Ann Martin - Stacey And The Haunted Masquerade

Chapter 15.

"So then what happened?" Shannon leaned forward eagerly.

It was Monday afternoon, and, while we were supposedly having a BSC meeting in Claud's room, we were actually rehashing the events of the weekend. And, naturally, the first thing we did was to fill Shannon in on everything that had happened at the dance, since she was the only BSC member who hadn't been there. She had come to our meeting just to hear about it I don't know how she made sense of any of it, since we were all talking at once, but at any rate we had told the story up until the point when the lights came back on and Liz Connor was standing in front of Mr. Rothman, dressed in her tattered fairy princess costume.

"It was awesome," said Claudia. "Everybody just stopped what they were doing and stared at them." She shook her head and

popped three red Peanut M&Ms into her mouth.

"It was so creepy," said Jessi, with a shudder.

"Majorly creepy," agreed Kristy. "That woman was out of her gourd. It was, like, what’s she going to do next?"

"Even the people who didn't know anything about the story were freaked out," said Mal. "Especially when she started laughing."

"She started laughing?" asked Shannon. "You mean, like someone-told-a-joke laughing?"

"No," Abby said. "Like crazed-hyena-in-the-middle-of-the-night laughing."

"She was hysterical," explained Kristy. "Completely and totally hysterical."

"So what did that teacher — Mr. Rothman — do?" asked Shannon.

"He just said, 'Let's go, Liz,' and he led her out of the gym," I replied.

"I thought he was very sweet with her," said Mary Anne.

"Well, he blames himself," I explained. "But it's not really all his fault. From what I heard afterward, it sounds as if she were unbalanced to start with, and she'd been slowly becoming more and more disturbed over the years. She was completely obsessed with what had happened to her at that dance twenty-eight years

ago. In fact, she's spent a lot of time in mental hospitals since then. That's where she went when she moved away from Stoneybrook."

"Wow," Shannon breathed. "What a story." She helped herself to a handful of M&Ms. "So was she the one who tried to ruin your dance?"

"Oh, didn't we tell you?" Abby asked. "She confessed to everything as Mr. Rothman was leading her out of the gym. She just kept babbling about all the things she'd done. Apparently she had flipped out when she discovered that SMS was planning another Mischief Night masquerade. She did her best to make sure the dance wouldn't happen, especially after she found out that Mr. Rothman had returned to SMS to teach."

"She was responsible for the lights going out in the auditorium that day," Kristy began, ticking things off on her fingers, "and for breaking those light bulbs, and cutting up the streamers — "

"And let’s not forget that she ruined my posters," Claudia added, "and painted things on the gym walls."

"I know I'll never forget that dummy she hung from the basketball hoop," I said, shivering. "Talk about creepy!"

"So where is she now?" asked Shannon.

"Back in a hospital," Kristy said. "At least,

that’s what today's paper said. I hope someone there can help her."

"I just hope she never turns up at SMS again," said Mary Anne.

"So does Mr. Rothman," I added. "I saw him today in the hall, and he still looked ghost-white."

"Well, that might have been because of what the Mischief Knights did," said Kristy, leaning back in the director's chair. She grinned.

"Mischief Knights?" I asked. "I didn't know they were still causing trouble. What happened?" I couldn't believe I hadn't heard about it.

"They were pulling pranks all day," said Claudia. "It was as if they wanted everybody to know they were still active. They left their signature every time, too."

"Right," said Mary Anne. "Like, they piled candy corn in one of the trophy bowls in the display case, and left a note signed MK."

"And they put a Frankenstein mask in some girl's locker," added Claudia. "You should have heard her scream when she opened it!"

"What did they do to Mr. Rothman?" I asked.

"It was silly, really," said Kristy. "They just stuck one of those pink 'While You Were Ouf messages on his desk, with a note saying that Liz Connor had called."

"Hmmm. Not so funny, if you'd been through what he'd been through," I said.

"I guess," Kristy agreed. "But basically harmless. I think it's kind of fun having the Mischief Knights around. If Cary Retlin is involved, I hope his family doesn't move anytime soon. SMS can use a little lightening up, and I think the Mischief Knights are just the guys to do it."

"As long as the BSC doesn't end up on their bad side," I mused. "I have a feeling that might be dangerous."

"By the way, speaking of candy corn," said Claudia, "wasn't Halloween a gas?"

It had been fun. We had organized a group of sitters and kids, since several parents had called to ask us to take their kids trick-or-treating. Mary Anne, Claudia, Jessi, Mal, and I had taken a big group of kids around our neighborhood. (Kristy and Shannon took their younger brothers and sisters trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, with Abby's help.) Our group included all the Pike kids, plus Becca Ramsey, Charlotte, the Arnold twins, Matt and Haley Braddock, and a few other regular BSC clients.

We sitters wore our costumes from the night before. (Claudia's giant Twinkie costume was the kids' favorite, naturally.) But the hilarious thing was that each and every kid in our group

was dressed as — guess what — a Ghost-buster! We had a small army of Ghostbusters, and all of them were outfitted with ray guns and collection units and detectors and ghost-busting tools of every description. Those kids ghostbusted every house within a ten-block radius. They came away with their collection units empty, but their treat bags full to bursting with Halloween candy.

"I hope that’s it for Ghostbusters," said Jessi. "If I hear that song one more time, I might throw up!"

"I think Ghostbusters fever might be winding down," Mary Anne said. "I actually heard Carolyn tell Haley that she almost wished she'd dressed as a fairy tale character instead. That was after she saw Grace Blume walk by dressed as Snow White. Grace was out with her little cousins."

"Grace Blume!" I said, frowning. "Don't mention that name in front of me."

"Why not?" asked Mary Anne. "She's okay, as long as you keep her away from Cokie."

"That’s it," I replied. "She and Cokie are like this again." I held up two fingers, crossed. "Cokie apologized for not trusting her, and Grace forgave her. And as soon as they started hanging out together again, they were up to their old tricks."

"What did they do?" asked Kristy.

"You won't believe this," said Claudia. I'd already told her about it, and she was furious.

"Well, you know that new art teacher, the one everybody likes so much? Ms. Dwyer?" I said. "She loved the decorations for the dance, and thought they were 'super-creative.' She wanted to know who had come up with the idea for them, because she has a special project .that she needs help with."

"That’s great!" said Kristy. "So you'll be working with her."

I shook my head. "Not me," I said. "Cokie. She took full credit for the decorations."

"But she hated every idea the committee came up with," said Mal.

"Yup," I said. "But Ms. Dwyer doesn't know that. And Cokie convinced Grace to back her up on her lie. Grace supported everything Cokie said."

"Unbelievable. You really can't trust either one of them, can you?" asked Kristy.

"It’s too bad," said Mary Anne. "I thought Grace was going to turn out okay. But I guess Cokie's influence is too strong."

"You know?" I said. "In a way, I really don't mind. Having Cokie and Grace plot against the BSC is just like old times. I mean, it’s normal for us. And after all we've been through over the past couple of weeks, I'm happy things are back to normal again."