Chapter 1: The Gang<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On a cold dark night in December, T.J. Mouse shivered in the\nfootball stadium. The big game has just\nfinished, the lights were dim, and all of the people had gone home. Snow was falling now. It was covering the field like a blanket. Oh how he hated winter!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he hated football. \nTJ like soccer best. He and his\nbuddies could kick around a soccer ball for hours, but those footballs just\ndidn\u2019t roll well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to throw a football,\u201d his friend Gunnar\nalways said. \u201cNot kick them!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Gunnar was a gorilla with a strong arm, and, well, mice\ndidn\u2019t have strong arms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n T.J. looked around for Gunnar. He usually showed up with the rest of the\ngang after the football games to look for popcorn under the seats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The gang came from many places. Gunnar the gorilla came with Elliot the\nelephant from the zoo. Oreo, a black and\nwhite cat, came from the bookstore down the street. And Hedgie the Hedgehog lived in a pet store\none block away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n T.J. was the only one who lived in the stadium. After big game nights he invited his friends\nover to share all the leftover popcorn and pretzels. Then they\u2019d kick the soccer ball around until\nit was time to go home. But tonight it\nwas snowing, and they probably wouldn\u2019t get the ball out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n T.J. sighed and waited for his friends. He walked out of the hole in the third floor\nbleachers and looked down at the field. \nHe shook his head and rubbed his eyes. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n What was that? There\nwere orange balls all over the field! \nOrange balls? He grabbed a\npopcorn bag and rolled it into a telescope. \nPumpkins! Those were pumpkins on\nthe field! In the snow! <\/p>\n\n\n\n What on earth were they doing there? And how did they get there? <\/p>\n\n\n\n T.J. grabbed the railing to slide down to the fields when\nSPLAT!! a snow cone flew through the air and nearly took his hat off. A snow cone? \nFlying through the air? Where did\nthat come from? He looked down at the\nfield again and saw dozens of brown furry figures rushing around between the\npumpkins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh no!\u201d T.J. cried. \u201cThe\nPumpkin Rat Pack! They\u2019ll destroy the\nfield!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n He straightened his hat and grabbed the railing again. SPLAT!! \nThis time the snow cone hit him square in the nose. He tasted the flavor of Lemon Lime ice as he\nwiped the cold shavings from his face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He shook his fist at the brown figures on the snowy field\nand yelled at them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou rats can\u2019t take over this stadium!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh yeah?\u201d said a\nvoice to his left. \u201cWhat\u2019s to stop\nus? We\u2019re already halfway there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n T.J. turned and saw a white rat in green overalls with big\nmuddy boots holding a third snow cone in a sling shot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBig Tom!\u201d T.J.\nexclaimed. He recognized the rat from\nphotos in the newspaper. \u201cWhen did they\nlet you out of the work farm?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Big Tom laughed. \u201cNo\nwork farm could hold me in. I escaped\nbecause they didn\u2019t want me to plant pumpkins! \nI<\/em><\/strong> love to plant pumpkins!<\/em><\/strong>\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n TJ thought fast. He\nknew that Big Tom and his Pumpkin Rat Pack could ruin the football field and\nturn it into a Pumpkin Patch by morning. \nSomehow he had to contact his friends to get some help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n TJ pointed over Big Tom\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d he cried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Big Tom turned. \u201cWhat\u2019s what?\u201d and TJ scampered away under the\nbleachers to hide in an open pipe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Realizing he\u2019d been tricked, Big Tom turned back around\nquickly and scanned the area for the quick mouse. When he didn\u2019t see TJ, he shouted for some of\nhis gang to help find him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TJ crawled deeper into the open pipe and pulled out his cell\nphone. But there was no reception! He\u2019d have to leave the safety of the pipe if\nhe wanted to make a phone call. He\nslowly crept out of the pipe, hiding in the shadows. He peered at the phone in the dark and dialed\nGunnar\u2019s number with trembling hands. \nGunnar answered on the third ring just as a rat crossed the bleacher\nabove TJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat\u2019s up little Squeaky?\u201d \nGunnar boomed in his deep voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHelp!\u201d whispered TJ. \n\u201cThe Rat Pack is back!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d Gunnar\nsaid. \u201cYou hurt your back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d TJ said, getting louder. \u201cI need help. \nThe Rat Pack is back!\u201d He heard a\nrat shuffling closer to him in the dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat?\u201d said Gunnar. \n\u201cYou need a new backpack?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNO!\u201d shouted TJ. \n\u201cTHE RAT PACK! THEY\u2019RE\nBACK!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And just at that moment, a rat jumped out and grabbed\nhim. TJ squealed into the phone as he\ndropped it. \u201cCome quick!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A collaborative story written with Mrs. Lee’s 2008 2nd grade class at University Park Elementary in Fairbanks, AK. Chapter 1: The Gang On a cold dark night in December, T.J. Mouse shivered in the football stadium. The big game has just finished, the lights were dim, and all of the people had gone home. Snow was falling now. It was … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[38,40,37,39,36],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-children","tag-collaboration","tag-pumpkins","tag-rat-pack","tag-students","tag-tj-mouse","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizabetholdham.com\/wpd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}