Don't Scream! (9 page)

Out the bus window, I saw Mick's house. The bus started to slow.

Darryl gripped my arms tightly behind me. Mick gave a hard tug to my jeans.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

“Wait! How about a deal?” I cried. “How about a trade?”

Mick let go of my jeans and raised his eyes to me. “A trade? What kind of trade?”

“My watch,” I said. “My digital watch. You've been trying to get it for weeks, right? I give you my watch, and you let me keep my jeans on.”

I hated to lose it. I loved it. It was such a special watch.

But with Emmy inside it, I didn't want it anymore.

Would my crazy plan work?

“Okay, deal,” Mick said.

Darryl let go of my arms. I pulled the watch off my wrist and handed it to Mick.

He grinned. “Thanks, man.”

The bus stopped. He turned and hurried up the aisle, waving the watch above his head in triumph. “Good-bye forever!” he shouted. “Have a nice life!”

He jumped off the bus. Darryl followed, as always.

I watched them race up to Mick's house.

Then I dropped into my seat with a smile on my face.

Was it the perfect revenge?

Yes
, I told myself.
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Good-bye forever, Mick
, I thought.
Have fun with the watch. And congrats, dude — you've got yourself a new best friend!

A few minutes later, I burst into the house. I sat down next to Rachel at the kitchen counter and had a big bowl of mac and cheese with her.

I was humming as I ate. Then I jumped up and did a wild victory dance.

Mindy was eyeing me. “You feeling okay?”

“I feel
awesome
!” I said.

“You're a little weird,” Mindy said. “You're not going to smash anything, are you?”

“No way,” I told her. “Those days are over.”

“You're definitely weird,” Rachel said.

I pulled her off her stool and did a crazy victory dance with her.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on my dad's phone with Eli. I had to tell him what I'd done to Mick. We couldn't stop laughing about it.

“Genius!” Eli kept saying. “Genius! Genius!”

He was right.

I got off the phone and ran downstairs when
Mom and Dad got home from work. “How are you feeling?” Mom asked, studying me.

“I feel great!” I exclaimed. “Awesome. Excellent.”

Dad had a box in his hand. “Here. This is for you, Jack,” he said. He shoved it into my hands.

“We know you've been going through a hard time,” Mom said, setting down her briefcase. “We bought you a new cell phone.”

“Really?” I gazed at the box. My throat suddenly felt tight.

I really wanted a new phone. But what if … What if Emmy somehow showed up in it? What if the horror all started up again?

Impossible
, I decided.
No way. She's with Mick now. She'll be moving to Detroit with him in the morning.

After dinner, I was up in my room when the new phone rang.

I just stared at it. I was afraid to answer. Afraid …

On the fourth ring, I picked it up. “Hello?”

“Hello, Jack?”

I let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't Emmy. It was a boy. A boy's voice.
Yes!

“Hey, Jack. It's me. Mick.”

“Mick?”

“You've got to help me, Jack. She trapped me in here. Get me out of this phone, Jack. You've
got
to help me. I can hurt you. I can really hurt you.”

Your story is over, Jack. But your phone is ringing. You probably don't want to answer that. It might be a wrong number — a VERY wrong number.

I can understand why your ringtone is a SCREAM OF HORROR.

It's getting late. You can sleep in the guest deadroom tonight. The housecreeper is making it up for you. Don't worry — she'll move the bats to another room. Just watch out for the sticky stuff on the floor.

Have a pleasant sleep. Hope you don't hear
voices.

I am the Story-Keeper, and I will keep your story here in the Hall of Horrors where it belongs.

Now I see we have a new visitor. Come in, come in. Don't be shy.

Your name is Lee Hargrove? Yes. And I see
you have brought some sort of claw with you. A vulture claw.

Is that a good-luck charm? I don't think it was good luck for the vulture! Ha-ha.

Well, sit down, Lee. Tell us your story. It's called
Birthday Party of No Return
. Go ahead. Speak up. There's Always Room for One More Scream in the Hall of Horrors.

Ready for More?

Here's another tale from the Hall of Horrors:

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
OF NO RETURN!

 

My name is Lee Hargrove, and I want to start out by saying that Cory Duckworth is my friend.

It's true that I
hate
Cory a lot of the time. But that's only because he is so lucky. Cory is lucky
all
the time. I mean, twenty-four hours a day and on weekends, too.

That's why a lot of kids at Garfield Middle School call him Lucky Duck. (Duckworth — get it?)

Cory even
looks
lucky. He has curly blond hair and round blue eyes, a nice smile, and a dimple in his chin. You know. The kind of cute dimple that says
I'm luckier than you
.

Cory is smart and has a funny sense of humor. And he's really good at sports. Which is another reason why I hate him.

