Spider Stampede Read online

  Books in the

  S.W.I.T.C.H. series

  #1 Spider Stampede

  #2 Fly Frenzy

  #3 Grasshopper Glitch

  #4 Ant Attack

  #5 Crane Fly Crash

  #6 Beetle Blast

  Text © Ali Sparkes 2011

  Illustrations © Ross Collins 2011

  “SWITCH: Spider Stampede” was originally published in English in 2011. This edition is published by an arrangement with Oxford University Press.

  Copyright © 2013 by Darby Creek

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

  Darby Creek

  A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

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  Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.

  Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

  Main body text set in ITC Goudy Sans Std. 14/19.

  Typeface provided by Monotype Typography.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Sparkes, Ali.

  Spider stampede / by Ali Sparkes ; illustrated by Ross Collins.

  p. cm. — (S.W.I.T.C.H. ; #01)

  Summary: While seeking their lost dog, Piddle, twins Josh and Danny encounter their next-door neighbor, Petty Potts, a mad scientist whose SWITCH spray accidentally turns them into spiders.

  ISBN 978–0–7613–9199–9 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)

  [1. Spiders—Fiction. 2. Brothers—Fiction. 3. Twins—Fiction. 4. Science fiction.] I. Collins, Ross, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.S73712Spi 2013

  [Fic]—dc23

  2012026631

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  1 – SB – 12/31/12

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-1121-0 (pdf)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-3105-8 (ePub)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-3104-1 (mobi)

  For Naill

  Losing Piddle

  Turning Yellow

  Too Many Knees

  A Hairy Experience

  A Bit Drained

  Scratch and Sniff

  Lunch

  A Bit of Gas

  Hair Today

  Top Secret!

  Glossary

  Recommended Reading

  “AARRGGHH!!!!

  GETITOFF! GETITOFF! GETITOFFMEEEE!!!!”

  Josh looked up from his book. He saw his twin brother running around in circles by the hedge. He was wearing nothing but swimming trunks and a look of panic.

  Actually, that’s not true.

  He was also wearing a spider.

  “DON’T just sit there!” squeaked Danny. He whirled around. “Get it OFF!”

  Josh sighed. He put his book down on the grass. It was amazing, he thought, that the spider could possibly hang on while his brother was thrashing about so wildly. It was a garden spider and quite large. Probably female. It had run up Danny’s arm when he went to pick up his water pistol. Then it had scampered over his shoulder. Josh knew this because of the kind of dance his brother had just done across the grass. A sort of backward shimmy, with gasps of horror. Followed by wildly flapping arms and then the whirling as his unwelcome passenger legged it down his shoulder blade.

  “You could win the Under Nines Dancing Championship,” Josh said. He dodged under a flailing arm to scoop up the dizzy spider. It was now hanging onto the waistband of Danny’s trunks.

  “Very funny!” squealed Danny. “Have you got it? Is it gone?!”

  “Yes, calm down. Look! She’s a beauty!” Josh cupped the spider in his hands. He held it out for Danny to see. It was nut brown with mottled yellow patterns on its back.

  “NOOO! Get it away from me!”

  “But look! She’s got these amazing feet that can hook on to stuff while she’s hanging upside down and—”

  “Just STOP talking about the S-P-I-D-E-R!” growled Danny. He shuddered and refused to look. Josh gently dropped it behind the shed.

  “She’ll be back over by the hedge again in no time,” said Josh. This didn’t comfort his twin much. “Along with all the others. You’re never more than a few feet away from a spider, you know.”

  “Not one more word about…those…things!”

  Josh pushed his hands into his shorts pockets and grinned. “Mandibles,” he muttered, quietly. He didn’t think Danny would know what this word was. He’d read only yesterday that mandibles were what spiders used for eating. Not teeth exactly. Just sort of munchy parts on their faces.

