Ann Martin - Stacey And The Haunted Masquerade

loud in a funny voice from the book he'd chosen.

Suddenly, just as I passed by him, Gary's chair tipped too far over, and dumped him onto the floor. The room was silent for a second as the other kids stopped talking and laughing, out of surprise. I let out a loud giggle. I just couldn't help myself. Cary glanced up at me, and an odd expression crossed his face, an expression I couldn't quite read. Was he angry? Were his feelings hurt?

I stopped giggling and held out my hand to help him up. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine," he said. By then he was grinning again. He turned to face the rest of the class. "And the judges are holding up their score-cards," he said, pretending to speak into a microphone. "Retlin is receiving some pretty high marks for that dive! Eight point six, eight point seven, eight point four, and — this is amazing! — nine point seven from the Canadian judge! Retlin is in first place!" Cary held his hands over his head and acknowledged pretend cheers from a pretend audience. "Thank you, thank you."

"Mr. Retlin," said Mr. Fiske, in a warning tone.

Cary sat down, but not before he'd given me another smile and a wink. I shook my

head, as if to dear it. This guy was a real live wire. English class was definitely going to be more interesting from now on.

Later, after math class, I made a dash for the bulletin board. I couldn't wait to see who else had signed up for the decorating committee. As I moved closer to the sign-up sheets, I could see that a few names were listed after mine. I walked up to the board and started reading. "Ride Chow, Todd Long, Grace Blume — " So far, the list looked fine. My friends and I didn't used to like Grace much, but lately we've discovered that she can be okay. I peered closer at the last name on the list, which was written quickly and sloppily. And when I'd deciphered it, my heart sank. Cokie Mason. Great.

Cokie (who is Grace Blume's best friend) is probably my least favorite person at SMS. She's petty, small-minded, devious, and totally unscrupulous. (That’s one of Mr. Fiske's vocabulary words. It means "without scruples." Cokie wouldn't know a scruple if it bit her.) I know that description makes her sound more like a soap opera character than an eighth-grade girl, but it’s true. Cokie will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and the BSC has been "Cokified" more than once. Believe it or not, one time she even went so far as to try to steal Logan away from sweet, sensitive,

wouldn't-hurt-a-fly Mary Anne. (I could have smacked her for that.)

I turned away from the bulletin board, trying to fight my disappointment. I had been looking forward to the first meeting of the decorating committee, but now I wasn't so eager. Still, I had to make the best of it, and not let Cokie ruin things for me. After all, why give her the satisfaction?

Chapter 4.

"Welcome! I am the Gatekeeper!"

"Nice to meet you, Gatekeeper," said Abby, shaking Nicky's hand. "Still looking for that Keymaster, are you?"

"How did you know?" asked Nicky, Mallory's eight-year-old brother. He dropped the deep voice he'd put on when he answered Abby's knock at the Pikes' front door. He'd been imitating a character from Ghostbusters.

"I'm a CPG," said Abby matter-of-factly.

"A what?" asked Nicky.

"A CPG," repeated Abby. "A Certified Public Ghostbuster. I'd show you my badge, but I left it at home."

Nicky's eyes grew round. Then he turned and ran toward the living room. "Hey, guys! Guys!" he shouted. "Guess what?"

Abby turned to Mal, who had answered the door along with Nicky, and grinned. Mal grinned back. "He's impressed," she said. "They just watched Ghostbusters — again. I can't believe they're not tired of it yet." Then she turned and called out, "Hey, everybody! Come say hi to Abby."

It was a rainy, gloomy Saturday afternoon, which meant that the Pike home was crammed with bored kids who had been stuck inside all morning. Abby and Mal were sitting while Mr. and Mrs. Pike went to a wedding.

Now, Abby had already met the Pikes, but just barely. That’s why, Mal told us later, she was so impressed by the way Abby remembered all their names, plus something about each one of them.

"Hey, Jordan," she said, as one of Mal's ten-year-old brothers (there are three: they're identical triplets) barreled into the front hall. "How are the piano lessons going?"

"Okay, I guess," Jordan replied, just as the other two triplets came running in after him.

"Byron! Adam!" said Abby. "What’s up?"

"We just spotted a ghost!" exclaimed Byron, who was armed with a plastic ray gun.

"A huge one!" Adam added, brandishing his own weapon, which looked suspiciously like an old vacuum-cleaner hose.

"Any ectoplasmic residue?" Abby asked, without missing a beat.

"Tons!" said Adam. "We were slimed in a big way." He grinned, as if being slimed were something to be happy about. Then he and the other two ran off, shouting something about telekinetic activity.

No sooner had they left than Vanessa showed up, with Margo and Claire in tow. "Hi, Vanessa," Abby said. "Written any new poems lately?"

"Lots," said Vanessa, who's nine and wants

to be a poet (she's already written volumes and volumes of verse). "Want to hear the one I'm working on today?" she asked. "It’s called "The Haunting of Pike House.' It’s going to be an epic, but so far it’s only three pages long. It starts off like this: 'Ghosts and goblins, witches and spooks, the Pike house has all kinds of kooks — ' "

"Make her stop!" cried Margo, covering her ears. "I already heard it five times, and I'm sick of it!"

"You're not going to throw up, are you, Margo?" asked Abby. Margo, who is seven, has a weak stomach.

"Not if she quits reading that dumb poem," Margo said.

"I like it," Claire piped up.

"That’s because you love witches and ghosts," said Abby, who had heard about the way Claire loves to dress up in her witch's costume. Claire is five, the youngest of the Pike kids.

"Yeah! Ghosts!" Claire cried. "I ain't afraid of no ghosts," she sang, mimicking the deep voice of the guy who sings the Ghostbusters theme song.

Mal glanced at Abby and rolled her eyes. "They're all obsessed," she said with a sigh. "I can't seem to escape that movie."

"Well, why fight it?" asked Abby. "Maybe today's the perfect day to do some real ghostbusting."

"Yea!" shouted Vanessa.

"Can we?" begged Margo.

"Ghostbusters!" yelled Claire, so loudly that her four brothers ran in to see what was up.

"What's going on?" asked Nicky.

"I have a strong feeling that this house needs to be ghostbusted from top to bottom," said Abby.

"Yea!" yelled Byron.

"Let’s do it!" shouted Adam.

"Who you gonna call?" Jordan chanted.

"GHOSTBUSTERS!" yelled all the kids at once.

"Okay, okay, let's calm down just a little," said Abby, grinning. "First, let’s divide up into teams. Mal, if you'll take the younger kids, I'll take Vanessa and the triplets."

"I want to be with Adam and Jordan and Byron!" yelled Nicky immediately.

"And I want to be with my sisters!" said Vanessa. "Who wants to do ghostbusting with you stinky old boys?"

"Okay, so you two can switch teams," said Abby, unruffled. "Now, I think Mal's team can search the basement and the first floor, and my team can check out the attic and the upstairs. Does that sound good?"

"Perfect," said Mal, who was enjoying the way Abby had taken charge. She told us later that Abby seemed to have found the perfect balance between being a baby-sitter and a pal. She was ready to have a great time playing with the kids, but she was also careful to organize activities and to keep the situation from becoming too wild.

"Let’s head out," said Byron, shouldering his ray gun.

"Hold on, buddy," said Abby. "Not so fast. First, we'd better do an equipment check. Does each team have their ghost detector all charged up?"