Beware! It's Friday the 13th Read Free Page B

across her chest.
    “What’s wrong, Gwen?” Erica said, putting on a lacy white cap. “Don’t you think these bonnets are fabulous ?”
    Gwen grabbed a bonnet from Frypot. She put it on but did not tie the laces.
    “You!” Mordred pointed to Torblad and Baldrick. “Go to the stable. Get horseshoes. Lucky horseshoes! Nail them to the castle.”
    The lads ran off.
    “Nephew!” Mordred yelled. “You and Wiglaf. Go empty Frypot’s eel traps. Get an eel for everyone!” He handed them a sack.
    “You mean we have to—” Angus began.
    “Go!” bellowed Mordred. “Lasses! Go to the field and find four-leaf clovers.”
    “Such are very rare, sir,” said Erica.
    “Find them!” Mordred bellowed. “Pin them on your lucky bonnets, on your uniforms. That will keep the dragon away. What are you waiting for? Go! Go! GO!”

Chapter 5
    “ U ncle Mordred always gives me the worst jobs!” wailed Angus as they hurried to the moat.
    “Me too,” said Wiglaf. “Angus, why would a dragon want to track down Brother Dave? He is a very kind monk. I’m sure he has never harmed any dragon.”
    Angus only shrugged. “Grab that rope,” he said. “One, two, three—pull!”
    The lads spent hours hauling up wooden traps filled with writhing black eels. After they emptied the last one, they trudged back to the castle yard, dragging their sack of eels behind them.
    Baldrick and Torblad were busy nailing lucky horseshoes all along the castle wall.
    The lads dragged their fishy cargo past the lasses, who were already back from the clover field.
    “Zounds!” said Wiglaf. “Look how many four-leaf clovers the lasses found. They have them pinned all over their bonnets and uniforms!”
    “Erica isn’t wearing any,” said Angus.
    Wiglaf saw that this was true. They hurried over to her.
    “What is wrong?” Wiglaf asked.
    “You see every lass wearing four-leaf clovers,” Erica said. “Yet we found none.”
    “None?” said Wiglaf, confused.
    “Nah,” said Janice, who, for once, wasn’t chewing gum. “But Gwen had a clever idea. She’s cool.”
    Wiglaf took a closer look at Janice’s clovers.
    “Why, these are three-leaf clovers!” he exclaimed. “An extra leaf is stuck on with…gum?”
    “Right!” Janice grinned. “I had to chew every piece in my pockets to get enough to stick all these clovers together.”
    “We had to do something, Wiglaf,” said Gwen. “Or we would have been crawling around that field all day. And I don’t do that.”
    “It’s cheating,” said Erica. “Isn’t it, Wiggie?”
    “I suppose it is,” Wiglaf said.
    “See, Gwen?” said Erica.
    “But it is clever,” Wiglaf went on. “If Mordred sees many, many lucky clovers, perchance he will not make us wear eels.”
    “No eels!” everyone around cheered.
    Gwen gave Wiglaf a Princess Smile.
    Erica gave him a Princess Dirty Look and stomped off.
    Gwen wrinkled her nose. “Poor Erica. Is she always in such a bad mood?”
    “No,” Wiglaf muttered. He felt awful! Now Erica was mad at him.
    He and Angus trudged over to Frypot. They handed him their sack of eels. Then they ran to join the others at the castle steps.
    “Look, Headmaster!” Gwen called to Mordred, who was giving Torblad yet another horseshoe to hang up. “We are covered in lucky four-leaf clovers!”
    “May they bring us luck!” Mordred cried.
    “With so many lucky clovers, we don’t need to wear eels, right?” said Gwen.
    “Eels!” cried Mordred. “I’d forgotten all about them. Frypot? Give out the eels!”
    “Nice going, Gwen,” muttered Erica.
    Frypot reached into the sack and grabbed an eel. It thrashed wildly as he looped it around Torblad’s neck. Torblad burst into tears.
    Frypot started toward Gwen with an eel.
    “No, thanks,” said Gwen. She flashed Frypot a Princess Smile.
    “Take it.” Frypot held out the eel to her.
    “Frypot?” she whispered. “What would it cost me not to wear an eel?”
    “I didn’t hear that,” said Frypot.