle noted.

  “A good grade on your test is the best reward, but $10 is a nice incentive,” Pearl said. “When you work hard, you prosper!”

  “You know what this means, right?” Michael asked Merle. “Skee-Ball and skating to celebrate!”

  “Woo-hoo!” Merle hollered. Michael and the squirrels circled up and did a happy dance in the middle of the room.

  Suddenly, the door opened. Michael spun around to look, worried that Mr. Nemesis had figured out how to open it. No. Worse. Much worse. It was Michael’s mom, staring in disbelief at her son happy dancing with two rodents. Justin and Sadie stood directly behind her, mouths hanging open.

  “AHHHHH!!!” Mrs. Gomez screamed.

  Before she could collect herself, Justin asked, “You guys ready to go skating?”

  Michael knew he needed to act fast before his mom started asking questions. “Mom, can I go?”

  Mrs. Gomez, in shock, simply nodded her head as Michael stuffed the squirrels into his backpack and headed out.

  CHAPTER 18

  Merle whooped as Michael leaned into the turn. “Faster!”

  “Shhhhh!” Pearl said.

  “No one can hear me, Pearl! The music’s too loud!” Merle answered.

  Justin and Sadie caught up to Michael. “Great job on your test, Michael!” Sadie said. Justin gave him a high five.

  “It was hard work, but worth it,” Michael replied.

  “So, what are we gonna do now that your mom knows about the squirrels?” Justin asked.

  “I don’t know,” Michael said. “I guess I’ll find out tonight.” He didn’t want to think about it.

  “Okay, skaters . . . it’s time for a couples’ skate!” the DJ announced as the music transitioned to a slow, romantic song.

  “Oh, this is lovely,” Pearl said. “Michael, can you stay on the floor so Merle and I can have this skate?”

  “By myself?” Michael asked. “I can’t couples’ skate by myself!”

  “I’ll stay with you,” Sadie offered, reaching out her hand.

  “Ummm . . .” Michael stammered.

  “Great!” Pearl exclaimed.

  Michael, completely caught off guard, was too confused to take Sadie by the hand, something that all the other couple skaters (including Merle and Pearl) did. Instead, the two fifth-graders skated awkwardly next to each other to an Air Supply song.

  As they rounded the bottom of the rink, passing the Skee-Ball machines, Sadie broke the uncomfortable silence. “Hey, Michael, it’s that guy from your neighborhood!”

  Michael looked over to see the man in the suit and sunglasses who they’d seen earlier walking his dog. He looked so familiar, but from where? “Oh yeah!” Michael suddenly recalled. “That’s the guy from the airport. What’s he doing here?”

  MICHAEL GOMEZ is an adventurous and active 10-year-old boy. He is kindhearted but often acts before he thinks. He’s friendly and talkative and blissfully unaware that most of his classmates think he’s a bit geeky. Michael is super excited to be in fifth grade, which, in his mind, makes him “grade school royalty!”

  MERLE SQUIRREL may be thousands of years old, but he never really grew up. He has endless enthusiasm for anything new and interesting—especially this strange modern world he finds himself in. He marvels at the self-refilling bowl of fresh drinking water (otherwise known as a toilet) and supplements his regular diet of tree nuts with what he believes might be the world’s most perfect food: chicken nuggets. He’s old enough to know bett
er, but he often finds it hard to do better. Good thing he’s got his wife, Pearl, to help him make wise choices.

  PEARL SQUIRREL is wise beyond her many, many, many years, with enough common sense for both her and Merle. When Michael’s in a bind, she loves to share a lesson or bit of wisdom from Bible events she witnessed in her youth. Pearl’s biggest quirk is that she is a nut hoarder. Having come from a world where food is scarce, her instinct is to grab whatever she can. The abundance and variety of nuts in present-day Tennessee can lead to distraction and storage issues.

  JUSTIN KESSLER is Michael’s best friend. Justin is quieter and has better judgment than Michael, and he is super smart. He’s a rule follower and is obsessed with being on time. He’ll usually give in to what Michael wants to do after warning him of the likely consequences.

  SADIE HENDERSON is Michael and Justin’s other best friend. She enjoys video games and bowling just as much as cheerleading and pajama parties. She gets mad respect from her classmates as the only kid at Walnut Creek Elementary who’s not afraid of school bully Edgar. Though Sadie’s in a different homeroom than her two best friends, the three always sit together at lunch and hang out after class.

  DR. GOMEZ, a professor of anthropology, is not thrilled when he finds out that his son, Michael, smuggled two ancient squirrels home from their summer trip to the Dead Sea, but he ends up seeing great value in having them around as original sources for his research. Dad loves his son’s adventurous spirit but wishes Michael would look (or at least peek) before he leaps.

  MRS. GOMEZ teaches part-time at her daughter’s preschool and is a full-time mom to Michael and Jane. She feels sorry for the fish-out-of-water squirrels and looks for ways to help them feel at home, including constructing and decorating an over-the-top hamster mansion for Merle and Pearl in Michael’s room. She also can’t help but call Michael by her favorite (and his least favorite) nickname, Cookies.

  MR. NEMESIS is the Gomez family cat who becomes Merle and Pearl’s true nemesis. Jealous of the time and attention given to the squirrels by his family, Mr. Nemesis is continuously coming up with brilliant and creative ways to get rid of them. He hides his ability to talk from the family, but not the squirrels.

  JANE GOMEZ is Michael’s little sister. She’s super adorable but delights in getting her brother busted so she can be known as the “good child.” She thinks Merle and Pearl are the cutest things she has ever seen in her whole life (next to Mr. Nemesis) and is fond of dressing them up in her doll clothes.

  So now you’ve heard of the Dead Sea Squirrels, but what about the DEAD SEA Scrolls?

  Way back in 1946, just after the end of World War II, in a cave along the banks of the Dead Sea, a 15-year-old boy came across some jars containing ancient scrolls while looking after his goats. When scholars and archaeologists found out about his discovery, the hunt for more scrolls was on! Over the next 10 years, many more scrolls and pieces of scrolls were found in 11 different caves.

  There are different theories about exactly who wrote on the scrolls and hid them in the caves. One of the most popular ideas is that they belonged to a group of Jewish priests called Essenes, who lived in the desert because they had been thrown out of Jerusalem. One thing is for sure—the scrolls are very, very old! They were placed in the caves between the years 300 BC and AD 100!

  Forty percent of the words on the scrolls come from the Bible. Parts of every Old Testament book except for the book of Esther have been discovered.

  Of the remaining 60 percent, half are religious texts not found in the Bible, and half are historical records about the way people lived 2,000 years ago.

  The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most important archaeological finds in history!

  About the Author

  As co-creator of VeggieTales, co-founder of Big Idea Entertainment, and the voice of the beloved Larry the Cucumber, MIKE NAWROCKI has been dedicated to helping parents pass on biblical values to their kids through storytelling for over two decades. Mike currently serves as Assistant Professor of Film and Animation at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and makes his home in nearby Franklin with his wife, Lisa, and their two children. The Dead Sea Squirrels is Mike’s first children’s book series.