Grasshopper Glitch Read Online Free Page B

Petty. We can’t risk any more stops,” said Josh. He looked left and right as they glided low across the grass. “It’s not safe down there!”
    VROOOOOM! Danny ducked in the air. He swooped sideways as a dark shadow flitted past him. “It’s not safe up here, either!” he yelled. He looked up to see a dark flash of feathers and claws zooming around in a circle above them. A starling. Its sleek oil-colored feathers glinted in the sun. It turned back to have another try at pecking him out of the air.
    â€œDOWN!” shrieked Josh. He dropped like a stone into the grass. Danny followed. Two thuds later, they were hidden in a thicket of green that rose just above their heads. Breathlessly they crouched and waited. “Don’t move!” whispered Josh. “It will only see us if we move.” The starling swooped low over the grass. It made an ear-splitting screechy noise and then flew away.

    â€œIt didn’t see us!” gasped Danny. “It couldn’t make us out. Look! We’re exactly the same color as the grass!”
    â€œCamouflage,” said Josh. His feelers quivered with shock. “We’re meadow grasshoppers. Designed to look nearly invisible in grass.”
    â€œOK, so we’re quite safe here then,” sighed Danny. “But how are we ever going to find Petty Potts if we can’t leap up and look around? And what time is it? We’ll be late back to school, and then we’ll be in trouble. Oh—this is so not good! I thought we might get to have a bit of fun for a change. But oh no, we’re just fast food with feelers, as usual.” He spat out another blob of brown goo. “Sorry.”

Petty Potts was annoyed. She’d managed to entice three or four squirrels over to her bench in the last hour. Each of them had scampered off with her special peanuts.
    She knew, obviously, that there wasn’t much point in trying to get a squirrel to swig a bit of strange-looking potion out of a plastic bottle. No, she had brought a tin cup along in her bag. She’d put a little of the potion into it. Then she dropped some peanuts in it and made them good and S.W.I.T.C.H.y. Then she set the peanuts down, one by one, at the far end of the wooden park bench. She waited for the bold squirrels to show up and steal them. She had been careful to wear disposable plastic gloves. She had no intention of S.W.I.T.C.H.ing herself! One day she might, but she was quite old and might not recover from it.
    Petty dug deep into her coat pocket. She pulled out a little green velvet box. Opening it up, she gazed wistfully at the two shining glass cubes inside it. She picked up one of them. She held it up to the light. It sparkled in the sun. The hologram of a tiny lizard could be clearly seen inside it.

    â€œOne out of six!” she sighed. She put the cube back in the box, next to the other cube. It had a slightly different hologram inside it. She sighed. “Two out of six. Which adds up to one-third of the formula to make REPTOSWITCH. Well, I’m glad to have you two,” she murmured at the cubes. “But what about the other four, eh? Where did I hide the others? If only that scurrilous waste of space Victor Crouch hadn’t burnt out my memory, I would know! I’d have the bug formula and the reptile formula. There might even be mammal or bird formula one day, for all I know! But if Josh and Danny don’t find the rest of your little cube family, I may never know!”
    Nobody was nearby to hear Petty talking to herself. That was probably just as well. Petty talked to herself quite a lot. She found it was the only way to get an intelligent answer.
    â€œOf course, they don’t understand how important this is. I am changing the world! But all they’re worried about is getting to school on time. Honestly! Children today have no sense of adventure.”
    Petty snapped the little green box shut and put it on her lap. She