Shadow School: Dehaunting

by J. A. White

  “No problem,” Cordelia said. “We let her test it so she believes you did what she wants. Then we turn off the portal pyramids. When she powers up the dehaunter to use it for real, it’ll send all the ghosts to their Brights before she realizes anything’s wrong.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Agnes said. “But there’s one huge problem—”

  Someone knocked on Cordelia’s door.

  “What?” Cordelia asked.

  “Did your dad tell you we’re playing Yahtzee?” Mrs. Liu asked.

  “I’m busy!”

  “There’s popcorn.”

  “I can’t! This is the biggest test of my life! I have to study!”

  “There’s no need to be dramatic,” Mrs. Liu said. “I’ll leave you a bowl of popcorn on the kitchen table.”

  She left.

  “Your parents are so cute,” Agnes said. “If they were our age, I’d want to be friends with them.”

  “So what’s the problem?” Cordelia asked.

  “Turning off the portal pyramids isn’t as easy as flipping an on/off switch,” Agnes said. “It’s more like . . . disarming a bomb. There are a dozen steps that have to be done in a specific order, or the energy might escape. That would be bad.”

  “How bad?”

  “Big-boom bad,” Agnes said.

  Cordelia shook her head. It was always something. “Can’t you just figure it out?” she asked. “You’re Agnes!”

  “Not this time,” Agnes said. “I need Elijah’s original directions. There’s no other way. And guess where those are?”

  “His office,” Cordelia said. She rubbed a hand over her face. “How do you expect us to sneak down there? You know how cautious Dunsworth is being. The ghosts are watching every move we make.”

  Agnes grinned. “You’re right,” she said. “That’s why we’re going to need some help.”

  20

  Trust

  Cordelia sat in her basement, unhappily eating a corn chip. In the last fifteen minutes, she had gone through an entire bowl of them. She didn’t even like corn chips.

  “I have concerns,” she said, checking the basement door. Their visitors would be there any minute.

  “Yeah,” Benji replied. “I think you were pretty clear about that the first ten thousand times. But I’m telling you, this is the best plan. Agnes? Isn’t this the best plan?”

  “If by ‘best’ you mean ‘only,’ then I totally agree,” Agnes said.

  “We all know why Benji likes it,” Cordelia muttered.

  “Seriously?” Benji asked.

  The doorbell rang. Cordelia heard her mother answer the door and an exchange of pleasantries. A few moments later, Ezra came down the stairs, wearing his backpack as though this was just another day of school.

  “Hey, dude,” Benji said, offering him a fist bump. Ezra awkwardly took Benji’s entire hand in his own and attempted to shake it.

  “Thank you for inviting me,” Ezra said to Cordelia. “My mom wasn’t going to let me go at first, because you’re a seventh grader and she doesn’t know anything about you, but then she googled your parents and didn’t find anything too objectionable, so she finally changed her mind.” He gave an apologetic shrug. “I’m sorry about the questionnaire. Mom makes all my friends’ parents fill that out.”

  “It’s okay,” Cordelia said. “I’m glad you could make it.”

  Ezra took off his backpack. “I brought seaweed crackers. And Jenga!”

  The doorbell rang. Cordelia heard footsteps as someone went to answer the door—her father this time. Judging from the muffled voices coming from the kitchen, Mrs. Liu was still trapped in a conversation with Ezra’s mom.

  A few moments later, Vivi came down the stairs with a befuddled expression on her face, as though she wasn’t sure exactly what she was doing there. She burst into a smile the moment she saw Benji, however. He shifted over on the couch, making room for her.

  Ignoring the sudden ache in her stomach—too many corn chips—Cordelia focused on the reason she had brought them all together.

  “Okay,” she said, pacing back and forth. “I’m sure you’ve both noticed that Shadow School is not exactly a normal public school, but it’s even stranger than you think. I’m going to tell you the truth now. You might be scared. You might think we’re crazy. But all I ask is that you hear me out. We need your help, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing—”

  “Is this about the ghosts?” Vivi asked.

  Cordelia froze. Benji buried his face in his hands.

  “How did you know that?” Cordelia managed.

