The Ghost of Gruesome High by Larry Parr Read Free Book Online Page A

this crazy string of thoughts clear out of my mind! What was I doing? What was I thinking? All this wild speculation was stupid. What I had to do was find out who was watching me. Then, maybe, I could figure out why.
    I didn’t want to scare off whoever it was before I found them out, so I sat down and took a bite of the apple I’d gotten out of one of the snack machines that dot the campus. As I slowly chewed the too-ripe apple I turned and looked around as if looking for my friends. Even though this table was slightly off the beaten path, as they say, there were still a number of kids walking nearby, but none of them seemed to be paying any special attention to me. And the creepy feeling at the back of my neck was getting stronger.
    I opened the carton of milk I’d also gotten at the machine and stood as I took a swallow, allowing my eyes to search everyone on the “school” side of the table. I couldn’t spot anyone acting suspicious or looking at me. I even looked at the windows in the classrooms, but I saw no faces peering out at me from them, either.
    Suddenly the feeling that I was being watched got even stronger! But it wasn’t coming from the direction of the school. It was coming from the playing field! I turned around quickly, and there, near the heavy sand bags and other training stuff the football players used, was someone. I couldn’t really see who it was—though I did feel a quick tingle of almost-recognition electrify my spine—but whoever it was was staring directly at me. As soon as my watcher realized he/she was busted, he/she took off, sprinting behind the boy’s gym so fast I couldn’t tell who it was. But I quickly decided on one thing: it had been a guy, a big guy.  
    This was too much! I walked the thirty yards or so to the spot where the watcher had been but I found nothing useful, no little clue like they find on TV murder mysteries. There were lots of footprints, but they were trampled all over each other and I couldn’t tell one from the other.  
    I must have spent five or six minutes looking all around. I even looked behind the boy’s gym, but of course whoever it was was long gone. I finally decided there was nothing I could learn here and I glanced back up at the lunch table. Jennifer was standing at the table, looking away from me, searching the school side of the campus. She was probably looking for me, wondering where I was. She was bouncing around from one foot to the other, nervously. I’d known her long enough to know that that meant she was anxious and in a hurry. She looked at her watch, then craned her neck to look around the school again.  
    I raised my arm and waved as I yelled, “Jennifer!” But just as I called, the bell rang, ending lunch and Jennifer evidently didn’t hear me! She dashed off even as I yelled her name a second time.
    Damn! I don’t usually swear, but today just wasn’t working out. I really needed to talk to Jennifer and Jason and the other guys. I needed to tell them what had happened last night, and I really needed them to be with me when I talked with Mr. Greenwald after school.
    But not to worry, I told myself. Jennifer and I had Spanish class together last period. I could talk to her then. And I was sure I could find Jason and the others after school. After all, we seemed to find each other after school every other day! Why not today?
    But today just wasn’t my day. Jennifer wasn’t in last period Spanish class. I had no idea where she was. For a moment I started to get worried that her disappearance, and the fact that the others hadn’t shown up for lunch, were all connected to the ghost in some mysterious way. Were we all being kidnapped, one by one, to keep us from talking?
    “Keep us from talking?” I said to myself. “Talking about what, and to who? I must be going nuts!” I think my mind was just working in this crazy way because I was so tired. I shook my head and smiled at myself. Boy, was I starting to get crazy about all