Fabulous Five 014 - The Seventh-Grade Menace Read Free Page A

maybe even dying."
    His words hit her like a cold wind. She waited for Shane to
break into a smile and tell her that he was kidding, but he didn't.

CHAPTER 3
    "Igor may be dying ? " Jana asked
incredulously. "Come on. Be serious. You're kidding me, right?"
    "No," said Shane. "Something really bad is
wrong with him. He just lies in his box and he hasn't eaten in three days."
    "Have you taken him to a veterinarian?"
    "They don't know anything about iguanas."
    "What about the zoo?"
    "My dad took Igor to the zoo, and they told him how to
mix some mashed worms with a little medicine they thought might help. He wasn't
interested in eating it either, but we pushed it down his throat with the
eraser end of a pencil. He hasn't gotten any better, though."
    Jana felt her stomach lurch at the thought of mashing worms.
    "Does he have a fever?" she asked, changing the subject
quickly.
    Shane looked at her quizzically. "I don't know how to
take an iguana's temperature, do you?"
    "You put a thermometer in his mouth, maybe?" she
asked hopefully, then shook her head, knowing that sounded dumb.
    "Actually, they're cold-blooded animals so I don't
think it's the same as with a dog or cat," said Shane.
    Jana was about to suggest that, if lizards were cold-blooded
animals, maybe the closer Igor's temperature was to freezing, the healthier he
was. But that didn't make much sense either.
    "Can Igor have visitors?" she asked.
    Shane looked at her, obviously pleased. "Sure. Do you
want to see him?"
    "Why not?" Even though she was going along with
the conversation, Jana was still half-afraid that Shane would break out
laughing and tell her it was all a joke.
    They walked the extra blocks past Jana's apartment building
in silence. When they reached his house, Shane pushed the door open and let
Jana enter in front of him.
    She looked around the room as he shrugged off his jacket and
hung up hers in the closet. The walls of the living room were covered with
posters, similar to ones Jana had seen in news stories about the 1960s. There
were lots of flowers and peace symbols, and others were blown-up pictures of
crowds of people with long hair and headbands milling around or standing on
street corners. All the men had beards and wore patched jeans, and the women
were mostly dressed in long, loose dresses and had flowers in their hair.
    The furniture in the room consisted mainly of large pillows
thrown around on the floor, a couple of low tables, and an expensive-looking
stereo. Jana's eyes were drawn upward. The ceiling was covered with Styrofoam
cups that looked like little bluntnosed stalactites.
    "It's my dad's idea of how to improve the acoustics,"
said Shane, noticing her upward glance. "He listens to his old records in
here. Come on. Igor's in my room." He led the way down a hall.
    Shane's room was totally different from what Jana had seen
of the rest of the house. It was neat and had pictures of baseball and football
players on the walls. Over his desk was a photograph of a man and a woman who
could have come straight out of one of the sixties posters in the living room.
    "That's my mom and dad," he said when he saw Jana
looking at it.
    It was obvious where Shane got his good looks. His mother
was a thin, pretty lady, with long, brown hair. She was very young in the
picture. His father was tall, with chiseled features, and a black beard.
    Igor lay quietly sunning himself under a heat lamp in a box
filled with sand and rocks in one corner of the room. There were two plants
that looked like miniature potted trees wedged in between rocks, and a plastic
pan of water was sunk in one corner like a little pool. All Igor needs is
sunglasses and a swimsuit, Jana thought, holding in a giggle. It looks as if he's
posing for an advertisement for a Florida vacation.
    The greenish-brown iguana was over two feet long and lay so
still she would have thought he was dead except for an occasional blink of his
black eyes and the throbbing of the folds of skin under his