Revenge of the Tiki Men! by Tony Abbott

1
    Non-Weirdness
    S itting alone on the top row of bleachers, Liz Duffey looked out over the baseball field behind W. Reid Elementary School.
    â€œFirst day of summer vacation,” she said to herself. “First Monday with no school. First baseball game. Incredible sunshine. This is all so—”
    â€œOdd!” yelled a voice below her. “Odd-odd-odd!”
    Liz frowned. “That’s not what I was going to say … for once.” She turned to see Mike Mazur and Holly Vickers standing behind home plate.
    â€œI’m odd,” Mike insisted, holding one hand behind his back, ready to choose sides for the game.
    â€œYou’re odd, all right, Mike,” Holly said with a laugh. “So I guess I’ll be even. Ready? Set. Go!” She thrust out her hand, showing three fingers.
    Mike stuck out two fingers. “Ha! The odd team wins! I choose Liz and we’re up first.” He smiled up at Liz.
    Liz made a face at him as she jumped down the bleacher steps to the field. “Oh, goody, I’m on the odd team. What I always wanted.”
    â€œDon’t let it get you down, Liz,” Holly joked. “Odd is pretty normal around here.”
    Holly’s brother Sean strolled up to the plate with Jeff Ryan. “Odd, even. Why do we have to do math during the summer?”
    Liz chuckled and handed a glove to Jeff.
    â€œBaseball is the absolute coolest game,” said Sean. He dropped a pair of bats and ground a brand-new baseball between his palms.
    Bong! The Double Dunk Donut Den’s donut-shaped clock on Main Street chimed the hour.
    Sssss! The pancake pan sitting high above Usher’s House of Pancakes steamed the hour, too.
    â€œAnd now it’s official,” Liz said, picking up one of Sean’s bats. “Time to play ball!”
    Holly pulled on a glove and took up her position at first base. Sean trotted to the pitcher’s mound and began to stretch. Jeff strode out between second and third to his favorite position of shortstop.
    â€œBlast one out to left field,” Mike said, crouching behind the plate to catch for Liz. “You’ll get a good triple at least.”
    Liz swung the bat around and nodded. “My dad told me that centuries ago this field had all kinds of caves running under it. Tunnels and pits and stuff that people used to live in.”
    Liz’s father, Kramer Duffey, was an archaeologist who dug holes and found prehistoric fossils and artifacts all around Grover’s Mill.
    â€œCaves?” Mike mumbled. “That’s weird.”
    From home plate Liz could see all the way north of town to the secret army base. Jeff Ryan’s mother worked there. In the east was the Humongous Horror Movie Studios where Mr. Vickers made scary low-budget films. And in the west was one of her father’s archaeological sites.
    â€œSure it’s weird.” Liz tapped the plate with the bat. “That’s because Grover’s Mill is right in the center of a giant triangle of weirdness. It’s obviously been that way forever.”
    Mike laughed, pounding his glove with his fist. “At least since people used to live in those caves. Hey, wouldn’t it be great if today turned out to be the first non -weird day? I mean, there’s a first time for everything.”
    Liz tapped the plate again. She knew what he meant. Their town had had a lot of first times.
    The first time zombie Martians attacked the earth was in Grover’s Mill. The first time a prehistoric dinosaur egg hatched out a living dinosaur was there. The first time octopus monsters from Planet X landed was there, too.
    But the first non-weird day?
    Tap! Tap! Liz tapped the plate again. The sounds echoed beneath her.
    â€œGet ready to strike out!” Sean yelled, starting his windup.
    Liz pounded the plate again, a little harder.
    Boom! The ground rumbled deeply beneath the plate. It shuddered and quaked.
    â€œWhoa! Did you hear that?”