Heidi Heckelbeck Might Be Afraid of the Dark

by Wanda Coven

  “Look!” she cried. “I got a charm bracelet!”

  “Me too!” exclaimed Eve. “And a ring pop!”

  Everyone had a goody bag by the end of the game. The girls put on their bracelets and showed one another their charms.

  The next game was the Suitcase Relay.

  It was Lucy, Heidi, and Laurel against Melanie, Natalie, and Eve. Mrs. Lancaster blew the whistle. Heidi and Natalie each raced to her team’s suitcase and put on all the clothes inside, including a hat, shoes, and a necklace! Then they each posed for a picture, undressed, and ran to the back of the line.

  Melanie and Lucy went last. The girls cheered for their teammates. Then Melanie had trouble undoing her dress.

  “I’m STUCK!” she cried.

  She wriggled and jiggled, but she could not get free. Lucy’s team won!

  Then after the games, the girls sat at the dining room table and had pizza, fruit salad, and chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting.

  “Time to open presents, Lucy!” said Mrs. Lancaster, stacking the presents beside Lucy.

  Lucy opened her gifts, thanking her friends for each one. She got a scrapbook kit from Laurel, sweet-smelling bubble bath from Eve, polka-dot slippers from Melanie, the friendship bracelet kit from Heidi, and a slumber-party box of questions from Natalie.

  “Hey, let’s ask each other questions!” cried Lucy.

  The girls ran to the family room and sat in a circle. Lucy read the directions.

  “ ‘Ask the girl on your left a question,’ ” read Lucy. “ ‘That girl gets to answer the question AND ask the next question.’ Get it?”

  The girls nodded.

  “Okay, I’ll go first,” said Lucy, turning to Natalie, the girl on her left.

  “Natalie, if you could shop in any of our closets, whose would you choose?”

  Natalie looked at each girl in the circle. “I’d choose Melanie’s,” she said. “She has the nicest clothes of any girl in our whole school.”

  Melanie smiled proudly. “Thank you, Natalie!” she said sweetly.

  Heidi coughed to let everyone know how SHE felt about THAT answer. Heidi and Melanie had very different styles.

  “My turn!” said Natalie. She turned to Eve. “Eve, if you were a superhero, who would you be? And what superpower would you have?”

  Eve rested her chin in her hand and looked up at the ceiling. “I love animals, so I would have to be Pet Girl,” she said. “And my superpower would be to save all animals from harm.”

  “Awwww,” said all the girls at the same time.

  Then Eve picked a card and turned to Melanie. “Using one word, how would you describe the girl next to you?”

  The girl next to Melanie happened to be Heidi.

  “WEIRD!” declared Melanie.

  Some of the girls giggled, but Lucy stood up for Heidi. “Okay, girls!” she cried. “Let’s GET HER!”

  Then Lucy playfully ran across the circle and messed up Melanie’s hair. The other girls joined in, and soon everyone was laughing.

  “Okay, okay!” begged Melanie, whose hair was in tangles. “I was only JOKING!”

  Lucy’s mom then came in and blew her whistle.

  “Time to get ready for bed!” she said. “Sleeping bags and pillows to the basement!”

  Heidi froze.

  THE BASEMENT! she thought. That’s the darkest place in the WHOLE house! Oh no! What if my spell doesn’t work down there?

  The girls changed into their pajamas. Then they arranged their sleeping bags in a circle so each bag stuck out like a petal on a flower. They put their pillows in the middle so they could talk.

  “We didn’t have time to play half of the games we thought up!” said Lucy.

  “That’s okay!” said Melanie. “We still have time to tell SCARY stories!”

  “Oooooh!” chorused the girls.

  Heidi’s heart began to beat faster.

  “So, who has a scary story to tell?” asked Eve.

  The girls looked around the circle.

  “I DO!” said Melanie.

  Heidi put her hand on her spell ingredients and medallion. She had hidden them in her sleeping bag when no one was looking. But so far nobody had thought to turn out the lights.

  “Okay, let’s hear it!” Lucy said.

  Melanie got out of her sleeping bag and sat cross-legged on her pillow. Then her eyes grew very wide.

