by Jack Chabert
Jack Chabert
The
L
O
c
ke
r
Lucy
!
ATE
By Jack Chabert
Illustrated by Sam Ricks
T
h
e
L
O
c
k
e
r
Lucy
!
ATE
1
2
Read all abouT
Eerie Elementary!
1: INTO THE GRAVEYARD ...............................1
2: GONE! ...........................................................10
3: INTO THE LOCKER ...................................14
4: A TIGHT SPOT.............................................19
5: LUNCHTIME .................................................25
6: THE DARK BASEMENT ..............................32
7: THE FACE OF ORSON EERIE....................38
8: LUCY! ...........................................................45
9: THE HORRIBLE TRUTH ...........................51
10: TRAPPED! ..................................................56
11: SLIPPERY ESCAPE ...................................60
12: DEAD END .................................................64
13: HANGING BY A THREAD ......................72
14: WATERY HAND ........................................77
15: ALL WET ....................................................86
Table of ConTenTs
For my Mom. Love ya! — JC
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of
this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered,
or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by
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express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to
Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chabert, Jack, author.
The locker ate Lucy! / by Jack Chabert.
pages cm. — (Eerie Elementary ; 2)
Summary: Only a week into his job as hall monitor and class protector, Sam Graves and his
friends Lucy and Antonio are trying to uncover the secrets of Eerie Elementary, their living and
malevolent school — and then Lucy gets eaten by her locker.
ISBN 0-545-62395-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-545-62396-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) —
ISBN 0-545-62397-9 (ebook) 1. Elementary schools — Juvenile fiction. 2. Best friends —
Juvenile fiction. 3. Rescues — Juvenile fiction. 4. Horror tales. [1. Schools—Fiction. 2. Best
friends—Fiction. 3. Friendship — Fiction. 4. Rescues — Fiction. 5. Horror stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.C3313Lo 2014
813.6 — dc23
2013046259
e-ISBN 978-0-545-62397-1
Text copyright © 2014 by Max Brallier
Interior illustrations copyright © 2014 by Scholastic Inc.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc.
SCHOLASTIC, BRANCHES, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered
trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
First Scholastic printing, September 2014
Book Design by Will Denton
Edited by Katie Carella
Come on. This will just take a minute,”
said Sam to his friends, Antonio and Lucy.
It was Monday morning before school. They
were standing outside the entrance to the
town graveyard, Eerie Cemetery.
“Sam, do we really have to do this?” Lucy
asked. “I’ve got the willies, big time.”
“Me, too,” Antonio said. “I’m allergic to
graveyards.”
“
INTO THE GRAVEYARD
1
Sam Graves turned to his friends. “We need
to figure out how to stop our evil school,
right?” he said. “Then we have to do this. We
have to learn as much about Eerie Elementary
as possible. That way, we’ll be able to fight it!”
The three friends stepped through the
iron gate. The graveyard usually gave Sam the
creeps, but it didn’t seem so scary now — not
after everything that had happened. . . .
It was one week ago that Mr. Nekobi, the
old man who took care of Eerie Elementary,
had chosen Sam to be the new hall monitor.
Years ago, Mr. Nekobi had been the school’s
hall monitor. He showed Sam the truth about
Eerie Elementary: It was alive! The school was
a living, breathing, evil thing.
Then, on Friday, the school had tried to
swallow Lucy and Antonio during the class play!
Sam had saved them in the nick of time. The
three friends and Mr. Nekobi were the only
ones who knew the truth about the school.
They had to keep everyone safe.
“There!” Lucy said, pointing to a hill dotted
with cracked headstones. “The book says that’s
where the Eerie family is buried.”
Lucy held a thick and dusty book in her
hands: Eerie: A Town History.
The three friends
had spent the weekend
at the town library
looking for information.
From this book, they
learned that a family
with the last name of
Eerie started the town
hundreds of years ago.
The book said that the
Eerie family was buried in this graveyard. It also
said that each member of the Eerie family
had started part of the town — the library,
the hospital, and even the school! Sam hoped
that by seeing the graves they might learn
more about the school’s history.
