Body Switchers from Outer Space by R.L. Stine Page B

back to normal.”
    I stared at him. I could be one of the coolest kids in school! Could it be this easy?
    â€œCome on, Will.” He held up his arm, made a muscle, looked at it for a second, then grinned at me. “You want to switch. You know you do.”
    Maybe this was just a dumb joke, but why should that stop me? I fall for dumb jokes all the time.
    And if it wasn’t? That was too awesome even to think about.
    â€œOkay!” I told him. “I’ll do it!”
    He stood and smiled his bright, white, straight-toothed smile. “I knew you’d come around. Meet me in the playground after school.” Then he dashed out of the cafeteria, waving at kids who called out his name.
    I shook my head a few times, trying to clear it. If this wasn’t a joke, it was all too good to be true.
    After school, when we reached Chad’s house on Fear Street, he didn’t invite me inside. Instead, he signaled for me to stay back. He snuck behind a tree in the front yard and glanced at the windows. All the curtains were closed, and none of them moved.
    He waved at me and I joined him behind the tree. “All clear,” he whispered. We walked our bikes quickly past the side of the house. “If my mom or dad knew we were doing this, we’d be in a lot of trouble.”
    I couldn’t even imagine what my parents would say!
    Chad led me to a shed in the backyard. You couldn’t see it from the street. The closer we got to it, the stranger it looked.
    It was like no other backyard shed I had ever seen. It was shaped like a puffy mushroom, big and round and bulging. Some of the bushes and vines grew right up over it.
    The shed was shiny silver and it had no windows. I couldn’t even see a door. I did spot a yellow-green circle the size of a baseball stuck on the smooth wall. It had a raised black border around it.
    Chad touched the yellow-green part with his thumb. Whoosh! A round opening appeared in the side of the shed.
    My mouth dropped open. Some door! It wastotally invisible. No hinges. Not even an outline. No way to know it was there until Chad opened it. I had never seen anything like it.
    I let out a little whistle. “Wow!” I was totally impressed.
    Chad shrugged. “My dad invents lots of stuff.” He nodded at the mushroom building.
    â€œCool,” I said.
    It was. Totally cool. Chad’s dad must be one great inventor.
    Did that mean Chad had been telling the truth? And there really was a body-switching machine in there?
    A green light glowed from inside the shed, and I could hear a ticking noise. My heart pounded double time. I glanced down to see if it was popping out of my chest.
    That’s when I noticed all of today’s stains down the front of my shirt. There were green grass stains from gym in addition to red spaghetti blotches and brown pudding smudges. Plus a few spots that hadn’t come out in the wash from last spaghetti day.
    Some things never change.
    But—maybe they could.
    I’ve wanted to be someone else for such a long time. And besides, Chad would think I was a total wimp if I backed out now.
    I couldn’t let a whooshing door and a weird shed stop me.
    â€œCome on in.” Chad stood in the silver mushroom doorway, waiting.
    Well, here goes.
    I stepped across the threshold and gave a little gasp of surprise. My foot sank deep into the floor. It was made of some kind of pink, spongy material. I bent down to examine it. The floor felt soft and warm on my hand. I poked at it in a few places before straightening up.
    I watched Chad touch a yellow-green badge on an inside wall near the door. The opening whooshed shut. I glanced around the inside of the shed.
    I don’t think I had ever been in a round room before. A large yellow circle was painted on the floor. A pale green light glowed from the ceiling. I noticed four big dark gray boxes that reached to the ceiling and looked like closets. These had visible doors, only