"Uh . . ." Ben looked at Gaby and Mog, and then at Waldo and Winnie.
Gaby was his best friend, but Winnie was his girlfriend.
Choosing teams was not going to be easy.
Ben stared down at his half-eaten toad toes.
"I'll help everybody," he blurted out.
"It's just a friendly bet anyway."
"Yeah," Mog said. "It's like a scavenger hunt.
We'll see who finds the treasure first."
"It's going to be us!" Gaby said, grinning.
Then she looked at Ben.
"But no sharing team secrets, okay, Ben?"
Ben held up his hands. "No problem."
"Who are you going to help first, Ben?" Winnie asked.
"I'll decide after I finish my lunch," Ben said quickly.
"We have study hall after lunch," Gaby said to Mog.
"Let's go to the library now and get started.
We can read about Monsterville history—that's the best place to start."
"Okay," Mog said.
The two of them returned their trays to the kitchen and hurried off to the library.
Winnie stood up. "Come on, Waldo.
We have to get started too.
Let's go to the lab and figure out a spell.
See you later, Ben."
Ben sighed as the two of them left.
"This situation stinks," he thought.
Somebody was bound to get mad at him.
Finally he decided he wasn't hungry anymore, so he picked up his tray.
As he headed toward the garbage can, a blob waved to him.
"Hey, Ben, are you going to eat those toad toes? I'm really hungry today."
"Nope. You can have them," Ben said.
"Just return my tray to the kitchen when you're done, okay?"
"Don't worry about that," the blob said. "I'll eat the tray too!"
"Great," Ben said. But he didn't feel great.
If only Gaby and Waldo hadn't made this stupid bet!
A few minutes later, Ben floated through the door of the science lab.
"How's it going in here?" he said.
Winnie looked up and smiled.
She was stirring a potion in a big cauldron as Waldo handed her some ingredients.
The liquid inside the pot glowed green as Winnie mixed it.
"We're brewing a location spell," she said.
"Can I help?" Ben asked.
"Sure." Winnie gestured toward some supplies on a high shelf.
"Can you hand Waldo that big sack of lizard scales?"
"The green ones or the gold ones?" Ben asked.
"Gold," Waldo said. "As in gold treasure."
"Got it." Ben had to use both hands to get the heavy sack off the shelf.
He lowered it and then handed the sack to Waldo.
"Ah-choo!" Waldo sneezed.
Ben and Winnie immediately braced themselves, but this time nothing happened.
Waldo grinned. "I think my cold is finally getting better!"
He tipped the sack and started to pour the lizard scales into the cauldron.
Suddenly Winnie yelped.
"Wait! Waldo! Ben gave you the green scales!"
She groaned. "Oh no. Now we'll have to start all over again."
"But . . ." Ben shook his head in confusion as he stared at the sack.
He was sure he'd given Waldo the right ingredient.
"I know I grabbed the gold—"
Winnie cut him off with a smile.
"On second thought, we're good," she said.
"We don't really need any help.
Like my mom says, too many witches spoil the potion.
Why don't you go see how Gaby and Mog are doing?"
Ben blinked at her.
He couldn't tell if she was trying to get rid of him or trying to be fair.
"Okay," he said with a shrug.
"See you later. Call if you need me."
As he left, he noticed that the bag of green scales was still on the shelf.
"I did get the right bag!" Ben thought.
"Waldo's sneeze must have changed the gold scales to green."
Ben felt annoyed. He'd tried to help Winnie, but Waldo had messed it up.
When Ben got to the school library, Gaby and Mog were already rushing out.
They were both grinning.
"You two look happy," Ben said.
"Did you find the treasure already?"
"Nope," Mog said. "But Gaby thought of a really good clue."
"I remembered that Pedro mentioned a painting," Gaby told Ben.
"He said an artist painted him before he buried the treasure."
"Right." Ben nodded.
"So that painting could hold a clue to finding the treasure!" Gaby said.
"We looked up information about pirate art," said Mog.
"And we found out where that painting is."
"Where?" Ben asked.
"At the Monsterville Historical Society," Gaby said.
"They've got some pirate artifacts there."
"We're going there after school," Mog added.
"You can come with us if you want."
"Okay . . . maybe," Ben said.
"If I'm not busy helping Winnie and Waldo."