Sam eyed the headstones. Each headstone
had the name Eerie on it. It felt as if the
headstones were watching him. Sam counted
them: twelve. “Lucy, can I see the book?” Sam
asked.
Lucy handed it to Sam. He flipped through
the pages. “Guys, this is strange,” he said. “The
book says there were thirteen members of
the Eerie family. So there should be thirteen
headstones. But there are only twelve. One
family member is not buried here.”
“Weird . . .” Antonio said. “You know, it’s
no surprise all this creepy stuff is happening
in a town named Eerie — ‘eerie’ does mean
spooky and strange.”
“Whose grave is missing, Sam?” Lucy asked.
Sam’s eyes darted over the names on the
headstones. Then he looked in the book.
“Well,” Sam said. “There’s a family member
named Orson Eerie. See his picture here?”
Antonio
peeked over Sam’s shoulder. “Wow!
Look at his mustache!” he said. “What is that
thing?!”
Sam rolled his eyes and continued, “But I
don’t see a headstone with that name. And this
is even weirder! Orson Eerie was born in 1871,
but it doesn’t say when he died. There’s just a
question mark.”
“I wonder what happened to him,” Antonio
said. “What else does the book say about him?”
Sam turned the page to read more.
“OH, NO!” Lucy yelled. “It’s 8:15! We’re
late for school!” Lucy yanked the book from
Sam’s hands. She stuffed it into her backpack.
“Come on!” Antonio said to Sam.
Sam ran after his friends. But he had an
uneasy feeling in his stomach. As hall monitor,
Sam could sense things that other students
couldn’t. He could feel when something was
wrong at Eerie Elementary. And right now,
Sam had the feeling that something very bad
was about to happen.
Sam raced out of the graveyard, down the
street, and toward the school. As the three
friends crossed the playground, they spotted
a large plastic thermometer on a tree branch.
“I forgot!” Lucy called to her friends as she
ran. “We have that weather lesson today!”
Antonio started skipping. “Class outside!
This is going to be a good day.”
Sam hoped Antonio was right.
GONE!
2
The three of them raced up the steps and
into the school. Sam pulled on his hall monitor
sash as they ran inside. “I’ll never get used to
wearing this ugly thing,” said Sam.
“Bright orange is totally your color!” joked
Lucy.
Their classmates were all lined up in the
hallway. Ms. Grinker, their teacher, stood at
the front of the line. “You’re late!” Ms. Grinker
barked. “Put away your backpacks and head to
the back of the line.”
As Sam and his friends walked to their
lockers, Ms. Grinker called out, “We’re going
outside for our weather lesson now. Today’s
weather will be the hottest ever for late
September — 105 degrees!”
Sam and Antonio put their backpacks away
quickly. But Lucy was still at her locker. “Just
one second!” Lucy said, digging through her
backpack. “I need my sunglasses.”
“Hurry up, Lucy!” Sam said. He and
Antonio hopped into line.
“Hall monitor!” Ms. Grinker called to Sam
from the front of the line. “Please make sure
everyone is with us.”
“Okay,” Sam said. He turned to call Lucy,
but when he looked down the hall, his heart
just about stopped. Lucy’s sunglasses lay on the
floor. Her locker was open. The hallway was
empty.
A feeling of fear crept over Sam. . . .
Lucy was gone.
Sam had a pit in his stomach the size of a
basketball. Last week, Mr. Nekobi had told
him that Eerie Elementary fed on students.
And Sam had seen this with his own eyes —
when the stage had tried to swallow his friends.
Now Lucy was missing! Could the school have
eaten her?
INTO THE LOCKER
3
“Follow me!” Ms. Grinker called out. Then
she began marching the students out through
the big double doors. Sam grabbed Antonio
from the end of the line.
The two friends stayed behind as their
classmates headed outside. Then Sam said,
“Lucy’s missing! She went to her locker and
now she’s gone!”
Antonio turned to look at Lucy’s locker.
He, too, knew what horrible things Eerie
Elementary could do. He gulped and said,
“Maybe she’s just messing with us. You know,
hiding in her locker . . .”
