Ben stared at the hot sauce overflowing the pot.
"Why is the hot sauce growing?" he cried.
Waldo was fumbling with his glasses.
He jumped back as some hot sauce oozed onto his shoe.
"I—I don't know!" the wizard said.
He put his glasses on and picked up the jar of enhancer.
He peered at the label and then slapped himself on the forehead.
"This isn't enhancer! It's expander."
"What does expander do?" Ben asked.
"What do you think it does?" Waldo said.
"It expands things—it makes them bigger!"
"Ugh." Ben watched helplessly as the sauce flowed across the floor toward a cabinet.
"What are we going to do?"
Waldo sighed. "It'll stop in a few minutes—when the pot is empty."
Waldo was right. Soon the sauce stopped expanding.
Ben grabbed some rags.
"We'd better clean up this mess."
Waldo found a mop, and ten minutes later the floor was clean.
Waldo ladled out some hot sauce from the pot and poured it into a small bottle.
He handed it to Ben.
"Put this in your food tomorrow in Cooking class," the wizard said.
"By the time the bell rings, you'll be out of the cooking competition.
Now we have just one more thing to do."
"We're not done?" Ben asked.
"Nope," Waldo said.
"You need a backup plan, just in case Mr. Icky likes spicy food."
He pulled his large spell book out of his backpack.
"What kind of spell are you looking for?" Ben asked.
"How about a spell that makes your food explode?"
"That won't work," Ben said. "Everyone loves exploding food."
"People don't," Waldo said.
"Mayor Hubbletree was furious when those pizzas exploded, remember?"
Ben shrugged. "But Mr. Icky won't mind that.
I need something that will convince him I'm not good enough to be on Kids' Kitchen Showdown."
"Right." Waldo flipped through more pages.
"Here's a good one. With this spell, any food you touch will disappear."
"That's no good," Ben said.
"I need to cook bad food. Not no food."
"Hmm." Waldo examined another page in his book.
"What if everything you cooked smelled like rotting garbage?"
"What would be so bad about that?" Ben asked.
"I guess nothing," Waldo said.
He turned another page and bent down over his book.
"Oh, this would be perfect. Rotting fish!"
"Eww," Ben said. "That's disgusting."
"It sure is," Waldo agreed.
"Everyone hates the smell of rotting fish—even monsters."
Ben nodded. "Let's do it."
Waldo studied the spell for a moment, quietly murmuring the words.
Finally he stood up.
He pulled out his wand and pointed it at Ben.
As Waldo muttered the magical words, green light flashed from his wand.
Ben felt a strange, tingling sensation. "Did it work?"
"Probably," Waldo said.
"But we won't know until you cook some—" Waldo sniffed.
"Ugh! What's that smell?"
Ben sniffed. "I think it's me."
He smelled his arm.
"Oh no! It is me! I smell like rotting fish!
You messed up the spell—you made me smell like rotting fish!"
"Oops." Waldo looked in his spell book. "I wonder what I did wrong."
Just then Mr. Freaky made an announcement.
"Mr. Bog is going to lock the doors in ten minutes.
All students must leave the building at once."
Ben sighed. "We have to go home, Waldo."
As Ben floated into the corridor, a few monsters immediately cleared out of his way.
"Yuck!" a mummy said.
A ghoul covered her nose. "What smells so bad?"
A fish monster didn't mind the smell though.
"Mmm! It smells like my cousin's house!"
Ben was glad that Winnie wasn't anywhere in sight.
But as he hurried toward an exit, he spotted her.
She must have stayed after school for broom-flying practice.
"Ben!" Winnie ran to catch up to him.
When she reached him, she covered her nose.
"What's that horrible smell?"
"It's me," Ben blurted out.
"Waldo was trying to cast a spell, but he didn't do it right."
"What kind of spell?"
Ben watched the expression on Winnie's face change as he explained about the hot sauce and the rotten fish spell.
Right away he knew she didn't approve.
"I can't believe you'd do that, Ben!
Do you know how many kids would love to be on that show?
Monsters are jealous of you.
And here you are, trying to sabotage yourself.
You should be ashamed!"
Ben sighed, staring down at the ground.
"Mr. Icky picked you for a reason," Winnie went on.
"You have to compete. It's the right thing to do."
Ben sighed. "You're right, Winnie. I'll do the show."
Winnie smiled. "Good!"
Ben sniffed. "But right now I need to get home and take a shower!"