Pss, hey, smarty pants, right now I'm taking a nature hike in the woods. I'm also looking for

bugs, beetles, and insects to bring home and study. So far I've got a ladybug, a cricket, and

ooh, what's this tiny little thing? Yikes, I definitely don't want to bring this one home.

Smarty Pants, what's a tiny creature you find in the woods that you're best avoiding?

Is it A, a firefly, B, a butterfly, or C, a tick?

If you said a tick, you're right.

But why wouldn't I want to hang out with a tick?

Yeah, what's wrong with me?

Um, no offense, talking tick, but you're like nature's vampires.

What are you saying? I sleep in a coffin. I only come out at night and can't see my reflection in a mirror?

No. I mean, you like to drink blood.

Oh, that. Right. Hey, I got to do what I got to do to survive. But I'm definitely not a vampire.

Nope, you're worse, because unlike vampires, you're real.

Smarty pants, there's a word for a creature who survives by living on or in another creature,

called a host, and deriving nutrients at the host's expense.

This word starts with the letter P.

And he guesses what it is?

Is it a paragraph?

A paralegal?

Or a parasite?

The answer is parasite.

Of course, some adults listening might also accept paralegal.

...