Megan Stine_Jeffery & the Third-Grade Ghost 01 (2 page)

Ben squeezed the trigger. And suddenly a blast of water hit Jeffrey smack in the face. One second Jeffrey was laughing at Ben. The next second he was soaking wet.

“What do you think?” Ben asked with a wicked grin. “I’ve been working on it in my laboratory.” Ben wanted to be a mad scientist when he grew up. He called his bedroom his laboratory.

“Uh … pretty cool,” Jeffrey called out. Then he turned around quickly and glanced at the door. Mrs. Merrin still hadn’t come back.

“But not as cool as the Super Power Water Blaster than I’ve got hidden under my notebook,” Jeffrey muttered to himself. He ran back to his desk, water still dripping from his face.

He opened his desktop, started to reach in—and snatched his hand back. His muscles froze, his mouth dropped open, and he forgot how to breathe.

There, floating in midair inside of his desk, was
a living hand
! It wasn’t connected to an arm or a body, or to anything else for that matter. It was just a hand floating inside Jeffrey’s desk.

Before Jeffrey even had time to slam the desktop shut, the hand picked up his Super Power Water Blaster and squirted him in the face.

“I don’t believe this,” Jeffrey said. “I just got squirted with my own gun!”

Jeffrey couldn’t move. He looked and felt like a statue. If the statue had a title, it would be, “Boy Frozen at His Desk with His Mouth Open Wide Enough for Birds to Nest In.” Did what just happened really happen? Did a ghostly hand actually squirt him in the face with his own gun? Or did he just think it happened?

There was only one way to find out: He had to look in his desk again. But just as Jeffrey was about to peek in, Mrs. Merrin came back into the classroom. Jeffrey closed his desk with a slam that made Mrs. Merrin jump. She looked at Jeffrey carefully.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Jeffrey said.

“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?” the teacher asked with a smile.

“I’ve been working on my list, that’s all,” Jeffrey said.

“You’re right. It doesn’t fly, Jeffrey,” Mrs. Merrin
said in a calm voice. “Why is your face soaking wet?”

“I’m sweating. It’s really hot in here, don’t you think?”

Mrs. Merrin shook her head. With a sigh, she walked toward Jeffrey.

She was going to look in his desk—Jeffrey knew it. He wanted to stop her, but he didn’t know how.

When Mrs. Merrin pulled open the desk lid, Jeffrey held his breath. Finally, he looked down. His books were there. His notebooks were there. His squirt gun was there. But the hand was gone!

Mrs. Merrin kept the squirt gun and picked up the list Jeffrey had been writing.

25 R
EASONS
N
OT TO
L
IE
by Jeffrey Becker

“A true masterpiece,” Mrs. Merrin said. But she was laughing when she said it. She walked back to her desk and started washing the blackboard with Jeffrey’s squirt gun. “I’m going to think about you a lot tonight, Jeffrey,” she said. “And tomorrow things are going to be different in this class.”

“Things are different right now,” Jeffrey said, taking a quick peek in his desk. But the hand was still gone.

When detention was over, Jeffrey left the school building. Melissa and Ben were still waiting outside for him.

“Listen,” Melissa said. “Who knows what extremely important event is coming up in four weeks?”

Jeffrey was only half listening. His mind was still on the hand in his desk. But Ben immediately began to guess.

“The World Series?” Ben said. “Your brother, Gary, takes his once-a-month bath?”

Melissa shook her head so much she looked like a windshield wiper. “No, Ben. I’ll give you a hint. Someone terrific is having a birthday.”

“My birthday isn’t until January,” Ben said.

“Not
you!”
Melissa said. “Me! And I’m officially inviting you and Jeffrey to my party.”

“Does this mean your brother
isn’t
going to take a bath?” Ben teased.

“Leave Gary out of this,” Melissa said. “I certainly plan to. Now here’s the deal. I’m going to have a rock-’n’-roll party in my backyard. But I need some help setting everything up. Would you give me a hand, Jeffrey?”

Suddenly, Jeffrey was paying attention. “A
hand
?” he gasped.

“You don’t have to help if you don’t want to,” Melissa said. She sounded a little hurt.

“Uh, sure I’ll help, Melissa,” Jeffrey said. “But that’s four weeks away!”

“I like to be organized,” Melissa said.

By this time they were standing in front of Jeffrey’s house. Ben sat down on the curb. It was almost dinnertime. But Ben would do anything to avoid going home after school. That’s when he was supposed to take out his family’s trash.

“How about some football?” Ben asked.

“Can’t,” Melissa said. “My mom and dad are going out tonight. I’ve got to get home so I can talk to the baby-sitter before Gary does.”

“Why?” Jeffrey asked.

“Because the last time my parents went out, it was awful. Gary told the baby-sitter I was being
punished. The big creep convinced her I wasn’t allowed to have anything to eat the whole night—or to watch TV!”

“Well, we all know what’s waiting for me at home: the trash.” Ben groaned. “The kitchen trash and the bathroom trash and the bedroom trash. And I’ve got to take it all out. You know, someday I’m going to invent an animal that will eat all the trash in the house—or maybe you could just send your brother over, Melissa.”

