Anaconda Adventure Read Online Free

was actually saving our lives. Nobody would believe us.”
    â€œNo …” sighed Danny. “Being S.W.I.T.C.H.ed is amazing, like having super powers. But how much good is it? Charlie’s doomed. There’s nothing we can do …”

Petty was worried. Really worried. Josh and Danny might imagine that she was a heartless scientist, obsessed only with her own success, but she really did care about what happened to them. After all … who else was going to help her with her experiments if Josh and Danny got eaten?
    Of course, if they were still in anaconda form, it was highly unlikely that anything
would
try to eat them … but a panicky member of the public might stamp on them, or the keeper might catch them and put them in with another constrictor and it might … Petty shuddered, imagining two Josh- and Danny-shaped bumps moving slowly down the body of the huge green anaconda she’d seen in the reptile house. This breed had been known to eat each other—
and
small humans. So, S.W.I.T.C.H.ed or unS.W.I.T.C.H.ed, Josh and Danny could be lunch.
    There had been no sign of them in the reptile house, and the keeper, coming out past her as she went in, had not been carrying a bag of captured snakes. So where had Josh and Danny gone? She’d searched for them in the zoo shop, the café, even in the small Chatz TV marquee which was set up near the penguins, recording some kind of wildlife program. Josh would love that! But he wasn’t there.
    She could see that group of schoolchildren—an expensive girls’ school by the look of the straw hats—heading along the path toward the river. She hurried toward them and called out, “Have any of you seen two boys—blond—twins—about your age?”
    The girls looked at each other and then back at her. Some of them shrugged and several of them giggled. “I love her hat!” snickered one girl with a shiny fair bob of hair and a superior expression. “It’s soooo antique.”
    Petty narrowed her eyes at the girl as she patted her battered beanie. “Well, I’d offer to swap it for yours,” she said. “Except your head is far too small. Such a tragedy, an undersized brain!”
    â€œWell! I’ve never been so insulted!” gasped the girl.
    â€œReally?” said Petty. “I’m surprised nobody’s made the effort.”
    Another girl, with a cloud of black curls and dark brown eyes, hooted with laughter and gave Petty a little wave as the party was hurried along the path by its two guardian teachers. The laughing girl was walking close to the teachers. They were deep in conversation with each other and paying no attention to her as she turned back to Petty and motioned urgently at her … as if she wanted Petty to follow.

    Uncertainly, Petty followed, keeping a short distance from the school party. Then the girl dropped down and started to fiddle with her shoe. Her teachers, calling out to their pupils ahead to make notes of the trees along the river, didn’t notice.
    Petty caught up, and the girl immediately bounced up on her feet and gave her a friendly punch on the shoulder. “Petty! It’s meeee! Charlie!”
    â€œGood gracious!’ Petty squinted through her smeary glasses. “So it is! Whatever happened to your hair?”
    â€œNever mind that now,” Charlie said. “We haven’t got long! Josh and Danny are OK. I rescued them in my bag. I had to leave them on the school bus, though, hiding.” She waved back toward the zoo parking lot.
    â€œThank heavens for that!” sighed Petty, turning to go.
    â€œBut wait … can’t I have just a little S.W.I.T.C.H. spray before you go? Pleeeeease?” Charlie gave Petty the big eyes treatment. “I mean … I did just save Josh’s and Danny’s lives! Probably!”
    â€œAnd I thank you very much,” Petty said. “But I don’t hand out