1 Welcome Back Good morning, Strangeville students, and welcome back! I hope you''ve all had a wonderful weekend! This is Vice Principal Capozzi speaking, filling in for Principal Gupta, who, three days into our game of hide-and-seek, has still yet to be found. Well done, Principal Gupta, although you can''t hide forever! Sooner or later, the wolves will sniff you out. Well, I hope you all remembered to wax your nostrils and shine your earlobes this morning, because it''s picture day at Strangeville School! I''d like to remind all students that blinking while being photographed is strictly forbidden. Any student caught blinking will receive a mark on their permanent record. And not the good kind of mark, either . In other news, the French club is holding their annual bake sale in the East Hallway this morning, so make sure to stop by and say "bonjour!" Lots of tasty treats will be available for purchase, including fresh croissants, chocolate éclairs, and homemade blood sausage! Mmm, mmm. Blood sausage! Moving on, it looks like the wart on my left foot has finally gone away! And, finally, I''m excited to announce that our beloved lost-and-found box has, once more, mysteriously appeared in the cafeteria! Make sure to stop by before it vanishes into thin air yet again! No need to worry about the strange, eerie glow coming from the lost-and-found box''s depths; I''m sure it''s all perfectly fine! Nurse Porter has already recovered several missing bone saws from the box, and just this morning I found a pair of socks I''ve been missing since 1987! There are quite a few more holes in them than I remember, and the left toe is full of spiders, but still. What an exciting discovery! That''s all for now, Strangeville.
Have a great day! I know the spiders will. 2 Show-and-Smell In Mr. Sandringham''s first-period classroom, Stella Cho leaned forward in her seat, poking Harvey Hill in the back with a pencil. "Ow!" Harvey said, turning around to look at her. "Did you just poke me in the back with a pencil?" "Of course not," Stella said innocently, slipping the pencil back into her sleeve. Stella was short for her age, with long black hair, 371 eyelashes, and a highly developed sense of curiosity. As lead reporter for the Strangeville School Gazette, she always had several writing utensils stashed about her person, just in case. Harvey narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.
He was tall for his age, with wavy brown hair, 372 eyelashes, and a highly developed sense of caution. As lead photographer for the Strangeville School Gazette, he was never without the old-fashioned camera hanging from a strap around his neck. Oh, and he also had wings. Yes, wings. (What, have you not read the first book?) "We should check out the lost-and-found box after homeroom," Stella told Harvey. "Get some pictures for the newspaper." "I don''t know," Harvey said, tugging at his ear. "It sounds a little .
weird. I mean, why is it glowing? And what''s the deal with it just appearing out of nowhere?" Stella shrugged. "It''s just a box," she said. "What could possibly go wrong?" Harvey, who could think of at least sixteen things off the top of his head that could go wrong, opened his mouth to reply. But before he could speak, their homeroom teacher clapped his hands for attention. "Eyes up here, please," Mr. Sandringham said. "We have just enough time for a quick round of show-and-smell before the bell rings.
Evie, I believe it was your turn next?" Evie Anderson stood up and joined Mr. Sandringham at the front of the classroom. "Hey, everyone," she said, giving the class a wave. "So, for show-and-smell today, I was going to bring one of my brother''s dirty socks, but my dad did laundry last night. So instead I brought this, which I found in the back of our refrigerator." Reaching into her pocket, she unwrapped a crinkled piece of tinfoil to reveal a gooey, greenish-yellow lump of . something. The smell was not good.
In fact, it was awful. In fact, it was unbelievably, inconceivably terrible. It knocked Harvey back in his seat, his eyes watering and his stomach heaving and his nose burning from the terrible stench. "It smells like death," Arjun Narula observed, pulling his T-shirt up to cover his nose. "Yes, doesn''t it?" Mr. Sandringham asked in a strangled voice, coughing into the crook of his elbow. "How wonderful. Would anyone like to guess what it is that Evie brought today?" Twenty-two hands shot up in the air.
