"Cook badly?" Ben stared at Mog in disbelief.
"That's your big idea?"
"Yeah," Mog said.
"If you're a bad cook, you can't be on Kids' Kitchen Showdown."
Ben shook his head. "That won't work. As far as I'm concerned, I am a bad cook.
But Mr. Icky insists I have natural talent."
Mog scratched his chin for a moment.
"I know what to do.
Every time you're about to make a choice while you're cooking, stop yourself.
Then make the opposite choice."
Ben smiled. "I'll try it!"
The morning's recipe was creeploaf.
Ben went into the pantry for ingredients.
He was about to grab a jar of pickled bat ears. Then he stopped himself.
"Pickled bat ears might be delicious in creeploaf," he told himself.
"That's why I need to grab something different."
Ben looked at the shelves.
Up on the top shelf, he saw a jar of powdered snake fangs.
He grabbed it.
Every time he was about to pick an item off the shelf, he stopped himself.
Then he picked a different item.
Soon Ben's arms were full of all sorts of strange ingredients.
He grinned and dumped everything onto his workspace with a crash.
"This will be the worst creeploaf ever!" he thought.
Winnie raised an eyebrow. "You're putting black mold in your creeploaf?"
"Yep!" Ben looked over at Mog, who gave him the claws-up sign.
One by one, Ben dumped ingredients into a bowl.
Instead of stirring, he mashed. Instead of mixing thoroughly, he left big, ugly clumps.
He dropped the mess into a loaf pan and slid it into the oven.
Soon everyone's creeploaves were baking.
Mr. Freaky walked in, his noses wiggling wildly, as usual.
He was followed by Mayor Hubbletree, who adjusted his tie and looked around the room.
"Mr. Freaky!" Mr. Icky said.
"And Mayor Hubbletree! What an honor!"
Mr. Freaky blew his noses.
"Mayor Hubbletree and I were discussing this Friday's TV event.
We wanted to make sure everything is under control."
Mayor Hubbletree grinned.
"Yes, Freaky and I figured we'd pop in to see what's cooking."
He sniffed the air.
"It smells . . . interesting."
"The students are baking creeploaf," Mr. Icky said.
"Creeploaf?" The mayor wrinkled his nose.
Mr. Freaky's noses stopped wiggling.
"Oh, I love creeploaf!
I remember the creeploaf Grandma Freaky used to make.
It had little cricket legs and . . ."
Mayor Hubbletree pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his brow.
"That sounds delicious," Mr. Icky said.
"You'll have to try Ben's creeploaf when he's done.
Ben is Monster Academy's contestant," he explained to the mayor.
Ben smiled and waved to Mayor Hubbletree.
"After they taste my creeploaf, I won't have to be on that stupid show!" he thought.
Mayor Hubbletree picked up a jar and read the label.
"Leech oil?" He looked at Mr. Icky.
"You monsters eat this stuff?"
"It's much better for you than butter," Mr. Icky said.
"I don't know about that," Mayor Hubbletree muttered.
He put down the jar and looked around the room.
A ghoul grinned at him, revealing a set of yellow, crooked teeth.
Ben could see beads of sweat dripping down the mayor's face.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Timers all over the classroom suddenly rang.
"The creeploaves are ready!" Mr. Icky shouted.
The students hurried to get their creeploaves out of the oven.
Ben's loaf was purple and lumpy.
When he saw the other loaves, he smiled.
They were all green and brown.
"Perfect!" he thought. "My creeploaf looks awful."
"Hmm," Mr. Icky said.
The cooking teacher peered at Ben's creeploaf.
Then he looked up at Ben.
"This is interesting, Ben," Mr. Icky said.
Mayor Hubbletree leaned in for a closer look.
The color drained from his face.
Ben flashed a sheepish grin. "I'm not sure what I did wrong."
"Very funny," Mr. Icky said.
"You've obviously been reading The Monster Kitchen by Julia Fang, the world-famous monster chef."
"Huh?" Ben said.
Mr. Icky cut off a piece of Ben's creeploaf and tasted it.
A smile spread across his face.
"Miss Fang says a proper creeploaf should be purple.
That's how it was prepared originally."
He ate another bite. "Delicious!"
"Let's see how it compares to Grandma Freaky's," the principal said.
He grabbed a fork and handed a second one to Mayor Hubbletree.
"No, thanks." The mayor was sweating quite a bit.
"I'm sure this creepy loaf, or whatever you call it, is good.
But I'm not really into, er, fancy foods."
"Mmm!" A smile spread across Mr. Freaky's face as he chewed.
"Well done, chef!" Mr. Icky said to Ben.
Ben pretended to be happy. But inside, he groaned.
Mog's idea hadn't helped one bit!