chapter 27 Flashcards
playing possum
play possum definition. To pretend to be dead, a trick used by opossums to defend themselves from predators: “Everyone thought the old con man had died, but it turned out he was just playing possum.”
A giant red truck is __________________ right in front of me. Two ________________ kids hang out the windows and start ________________ eggs, tomatoes and–zucchini? –at me.
screeching to a halt; ski-masked; rifling
I get a glimpse of the ________ and the blood dripping from the corners of the flying vampanzee’s mouth–a pretty realistic effect, I must say–just as I turn to run. But it’s too late.
fangs
And suddenly it all makes sense.
These are our humanzees and I am meant to be one of their _______ victims.
unwitting
That’s when I catch sight of the video-camera lens futively ______________ the van’s open back door.
poking out from
A giant juicy _____________ tomato catches me in the face, erupting on impact and saturating my spandex mask with gloppy pulp.
beefsteak
I heard about this one dude who was “___________” to try and win a water scooter on some radio show and his bladder totally exploded.
holding his water
It’s like now that my bladder knows a toilet is only a quick van ride away, it can stop ____________________ and start making noise again. Major noise.
playing possum
The mask ______ and Nick smiles a huge psycho smile at me, his large teeth still stained red from the blood dye.
comes off
But as I bend over to retrieve the boards–which looks about as awkward as you can imagine–Uncle Doug’s two-tone green van _______________________.
unwitting
adjective: unwitting
(of a person) not aware of the full facts.
“an unwitting accomplice”
adj. portainting to something that has a thick, chunky consistancy, making a _________ sound when poured
gloppy
The monster _____________, ramming my lower back like i’m a football-tackling dummy.
slams into me
eggos _____ all over my costume. Zucchini __________ me like dozens of tiny green baseball bats.
explodig; battering
A few self-pitying moments later, I realize that the trauma of the attack has totally scared away my __________.
pee urge
We both hit the ground hard and the wind–together with a sizable _________________ is knocked right out of me.
gush of pee
What else am I going to do dressed as a giant rug and __________________ in the middle of a suburban wasteland?
stranded
stampede means
1.
(of horses, cattle, or other animals) rush wildly in a sudden mass panic.
“the nearby sheep stampeded as if they sensed impending danger”
rifle means
hit, throw, or kick (a ball or puck) hard and straight.
“he rifled a hard, rising shot from just inside the blue line”
Not because I want to attract attention to myself–certainly not, after finding out about the ________________–but because I still have three and a half hours before Uncle Doug is coming back to get me and I have to take the mother of all whizzes.
mascot assailants
one who attacks another
assailants
_________________, Nick has to practically drag me back up the hill, as it’s impossible for me to do any climbing in my soggy restrictive rug suit.
to add insult to injury
The monster slmas into me, ________ my lower back like I’m a football-tackling dummy.
ramming
It’s okay. I lie. I am fine. Just _____________, ______, and pee scented.
clammy, achy
The beasts growl and howl as they charge. My heart ______ in my chest as I _____________ as fast as my leg-constricting carpet suit will let me.
thuds; shamble backward
I’m lying there on my stomach, ______ the desperate hope that my carpet costume will soak up the embarrassing leak like a sponge, when I suddenly realize that me and the moneky-man have begun to slide down the _________ slope.
clinging to; snow-slicked
slam into
slam into someone or something
to crash into someone or something. The race car—out of control—slammed into the stands. The bus slammed into a truck.
See also: slam
Astronauts pee in their __________________. Scuba diver pee in their _________.
space suits, wet suits
I bear down, attempting to __________ , but there’s no way the flow is gonna stop before the tank’s been emptied.
close off the tap
Nothing, I say, my cheeks burnig up _________ the spandex.
behind
He is kneeling on top of me, riding me like a _____________.
toboggan
A giant juicy beefsteak tomato catches me in the face, erupting _____________ and _______________ my sapndex mask with _____________
on impact; saturating; gloppy pulp
Praobably just some dye from the cheap-ass rug costume. Coop winks at me. ____________________. We’ll make it work for us. We can recolor it __________.
don’t sweat it. in post
clammy
ˈklamē/
adjective
adjective: clammy; comparative adjective: clammier; superlative adjective: clammiest
unpleasantly damp and sticky or slimy to touch.
“his skin felt cold and clammy”
pelt
attack (someone) by repeatedly hurling things at them.
“two little boys pelted him with rotten apples”
go _____ yourself! one of them hollers
shag
I ______ like Uncle Doug showed me to try and ward off the onslaught, but it’s pointless. I am ______ from tassels to toes.
undulate; pelted
I cringe, wondering which of our acquaintances just rode me down a hill while I ______________.
pissed my tights
shamble means
verb: shamble; 3rd person present: shambles; past tense: shambled; past participle: shambled; gerund or present participle: shambling
1.
(of a person) move with a slow, shuffling, awkward gait.
“he shambled off down the corridor”
a long wide, berry-beast-bright-yellow swatch _________________.
cut through the snow
I can’t wait to see the __________. I bet it looks spectac!
footage
ski mask
I try to spin away from the assault, but my sneaker ________________________________, sending my feet flying into the air.
catches a patch of ice
My body ______ as I brush the snow and tomato guts out of my spandex-covered eyes and see what it is that he–and everyone on top of the hill–sees: a long wide, Berry-Beast-bright-yellow _______ cut through the snow.
tingles; swath
sweet. Let’s go YouTube it!”
The truck _____________ and I lie there for a minute, stunned.
peels off
Oh God, it hurts so bad. From my belly all the way to the ___________________________.
very tip of the tap
That’s when I catch sight of the _______________________ furtively poking out from the van’s open back door.
video-camera lens
That was epic! Coop _____. The kind of happy accident filmmakers dream about.
hoots
Am I in a coma? Am I dreaming this? Or did the mascot thugs __________________ and ___________ Uncle Doug’s van so they could come back and attack me again?
go costume up; hijack
I close my eyes and tell myself, If you pee right now, you will win the film festival and you will not have to share a room with your evil sister. But only if you pee right now. ____________________.
by the count of five
We finally ________________________ against a mound of snow that’s been cleared from the lumberyard parking lot.
come to a thumping halt
And just like that, my desparate need to whiz comes back with a ___________.
vengeance
And then, all of a sudden, three humongous hairy things spill out of the van all at once and begin ___________________ me.
stampeding toward
He turns his chimp-head and looks back at the hill we just ______________.
sledded down
A giant juicy beefsteak tomato ____________________, erupting on impact and saturating my spandex mask with gloppy pulp.
catches me in the face
But there is not a single solitary tree, bush, or abandoned building to ___________.
crouch behind
I spin around desperately, searching for somewhere I can ______ this stupid outfit and drain the dragon.
pull off
A little pee devil on my shoulder is trying to convince me to “just let go.” To open the _______________ inside my costume like Uncle Doug said to.
floodgates
