Read Sunny Sweet Is So Not Scary Online
Authors: Jennifer Ann Mann
Sunny Sweet Is So Not Scary
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To Nayeli Dalton
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Contents
Be the Tiger . . . or the Antelope . . . or the Guinea Pig
So You Think You Have a Ghost?
Ridding Your House of Unwanted Spirits: Just Ask Nicely
Ridding Your House of Unwanted Spirits: Dress for It
Ridding Your House of Unwanted Spirits: Show It the Way
The Wheelbarrow Probably Wasn't a Good Idea
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I'm in charge!” I said.
“Mom said Mrs. Song was in charge,” said Sunny.
“Mrs. Song is in charge only in an emergency,” I told her. “And watching a movie is not an emergency.”
This was my very first sleepover, and I didn't want my little sister hanging out with us the entire night. I was trying to pay more attention to Sunny since we got back from summer camp, and I had already let her stay for crafting (Junchao, Alice, and I made friendship bracelets while Sunny strung DNA strands), karaoke
(Sunny sang something she called a gregory chant that went on
forever
), Scrabble (Sunny won with
jonquils
), and painting our nails (Junchao chose purple, Alice chose black, I chose orange, and Sunny melted all our Styrofoam cups with the nail polish remover). It was time for this to be
my
first sleepover and not Sunny's.
“Good night, Sunny,” I said.
Sunny hung her little head and walked out of the living room.
Once she was gone, Junchao broke down. “I feel bad for her, Masha. What about letting her stay for the movie?”
“Yeah,” said Alice. “And then you can tell her to go to bed. Because you have to admit, the Styrofoam cup thing was kind of cool. What did she say happened? Something about pollywogs?”
“Polymers,” said Junchao, “which are long chains of monomers.”
“Guys,” I said. “Forget Dr. Frankensunny. This sleepover is only for the
Xing Yun San You
,” which is what Mrs. Song always called Alice, Junchao, and me. In English it meant the “Lucky Three” because we were three
great friends and the number three was lucky in Chinese culture. “Plus,” I added, “it's a scary movie, and Sunny doesn't like scary movies.”
This was totally true. Sunny didn't like scary movies. Not because she got scared but because none of it was “scientifically possible.” The movies annoyed the skinny little genius. And the skinny little genius annoyed me while I was trying to watch them. She always wanted to talk about matter and molecules when all I wanted to do was shout, “
Don't go down into the basement!
”
Alice, Junchao, and I huddled together on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn in front of us. I hugged my cuddly stuffed Eeyore that Alice got me from Disney World and clicked through our choices for the movie. I'd been looking forward to this night with my two best friends ever since I got home from summer camp.
The whole sleepover thing had actually been my mom's idea. She felt so bad about Sunny turning the dude ranch into Camp Newton and my surprise horse turning into my father's new girlfriend, Claudia, that she suggested I have my very first sleepover. But after
we planned everything, she was asked to attend a conference for work at the last minute.
It looked like the whole night was off, and I didn't know what was worseâthat I wasn't having the sleepover or that I had to tell Alice that I wasn't having the sleepover. Alice flipped out just like I knew she would. She said if I canceled the sleepover that her parents would probably never let her go to another one again because it had taken her a week to convince her mom and dad to let her go to this one. Her parents were mega nervous about Alice needing special stuff because of her spine problems from spina bifida.
But then Mrs. Song saved the day. She said she'd help out with the sleepover and spend the night at our house. Mrs. Song had been a nurse back in China, and that made Alice's parents really happy.
“Okay,” I said, “we can watch
Zombie Revolution
,
Creatures of the Mist
,
Soul Snatchers
, or
Dark Poltergeists
.”
“I choose none of those,” Junchao cried. “They sound too scary.”
“That's the point.” I giggled. But I secretly agreed with Junchao. These movies did sound too scary. But this was what you did at a sleepover. It was required.
Junchao yawned.
“No, no, you can't be tired,” I yelled. “It's way too early. We have to stay up all night.”
“All night?” asked Junchao. “As in, until my mom picks me up in the morning?”
“Yes, that's the entire point of a sleepover . . . to stay up,” I told her.
“I've never done that before,” she said. “I don't know if I can.”
“Humans are able to stay awake for up to 264Â hours, or approximately eleven days,” came a voice from behind the armchair. “Although you will show signs of progressive, and possibly significant, deficits in higher mental processes as the duration of sleep deprivation increases.” It was Sunny's voice.
“Sunny!” I yelled. “Get out!”
I heard her scamper back to her room.
“Come on, you guys. We can do this,” I said.
“Then let's choose
Dark Poltergeists
,” Alice suggested. “I heard it was super scary.”
“That's the spirit.” I laughed. “Get it, spirit?”
“We get it,” laughed Alice.
“I don't get it,” said Junchao.
“Anyway,” I said, “being scared will definitely keep us up.”
“That's because the brain's hypothalamus activates both the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system, which make you become tense and alert with an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure, known as the fight-or-flight response.”
“SUNNY!” I shouted. “I'm going to tell Mrs. Song.”
Again I heard her feet patter back down the hall.
I wasn't really going to bother Mrs. Song. She was already the greatest person ever because she said yes to doing this
and
she'd made us dumplings! I promised myself that no matter what happened, I wasn't waking up Mrs. Song. She had gone to sleep in my mother's bedroom after karaoke.
We shut off all the lights except for the lamp next to the couch, and I started the movie. As the music began
and the beginning credits came on, a little story ran on the screen saying that the events were based on a real incident that took place in New Bedford, New Jersey.
“That's not that far from here,” Junchao breathed.
“Don't worry. We're all together,” I said.
But I was worried. I didn't like that this was a true story and that it happened so close by. I pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and put it around us. Alice took one of Junchao's hands and I took the other. Junchao smiled a little less worried-looking smile. It made me feel better too, and the three of us settled onto the couch.
At first, the movie looked like it was just about a normal family that moves into a new house. But then strange things started to happen. Footsteps echoed down the hall at night. The lights flickered on and off for no reason. And the family heard a strange moaning sound coming from empty rooms in the house. Then a huge storm hit.
Lightning flashed across the screen. Thunder rumbled out of the television. All three of us jumped.
The boy from the family woke up, got out of bed, and walked slowly through the dark houseâdown a looong hallway where an old clock stood
tick
,
tick
,
ticking
. . . past a shelf next to books where a doll sat with open, staring eyes . . . through a lonely dining room with lots of empty chairs . . . and then into the kitchen, where he switched on the light.
Junchao snatched the blanket away from us and threw it over her head.
“Nothing happened yet,” I said.
“I'm getting ready,” she answered, her voice muffled by the blanket.
Then the lights in the boy's kitchen went out, making Alice and me jump.
“What happened?” Junchao asked.
Before we could answer, the light next to our couch went out.
I looked at Alice. Alice's eyes glowed back at me. We dove under the blanket with Junchao.
“What happened? What happened?” asked Junchao.
“The light went out,” Alice said.
“Did you see the ghost?” Junchao asked.
Alice gave a yelp, and the two of us practically crawled on top of Junchao at the idea that a ghost had turned off our light.