  “Benji told me all about them,” Vivi said.

  Cordelia glared at Benji. “You told her?”

  “You were supposed to play dumb,” Benji muttered to Vivi.

  “I don’t like lying,” said Vivi.

  “Did someone say ghosts?” asked Ezra.

  “This is unbelievable!” Cordelia said, throwing her hands into the air. “I can’t believe you just told her without even asking me first!”

  “I didn’t realize I had to get permission, Mom,” Benji said, growing annoyed. “Vivi is my friend. I didn’t plan it. We were just talking, and it came out.”

  “We’re telling her now anyway,” Agnes said, trying to defuse the situation. “This just makes it easier.”

  “Ghosts aren’t real,” Ezra said, his upper lip quivering.

  “Yeah, I didn’t believe it at first either,” Vivi replied. “Not until Benji let me use the goggles.”

  Now it was Agnes’s turn to look annoyed. “You let her use my spectercles?” she yelled at Benji.

  “Spectercles?” Vivi asked.

  “Not yours,” Benji told Agnes. “One of the extra pairs. I just gave her a little tour, that’s all. This was months ago.”

  Cordelia took a handful of corn chips and shoved them into her mouth. “Is that seriously all the ghosts are to you?” she asked, talking with her mouth full. “A way to impress some girl?”

  Vivi got to her feet with a defiant expression.

  “I am not ‘some girl,’” she said. “And if you really want my help, maybe you should focus on the fact that even after I saw the ghosts, I kept going to school anyway. Lots of other kids would have run screaming and never come back.”

  “Is that an option?” Ezra asked. At some point he had pulled Drool, the stuffed wolf, out of his backpack and started cradling him in his lap.

  “Don’t worry,” Agnes said, stroking Drool behind the ears. “Most of the ghosts are nice.”

  “Most?” Ezra asked.

  “I’m sorry you don’t like me, Cordelia,” Vivi said, hands on her hips. “But you said it yourself. You need my help. So what’s it going to be? We going to get along or am I going home?”

  Cordelia took a steadying breath. “It’s not that I don’t like you, personally,” she said.

  “I know,” Vivi said, her eyes flicking toward Benji. “But do we really want to go there?”

  Cordelia felt a bolt of anger. He was my friend first, she thought. Maybe more than friend, if you hadn’t gotten in the way! Before she could say anything that might have sent Vivi—and Benji—storming out of her house, she heard Darius Shadow’s voice in her head:

  No good can come from jealousy. For the living or the dead.

  “I’m glad Benji told you about the ghosts,” Cor-delia said. “And that you’re not scared. This just proves you’re the right girl for the job.” She smirked at Benji. “Clearly you’re a lot braver than this one was when he first started seeing the ghosts.”

  Vivi grinned. “He told me he was never scared of them! Not even a little bit.”

  “Ha!” Cordelia exclaimed. “I told you he was trying to impress you.”

  Both Benji and Vivi blushed. Cordelia felt the same sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but this time she knew it had nothing to do with corn chips. The worst part was that she was starting to see why Benji liked Vivi so much.

  “Is this streaming through the YouTube ri
ght now?” Ezra asked. He scanned the basement as though looking for hidden cameras. “Am I being puked?”

  “Punked,” Benji said. “And no. We’re not making anything up.”

  “Remember the first day of school, how you thought Shadow School was haunted?” Agnes asked. “Yay! You were right!”

  Ezra looked like he was ready to cry. “I’m going home,” he said, rising from the sofa.

  Vivi and Benji pulled him back down.

  “Don’t worry,” Vivi said. “They’re not as scary as they sound. They’re just people.”

  “Dead people,” Ezra said.

  “Well, the good news is that if you help us,” Cor-delia said, “Shadow School won’t be haunted for much longer. I believe in you, Ezra. If you’re brave enough to face Mason James, you’re brave enough to face a couple of ghosts.”

  “But I’m not brave enough to face Mason James. I run away every time!”

  “Perfect!” Cordelia exclaimed. “That’s exactly what I want you to do if you see a ghost! Just warn Vivi that they’re coming first. She has the dangerous part.”

