The day we decided to scare Courtney was the day of our class field trip.

Mr. Melvin, our teacher, and Ms. Prince, the other sixth-grade teacher, stood counting us as we boarded the yellow school bus.

Courtney was first in line, of course. Courtney makes sure she is always first in line. Her friend Denise boarded right behind her.

It was a gray day. Dark storm clouds rolled overhead, blocking the sun. The guy on the radio said there was a ninety percent chance of rain.

I didn’t care. I was happy to be getting out of school.

I pushed my friend Hat into the kid in front of him. His real name is Herbie, but everyone calls him Hat. That’s because no one has ever seen him without a baseball cap on his head. I’ve known Hat since fourth grade, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen his hair.

The kid in front spun around and shoved Hat back at me.

“Hey—give me a break!” Hat shouted. He slugged me hard on the shoulder. “You made me swallow my gum, Eddie.”

“Hey, guys, be cool,” Mr. Melvin said, frowning at us. He’s the kind of teacher who always says things like “be cool” and tries to act like he’s our friend. But he’s a pretty good teacher, anyway.

And he takes us on a lot of field trips, which is cool.

“Why are we going to a forest?” Hat grumbled, slipping another piece of bubble gum into his mouth. “What are we supposed to look for?”

“Trees, I guess,” I replied. I didn’t remember why we were going to Greene Forest. I just remembered we were supposed to take notes.

“Eddie, want some bubble gum?”

I turned around to see my friend Charlene right behind me in line. She and my other friend Molly had big gobs of grape gum in their mouths and were chewing hard.

“Molly, how can you chew that stuff with braces?” I asked.

She opened her mouth in a wide grin, showing me her teeth. “It doesn’t stick too much,” she said.

Molly’s braces are red and blue. She’s always showing them off. I don’t know why.

Molly and Charlene look so much alike, almost like sisters. They both have short brown hair and brown eyes. They’re both about my height, five two. They both wear faded jeans and big, oversized T-shirts all the time. The only difference between Molly and Charlene is that Molly wears glasses and has braces, and Charlene doesn’t.

“I’ll protect you two in the deep, dark forest,” I teased. “You know. In case you’re attacked by fleas or something.”

“Eddie’s a real macho guy,” Hat said, grinning. “He’s real brave.” He punched my shoulder. Hard.

I pretended it didn’t hurt.

“You both have fleas,” Charlene said.

“We’ll protect you, Eddie,” Molly offered. “There might be some vicious worms there!”

Hat, Molly, and Charlene burst out laughing. Molly was teasing me about the time the four of us went fishing at Muddy Creek, and I had a little trouble putting a worm on my hook.

“I wasn’t afraid of that worm!” I cried angrily. “It was just yucky, that’s all.”

I scowled at Molly, but I wasn’t really angry. I’m used to being teased. Kids always make fun of my freckles and my red hair. And my older brother, Kevin, calls me Bugs. He says I look just like Bugs Bunny because my two front teeth stick out.

“What’s up, doc? What’s up, doc?” That’s all Kevin ever says to me. He and his high school pals think it’s a riot.

I climbed onto the bus and scrambled past Hat to get a window seat. Courtney and Denise had taken the front seat, of course. Courtney was brushing her long, blonde hair, using the bus window as a mirror. Denise was writing something in her notebook.

Hat slammed into me, and I stumbled down the aisle. He quickly slid into the seat and moved to the window. “Hey—no fair!” I shouted.

He giggled his high-pitched giggle and grinned at me. Hat is my best pal, but I have to admit he’s sort of goofy-looking. I mean, he’s always grinning, sort of like Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And he has really big ears that bend down beneath his baseball cap, sort of doubled over.

He’s a good guy. He really makes Molly, Charlene, and me laugh all the time.

“I get the window going back,” I said, slumping down beside Hat. Charlene messed up my hair as she walked past.

“Why do they call it Greene Forest?” Hat asked, pressing his nose against the window, watching it steam up from his breath. “Why not Blue Forest or Red Forest?”

“A guy named Greene used to own it,” I told him. “He gave the land to the city when he died.”

“I knew that,” Hat said. What a liar.

I spun his cap around till it was backwards. He really hates that. But he deserved it for grabbing the window seat.

A few minutes later, the bus was bouncing toward Greene Forest. A few minutes after that, we were piling out of the bus, staring at the tall trees that reached up to the dark, cloudy sky.

“Make two columns on your work sheet,” Ms. Prince was telling everyone. “One for wildlife and one for plantlife.”

“I’m putting you down as plantlife,” I told Charlene.

She stuck her tongue out at me with the big, purple blob of bubble gum on the tip. Hat slapped her on the back really hard, and the wad of bubble gum went flying.

Charlene cried out angrily and tried to slug him, but Hat backed away to safety. He was too fast for her.

The teachers divided us into groups, and we began to explore the forest. We followed a narrow dirt path that twisted through the trees.

It was cooler in the forest, and dark. I wished the sun would come out.

“What’s that green stuff on that tree?” Hat asked me, pointing. “Is that moss? Is moss wildlife or plantlife?”

“You should know,” I told him. “You have it growing on your back!”

Molly and Charlene laughed, but Hat didn’t. “Can’t you ever be serious?” He scribbled something on his work sheet.

I glanced down at mine. I hadn’t written anything yet. I mean, I’d only seen a bunch of trees and some weeds. Who cared about writing that down?

“The creatures are hiding,” Ms. Prince was telling the group of kids ahead of us. “Search for their hiding places. Look for holes in the ground and in trees. Look for hidden nests.”

I gazed up at the trees above my head. The leaves were too thick to see any nests. I was about to tell Hat he should look under some rocks because that’s where he came from. But before I could, I heard a hushed cry behind us.

“Ssshhh! Look! A deer!”

We all turned back to see who had called out. Of course it was Courtney. Who else would be the first to spot a deer?

She and Denise were frozen like statues, staring into a narrow space between the trees. Courtney kept raising her finger to her lips, signaling for everyone to be silent.

Hat, Molly, Charlene, and I went running over to see the deer. “I don’t see anything,” I said, squinting hard into the trees.

“It ran away,” Courtney told me.

“You missed it,” Denise added. I watched her write deer on her work sheet under wildlife. She already had four other creatures on her list. I didn’t have any.

“Did you see the sleeping bat?” Courtney asked me.

“Bat?” I don’t like bats. They’re so ugly. And what if one bites you?

“It was hanging on that tree,” Courtney said, pointing behind us. “How could you miss it?”

I shrugged.

“There’s a birch tree,” Denise told Courtney. “And there’s a weeping beech tree. Add them to the list.”

Hat, Molly, and Charlene had moved on along the trail, and I hurried to catch up to them. Courtney and Denise were working too hard, in my opinion. Field trips are supposed to be for goofing and having fun away from school.

We made our way slowly through the forest. After a while, the sun came out and sent shafts of yellow light down through the trees.

I tried to push Hat into a huge patch of poison ivy. But he dodged away from me, and I went sprawling face down in the dirt.

I was still brushing myself off when I saw the snake.

Right beside my left sneaker.

It was bright green, and big.

I stopped breathing. I stared down at it.

I had nearly stepped on it.

As I stared helplessly, it arched its head, opened its jaws, and darted forward to bite my leg.

I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.