Megan Stine_Jeffery & the Third-Grade Ghost 02 by Haunted Halloween

Chapter One

    “Have you decided yet, Jeffrey?” asked Melissa McKane.
    Jeffrey Becker shook his head. “I’m still thinking about it,” he said. He pulled his knit cap down over his straight dark hair.
    “It’s already October tenth,” said Kenny Thompsen.
    Benjamin Hyde looked at his calendar watch. It told the time in every part of the world. “In fact, it’s already October eleventh in New Caledonia,” he said.
    “I can’t help it,” said Jeffrey. “I’m still deciding.”
    Every day, Jeffrey Becker walked to school with three of his friends: Benjamin Hyde, Kenny Thompsen, and Melissa McKane. And every day they talked about different things.
    During September they had talked about baseball, football, and their new teacher. But the moment the calendar page was turned to October,there was only one topic of conversation: Halloween. And Halloween meant costumes.
    The problem was, Jeffrey couldn’t decide what to be for Halloween.
    Ben, on the other hand, had decided long ago. He was going to be a high-tech robot. Of course, what else would you expect from a kid who wanted to be a mad scientist when he grew up?
    Melissa still wasn’t sure. “I’m either going to be a quarterback, a ballerina, a brain surgeon, or a judge,” she said, tossing her long, red ponytail.
    “I know how you can decide,” Ben said to Melissa. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
    “A quarterback, a ballerina, a brain surgeon,
and
a judge,” said Melissa proudly.
    No one laughed because they knew Melissa wasn’t kidding. And they knew she could do it, too.
    “Well, I’m going to be a ghost,” Kenny said. “No sweat. Just cut eyeholes in a sheet.”
    “That’s not what ghosts look like,” Jeffrey said.
    “How do you know?” asked Kenny.
    “Oh, no, here we go again,” Ben said.
    Everyone glared at Jeffrey.
    “I told you guys, but you don’t believe me. I have a friend who’s a ghost. I found him in my desk at school,” Jeffrey said for the two-hundredth time.
    “And his name is Max,” said Ben.
    “And he’s from the 1950s,” added Kenny.
    “And only you can see him,” finished Melissa.
    “Right,” Jeffrey said. “Now, do you believe me this time?”
    His three friends all shook their heads.
    “Face it, Jeffrey,” said Melissa. “The story you made up about peanut butter replacing nuclear energy was better than this. At least it fooled us for a little while.”
    “Yeah. That was one of my all-time favorites,” said Kenny. Kenny usually didn’t say anything unless he could say something nice.
    “But we’re not going to fall for this one,” said Ben. “Ghosts are too illogical.”
    “Besides, if we wanted to see a ghost, we could just go in
there,”
Kenny said, pointing.
    Everyone stopped and looked in the direction of Kenny’s pointing finger. They were standing across the street from the McGyver house. It was a three-story Victorian house with peeling paint, torn window shades, and overgrown weeds. It was the gloomiest, ugliest, creepiest house in town. And those were the nicest things people said about it.
    Mr. and Mrs. McGyver had lived there for years. Then, according to Jeffrey, the McGyvers finallygot tired of being mean to children. So, six months ago, they left town. They didn’t say goodbye to anyone.
    Since the McGyvers had moved out, a lot of people had heard strange noises in the house. A few people had even seen mysterious lights flickering in it late at night. Everyone said the McGyver house was haunted.
    “I’m glad the McGyvers moved,” Kenny said as they continued their walk to school. “Now we don’t have to go trick-or-treating there.”
    “We never went trick-or-treating there,” Jeffrey reminded him.
    “Yes, but now I don’t have to feel bad about it,” said Kenny.
    When they got to class, their teacher, Mrs. Merrin, was writing on the chalkboard. It was a fill-in-the-blank history quiz.
    “What are we going to do today, Mrs. Merrin?” asked Jeffrey.