  Vivi rubbed her hands together. “Sounds like fun,” she said. “What’s the plan?”

  21

  The Plan

  As if possessing their social studies teacher wasn’t evil enough, the ghost inhabiting Mr. Hearn had decided to give them a pop quiz. Cordelia stared at the screen of her Chromebook, struggling to remember who had been president during the Mexican-American War. Her attention kept wandering to Vivi’s empty seat.

  She should be back by now, Cordelia thought.

  The plan had been for Vivi and Ezra to meet at the basement door at ten a.m. Ezra would use Agnes’s spectercles to watch out for ghosts, while Vivi—also wearing spectercles—ran into Elijah’s office and snagged the instructions for disabling the pyramids.

  The entire trip, start to finish, should have taken ten minutes. Fifteen, tops.

  Vivi had been gone for over twenty minutes now.

  Something’s wrong, Benji wrote on the Google Doc that Cordelia kept open next to her test. We have to help them.

  We can’t, Agnes chimed in. There are eyes on us, remember?

  Cordelia peeked over the top of the Chromebook. Her own personal guard, the Prom Queen, was leaning against the whiteboard, staring at her nails. Benji’s and Agnes’s guards were doing a better job of hiding, but Cordelia was certain they were nearby.

  Give them a few more minutes, Cordelia wrote.

  “Mr. Hearn,” Miranda said. “Cordelia’s typing messages to someone. I can see it from here.”

  Mr. Hearn rose from his seat with a dangerous look in his eyes. Cordelia saw the text vanish from her screen as Agnes desperately erased it from her end and began typing something new.

  “Keep your hands off that machine,” Mr. Hearn ordered Cordelia. He turned his body in order to make his way between the tightly packed desks. “I knew you were up to something! I knew it! Now let’s see what kind of secret messages you’re writing!”

  He spun the Chromebook around triumphantly. The document read:

  Hey, Agnes. Can you tell me what manifest destiny is? I know nothing and you’re the smartest person in the world.

  Go away. I hate you.

  “Sorry,” Cordelia said, raising her hands into the air. “I was trying to cheat. You got me.”

  Mr. Hearn slammed the Chromebook shut. As he did, Vivi glided into the room behind him. She gave Benji a quick thumbs-up and took her seat.

  She did it! Cordelia thought.

  “You look awfully happy for someone who just got a zero on their test,” Mr. Hearn said.

  “I’m thrilled to have learned the error of my ways,” Cordelia said.

  Mr. Hearn grunted and returned to his seat.

  Cordelia was eager to hear the details of Vivi’s and Ezra’s adventure, but that would have to wait until they could talk without the risk of being overheard. Their plan had worked. That was the important thing.

  It’s not over yet, Cordelia thought. After Ms. Dunsworth tests the dehaunter, we still have to sneak into the pyramid passageway and shut it down. She smiled to herself. Of course, that might be a little easier now that our team has two new members.

  In gym, they played Wiffle Ball. In Spanish, they reviewed how to conjugate verbs ending in -ir. Dr. Roqueni was waiting for them in science. She stood with her hands clasped behind her back until all the students had taken their seats.

  “If it’s not too much trouble,” she said, giving Ms. Jackson a knowing smile, “could I borrow a few students for a little project I’m doing? Let me see . . .” She took her time looking over the class. “How about Benji Núñez, Agnes Matheson, and Cordelia Liu? Oh—and Viviana Martínez! Don’t want to leave her out, do I?”

  As Cordelia and her friends rose from their seats, ghosts flooded the room, spreading themselves along the walls like parents visiting the school to observe a lesson. A little boy wearing a backward baseball cap wagged his finger at Cordelia in a you’re-in-trouble-now gesture.

  “Ms. Jackson,” Dr. Roqueni continued, her cold eyes never leaving Cordelia’s. “In about ten minutes, could you call the office and tell them to make an announcement? All staff should report to the conservatory. We’re going to start that evacuation drill a little earlier than expected.”

  Ms. Jackson gave a squeal of delight. “Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Yes, I’ll tell Mrs. Flippin. You can count on me!”

  “Come along, children,” Dr. Roqueni said.

