Mr. Gwarg stared at his watch as he waited for the monsters to calm down.
"We're losing precious time," he said.
When everyone had finally grown quiet again, Mr. Gwarg grabbed his clipboard.
"Let's review our Field Day rules."
"Ugh." Mog groaned.
"We've heard these rules twenty times already!
Can't we just get started?"
"That's enough, Mog!" Mr. Freaky snapped.
"The rules are important.
That's how everything stays under control around here."
He took out his handkerchief and blew his noses.
"Okay, first rule—no magic spells," Mr. Gwarg announced.
"Aww!" Several witches and wizards started complaining.
"What about hexes?" somebody asked. "Can we use those?"
"No!" Mr. Gwarg snapped. "No magic whatsoever!"
A vampire raised her hand.
"Can I turn into a bat and fly around?"
Mr. Gwarg blinked at her.
"You're not even on a team, Vanessa," he said.
"But if you were on a team, yes, you could do that.
That's not magic—it's an ability."
"So it's okay if I make my feet bigger to run faster?" Carly asked.
The gym teacher scratched his head.
"I guess so. But I don't think it would actually improve your speed."
Monsters kept raising their hands to ask more questions.
Finally Mr. Gwarg lifted his whistle and gave a long, loud blast.
"I don't have time to answer all these questions.
Look, there's really only one rule.
And that's this one—just play fair.
Now Team Orange and Team Black, line up for our first event.
It's the tug-of-war!"
"Phew," Ben murmured to Pixel. "That took forever."
The spectators cheered as the two teams took their places in the center of the field.
Ben could see that a long rope had been laid over a shallow pit filled with mud.
The teams lined up on opposite sides of the pit.
Then each player gripped the rope.
Suddenly Ben spotted the sixth member of Team Orange.
"Oh, no!" he gasped.
Last in line on the opposite side of the rope was Gaby.
And Gaby was strong—really strong!
She must be what Zork meant by his "secret weapon."
Waldo had spotted her too. "Not good," he muttered.
"Gaby is even stronger when she's mad."
Ben gulped. "And is she mad about something right now?"
Waldo nodded. "She's really mad at me.
She said that I should have made Mog choose her for Team Black."
Ben drew in a breath.
"Well, there's no time to worry about that now," he said.
"We're about to start."
"Okay, guys." Mog turned around to talk to his team from his spot as first in line.
"Here's the plan. As soon as the game starts, pull the rope as fast and as hard as you can.
Maybe we can take Team Orange by surprise."
"Got it!" everybody said, gripping the rope tightly.
Mr. Gwarg lifted his whistle.
"The first team to pull the other team into the mud wins," he announced.
"Is everybody ready?"
Both team captains nodded, and then—tweet! The whistle blew to start the game.
"Pull, Black!" Mog shouted. "Pull hard!"
Ben and the others tugged as fast and as hard as they could.
To Ben's surprise, Mog's plan worked perfectly.
In an instant Zork and his team were flying across the ground, and Zork was teetering on the edge of the mud pit.
"Pull!" Mog screamed. "Harder!"
"Yes!" Ben thought. "Zork's going to fall in! We're going to win!"
Then, with a loud ka-snap!, the rope broke.
Both teams tumbled backward, landing hard on the ground.
"Time out!" Mr. Gwarg rushed forward to look at the broken rope.
"What in the world happened? I buy the best ropes in Monsterville.
I've never seen one break before."
Waldo went to take a look.
"I can fix that, Mr. Gwarg. I know a good spell."
"Me too!" Brunhilda called.
"Monsters!" Mr. Freaky was flapping his arms.
"What did Mr. Gwarg tell you—no magic during Field Day events!"
"Sorry!" Waldo called.
"We forgot," Brunhilda added.
Mr. Gwarg ran to an equipment shed to get another rope.
Then he told the two teams to line up again.
"Okay, everyone, take your places."
The teams gathered on their sides of the pit once more.
"Go!" Mr. Gwarg shouted, and both teams began pulling with all their might again.
This time, though, Team Orange wasn't surprised by Team Black's strategy; they were ready for it.
Back and forth the rope tugged for several minutes, with neither team making much progress.
The spectators on the field were cheering loudly as the cheerleaders did cartwheels across the field.
"Go, Orange! Go, Black!"
Then all at once, the air went deadly silent.