Nams
Cally and Bean were sitting in class listening to their teacher, Mr. Martin, talk about their class’s pet hamster Nams, and how everybody wanted to feed it but only the “Feeder” gets to do it. “I am going to allow each one of you to take a turn bringing Nams home to feed for a week,” Mr. Martin said in a stern voice. “Who would like to go first?” Everybody’s hand shot up at the same time. “Bean, would you like to take Nams home for the week?” he asked. Cally stared at Bean with wide eyes. “Yes please,” Bean answered. Mr. Martin picked up Nams’ box and a box of food and handed them to Bean. “Do not forget to bring him back to school tomorrow during class,” Mr. Martin instructed Bean. “Otherwise, Nams will be left at your house with nobody there.” “I won’t. Thank you, Mr. Martin,” Bean said as she stuffed the cage into her bag.
After the bell rang, Cally and Bean walked home together as usual. “You’re so lucky!” Cally said excitedly. “I know, when I get home I’m going build a paper playground for Nams,” said Bean. “Great idea! I forgot to tell you the other day that I’m keeping Poogy. I trained her a bit, and she’s really nice now. Anyway, I’ll meet you at your house at 4:00 to take a look.” “OK. See you. Bye!” And Bean ran off to her tower.
The Great Escape
Bean was so excited to start working on Nams’ playground, she completely forgot about Nams. After Bean unlocked the door to her apartment, she threw her bag on the floor and heard something get hit hard. “Oh no!” Bean cried, “I forgot Nams is in there!” She hurriedly ran over to her bag, unzipped it and peeked inside. She carefully took Nams’ cage out and looked around for any cracks. “All clear, phew!” Bean said relived. She took out the can of food from the drawer. ‘Hmm… he was fed at around 2:00… so I should feed him again around 6:00.’ She took out a stack of scrap paper out of her bag and started working.
‘Ding Dong.’ Bean jumped up and opened the door. “Hi Cally,” Bean said. “Hi!” “Bark!” barked Poogy. “I already started working on it,” Bean said as she led Cally into her house. “Here’s the tall pole… and here are the tubes that he is going to run through,” Bean said pointing at her project. “Wow that looks like so much fun!” Cally said amazed. Bean picked up her project, lifted up the lid of the cage and put the tubes in. Poogy growled at Nams. “I think she wants to eat Nams,” Cally said laughing. They watched Nams run around for a bit. Then Cally said, “I’ve got to go back home and do my homework. Bye!” “Bye.” After Cally had left, Bean finished up her homework then took a shower. She threw her dirty clothes in the dirty clothes pile right next to the trash. But when she came out, Nams was gone.
The Search is On
“Oh no! This is bad, really, really bad,” Bean said franticly as she ran around the room looking for Nams. “How could he have possibly gotten out?” Bean looked at Nams’ cage again and realized she had forgotten to close the lid. ‘But… how did he climb up the wall?’ she asked herself. ‘Mr. Martin is going to be so angry with me when he finds out I lost him.’ Bean inspected Nams’ cage again and noticed that it was possible to climb up the slide, jump onto the pole and crawl out of the cage. “I have to call Cally.”
After Cally had arrived, she looked around Bean’s room one more time but couldn’t find Nams either. “Maybe Poogy snuck in my house and ate Nams,” Bean suggested angrily at Cally. “No way, I never let him out of my house. And plus, I was with Poogy the whole afternoon. That hamster is pretty smart, I must say. But I don’t know what else to do,” Cally said shrugging. “I guess you’ll just have to tell Mr. Martin you lost him.” “Oh… I’m going to be suspended for losing the class pet,” Bean sighed sadly. “Yeah right, only for like one day,” Cally said. “Just tell him you’ll have Nams in the classroom by Friday. For sure, we’ll find him by then.” The next day at school Mr. Martin was fuming.
Rage
“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT, I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE IT!” Mr. Martin yelled stomping in circles. “NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?” Bean was sweating. Should she explain what happened? Or just tell him that she’ll have Nams in by Friday? She decided that it was best to tell the truth. “I’m so sorry I didn’t bring Nams in today Mr. Martin. You see, I was trying to have some fun with Nams by building a tube maze. But instead, he crawled on top of them and since I forgot to close the lid he jumped out of the cage while I was taking a shower.” “Yeah whatever, BLAH BLAH BLAH I don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Mr. Martin said carelessly. “I don’t know how I could possibly forget my laptop at home when I bring it to school every day. How I am going to teach today!” he muttered to himself fiercely.
