I knew why. I sat with the Monster Squad instead of them—again. But I didn’t have a choice. Once this B-Monster thing started, there was no splitting us up. We stuck together when we fought Slimo and that worked great. Why should now be any different? Since the Mega sighting in the field near the Drive-O-Rama, there had been no new signs of the mantis or its friend, Mega Mantis Two. But we just kept waiting, like Walter said we should. No news should have been good news. But it wasn’t. The bugs were all we could think about. “Let’s break it down,” Stella said, poking at her plate of mashed potatoes. “The mantids flew away. But Leery told us they always come back. We have to figure out where they’ll show up next.” Lindsey took a bite of salad. She’d nearly drowned it in ranch dressing. I pushed my fork through the ziti on my plate. But I wasn’t really hungry. Who could eat that at a time like this? “Molloy!” Ranger cried, waving his hands at me. “What’s that on your plate?”
