by Abby Klein
“That is the end of our tour,” Dracula said. “I hope you liked visiting my castle. Please come again.”
He opened a door that led out into Chloe’s living room where all the games had been set up.
“Oh, bobbing for apples,” Max yelled. “I’m first, and I challenge the fraidy-cat over there,” he said, pointing to me.
I gulped. I didn’t think the night could get any worse.
CHAPTER 7
The Contest
Max ran over to the apple bucket. “Hurry up, Shark Boy,” he yelled. “I haven’t got all night, you know.”
The other kids ran over to the bucket, too, and they started chanting, “Freddy, Freddy!”
I walked slowly. “Why me? Why me?” I thought to myself. “Why couldn’t he have picked someone else?” There was no way I could beat Max and his big mouth.
“What’s the matter, fraidy-cat?” Max teased. “You afraid I’m gonna mistake your head for an apple and bite it by accident?”
I gulped. I hadn’t actually thought of that. Great! Something else to worry about.
“Oh, he’s not afraid of you, you big bully,” Jessie said. “Right, Freddy? He’s a shark, and sharks are experts in water.”
“You’d better take off your hammerhead hood,” Robbie said. “It might get in the way.
I’ll hold it for you.”
I took off my hood, handed it to Robbie, and knelt down next to the bucket. The kids started chanting again, “Freddy! Freddy!” I rubbed my lucky shark’s tooth.
“Quiet, everyone,” Chloe said, stamping her foot. “You have to listen to me. We can’t start until I tell you the rules.”
Everyone groaned.
“OK,” Chloe continued. “When I say ‘go,’ you have two minutes to see how many apples you can catch in your mouth. When you get an apple, just drop it on the floor next to the bucket and try for another one. You can’t use your hands at all. Only your mouth. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” said Max. “When can we start?”
Chloe turned to me. “Are you ready, Freddy?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” I thought. I nodded my head.
“OK, boys, on your mark, get set, go!” Chloe yelled.
I stuck my head in the bucket and immediately swallowed a lot of water. Max’s big head was making a lot of waves. I lifted my head to get air and saw that Max had already gotten one apple.
“What’s the matter, Hammerhead?” Max said, smiling. “You quit already? I knew you would wimp out. You’re such a fraidy-cat.”
Now my blood was really starting to boil. I was sick of him calling me a fraidy-cat. I plunged my head back down into the water, grabbed an apple in my teeth, and dropped it on the floor next to the bucket.
“Way to go, Freddy!” Jessie screamed. “That’s one!”
Then I heard Robbie yell, “Go for another one, Freddy. Don’t stop!”
I stuck my head back in the water and bumped heads with Max. Boy did he have a hard head! Normally I would have started crying, but everyone was watching me. I couldn’t stop now.
“That’s three for Max!” I heard Chloe yell.
Three? How did he get three already? He really did have a big mouth! If I was going to beat him, I would have to start acting like a shark. Sharks weren’t afraid of anything. Everything was afraid of them. I found another apple, grabbed it with my teeth, and dropped it on the floor.
“That’s two for Freddy,” Chloe yelled. “There’s only one minute left.”
Depending on who won, I would be known as the fraidy-cat or the shark. It was now or never. I stuck my head back in the bucket and grabbed another apple.
“That’s three for Freddy,” Chloe squealed. “It’s a tie! Thirty seconds left.”
“Come on, Tiburón!” Jessie yelled. “You’re a shark. Go get him!”
Just then, Max lifted his head out of the water and whispered, “You’ll never beat me, you little fraidy-cat.”
That was a big mistake. Max lost his concentration, and I dunked my head back in just in time to grab one more apple in my teeth. I triumphantly dropped it on the floor just as Chloe called, “Time’s up!”
The kids went crazy cheering for me.
“That was awesome,” Robbie said, giving me a high five.
“I knew you could do it,” Jessie said, hugging me.
“Here, use these towels and dry off,” Chloe said. “You’re getting water all over the expensive carpet.”
“He must have cheated,” Max complained. “There’s no way he could beat me.”
“He won fair and square,” Jessie said. “You’re just a sore loser.”
“Time for cupcakes, everyone!” Chloe called. “Follow me.”
All the kids ran over to the treat table. Everyone except Max. He just sat by himself in the corner and pouted.
“I think Freddy-the-Shark should get the first cupcake,” said Jessie.
I grabbed a cupcake and took a big shark bite. Then I smiled a big frosting smile. Maybe the night wasn’t so bad after all.
CHAPTER 8
What Was That?
After we finished stuffing our faces with cupcakes, we went to play Pin the Tail on the Werewolf. That’s when we heard the noise.
“What was that?” Robbie asked.
“What was what?” asked Chloe.
“That noise.”
“What noise?”
“Maybe if you’d just be quiet for a minute, you’d hear it.” We all stood perfectly still and listened.
“EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.”
“That noise,” Robbie said.
“I’m sure it’s just some spooky music from the haunted house,” said Jessie.
Chloe’s eyes got big and wide. “I … don’t … think … so …,” she stuttered. “It sounds like it’s coming from down in the basement, and there is no haunted house down there.”
Then we heard it again. “EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.”
“I’m scared,” said Chloe. “It sounds like a ghost. Do you think it’s a ghost?”
“Ghosts aren’t real,” said Robbie.
“Some people think they are,” said Jessie. “My abuela believes in ghosts.”
“Stop talking about ghosts,” Chloe cried, covering her ears. “You’re scaring me!”
“You are all such wimps,” Max said as he came over to the group. “I’ll go downstairs and check it out.”
“All by yourself?” Chloe asked.
“I know none of you fraidy-cats are going to go down there with me.”
