There's a Spaceship in My Tree! by Robert West Read Free Book Online Page B

popcorn.
    â€œKeep your pinkies out of my bag,” Michael said, stuffing his face full of white kernels.
    â€œShare, Michael!” called their mother from another room.
    While Beamer and Michael continued their daily after-school squabble, a girl with blonde hair bounded through the door. “Mom!” she yelled. “Everybody’s thirsty upstairs, with all the heat and stuff.” Has to be the sister.
    â€œOkay,” Mrs. Mac called in again. “There are extra sodas and lots of water bottles in the refrigerator on the back porch.”
    â€œThanks!” the girl shouted cheerfully as she dashed out to the back porch.
    Ghoulie heard his nanny’s voice on the phone and clapped his hand over an ear, trying to screen out the noise. “No, I’m okay!” he shouted into the phone. “No, you don’t need to call Dad . . .” Why does she always have to panic?
    Carrying a frosty six-pack of soft drinks, the girl danced back into the kitchen, twirled around like a ballet dancer, and glided through the hallway door.
    â€œHey, what’s with her?” Beamer asked Michael.
    â€œD’ya remember the guy who barged into her room by mistake?”
    â€œYeah, the scientist guy.”
    â€œWell, turns out he’s gorgeous, ” Michael finished, stretching out the word to mock his sister’s mushy description. He sucked up a handful of popcorn like a vacuum and charged out of the kitchen.
    â€œReally, I can just — ” stammered Ghoulie, his attention drawn back to the frantic woman on the phone. “Okay, okay, I’ll keep an eye out for him.” He sighed and hung up, then turned to find himself alone in the kitchen. He wandered onto the back porch and looked out at the backyard. One thing his family’s high-end condominium didn’t have was a backyard. Hearing something creaking in the wind, he walked out the door.
    The screen door slammed behind him and he heard something creak again, this time directly above him. He looked up. “A tree house!” he blurted out in envy.
    â€œYou don’t want to go up there!” Scilla’s voice called from the next yard. “I told you. It’s haunted.”
    Ghoulie glanced from her back up at the tree house. “The tree house? I thought you meant the house!”
    â€œThe house may be too, for all I know. But the tree house is a definite,” Scilla said as she swung up onto a branch.
    â€œWhoever heard of a haunted tree house?” asked Ghoulie as he crab-walked up the slanted trunk. He figured he had maybe ten minutes before his dad got there, but he could at least get a closer look.
    â€œGet real, Scilla!” groaned a voice below him. Ghoulie turned to see Beamer at the foot of the tree, starting to crab-walk up toward them.
    Ghoulie turned back to Scilla. “Even if there were a ghost,” he added with a smirk, “it couldn’t be much of a ghost if it lives in a tree house.”
    â€œIt was enough of a ghost to scare the heck out of Jared!”
    It was like Scilla had exploded a cherry bomb. “D’ya mean Jared’s been here?” Beamer yelped, bumping his head on a branch above him and nearly falling out of the tree.
    â€œPriscilla! Priscilla!” an elderly woman’s voice called, “Did you forget that you’re grounded today?” It was Scilla’s grandmother, calling from the second-story window at the near end of her house. “You come home right now and get busy on that homework, or you’ll be grounded for a month!”
    â€œOops, I gotta go,” Scilla said with a fearful grimace, already scooting along the tree branch that crossed over into her yard.
    â€œScillaaaa! You can’t go now!” Beamer yelled after her, irritated at being unable to hear the rest of the story.
    â€œSorry!” she called back as she dropped from the tree, “I’ll see y’all tomorrow.”
    Ghoulie