CHAPTER ONE The “Monster” in Fluff Monster

 

  Give that back!” I yelled. “I need it!”

  My cookies-and-cream colored pup, Fluff Monster, had my precious purple notebook between her teeth.

  It was a really important notebook, the one I used for brainstorming possible next adventures. I wrote down all my ideas in there, whether they were good or bad.

  As I lunged for the notebook, Fluff Monster scurried away. She was a small dog, but even with such short legs, she could dart out of reach pretty quickly. She hopped up into the cardboard box that could turn into whatever I wanted it to: a submarine, an airplane, even a spaceship. Maybe she was ready for a new mission. After all, I’d taken her to lots of cool places already. We’d flown into a hurricane. We’d gone to hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the sea. I just didn’t know what to do next.

  “Do you have any ideas for a new adventure?” I asked Fluff.

  But instead of answering, she hopped right out the other side, and then dashed up the basement stairs.

  “Fluff Monster!” I shouted, rushing after her.

  She’d been so naughty lately. Even though I loved her like a little sister, I was getting kind of tired of it. Maybe I should leave her behind on my next mission. Then I could focus on the things I cared about, like adventure and glory and all that. Instead of making sure she wasn’t chewing on things she wasn’t supposed to chew on.

  Fluff ran past the kitchen, where my five-year-old brother, Abu, was on the kitchen floor, screaming and banging his fists on the tiles.

  “What’s the matter with him?” I asked.

  Dad rubbed his eyes. “He finished his string cheese.”

  “I thought we had a mountain of them in the pantry!”

  “We do.” Dad sighed. “He’s just mad that the one in his hand somehow disappeared. You know, because he ate it.”

  Oh boy. Fluff had been naughty lately, but Abu kept having a fit over anything and everything. But I didn’t have time to help Dad with Abu right now because I needed to get that notebook.

  I heard Fluff padding across the dining room and sprinted after her. My grandparents were reading magazines and drinking chai at the table. They still looked very sleepy even though it was almost lunchtime. They had come back to the US late last night—all the way from India. They’d been visiting there for a whole month.

  “Where are you off to?” Nana said with a yawn.

  “Fluff Monster stole my notebook!” I said, running past him.

  “Bribe her with a treat,” Nani suggested.

  Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. I went back into the kitchen and grabbed one of her favorite peanut butter biscuits. Then I followed the sound of her paws scampering across the hallway, into the den. Mom and my twelve-year-old cousin Ash were sitting at the messy desk, looking at Ash’s science fair report on a laptop.

  “Wow, so it really rains diamonds on Neptune?” Ash asked.

  What? Diamond rain? For real? That distracted me from Fluff and the notebook.