Sam and Antonio crept toward Lucy’s
locker. Sam’s heart pounded. He wrapped his
fingers around the half-open door. The metal
felt warm in his hand. Sam held his breath.
Then he yanked the door open.
Lucy was not inside.
But something else was: Nasty, slimy goo
dripped down the inside of the locker. It was
glowing. It looked like neon boogers mixed
with bulldog slobber.
Antonio touched it. It was sticky and wet.
“Eww!” he said. He flicked his hand, splashing
goo on the floor.
“Antonio,” Sam said slowly,
“the locker ate Lucy!”
“We should tell Mr. Nekobi!” Antonio said.
Sam shook his head. “There’s no time. I
have to go in after her. I’m the hall monitor.
It’s my job to protect the students — especially
Lucy!”
Antonio gulped. “Then I’m coming with
you.”
Sam nodded. He reached into Lucy’s locker
and brushed aside her gym clothes. There was
a strange hole in the back wall of the locker.
More glowing goo dripped from the hole. Sam
could see a narrow tunnel through the hole.
“Are you ready?” Sam asked.
Antonio shook his head. “Not really.”
Sam swallowed. “No time to be scared,” he
said. “It’s time to rescue Lucy.”
Sam climbed through the hole. Antonio
followed. Together, they crawled into the
darkness, down into the depths of the school.
Sam soon saw that the dark tunnel they
were crawling through was actually an air
vent. It carried cool air into the classrooms.
Sam shivered — partly from the cool air and
partly from fear.
As they crawled, the inside of the air vent
became wetter. Slimy goo dripped down the
sides. “It feels like we’re crawling through
someone’s nose!” Antonio said.
A TIGHT SPOT
4
Each time Sam placed his hand down, it
made a slushy sound.
“I just wish it wasn’t so dark,” Sam said.
CLICK
!
A light shone in the tunnel. Sam craned his
neck and saw Antonio holding a cell phone.
Antonio grinned. “My mom makes me carry it.”
“Smart!” Sam said.
They crawled forward through the muck.
“So, why do you think the school took Lucy?”
Antonio asked.
“Shhh!” Sam said, whispering.
“We don’t want the school to
know we’re coming.”
“I’ll be very extra qui —” Antonio started,
but then —
“AHH-CHOOO!”
“Antonio!” Sam moaned.
“I’m sorry! It’s hard to breathe with your
stinky sneakers in my face!”
SWOOSH! A wave of air whooshed through
the vent, blowing back Sam’s hair. But this air
was warm. It felt like someone’s hot breath!
“The school must be trying to figure out
where we are,” Sam whispered. “So don’t make
a-
a-
a-
a-”
This time it was Sam who sneezed.
“Sam!” Antonio said.
“Sorry!”
KLANG!
Sam looked behind them. Lucy’s locker
door slammed shut! The school definitely
knew where they were. And now they were
trapped. No turning back.
A
H
H
-CHO
0
O
!
All of the sudden, the vent began to shake.
The metal buckled. It began to
squeeze them!
“We have to get out of here!” Sam said.
The vent squeezed tighter, closing around
them! It pressed against Sam’s shoulders. It
pressed against his legs. Sam and Antonio
crawled forward as fast as they could.
The vent squeezed them harder.
“It’s going to crush us!” Antonio screamed.
The vent was tightening fast. Both boys
struggled to move. When Sam placed his hand
down, he almost tumbled forward. There was
nothing there! Just air! The vent came to a
sudden end.
Well, anything is better than being crushed! Sam
thought.
LUNCHTIME
5
“Follow me,” Sam
said. “And get ready for
a drop!”
Sam wriggled forward.
Then he was falling.
“AHHH!!” Sam screamed
as he tumbled through the air.
SPLAT!
Sam splashed down on something
gooey.
“Heads up!” Antonio shouted. He was
nose-diving toward Sam.
POW!
Antonio plowed into Sam.
It was pitch-black. Antonio turned on his
phone again and shone the light around. They
were lying on a mountain of sticky gunk.
“It looks like the nasty goo saved us!”
Antonio said as he wiped some from his face.
“But where are we?” Even with the light from
the phone, they couldn’t see far ahead.