CHAPTER 6
It was all I could do to keep from screaming. “What happened when Arch saw this?”
When Miss Ferrell did not answer immediately, I whacked the locker next to Arch’s. The snake’s two-foot-long body swayed sickeningly. It had been strung up just under its head, and hung on the hook where Arch’s jacket should have gone. I couldn’t bear to look at the expanse of white snake-belly, at the ugly, crimped mouth, at those rattles at the end of the tail.
Miss Ferrell closed her eyes. “Since my classroom was nearby, he told me.”
I felt dizzy. I leaned against the cold gray metal of the adjacent locker. More quietly, I said, “Was he okay? Did he get upset?”
She shook her head. I recognized generic teacherly sympathy. “Of course he was a bit shaken up. I told the headmaster.”
“Yes, right