“I heard that,” shouted Gary McKane. Melissa’s brother had been spying on them from behind a tree. He ran out and grabbed Ben’s book bag off his shoulder. “Got anything in here I need?” Gary asked, unzipping the bag. As usual, Gary was picking on Melissa’s friends.

“Hey! Give that back,” Ben said. “Just because you’re in the fifth grade doesn’t mean you’re
required
to be obnoxious.”

Gary snarled. Gary always snarled when Ben used a word he didn’t understand. But he didn’t give back Ben’s bag.

Jeffrey decided to try to help—in a sneaky way.

“Come on, Ben,” Jeffrey said. “You
know
what’s in your book bag. Let him look.” Jeffrey pretended to hide a smile. “Go on and look, Gary.”

Gary stopped and stared at Jeffrey.

“What’s so funny, Becker? Why do you want me to look in the bag? What’s in there?”

“Nothing,” Jeffrey said, almost laughing. “Go on, Gary.”

Gary threw the bag at Jeffrey. “I’m not putting my hand in there—
you
are, Becker. Let’s see you do it.”

Jeffrey reached slowly into Ben’s bag. Then he quickly pulled out Ben’s power-laser squirt gun. With one squeeze of the trigger, he almost drowned Gary.

“Now you won’t have to wait four weeks for a bath!” Jeffrey shouted at Gary. Melissa and Ben fell on the ground, laughing. Jeffrey laughed, too, but he ran full speed into his own house.

“Hi, Mom. I’m home,” Jeffrey said, locking the door behind him.

Jeffrey’s mother was sitting at the family computer, writing a newsletter for the school P.T.A. “Mrs. Merrin called,” she said.

“She did?” Jeffrey asked with a king-sized gulp.

“She called to say you forgot your squirt gun,” Jeffrey’s mother said. “She put it inside your desk. It will be waiting for you in the morning.”

“She did?” Jeffrey said. “Oh, that’s great.”

But as he walked up to his room, he thought to himself, I wonder what else will be waiting for me in my desk tomorrow. He decided to get there bright and early to find out.

He hoped it would be the mysterious, living hand!

The next morning Jeffrey woke up before anyone else in his house. He was already eating his breakfast when his father came into the kitchen—and
that
was early! Jeffrey’s father was an electrical engineer. He had to get up early every morning to go to his job at a construction site.

“Are you up early or am I in the wrong house?” asked Mr. Becker.

“Gotta be at school first thing, Dad,” Jeffrey said. “I’m trying out a new program.”

“What is it? French? Computers? Woodworking?”

“It’s called sunrise detention,” Jeffrey lied. “It’s for kids who don’t want to waste a minute of daylight.”

Mr. Becker blinked once. “I’m sure you’ll do fine,” he said. “You caught on to the afternoon detention like a pro.”

Jeffrey got to school even before Mrs. Merrin.
When he tried the doorknob, the classroom was locked. He stared into the room through the window, trying to see if there was anything strange around his desk.

Soon, he saw Mrs. Merrin walking down the hall. “Well, this is a surprise, Jeffrey,” she said. “A pleasant surprise. Let’s have a talk.”

“Sure,” Jeffrey said, putting his hand on the doorknob. He waited for Mrs. Merrin to unlock the door.

“How about outside?” Mrs. Merrin said.

“Outside?” Jeffrey asked, staring into the classroom again.

“Sure,” his pretty teacher said. “It’s fall. The leaves are fading and so is my hay fever. So let’s get some fresh air.”

“Fresh air? Did you know that Denver has some of the highest air pollution in the country?” Jeffrey said.

“I know, Jeffrey. But we live a thousand miles from Denver,” said Mrs. Merrin. “Let’s risk it.”

Reluctantly, Jeffrey followed his teacher outside.

“I told you I’d think about you last night and I did—in between trying to decide with my husband which dog we want to buy,” Mrs. Merrin said. She
picked up red and yellow leaves as they walked. “I have a new attitude today and some good news. I’m not going to give you any more detentions.”

No detentions? Jeffrey wondered if they had invented a new punishment overnight. He always knew grown-ups did sneaky things after kids went to bed.

“You aren’t allowed to beat me, you know,” Jeffrey said.

Mrs. Merrin put a leaf on Jeffrey’s head and smiled. “I don’t think you need detentions. I think you need to get the class’s attention some other way—not by making up stories.”

It was time to walk back to the classroom. Mrs. Merrin was all smiles. As soon as she unlocked the door, Jeffrey rushed to his desk. He swung the lid open. Inside lay his squirt gun with a note. “Thanks for the loan. Mrs. M.” He searched under everything—but there was no hand.

I didn’t dream it. I know I didn’t dream it, Jeffrey thought.

The classroom was filling up, but Jeffrey wished he were all alone.

Hey! Maybe that was it. The hand appeared yesterday when Jeffrey was alone in the classroom. How could he be alone again?

There was only one way, he decided. Another detention! He had to get another detention. But it wasn’t going to be easy. Mrs. Merrin had picked today to think up a ridiculous idea like not giving any detentions.