“Freddy’s not a fraidy-cat, remember?” Jessie butted in. “He’s a shark, and sharks aren’t afraid of anything. He’ll go down there with you.”
Great! Why did she have to say that? I did not want to go down into that basement with Max, but if I didn’t, then everyone would start calling me a fraidy-cat again. I had to go.
“Yeah, right.” Max snickered.
I took a deep breath. “Let’s go,” I said.
Max’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Are you kidding me? You’re going to go down there?”
I swallowed hard. “Yep,” I said, trying not to let my voice shake.
“Wow! You guys are really brave,” Chloe said. “Be careful.”
As we started down, we heard the noise again. “EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.” My heart was beating faster and faster with each step I took. What if it really was a ghost? What were Max and I going to do?
We finally reached the basement. It was really dark down there, and we couldn’t find the light switch. Luckily there was a full moon, so there was a little bit of moonlight shining in the window.
“EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.”
There it was again. What if it attacked us?
“Max, I think the noise is coming from over there,” I whispered, pointing to the far corner of the room.
Silence.
“Max,” I whispered again, “do you want to go check it out?” Silence.
“Max?”
; I turned around and saw Max frozen like a statue. His mouth was hanging open, his eyes were huge, and he didn’t move a muscle. I couldn’t believe it. Max, the biggest bully in the whole first grade, the toughest kid in school, was actually a fraidy-cat.
I grabbed his hand, just as Jessie had grabbed mine. “Max, it’s OK to be scared,” I said. “Everyone gets scared once in a while.”
“EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.” The noise sent a shiver down my spine. Max was still frozen. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“You stay here, Max. I’ll go see what it is.”
I tiptoed quietly over toward the noise. I was breathing really fast, and my palms were sweating like crazy. As I got closer, I could tell the noise was coming from behind the washing machine. I bent down and slowly peeked behind the machine….
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” I started laughing hysterically.
“Hey, stop laughing at me,” Max said.
“I’m not laughing at you,” I said and giggled. “I’m laughing at this!”
“At what?” Max asked, walking over to where I was.
I held up a small black kitten. “This is what we were all so scared of. This little thing was making all that noise. I guess it got trapped behind the machine and couldn’t get out. Let’s go upstairs and tell everybody.”
Max grabbed my arm. “Wait, Freddy. Tell everybody what?”
“Tell them that the ghost was actually a little kitten.”
“Is that all you’re going to tell them?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Why?”
“So you’re not going to tell them about how scared I was?” Max asked.
“Nope. Your secret’s safe with me,” I said, patting him on the back. “Like I said, even tough guys get scared once in a while.”
“Thanks, Freddy,” said Max, with a sigh of relief. “I owe you one.”
I hid the kitten behind me as we started up the stairs. I wanted to surprise everybody. When we reached the top of the stairs, all the kids were there, anxiously waiting for us.
“Now I’ll tell you about the real fraidy-cat,” I announced.
Max looked at me in a panic, wondering if I was going to give away his secret.
“Here it is!” I said, pulling the kitten out from behind my back.
“Fifi!” Chloe cried, reaching for the little fluffball. “That’s my new kitten. Where did you find her? Tell me the whole story.”
“Max and I found her down in the basement trapped behind the washing machine. She must have gotten stuck and was crying so someone would get her out. This little thing was making all that noise!”
“How did you ever get her out of there?” asked Chloe.
“Max and I worked together to rescue her. We were a good team.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Max said.
“Freddy, you and Max are so brave,” said Chloe. “Thank you for rescuing Fifi.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” I said.
“No problem,” said Max.
“There’s only one real fraidy-cat in this room,” Jessie said, patting me on the back, “and it’s a little ball of fur.”
“Yep, only one,” I said and winked at Max.
Freddy’s Fun Pages
FREDDY’S SHARK JOURNAL
THE HAMMERHEAD
The hammerhead shark’s eyes are on the sides of its head.
It has a sharp sense of smell.
It swings its head from side to side as it swims to pick up smells in the water.
It can pick up small electrical signals given off by stingrays buried in the sand.
Its favorite food is the stingray, and it eats the entire stingray, including its poisonous tail!
HALLOWEEN
CROSSWORD
DEAR READER,
In Lucky Book Club’s October 2005 issue, we asked Ready, Freddy! readers to write about their funniest Halloween memory. We received more than 1,300 entries! Thanks so much for sharing your stories. This one, by Niklaus West of Stroudsburg Elementary School, was selected as the winner —CONGRATULATIONS!
THE FUNNIEST HALLOWEEN EVER
by Niklaus West
The funniest Halloween ever was when my dad played a trick on my mom. It happened two years ago when I lived in East Stroudsburg. My mom is really scared of rats. My dad bought fake rats from the Halloween store so that he could scare my mom. My dad was making a strange noise in the attic to attract my mom. My mom said, “What’s that noise?” but nobody answered her. Then she went upstairs and heard the noise coming from the attic. Then she climbed the ladder and looked in the attic. My dad was hiding in a dark corner. He threw a rat at my mom, and she screamed. My mom was so afraid she almost fell down the attic ladder. Luckily, she didn’t get hurt. We all started laughing.
Later that night, my mom put makeup on my dad’s face while he was sleeping. He had no idea! When the doorbell rang the next morning, my dad answered the door looking like a girl. Everyone laughed, including my mom. She said, “Gotcha!”
Have you read all about Freddy?
Copyright
THE BLUE SKY PRESS
Text copyright © 2006 by Abby Klein
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by John Mckinley
All rights reserved.
Special thanks to Robert Martin Staenberg.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, please write to: Permissions Department, Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, New York 10012. SCHOLASTIC, THE BLUE SKY PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First printing, August 2006
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
e-ISBN: 978-0-545-32480-9