  Danny hated anything creepy-crawly. For twins, he and Josh were very different. Josh was fascinated by small creatures and bugs. He had tons of wildlife books. He used to bring woodlice, snails, and beetles into the house. But Jenny, their older sister, found earwigs in her hair dryer. Then Danny screamed loud enough to wake the dead after stepping into his brother’s box of centipedes when he got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. So Mom said Josh could only look at bugs and stuff outside. It was probably just as well. If Jenny didn’t squash them flat with a sandal, Mom would suck them up in the vacuum cleaner. Or Piddle would eat them. Piddle, their scruffy little terrier (named after a habit he had when he got overexcited), liked nothing more than to munch up a spider if he spotted one sauntering by.

  “How can you like those things?” Danny asked. He pulled his shorts and T-shirt on over his swimming trunks. He’d soured on the wading pool. Too many dead flies in it. “Ewww! I wish there weren’t any insects in the world!”

  “One, spiders aren’t insects—they’re arachnids,” said Josh. He climbed up the jungle gym. “And two, if there were no insects in the world, we would all die out. The human race depends on them.”

  “You freaky little bug geek!” muttered Danny.

  “Lucky for you that I do like them!” added Josh. “Or we’d both be screaming and wiggling all over the garden right now.”

  Danny ignored him. He checked his spiky fair hair with a shiver just in case another spider had dropped in. Josh’s hair was short and neat. He wouldn’t mind a spider in it at all. How could twins be so different? wondered Danny. He pulled on his sneakers. He loved playing computer games and listening to loud music. Josh would rather play with newts and listen to birdsong.

  But Danny had to admit he was useful for creepy-crawly removal.

  Danny abandoned the water pistol and picked up his skateboard. Soon he was racing up and down the path. Piddle was racing along beside him, yapping and nearly tripping him up every ten seconds.

  Upstairs from Jenny’s bedroom window a pop tune thumped loudly. From the kitchen poured the burble of daytime TV, which their mom liked to watch while she did the ironing.

  From the other side of the high wooden fence, there came a thump. And then another thump. And then a crotchety voice. “Will you all shut up! I’d have a quieter afternoon on the main runway at the airport!” Josh grimaced. It was Miss Potts, who lived in the run-down red brick house next door. People thought she was a bit eccentric. An old witch more like, thought Josh.

  “I SAID,” came the voice again, louder. “Will you all SHUT UP?!”

  But Mom and Jenny and Danny and Piddle were all making way too much noise to hear. “Sorry, Miss Potts,” said Josh. He felt embarrassed. “I’ll ask them to be quieter.”

  “Oh, don’t bother!” she snapped back. The top of her tweedy hat was the only thing he could see over the fence. “I’ll soon be deaf and then it won’t matter!”

  Josh waved at Danny and mouthed, “Miss Potts!”

  Danny skidded
his skateboard to a halt, shaking his head. Piddle sat back on his furry bottom. He waited, wiggling impatiently, for the fun to start again.

  Josh ran past him and pushed the kitchen window shut. At once the noise from Mom’s TV program dropped. He could still hear Miss Potts though, just on the other side of the fence. She was muttering, “Remember! Remember! Oh, you stupid old biddy! Remember! Where did you hide them? Where?”

  Josh bent down. He peered through a knothole in the wood. He saw the old lady crawling along through the weeds, which were nearly as tall as he was, obviously searching for something. Then she suddenly bobbed up. She thwacked her hand hard against her forehead and snapped, “STUPID old woman! Had to go and get your brain burnt out, didn’t you?” Then she stood up and stomped off into her ramshackle garden shed.

  It was right what they said about Petty Potts, Josh decided. She really was crazy.

  “She’s always moaning about noise!” Danny said, suddenly, right in his ear. Josh jumped. “Does she think this is a library or something? It’s a freakin’ yard! Kids play in yards. Dogs play in yards!” And he picked up a rubber ball and threw it for Piddle. “There you go, Piddle! Catch!”

  Piddle hurtled down the path. He threw himself into the pile of yard clippings and compost in the far corner. “Don’t pay any attention to her. Old whiny pants,” said Danny. “Come on, Piddle! Here, boy!”

  They glanced back across the yard expecting to see Piddle foraging through the leaves and cut grass. Then they both blinked and stared back at each other in surprise.

