You Can't Scare Me! by R. L. Stine Read Free Book Online Page B

makes him do. He goes nuts like that every time someone whistles.”
    â€œThat’s great!” Hat declared.
    â€œHe really
can
terrify Courtney,” Molly said.
    We watched the dog lumber away, his tongue hanging nearly to the ground. He sniffed at something in the flower bed, then disappeared around the side of the house.
    â€œPoor dog,” Charlene said, shaking her head. “He hates California. He’s hot all the time. But when we moved here from Michigan, we just couldn’t bear to part with him.”
    â€œI’m glad you didn’t,” I said enthusiastically. “Now we’re finally going to scare the
life
out of Courtney!”
    Molly tapped a croquet ball softly with her mallet. She had a troubled expression on her face.“We’re not really going to
hurt
Courtney, are we?” she asked. “I mean, Buttercup isn’t really going to attack her, is he? If he gets out of control …”
    â€œOf course not,” Charlene answered quickly. “He stops growling and carrying on as soon as I stop whistling. Really. As soon as the whistling stops, he goes right back to his gentle personality.”
    Molly looked relieved. She tapped the ball through a hoop, then used the mallet to push it back out.
    We had all lost interest in the croquet game. Planning how we were going to use Buttercup to terrify Courtney was a lot more exciting than any game.
    The sun had poked out from the high clouds. The closely trimmed grass gleamed brightly in the sunlight. We tossed down the mallets and made our way to the shade of the big grapefruit tree in the center of the backyard.
    â€œWe should scare Courtney in the woods, at that tree house she and Denise built by Muddy Creek,” I suggested, sprawling on my back on the grass. “It’s the perfect place. She and Denise all alone in the woods. Suddenly, a snarling dog leaps out at them. They’ll both scream for a week!”
    â€œYeah, that’s good,” Hat agreed. “In the woods, there are plenty of places for us to hide and watch. I mean, Charlene can hide behind a bush or anevergreen or something and whistle her brains out. We’ll all be hidden. Courtney will never know who did it.”
    Sitting with her legs crossed, Molly chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. She pushed her glasses up on her nose. “I don’t like it,” she said. “It’s no fun if we don’t scare Courtney in front of a lot of people. If we scare her in the woods with no one around, who will care?”
    â€œWe
will!” I argued.
“We
will see it. That’s all that counts.
We
will know that we finally managed to terrify her.”
    â€œAnd maybe we can all jump out and yell ‘Gotcha!’ and stuff, so she’ll know we saw her get frightened,” Charlene added enthusiastically. “Then we’ll spread it around school, and everyone will know.”
    â€œI like it!” Hat declared.
    â€œWhen should we do it?” Molly asked.
    â€œHow about
now?”
I said, jumping to my feet.
    â€œHuh? Now?” Charlene reacted with surprise.
    â€œWhy not?” I argued. “Let’s just go do it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find Courtney and Denise at their tree house. They go there a lot on weekends, you know, to hang out and read and stuff.”
    â€œYeah! Let’s go!” Hat jumped up and slapped me on the back. “Let’s do it!”
    â€œI’ll go get Buttercup’s leash,” Charlene said. “I guess there’s no reason to wait.” She turned to Molly, who was hanging back.
    â€œI have a better idea,” Molly said, pulling a blade of grass from her brown hair. “Before we go running off to the woods, let’s make sure that Courtney is at the tree house.”
    â€œHuh? How do we do that?” I asked.
    â€œSimple,” she replied. And then Molly did the most amazing impersonation of Denise.
“Hello,