Bean realized that Mr. Martin wasn’t angry with her. He was angry with himself for forgetting his laptop at home. “Oh,” Bean nervously and quickly scooted in her seat. “OK,” Mr. Martin sighed, trying to calm down. “Today we are just going to have to sit in Mrs. Martin’s classroom and learn with them.” Bean walked into Mrs. Martin’s class and tried to squeeze into a space on the carpet.
After the class squashed into Mrs. Martin’s classroom, and learned about how the weather changes, Bean wanted to get home as fast as she could to see if Nams was back. When Bean arrived at her house, she took in a deep breath from the hard nervous day at school but choked instead.
The Smell
“Ewwww,” she said disgusted. “Where is that terrible smell coming from?” She pinched her nose and walked over to Nams’ cage. “Well he hasn’t come back yet,” Bean said looking around. She went into the bathroom to see if it smelled any better. “Blech!” she said coughing on the floor. She picked up her perfume spray and sprayed her room. “Phew! All better.” She took a shower and threw her dirty clothes in the pile with her other clothes. ‘Today is Tuesday, that means it’s laundry day!’, she thought as she picked up her pile of dirty clothes next to the garbage can. ‘Cough, cough, I think the smell is coming from my clothes.’ She dumped the clothes into the washing machine and turned it on. She went to the bathroom to brush her hair and sniffed the air. But the smell was still there.
Bean just ignored it. She was thinking about what to have for dinner when she realized she was hungry. She pulled out a bag of chips from her backpack and started munching. ‘Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.’ When she finished, she threw the bag in the trash and heard a little squeak. “Hrrmph?” Bean said in the middle of crunches. She walked back into the bathroom and looked in the garbage can. And there, staring back at her, was Nams.
The Trash Can
“Wrphoah!” Bean said surprised, her chips almost flying out of her mouth. She swallowed her chips and dug through the trash to pick up the fat Nams. “How in the world did you get in here? And have you been snacking on my leftover chip bags?” Bean asked angrily. “I have to tell Cally this, she’s going to be shocked.” Bean walked over to Nams’ cage, put Nams in and closed the lid securely. “And don’t you ever dare to try and escape again,” Bean said pointing her finger at Nams. Bean walked over to her phone and called Cally. “Guess what. I found Nams eating my leftover chips in the garbage can. The only thing is, I don’t know how he got in there.” “Whoa really? Well how Nams crawled in there doesn’t matter right now, the important thing is you found Nams. I’m coming over right now.” Cally said excitedly.
As soon as Bean opened the door, Cally burst through the door with Poogy right behind her. “How did you find him?” Cally asked as fast as she could. “Well… I was eating a pack of chips. And when I finished, I threw it in the garbage. When I heard a squeak, I walked over to the garbage can and saw Nams nibbling on my chips.” Bean pointed to Nams’ cage. Cally walked over, “He looks so fat compared to the last time I saw him. Did you have anything next to your trash that he could’ve climbed up on?” “Oh! My pile of dirty clothes! So he climbed up my pile of clothes and fell into my garbage can!” Bean exclaimed. “You better not tell Mr. Martin,” Cally giggled. After Cally left, Bean scrubbed Nams thoroughly to get all the garbage smell off him and then left to eat dinner.
Judgment Day
On her way to school the next morning, Bean carried along Nams’ cage with Nams inside. When she arrived at her classroom, she put the cage on the back table of her classroom, then sat at her desk. She smiled at Mr. Martin. But when she saw him staring at her with an angry face, she didn’t feel too good. “Why didn’t you bring Nams in yesterday?” Bean gulped. “Well… I kind of already told you yesterday so I don’t need to tell you again…,” Bean said nervously. “Yesterday!? I don’t remember anything that happened yesterday. I was so angry!” Mr. Martin complained. “Well I already told you so you’ll just have to remember. But I did bring Nams in today,” Bean protested. “Fine. Well at least he’s in today,” Mr. Martin said to himself.
After class had finished, Bean rushed outside and searched for Cally. When she found her, she said, “Mr. Martin was so angry yesterday that he forgot that I told him I lost Nams!” “Wow! You’re so lucky! Again!” Cally said. They walked home together, taking turns carrying Nams. At Bean’s house, they played with Nams for the rest of the afternoon.