"1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10! Here I come; ready or not!" shouted Blaine the beetle. He moved away from the ripe red tomato he had been leaning against as he counted. He looked around the vegetable garden, but couldn’t see any of his friends. They were hiding in good places, and he was going to have a hard time finding them.

He walked over to where the string beans grew. He looked up at each plant, carefully examining the long, slender, green bean pods that were dangling, hidden among the leaves. Some of the pods were over six inches long. When he got to the last string bean plant, he noticed that one of the pods had odd bumps on it. The bumps looked like eyes, so he moved in for a closer look. That was no string bean! It was Whitley the worm. "1,2,3 on Whitley," Blaine the beetle called out, then climbed up the stem to tag Whitley out.

Whitley opened her eyes and looked down. "Oh dear. I’ve been caught," she said. She curled herself up, climbed on to the branch and then went down the stem to the rich, chocolate brown dirt below.

"You had me fooled, Whitley," said Blaine. "At first I thought you were a string bean, but now I’ve caught you. Do you want to come with me and help me find the others?" he asked.

Whitley said she’d like to help, so the two continued their game of hide and seek. They headed towards the squash. They had to climb over thick vines with huge leaves growing from them. "Look at that yellow squash," Blaine said. "I’ve never seen a squash with black stripes before," he added.

Whitley looked over at the squash and noticed the black spots. "What are those black stripes?" she asked.

Blaine looked over at it quizzically, then walked towards it. He stopped and stared at it for a while. Then, excited, the cried out, "It’s Bonnie bee! 1,2,3 on Bonnie!" He ran over to the squash and tagged her out. Bonnie walked away from the squash plant and joined Blaine, and Whitley . "That was a good hiding place," said Blaine.

"I didn’t know it was you," added Whitley.

Bonnie Bee buzzed, "I thought it was a good place. I can’t believe you found me so quickly." She fluttered her wings to make sure they were still working as she spoke.

"Would you like to come and help us find the others?" asked Blaine.

"I would love that! Buzzzzzzzz!" Bonnie answered.

The three bugs walked through the rich, dark brown soil to search for their other friends. "Let’s go to the lettuce patch. I’ll bet that Keith, the potato bug, or Kristen, the lady bug, are hiding near there!" suggested Blaine. The bugs agreed, and headed towards the lettuce heads, passing through rows of carrots, radishes, and cabbages.

After a long search, they still couldn’t find their friends. "Let’s try the peas, Buzzzzzzzzz," Bonnie said.

They went over to the rows of pea pods that were clinging to the long curly vines. They were filled with plump, round, green peas. "I’m hungry," said Whitley. "I’m going to pick a pod and have a snack." She reached up and pulled a pod off of the vine and opened it up. Inside were six green peas and one gray one. "Oh yuck. A gray pea," she said distastefully.

Bonnie and Blaine went over to see. "Wait a minute. This isn’t a pea, Whitley. It’s Keith, the potato bug. 1,2,3 on Keith," he called and tagged him out.

The gray ‘pea’ unrolled and smiled at his friends. "That was a great place to hide," Whitley laughed. "We’d have never found you, if I hadn’t been so hungry." She picked up one of the good peas and gobbled it down.

"Let’s go find Kristen the lady bug now. She’s the last one to find. Do you want to come with us, Keith?" asked Blaine.

"I’d love to help you," he replied, then joined the group. Soon Blaine, Whitley, Bonnie, and Keith were walking along, in search of Kristen.

"You know, she’s red. Maybe we should check all the red veggies and fruits first," suggested Keith. Agreeing, the group went to the red bell peppers. They looked at each one carefully, but couldn’t find her. They then headed towards the sugar beets, but couldn’t find her there either. They checked the ripe red tomatoes, again, but no Kristen. They carefully crawled through the prickly raspberry bushes; no Kristen. The last red fruit were the strawberries in the patch.

"This is it. She must be here. Let’s all spread out and try to find her," ordered Blaine.

The four bugs went through the strawberry patch. Suddenly they heard, "I found her! I found her! I found Kristen, the lady bug!" Whitley called. Bonnie, Keith, and Blaine ran quickly. There was Whitley, among a cluster of giant, juicy, ripe, red strawberries. Little white flowers blossomed all around them, giving the air a sweet scent. "There she is!" Whitley told them, pointing to a strawberry.

There sat Kristen ladybug, her black polka dot wings folded up close to her body. "1,2,3 on Kristen," shouted Blaine. He climbed on top of the strawberry and tagged her out.

She flew down and landed by the others. "That was fun!" she giggled.

"It was a lot of fun," added Bonnie. "Can we play this again, another time?"

Whitley and Blaine smiled and then he said, "Why sure we can; maybe tomorrow. But one of you have to be IT!"