"So have you thought about it more after what I told you?" Ethan asks Benny as they walk towards the school. "What? Me liking Sadie? I still don't." Benny groans. "I think you're just too chicken to admit. Why else would you want her to be jealous t...
"A study date?" Benny asks me as we walk to Ethan's. "Yeah, he asked me for your information. Looks like I can get a guy before you got a girl. Also said I'm his type." I smile at him moving to the other side of Ethan so I'm not next to him. "How are you his type? I mean look at you: Short, geeky, rude, sarcastic, not super athletic, funny looking, did I mention rude?" Benny leans to look over at me. "And you're no ones type. I mean look at you: tall and lanky, more of a geek than me, rude, sarcastic, weird, not as funny as you think you are, you're not super athletic either, odd looking, and did I mention incredibly rude?"
"Can you two stop it?" Ethan asks us. "No!" Both Benny and I shout. "You two are acting like when you first met each other." Ethan says then starts to smile at us. "Well this is hilarious." He shakes his head confusing Benny and me. "I hate you right now." Benny glares at me. "Right back at you." I return the same look. "I can't wait till you too get over it." Ethan says making us glare at him.
"Whoa, this is weird. Chlorophyll polymer ectoplasm? It's like a combination of paranormal weed and Ethernet cable." Ethan says looking through his microscope. "There's plant matter in the cables?" I ask him. "No, they're combined. Half alive, half plastic. Like Heidi Montag." He says high fiving Benny. "Ooh! Nice burn. Nobody's reported anything like this online." Benny tells him. "I wonder." Ethan tells him. "Me too. Mostly about what it would be like to have eyes on my feet. Then I'd always see where I'm going." Benny smile as I walk up to the two of them. "And you'd get a black eye every time you kicked something." I say making Ethan agree with me. "Nah, just wear special see-through shoes." He says making me want to slap him upside the head.
"Oh, weird. Sarah's laptop is virus-free. Maybe it's a hardware problem." Ethan goes to get up but it crashes. "Smells mouldy. Like my grandma's sock drawer." Benny tells him. "Let's open this thing up." Ethan says and they do to see the free goo. "Ugh. Circuit salad! Ugh! Here, probably the same as Rory's Zypod and the cables in the computer lab. Computers, cables, Zypods... I think I have a theory." Benny tells us. "Really?" Ethan asks him wanting to hear. "My theory is that you should be able to figure this out." I groan falling back in Ethan's bed. "I was thinking there's actually something strange growing in the school's computer network." Ethan tell him his theory.
"That's it! I knew I was onto something." Benny says making me throw a pillow at him. "We gotta get back to the school and stop this thing." Ethan picks up his pillow throwing it back onto his bed. "I got another theory. It's gonna be scary." Benny whines as we leave going back to the school.
"My theory was right. Do you remember this hallway being so... ominous and terrifying this afternoon?" Benny asks as we walk down the hall with green lighting. "It's not so bad. It's just a deserted hallway with... creepy flashing light and an overriding sense of doom. Yeah, it's terrifying!" Ethan tries to grab Benny's arm. "Let's just get in there and get this over with." I tell them.
"Oh, I think we're too late." Ethan says as we walk into the lab. "Man! This stuff spreads fast." Benny goes over to the girl. "This girl is garnished. What do we do?" Ethan asks out loud. "I think we need some kind of weed killer. I am not going to pull any weeds out of this girl's face." Benny looks at us. "You two go to the chemistry lab and I'll call Sarah." Ethan tells us and I just go with Benny.
"I'm sorry for everything I said earlier." Benny says as we make our way to the chemistry lab. "I was just..." He makes a face. "You were just what?" I ask with a smile. "You know I play around... a lot. Then when I hear you got a study date... I got... jealous." He groans making me giggle, "Looks like I'm the only one who can make you jelly. I'm not going to lie, I have a small crush on Jackson but I only said yes to prove that I could get someone before you." I smile making him hit me.