  Piddle had vanished.

  “Look, there’s a hole! He must have squeezed through,” grunted Josh. He was almost upside down in the compost pile. “He’s gone next door!”

  “Can we get through after him?” asked Danny. He peered over Josh’s shoulder and eyed the compost pile warily. It was full of horrible things, he knew. Worms, beetles, ants, spiders…ugh.

  “Maybe—if we wriggle…” said Josh.

  “Or should we just go over and knock and ask for him back?” Danny said, hopefully. He really didn’t want to get personal with that heap of horrors.

  “What—like a lost ball?” scoffed Josh. “We’ve never got one of those back from her before, have we? No…I think…we can almost…”

  Josh wriggled and dug down through the warm, moist dirt and leaves between the back of the compost pile and the fence. The wood around the small hole was old and rotten. As Josh pushed against it, more fell away. He squeezed his head and shoulders through, getting a face full of overgrown grass. Then he crawled right into Miss Potts’s yard. With a few grunts and complaints, Danny followed. He tried not to notice anything scuttling in the heap. The tickly feeling on his skin was just grass…probably. With a squeak of revulsion, he knocked off a centipede. Then he hurtled through the gap after Josh, grazing his left ear.

  “Piddle! Piddle!” Josh was calling, softly. No reply. No patter of little clawed feet. No yap.

  The weeds grew up to their waists, filled with invisible chirruping grasshoppers. As Josh and Danny crawled through the high grass and nettles, they heard one shrill little bark. “He’s in her shed!” gasped Danny.

  “And she’s in there!” said Josh, with a gulp. “She’ll be going nuts! We have to go in and rescue him.”

  The shed door was open. They tiptoed in. At first it all looked quite normal. There was a rake propped up by the door. A wheelbarrow under some old shelves, full of gardening stuff. An old sheet was hung up on nails at the back.

  “It doesn’t smell like a shed,” whispered Danny. “It smells like…like…”

  “Like school,” said Josh. “Sort of…” But he couldn’t figure out exactly why.

  “Yes…something at school,” agreed Danny, not bothering to whisper now. “But they’re not in here, are they?”

  Then there was another bark. It was definitely coming from inside the shed. Danny and Josh stared at each other in confusion. Then Danny strode to the back wall, grabbed the old sheet hanging on the nails, and pulled it aside. Behind it was a red metal door.

  The door was ajar. Pushing it open, Danny saw gray stone steps leading a short way down to a passage. “Come on!” Danny went through. Josh followed, staring around him. Wobbly metal panels—corrugated iron, thought Josh—curved up over them in an arch. At the end of the passage was a well-lit room as big as their bedroom and Jenny’s put together. And in the middle of it, right ahead of them, was a sort of square plastic see-through tent. And in the middle of that was Piddle.

  The room smelled strange. Very strange. It still reminded him of school. Like the room where they did science. And there was a hissing noise. Piddle was standing very still with the fur on his back sticking up. He was scared. “It’s all right, Piddle. We’ve found you!” said Danny. And pushing the plastic sheeting open, he went into the strange tent. Josh gave a swift glance around, noticing some odd machinery and a kind of glass booth, glowing green, off to the left. He hurried in after Danny.

  “Come on. Let’s get out of here! It gives me the heebie-jeebies,” he said. Danny gathered the shivering Piddle up into his arms.

  Then the hissing got louder. Something cool sprayed across their bare legs.

  “What was that…?” gasped Danny.

  “Don’t know! Don’t care! Let’s go!” replied Josh. They pushed out of the weird tent thing.

  Suddenly, Miss Potts’s voice rang out. “Who’s that! Who’s in my lab?”

  Danny grabbed Josh’s arm. They hurtled back along the dark, damp passage.

  “HEY! STOP! Come back here!” yelled Miss Potts. They could hear her thumping across the wooden floor of the weird secret room behind them.

  Josh and Danny leapt up the steps, two at a time. Piddle yelped excitedly over Danny’s shoulder. His ears were flapping around, and his pink tongue was hanging out.

