I still hadn't formulated a bubble bath soap for Mom or Tate.
But after the disaster with Molly's bath soap, I decided I was finished with formulating them for now.
As soon as Molly left, I went to my room to think.
I started telling myself about all the great things I would invent someday.
Soon I'd forgotten all about Molly's monster problem.
That's when I got a fantastic idea, and I wasn't even trying!
I ran into the kitchen and called Molly on the telephone.
"When you go to bed, I want you to say something to yourself," I told her.
She still sounded a little annoyed at me.
"What should I say?" she asked.
"You should say, 'I will not think of a monster ever, ever, ever.'
Try it now," I coaxed her.
"I will not think of a monster," repeated Molly. "Ever, ever, ever."
"Good!" I said. "What are you thinking right now?"
"I'm thinking of a monster," said Molly.
"Argh!" I cried.
"You're not supposed to think of a monster, Molly!"
"Then stop reminding me, Iggy!" said Molly.
I could tell my latest fantastic idea wasn't helping her much.
I could also tell that Molly was really cranky from not sleeping.
So we hung up a minute later.
Guess what? That night I dreamed of a monster!
It wasn't a scary monster though.
It was a funny monster.
Molly was late for school the next day because she had a dentist appointment.
She came into the classroom just as Mrs. Romano was explaining our new project.
I noticed Molly still looked tired, with dark circles under her eyes.
"Today you will work with your partner and begin writing your books," Mrs. Romano was saying.
"Will they be real books, like in a bookstore?" asked Ruby.
"Your book will look like a real book when you are finished," said Mrs. Romano.
"But it will not be sold in bookstores."
Ruby looked disappointed.
"Your books will be in the school library," Mrs. Romano went on.
"Younger students can borrow them, so make sure you write a page-turner."
Colby raised his hand.
"What's a 'page-turner'?" he asked.
Mrs. Romano smiled.
"It's a book with a really good plot.
In other words, exciting things happen to your main character."
"Oh . . ." Colby nodded thoughtfully. "I see."
Molly and I pushed our desks together so we could get started writing our book.
First I tried to cheer up Molly.
"I dreamed of a monster last night, but it was a funny monster," I told her.
I drew a picture of the funny monster from my dream.
Molly didn't laugh though.
Not even a little.
"My monsters aren't funny," she said.
"This afternoon I'm going to try to distract Caswell.
I'll make him popcorn.
Then maybe he'll forget about watching Monster Madness."
"Iggy and Molly, do you need help?"
asked Mrs. Romano, coming over to us.
"No," I said.
"We just need to think of a plot for a story."
"Why don't you brainstorm?" suggested Mrs. Romano.
"Brainstorm" means you think of lots of ideas as fast as you can.
We tried to brainstorm, but we didn't come up with any fantastic ideas.
All Molly could think about were scary monsters.
My ideas were mostly about my room and how much I hated to clean it up.
I wished I had a big machine to do all the work for me.
At last I got a good idea.