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"Okay, Let's wax some weeds!" Benny walks back into the room pointing the bottles at her face. "Wait, we don't want to burn her face. Spray her legs." I stop him. "Can I use my line again?" He asks. "If you insist." I tell him. "Let's wax some weeds!" He repeats himself. Ethan stops him as things start to happen. "What did you see?" We ask him. "I saw a tree. It was... angry." He tells us. "How could you tell? Was it choking squirrels?" Benny asks making me back hand his arm. Rory then shows up hoping we didn't mess up his download, and Benny suggests we look up the tree.
The tree of us head back to Ethan's so we can look up the tree. Sarah gets there the same time we do and the four of us head up to Ethan's room. "Move over so I can sit." Benny pushes me over on the bed. "This is my spot." I make room for him to sit while I lay in my belly. "Hey, Benny, Sadie, check this out. The oldest tree in town just got cut down a few weeks ago." Ethan tells us. "It's right next to the school." Benny says. "Yeah, looks like the tree was a site of old druid rituals." Ethan looks at the screen. "So this tree soaks up magic over the years, gets knocked down, and what, now wants revenge?" Sarah asks us.
While Ethan and her talk for a second, Benny leans back on me. "Get off me." I go to bite his arm. "Well, like Principal Hicks said: To kill the weeds, we gotta cut out the root." Ethan says as Benny gets off me. "Time to do some gardening. Let's wax some weeds!" Benny stands up. "Really? Again?" Ethan snaps at him. "It's all I got."
"There, it is. Or was." Sarah says as we look at the tree. "That is one freaky stump. Do you think a tree could hold a grudge?" Benny asks us. "For what?" I ask him. "I carved my name into it. Benny loves Sad-... Sally... And Beth, Kailey, Della, Erica..." He lists names. "Benny!" Sarah snaps. "Catwoman." He finishes. "OK, what do we do?" Sarah asks. "Well, looks like the only way to stop it is to cut the root." Ethan says and we follow it to the school into the school's internet cable.
"Does this mean more yard work?" Benny asks. "Let's get this thing open." Ethan tries opening it. "Looks like someone is holding it shut." Sarah says. "Maybe there's some haunted Venus flytrap who's trying to get illegal pay-per-view? Right, right?" Benny starts to awkward laugh when none of us laugh.
"Cutting the roots should kill it. Then we can save vegetable girl." Ethan tells us. "Yeah! It's gardening time!" Benny shouts again. "Is that the best you can do?" Sarah asks him. "Pretty much." He sighs before we start trying to cut the roots before going back inside. "Wait, I gotta get something." Benny says making me stay back with him. "Huh, smart." I see what he was getting. "I'm not always dumb." He winks at me as we go to join the other two.
"Where did you get that?" Ethan asks. "Janitor's closet. Always upgrade before a boss level. Let's go." He explains to them. As we make our way down the hall fighting off the weeds we finally reach the lab. "I will not be destroyed by poison or blade! I will build a new force fertilized by human souls." We see Rory possessed.
"We're dealing with one angry tree now. And it's upgraded its hardware. With Rory. This thing's mostly cable and computer now. We can't just spray it with weed killer." Ethan tells us. "No, but smashing works on almost everything." Sarah says making Benny agree with her.
"Wait. If it's half tree, half computer, maybe a virus can infect its system and take this thing down." I suggest to them. "Where do you just get a computer virus?" Benny asks. "You've hacked into a computer system before, right?" Ethan tells him. "Just cover me!" He tells us. "Cover you with what!?" Benny shouts. "Come on, come on, come on. OK, this is what I call computer hacking! I'm gonna pwn you, newb!" The weeds get Benny. "I got you!" I take the axe from Sarah whacking a the the weed cables.
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"Hey, tree boy! Ha! Ha! Get ready to be Nick rolled!" Ethan yells at the tree. "Rory! Are you ok?" I rush over to him with Ethan. "Guys, I had the weirdest dream. I was made out of carrot and I got Nick rolled." He whines as all four of us bend down in front of him. "I got you buddy." I move over next to him patting the top of his head.