  “STOP! I know who you ARE!” bellowed Miss Potts.

  Danny, Josh, and Piddle almost fell into the garden. Miss Potts’s bony hand swatted the sack curtain aside behind them.

  “RUN!” gasped Danny. “RUN!”

  They hurtled back through the overgrown weeds. They shoved Piddle under the fence and scrambled after him as fast as they could go.

  Back on their own side, they didn’t stop running. Josh and Danny belted straight into the house and upstairs, as if a wild beast was chasing them. It wasn’t until they got to the landing that they collapsed in a heap and started to laugh. Piddle sniffed at their legs and sneezed. Then he trotted off into their bedroom.

  “Ugh!” Danny peered at his legs. They looked kind of…yellow. And they had that weird smell they’d noticed in the secret laboratory. Josh’s legs were also covered in the same strange liquid.

  “Come on—let’s get this stuff off!” said Josh. They clattered into the bathroom.

  “Hey! Don’t you two go in there! I’m just about to take my bath!” yelled Jenny, from her bedroom.

  “We won’t be long!” called back Josh. “Two minutes!”

  They took off their shoes and socks and rolled up their shorts. They stood up in the big bathtub.

  “What is this stuff?” Danny wrinkled his nose.

  “Whatever it is, it’s coming off,” said Josh. He grabbed the shower attachment but dropped it.

  Then the bath started to grow…

  Its curved metal rim suddenly shot high, high up beyond their heads. The flat base with its little square of antislip bumps suddenly stretched out beneath and around them until it was the size of a basketball court and the bumps were small hills.

  The plug was now the size of a playground merry-go-round. It was hanging off a chain that wouldn’t have looked out of place attached to the anchor of a warship.

  “AAAAAH!” added Josh.

  Danny went along with that.

  At last the growing seemed to stop. They were in a vast white valley of bathtub.

  “What’s going on?” whimpered Danny. “What happened to the bathtub?” His voice sounded a bit funny. S
ort of raspy. And his eyes felt very odd. He seemed to be able to see around corners at the same time as straight ahead…

  Behind him came Josh’s voice—also a bit raspy. “Um…Danny. Promise me you’ll stay calm.” Josh stared into the shiny mirrorlike top of the giant shower attachment. It was leaning against the side of the incredibly huge bath. He gulped and blinked some eyes. Yep. His reflection was still the same. He wasn’t dreaming it.

  “What is that?” Danny found himself moving, rather smoothly and swiftly, he thought, toward a huge round well. Above it rested the immense plug on its gigantic chain. The top of the plug was also shiny and mirrorlike. In it Danny saw something huge and hairy and standing high on eight legs. It had eight eyes and a rather surprised expression. And it MUST BE RIGHT ON TOP OF HIM!!!!!

  “JO-O-SH! GETITOFF! GETITOFF! GETITOFFMEEEE!!!!” screamed Danny, freaking out. The spider was freaking out too. It waved its hairy legs wildly in the giant plug mirror just beyond the giant plughole.

  “I can’t get it off you, you dingbat,” shouted Josh. “It is you!”

  Danny’s mandibles quivered. He looked around. He saw yet another spider over by the showerhead where Josh’s voice was coming from. His eight eyes rolled up. At least sixteen knees went weak. Then, in a tangle of legs, he fainted.

  Josh ran across to the collapsed body of his brother. He got hold of Danny’s shoulder area—or “thorax” if he was being correct—using his palps (the little arms on either side of his head) and his two front legs.

  “Danny! Wake up!” he shouted in his odd raspy voice. It was probably pointless, though. Danny would most likely just scream and faint again as soon as he saw his brother. Or his own reflection. Like it or not, believe it or not, they had both just turned into spiders. Josh’s brain was doing backflips. He was trying to take this amazing fact in and work out how it had happened. But he didn’t have much time for pondering. He heard a terrible low roaring sound that made the metal under his eight feet vibrate. A shadow fell across him, and he looked up to see a horrifying sight.