The Secret Zoo Read Online Free Page B

thinking about the events at the zoo. His gaze happened upon his jacket, which he’d tossed onto a chair. He saw something sticking out of the pocket—something he hadn’t put there. He climbed out of bed, walked to the chair, thrust his hand into the pocket, and pulled out a piece of crumpled paper. This time, it was exactly what he expected—another note from his sister. During the commotion at the Forest of Flight, a bird must have slipped it into his pocket.
    He smoothed out the paper and sat on his bed to read it.
    When he finished, he clutched it to his chest and declared, “I cannot do this alone.”
    He knew he had to find help. That meant it was time to round up the bravest kids he knew. It was time to call on the Action Scouts.

CHAPTER 6
S HARING A S ECRET
    A t school the next day, Noah could barely function. At lunchtime, he took a seat at the end of a long table in the cafeteria and waited for his friends. He slouched over his tray and picked through his food as if he expected to find something buried in it. Around him, kids behaved in their normal fashion: laughing, hollering, and launching corn with their plastic spoon catapults.
    A girl plopped down on the bench in front of him. She landed so hard that she shook the Tater Tot off Becky Prebee’s spork at the far end of the bench. The girl wasElla Jones, Noah’s lifelong friend and fellow Action Scout.
    Noah looked up from his meal and stared at her blankly.
    â€œWhat’s up?” she asked as she crunched down on an apple, spraying droplets of juice for which she saw no need to apologize. When Noah didn’t respond, she added, “Cat got your tongue?” Because she was talking through a mouthful of food, her question sounded like “Cagotyoton?”—as if she were speaking some foreign language.
    Noah said coldly, “Nice manners. Shouldn’t you be eating off the floor?”
    Ella chuckled. “Ha! Woof-woof!” Through another mouthful of food, she said something else that Noah couldn’t understand. It sounded remarkably like “I have a toad in my shoe.”
    â€œHey, guys!”
    Behind him, Noah heard the voice of the third Action Scout. Richie Reynolds approached the table wearing his favorite shirt, a green one with shiny silver snaps. His pockets contained a stash of pens, a pencil, two highlighters, a short ruler, and a penlight. Ella called this stuff Richie’s nerd-gear.
    Richie stretched his leg over the bench to take a seat. For a second, light reflected off the metallic material in his running shoe, causing colored flecks of light to crawlacross Noah’s arm. Richie’s running shoes were so flashy and bright and glittery that they were obnoxious. Noah could spot them from the end of a crowded school hall. Richie wore these shoes everywhere—to school, to baseball practice, even to church. When his skinny rear end hit the bench, his oversized eyeglasses shook and became crooked.
    Richie pushed his glasses up on his nose, looked at his food, rubbed his hands together, and said, “Mmm…. I can’t wait to dig into this.” He prodded through his lunch with a plastic spork. “This—this is…What is this stuff? Chicken?”
    â€œI’m afraid to guess,” Ella said. She peeled a banana and added, “Something’s wrong with Noah today.”
    â€œNothing’s wrong,” Noah said, but even he could hear how cold and flat his voice sounded.
    â€œDoesn’t sound like nothing’s wrong,” Richie replied.
    â€œI didn’t sleep well.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    Noah stared into the ugly mound of food on his tray and avoided the question.
    Richie continued to dig through his lunch, trying to determine what category of meat was on the tray.
    â€œLooks like something’s been rocking Noah’s ark,” Richie said. “Maybe the animals have been keeping him awake.”
    Noah coughed up a piece