  “This is a TRUE story,” she began.

  The girls squealed and poked one another.

  “Once upon a time, there was a very STRANGE boy. And this very strange boy lived on Blossom Hill Road.”

  “Hey, that’s MY street!” Lucy cried.

  “It IS?” said Melanie as if she didn’t know.

  Lucy nodded.

  “And how old was he?” asked Natalie.

  “He was ten years old,” said Melanie. “But he was very DIFFERENT from most ten-year-old boys. For one thing, he didn’t live in a house.”

  “Where’d he live?” Eve asked.

  “In the WOODS,” said Melanie.

  Heidi pulled her sleeping bag up to her neck.

  “But we have WOODS right behind OUR house!” Lucy exclaimed.

  Melanie nodded. “And that’s exactly where he lived,” she said. “In YOUR woods.”

  The girls squealed and slid deep into their sleeping bags.

  “And there was one thing this boy always did,” Melanie continued.

  “What did he do?” asked Natalie.

  “He whistled,” said Melanie, “like this. . . .” And she began to whistle an eerie tune.

  “STOP!” said Laurel. “That’s SO creepy!”

  Melanie stopped whistling and went on with the story. “And the boy was also known to do very strange things,” she said.

  “Like what?” asked Eve.

  Melanie stood up, and she said, “He would always tap on windows when it was dark out. And he’d rattle the doors.”

  Lucy looked behind her. “Shh!” she said nervously. “I think I hear something!”

  Everyone stopped to listen, but the basement was quiet.

  Melanie continued the story. “The only time anyone ever saw the boy was on rainy nights and . . .”

  Cre-e-eak! The door at the top of the stairs opened.

  The girls froze.

  “Okay, Lucy!” called Mrs. Lancaster from the top of the stairs. “It’s time for LIGHTS OUT!”

  Eeeek!

  Aaaah!

  Ow-ee!

  The girls all screamed and squirmed around in their sleeping bags at the sound of Mrs. Lancaster’s voice. But not Heidi. She knew the lights were about to go off any minute, and she had to be ready to cast her spell. She carefully placed her left hand over her medallion and the plastic bag. Then she took the half-peeled orange in her right hand while she waited for the lights to go out.

  “Okay, Mom,” said Lucy. She turned to face her friends. “That story was SO scary!” Lucy said.

  “And when the door creaked, that made it even spookier!” Eve added.

  Melanie grinned triumphantly. “And it’s all TRUE,” she reminded them.

  “And it happened in MY neighborhood,” Lucy said. “I wonder why my mom never told me this story.”

  Melanie rested her hand on Lucy’s arm. “She probably didn’t want you to be afraid, that’s all.”

  “Probably,” agreed Lucy as she got up to turn off the lights.

  Heidi watched Lucy reach for the light switch. Click! The lights went out. Heidi began to whisper the spell. Her medallion clanked against her flashlight and made a funny sound.

  “What was THAT?” asked Natalie.

  Heidi froze mid-spell.

  “I’m not sure,” Lucy answered. “It sounded like RATTLING. . . .”

  Heidi quickly continued her secret night-light spell. She was so nervous about the dark that she squeezed the orange a little too hard. Suddenly the orange burst, and the juice spurted EVERYWHERE!

  “Hey, did anyone just feel RAIND
ROPS?” asked Melanie in a shaky voice. She sounded really scared.

  “I DID!” cried Eve.

  “Me too!” said Laurel.

  “Oh NO!” shouted Lucy. “It’s the BOY!”

  The girls screamed and began to jump this way and that. They bonked into one another in the dark and screamed even more. Heidi got stepped on and kicked as she tried to hide her spell ingredients.

  Then Lucy’s mother turned on the lights and ran down the stairs.

  “Girls!” she cried. “What in the world is going on?”

  The girls flopped onto their sleeping bags and tried to catch their breath.

  “You all look as if you’d seen a ghost!” said Lucy’s mom.

  “We DID!” cried Lucy.

  “Not a ghost—it was A BOY!” said Laurel, hugging her pillow.

  Mrs. Lancaster shook her head and raised her eyebrows.

  “A boy?” she questioned.