  In the hallway, two lines of ghosts that stretched all the way to the stairwell were pouring into the classrooms. Cordelia shared an uneasy look with Benji and Agnes. There were a lot of things troubling her right now, but first and foremost was the phrase evacuation drill.

  “Is this about what happened in social studies, Dr. Roqueni?” Cordelia tried. “I shouldn’t have cheated, but there’s no need to blame—”

  “Dr. Roqueni isn’t here,” she said, her dark eyes boring into Cordelia’s. “My name is Adelaide Dunsworth. As you well know.”

  They marched down to the basement, the four children following the possessed principal in a stunned procession. No one spoke. There didn’t seem any point. It was over. The ghosts that had been tasked with spying on them for the past few weeks followed at a respectful distance, just in case one of the kids got any funny ideas about escaping.

  When they reached the hallway above Elijah’s office, Cordelia noticed a massive armoire leaning against the wall. Strange, but not high on her list of priorities at the given moment. Why is she bringing us here? Cordelia wondered. Ms. Dunsworth pressed the hibiscuses, and the floor rose up and split apart. The yawning darkness, which had once held the promise of camaraderie and discovery, terrified Cordelia. She felt like she might never return from it again.

  Ms. Dunsworth shoved them down the steps. The moment Cordelia entered the office, Ezra ran into her arms. She held him tight.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was so stupid. Everything went according to plan. I wore those special glasses and watched out for ghosts, just like you told me to. Only when we were done I forgot to take the glasses off. I guess there’s a ghost inside Mrs. King, because she was able to see them.” Ezra wiped away a tear with his sleeve. “She snatched the glasses right off my face. Then she called Dr. Roqueni.”

  “It’s my fault,” Cordelia said, ruffling Ezra’s sweaty hair. “I should have never involved you to begin with.”

  “You’re right,” Ms. Dunsworth said with a snide smile. “The sniveling little coward told me your entire plan. I didn’t even have to ask very hard. Which reminds me”—she stepped over to Vivi and held out her hand—“I’ll take that piece of paper in your pocket.”

  Vivi shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Ms. Dunsworth raised her eyebrows. “Oh, you’re brave,” she said. “How nice. But I hope you’re realistic as well. You can either give me what I asked for. Or we can take it.”


  Harold stepped out from the shadows in the corner of the room. His hair had grown long and shaggy in the past few months. Between that and the wicked gleam in his eyes, the gardener hardly resembled Mr. Derleth at all anymore.

  He stood behind Vivi, waiting for orders.

  “Vivi,” Benji said. “You don’t have a choice.”

  Gritting her teeth, Vivi yanked a yellowed piece of parchment from her pocket and tossed it to Ms. Dunsworth, who unfolded the paper and held it to the light. Cordelia wasn’t standing close enough to read the words, but she recognized Elijah’s cramped handwriting.

  “What is this again?” Ms. Dunsworth asked. “Elijah Shadow’s instructions for how to turn off the beautiful machine that will free us?” She turned the paper upside down. “Looks complicated. Certainly nothing you could figure out on your own.”

  She handed the paper to Harold. “Burn it,” she said.

  Harold produced a silver lighter and lit a corner of the directions. He let the fire breathe for a few moments, then dropped the paper to the ground and stomped out the flames until nothing but ashes remained.

  “Elijah!” Benji screamed, calling out for the ghost. “Where are you, buddy? Some poltergeist superpowers would be really helpful right about now!”

  Ms. Dunsworth and Harold exchanged an amused look.

  “Elijah can’t help you,” Ms. Dunsworth said. “He realized what we were planning weeks ago and had the audacity to attack me. Can you imagine that? Traitor to his own kind. We had to make sure it didn’t happen again.”

  “What did you do?” Agnes asked.

  A high-pitched screeching noise, like the gears of an ancient clock grinding together after a century of slumber, shook the office. Ezra clapped his hands over his ears. The lights above them flickered and sizzled.

  “What was that?” Cordelia asked, looking up.

  “Oh no,” Agnes said, clasping a hand to her mouth. “I think that was the dehaunter starting to power up. Which means”—the color drained from her cheeks—“they’ve already finished building it.”