See, I'm into sports, too. And I have a goal. I guess you could call it my one big dream in life.

All I want is a scholarship to Summer Sports Camp.

It's only spring. But I think about it all the time. Summer Sports Camp is very expensive. My parents are both teachers at the high school. They say they can't afford it.

So I need a scholarship.

I don't want to hang around the house playing the same video game over and over like I did last summer. Some awesome pro athletes teach at the camp. I have to be there. I have to meet them.

Can I get the scholarship? There are only a few things in my way. And most of them are Cory Duckworth.

See, Lucky Duck is trying for the same scholarship. And so is Laura Grodin. Laura is twelve like us, and she's in our class.

Some kids say I have a total crush on Laura, and they may be right.

Cory, Laura, and I, and a bunch of other kids are trying out for the scholarship. I know we three are the best. But only one kid can win it from our school.

That means Laura and I are competing against one of the luckiest dudes in the universe. How can we defeat that dimple? Those sparkling blue eyes? That winning smile?

It won't be easy. We have to compete in three different sports. And none of them are my best sport. But we also get judged on sportsmanship
and improvement and desire. And I plan to win at ALL of those.

I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm serious.

After school, I was walking down the crowded hall to my locker. Lots of kids were heading to the soccer field. See, our soccer team, the Garfield Gorillas, plays in a spring league.

I ducked under the low yellow and blue banner:
GO GORILLAS
.

And suddenly, someone was waving something under my nose. I pulled my head back, and I saw it clearly — a twenty-dollar bill.

Yes. Lucky Duckworth was crinkling a twenty-dollar bill in my face. And he was flashing me his toothy grin.

“Check it out, Lee,” he said. He rubbed the money on my cheek.

I tried to jerk my face away. “What's up with that?”

Cory danced away a few feet. He never walks. He dances or he struts or he shuffles and slides.

“Remember? I found this money in the lunchroom?” Cory said. “Well, guess what? I turned it in to the principal's office. But no one claimed it. So I get to keep it.”

“Lucky,” I muttered.

Typical
, I thought to myself.

That's a perfect Cory story. I guess you're
starting to get the idea. He doesn't need a rabbit's foot for luck.

Cory danced off down the hall. I stuck my head in my locker and screamed for a minute or two. I wasn't angry or upset. Really. Sometimes it just feels good to scream.

I mean, Cory is my friend. I can't get angry when good things happen to him — right?

I pulled my head from the locker and gazed down the hall. Laura Grodin was leaning against the wall, talking to Cory. She kept running a hand through her straight red hair and blinking her green eyes at Cory.

He was flashing the twenty-dollar bill in her face. And bragging about what a good finder he is. I heard him say he could sniff out money from two blocks away.

Ha. Guess he also plans to sniff out the scholarship money that I desperately need.

I watched him showing off to Laura. And I thought:
I don't want anything bad to happen to Cory. I just wish there was a way to borrow his good luck for a while.

Cory and Laura walked off together. I saw Mr. Grady, a school janitor, up high on a ladder in the middle of the hall. He was reaching both hands up to replace a ceiling light.

Cory and Laura stopped at one side of the ladder.

Mr. Grady had the big metal light fixture in
both hands. What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.

The janitor let out a cry. I saw the heavy fixture slip from his grasp.

Laura was talking to Cory. She didn't see it fall. It was going to crush her head.

I opened my mouth in a horrified scream.

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#3 MONSTER BLOOD FOR BREAKFAST!

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#5 DR. MANIAC VS. ROBBY SCHWARTZ

#6 WHO'S YOUR MUMMY?

#7 MY FRIENDS CALL ME MONSTER

#8 SAY CHEESE — AND DIE SCREAMING!

#9 WELCOME TO CAMP SLITHER

#10 HELP! WE HAVE STRANGE POWERS!

#11 ESCAPE FROM HORRORLAND

#12 THE STREETS OF PANIC PARK

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NIGHT OF THE LIVING DUMMY

DEEP TROUBLE

MONSTER BLOOD

THE HAUNTED MASK

ONE DAY AT HORRORLAND

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

SAY CHEESE AND DIE!

THE HORROR AT CAMP JELLYJAM

HOW I GOT MY SHRUNKEN HEAD

THE WEREWOLF OF FEVER SWAMP

A NIGHT IN TERROR TOWER

WELCOME TO DEAD HOUSE

WELCOME TO CAMP NIGHTMARE

GHOST BEACH

THE SCARECROW WALKS AT MIDNIGHT

YOU CAN'T SCARE ME!

RETURN OF THE MUMMY

REVENGE OF THE LAWN GNOMES

PHANTOM OF THE AUDITORIUM

VAMPIRE BREATH

STAY OUT OF THE BASEMENT

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