  “Well, not a REAL boy,” said Lucy. “It’s just that Melanie told us a REALLY scary story. That’s all.”

  Lucy’s mom put her hands on her hips. “No more scary stories,” she said firmly. “It’s time to settle down.”

  The girls laid out their sleeping bags all over again. Then Melanie got up and whispered something in Mrs. Lancaster’s ear.

  Lucy’s mom nodded.

  “Would anyone like to leave a light on tonight?” she asked.

  “Yes!” they all said at the same time.

  So Lucy’s mom turned on a small lamp in the corner of the room. Then she started up the stairs.

  “Sweet dreams,” she said. “And remember, no more scary stories!”

  Heidi snuggled into her sleeping bag. It smelled like oranges, and she could feel sticky spots here and there. She pushed the plastic bag, the mushed orange, and her medallion to the bottom of her bag with her foot.

  She tried to settle down. A light was on in the room, but it still wasn’t as much light as she liked. She wished she could ask to have another light on, but she didn’t want anyone to know she was afraid of the dark. Let’s face it, she thought miserably. I’m never going to get sleepy.

  Then Lucy tapped Heidi on the elbow.

  Heidi jumped, and scrunched deeper into her sleeping bag.

  “Are you awake?” she heard Lucy whisper.

  “Oh,” said Heidi when she realized it was just Lucy. “Yeah, why?”

  “Because I’m really scared,” said Lucy.

  Heidi rolled over. “You are?”

  Lucy nodded.

  “I’m scared too,” Melanie said.

  “Me too,” said Eve.

  “Same here,” said Laurel.

  Lucy sat up and folded her arms. “Okay, that settles it,” she said. “Let’s sleep with ALL the lights on.”

  The girls agreed that this was a very good idea.

  Lucy got up and turned on the overhead light. The room became bright, like the middle of the day—just the way Heidi liked it! Then the girls stayed up and whispered for hours. But not Heidi.

  She fell asleep just like that!

  Heidi had her very own classroom in the playroom. She had a chalkboard, a desk, and a pointer. She even had students: a stuffed panda, a stuffed kangaroo, and her little brother, Henry. They all sat on small wooden chairs in front of Heidi, who was, of course, the teacher. She called herself Mrs. Applegarth.

  Mrs. Applegarth tapped the chalkboard with her pointer. “Class, what do animals do when they’re scared?”

  Henry raised his hand. Mrs. Applegarth called on him.

  “Skunks spray stink bombs when they’re scared,” he answered. “And octopuses squirt black ink.”

  “Very good, Henry,” said Mrs. Applegarth. “You get a gold star!”

  Heidi handed Henry a gold star sticker.

  “Excuse me, Mrs. Applegarth!” said someone from the door.

  Heidi pulled off her pretend glasses and looked at the door. It was Mom.

  “May I help you, Mrs. Heckelbeck?”

  Mom entered the classroom. She had a fancy card in her hand with gold cursive writing on it. Heidi noticed it right away.

  “Ooh, what’s that?” she asked, forgetting her role as make-believe teacher.

  “It’s a wedding invitation,” Mom said.

  “Do we get to go?” Heidi asked.

  “It’s for grown-ups this time,” Mom said. “We’ll need to get a babysitter.”

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  LITTLE SIMON

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

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  First Little Simon paperback edition October 2015

  Copyright © 2015 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  Also available in a Little Simon hardcover edition.

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  Designed by Ciara Gay

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Coven, Wanda.

  Heidi Heckelbeck might be afraid of the dark / by Wanda Coven ; illustrated by Priscilla Burris. — First edition.

  pages cm. — (Heidi Heckelbeck ; 15)

  Summary: Going to her first sleepover, Heidi tries to hide her fear of the dark, with a little help from her Book of Spells.

  ISBN 978-1-4814-4627-3 (pbk : alk. paper) —

  ISBN 978-1-4814-4628-0 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4814-4629-7 (eBook) [1. Fear of the dark—Fiction. 2. Sleepovers—Fiction. 3. Witches—Fiction.]

  I. Burris, Priscilla, illustrator. II. Title.

  PZ7.C83393Hl 2015

  [Fic]—dc23

  2014044015