"Rotten sardines?" "Curdled cottage cheese?" "Expired coleslaw?" "Rancid baked beans?" "Ooh, ooh, I''ve got it!" Nicolas Flarsky said, bouncing up and down in his seat. "Is it a piece of Stinking Bishop cheese?" Stinking Bishop, as everyone knows, is a soft, washed-rind cheese made from the milk of rare Gloucester cattle, matured in humid, cavelike conditions and sold primarily in the United Kingdom. It is not unusual for there to be spots of mold on the leatherlike rind of Stinking Bishop, which is considered a delicacy by cheese enthusiasts worldwide. The cheese itself is an oozing, luscious paste with a surprisingly subtle, nutty flavor. But, anyway. Enough about Stinking Bishop! Let''s get back to Harvey. He was turning slightly green around the edges. "Actually, I''m not really sure what it is," Evie admitted to the class.
"But there''s one way to find out!" As the rest of the students watched in fascinated horror, Evie popped the lump of greenish-yellow something into her mouth and began chewing thoughtfully. After a moment, a strange look crossed her face. Reaching up, she spit the something back into her hand and held it up for the class to see. "Well," Evie said. "It looks like I found one of my brother''s socks after all." 3 The Lost-and-Found Box Harvey was right: the lost-and-found box was definitely weird. For one thing, there was the way it looked. Harvey had been expecting a cardboard box--square, or maybe even rectangular--with the words lost and found scribbled across the side in Sharpie.
Instead the lost-and-found box was an elaborately carved wooden chest, nearly three feet long and almost as tall. It looked old, the wood weathered with age and the sides strapped with thick iron bands. There was also a strange, greenish light spilling from the top of the open chest: an eerie, otherworldly glow that seemed to somehow shimmer and pulse with a life of its own. Looking at it made Harvey feel cold and hot and sleepy and wide awake, all at once. It also made his left armpit itch, for some reason. "Cool," Stella said, waving her hand over the lost-and-found. Her fingers turned green as she swished them back and forth in the strange, greenish light. Harvey took a step back.
"Um, this thing looks really old," he said nervously. "Are we sure it isn''t radioactive?" "Lots of things are radioactive," Stella told him, crouching down to poke through the open chest. "Smoke detectors, magazines, kitty litter . even bananas!" "Oh," Harvey said faintly. "That''s . comforting." He took another step back from the chest. Stella sifted methodically through the lost-and-founds'' contents, poking through the jumble of discarded mittens and abandoned toys, misplaced sunglasses and winter hats.
Harvey scratched his armpit. "What are you looking for?" he asked, pushing himself up on his tiptoes to see over Stella''s head. "I left half a peanut-butter-and-baloney sandwich in my desk last week," Stella said. "But this morning it was gone. I thought someone might have turned it in." Harvey blinked. "Did you say peanut butter and baloney?" "Of course," Stella said, glancing over her shoulder. "Why?" Harvey opened his mouth, and then shut it.
"Never mind," he said. "Anyway," Stella said with a little sigh, "it doesn''t look like it''s here. Can you grab a few pictures of the box before we go?" she asked. "The bell''s going to ring soon." Harvey swallowed. Reluctantly he edged his way nearer to the lost-and-found. Up close, the chest''s strange greenish light made his right armpit itch as well. He raised his camera and took several shots of the lost-and-found box from different angles.
The wooden box seemed to hum with a life of its own, drawing Harvey closer and closer. Now that he thought about it, the eerie green light coming from the box was actually sort of . beautiful. In fact, it was so beautiful that it was impossible to look away. But why would Harvey want to look away? The box was fantastic. It was amazing. It was mesmerizing. It was-- Wait a minute.
At the very bottom of the chest, he caught a glimpse of something shiny. Without realizing quite what he was doing, Harvey reached inside and lifted the something from the bottom of.