Mean Ghouls by Stacia Deutsch Read Free Book Online Page B

class,” she said, steeling her courage. “I’ll go see him right after class.”
    â€œI thought we were going to the movies today,” Sam reminded her. Sam’s memory was much better than Megan’s. She never saw him pull out his notebook to double-check things.
    â€œI’ll meet you at the theater,” she told Sam. “Tell Happy to save me a seat.”
    Megan glanced back at Happy one last time. She was chatting with all the Bs now. It was strange…. Happy seemed … sorta happy.
    Â 
    At noon, classes were over for the day.
    Megan decided that if she didn’t go to Mr. Jones’s bungalow right away, she never would. So after making a note to herself to go to the movie theater when she was through, Megan headed down the stone path behind the school, following the signs to Mr. Jones’s house.
    She hadn’t been behind the school before. Sinceshe’d arrived the day before, she actually hadn’t been outside. There were only three buildings on the ZA property: the castle; Mr. Jones’s home, which was also his office; and the research center.
    Mr. Jones’s bungalow sat straight ahead of her, and through the trees to the right, she could see the red bricks of the center.
    She meant to go straight, and yet, at the crossroads, Megan found herself turning down the side path toward the research facility.
    The castle may have been centuries old, but the research center looked brand-new. There were tall windows across the front, and a slanted roof that glowed as solar panels collected sunlight. Sam had told her that the doctors had the best technology available at their fingertips.
    Her curiosity took her up to the front door. Megan was surprised to find it was locked. Yes, there had been a theft the day before. But shouldn’t the doctors be back at work, trying to re-create the cure? She tried the buzzer, but no one answered.
    â€œHmmm.” A few answers. That’s all she wanted. If she could help find the missing vials of the cure, then maybe she could go home. But it was going to be hard if she didn’t know what she was looking for.
    Standing on the front stoop, Megan felt her legs begin to get heavy. Her right leg dragged as she staggered around the back of the center.
    To her surprise, the back of the building was made entirely of glass. It was gorgeous. Megan imagined Dr. Verma standing in one of the sparkling new laboratories. In her vision, Dr. Verma took notes as she peered through a microscope. And when she got stuck on a problem — she would look out the huge windows to the forested area behind for inspiration. Maybe a deer or a bunny would wander by. And if no one attacked them to eat their brains, maybe the animals would begin to stop by for visits.
    Megan was about to go back to the main pathway and try the buzzer again when she heard a loud metallic-sounding crash and a few raised — and very agitated — voices.
    â€œHello —” she began, hoping she might be let in for a tour. “I —” Megan became very quiet as she realized that she recognized those voices.
    The Bs!
    Frantically, Megan looked for a place to hide. She shuffled away from the building and ducked behind a thick cluster of pines.
    Through the sharp, twisted needles, Megan couldsee them. Brenda, Brooke, and Betsy crawled out of a broken window on the far side of the building.
    â€œUhhhh —” Megan threw herself to the ground and choked back the rest of her groan.
    â€œWho’s out there?” Brenda shouted. “Betsy, go look.”
    â€œI’m not going into the trees,” Betsy said. “There are bugs and creepy things and,” she gasped, “dirt!”
    â€œThis is no time to get hung up on cleanliness!” Brenda said. “Brooke, go take a look. I definitely heard something.”
    â€œI don’t think that’s such a good idea,” Brooke said. She pointed to a nasty cut on her own