Before the worms turned mean, before they slithered out to get their revenge, Todd Barstow had a great time with them.

Todd collected worms. He built a worm farm in his basement.

He studied them. He played with them. He did experiments with them. Sometimes he carried them around with him.

Sometimes he scared people with them. Especially his sister, Regina.

He liked to dangle the long, purple ones in front of Regina’s face. Sometimes he dropped them down her back or into her long, brown hair.

He liked to torture Regina’s best friend, too. Her name was Beth Baker, and she always screamed a high, squeaky scream whenever Todd surprised her with a big, slimy worm.

“You’re totally gross, Todd!” Beth would squeal.

This always made Todd very happy.

Todd’s best friend, Danny Fletcher, didn’t really understand why Todd was so interested in worms. But Danny did understand how much fun it was to surprise people and make them scream. So he spent a lot of time with Todd.

In fact, the two of them were almost always together. They even sat together in Miss Grant’s class, where they whispered a lot, planning what to do next with Todd’s worms.

Todd didn’t look at all mischievous. In fact, he usually had a very serious expression on his face. He had dark brown eyes under short, wavy brown hair. No one ever saw his hair. It was always covered by the silver-and-black Raiders cap he wore day and night.

He was tall and skinny. His mother said he was as skinny as a worm. Todd never thought that was funny. He took worms seriously.

Danny looked more like a joker. He had a round, chubby face under curly red hair, and a really goofy grin. His round blue eyes always lit up when Todd was about to spring a big, wet worm on an unsuspecting victim.

Whenever Todd succeeded in making someone scream in surprise, Danny would toss back his head, let out a high-pitched cheer, and slap Todd hard on the back with his chubby, freckled hand. Then the two of them would screech with laughter, roll around on the floor, and enjoy their victory.

They had a great time with worms.

But whenever anyone asked Todd why he collected them, and why he was so interested in them, Todd’s expression would turn serious, and he’d say, “Because I want to be a scientist when I grow up.”

“How many worms do you have?” someone asked him.

“Not enough,” he replied.

He was always digging up more. Looking for champions. He liked them long and purple and kind of fat.

And squishy. Squishy was very important.

Sunday night it had rained. The ground was still wet as Todd and Regina walked to school on Monday morning. Todd knew the worms would all be coming up for air.

He found Danny at the water fountain outside their classroom. Danny had a finger pressed over the fountain spout, and when kids passed by, he made the water squirt all over them.

Todd lowered his Raiders cap over his forehead as he leaned close to Danny. “Meet me behind second base on the playground,” he whispered. “As soon as the lunch bell rings.”

Danny nodded. He didn’t have to ask why. He knew that Todd’s favorite place to dig up fresh worms was the bare patch of ground behind second base on the softball diamond.

The ground there was soft and rich. And after a good rain, the two boys could shovel up ten to fifteen worms without even trying.

Todd kept a gardening shovel in his locker, as well as a small metal bucket with a lid. He was always ready to collect worms when the time was right.

In class that morning, everyone was talking about the big Science Expo to be held in the gym on Saturday. Some kids already had their projects done.

Debby Brewster was bragging about how she was going to win the new computer, the grand prize, by making electricity. Someone shouted out, “Go fly a kite!” and everyone laughed. The whole class was tired of Debby’s constant bragging.

Todd’s project was just about finished. It had worms in it, of course.

It was a worm house. A little house Todd’s father had helped him build, about the size of a dollhouse. One side was cut away and covered with a pane of glass so you could see in. The house was filled with dirt. And you could see all of the worms—a whole worm family—crawling from room to room.

Danny’s project was really boring. He was building the solar system out of balloons.

He wanted to share Todd’s project and work on it with him. But Todd wouldn’t let him. “I don’t want to share the computer,” Todd had said.

“But I helped you dig up the worms!” Danny protested.

“I dug up most of them,” Todd replied.

And so Todd forced Danny to do his own project. Danny blew up different-colored balloons for all the planets and taped them on a big black sheet of oaktag.

Very boring.

“What makes you so sure you’re going to win the grand prize?” Danny asked Todd as he hurried to catch up with him on the playground at lunchtime.

“I checked out the other projects,” Todd replied. “My project is the only one with real, living creatures. Except for Heather’s snails.”

“Heather has done a lot of experiments with her snails,” Danny commented.

“So what?” Todd snapped. “Snails are for babies. We had snails in first grade. No one cares about snails in sixth grade. No way they can compete with worms.”

“I guess you’re right,” Danny replied, scratching his red hair.

They squatted down as they reached the bare spot behind second base. Todd handed Danny his spare shovel.

The playground was empty. Everyone else was inside eating lunch.

The ground was still soft and wet. Worms were poking their heads up from little puddles. One long worm crawled on top of the dirt.

“The rain makes them all come up,” said Todd, beginning to dig. “This is excellent!”

He didn’t know what kind of trouble was waiting under the ground.