Dead End Girls
October 3
Diana Lynch tossed her pom-poms down on the concrete table and fixed Trixie with a steely-eyed look. “All right. No arguments. You guys will be coming to the game tonight.”
“Uh… why?” Trixie asked slowly.
“It’s Croton! Our biggest rival!”
“So?”
“So? So, round up Dan and Mart and come out and support your team, Trix!”
“That’s what they have you and Honey and the rest of your squad for. Right?”
“Well, then come out and support us, as fellow Bob-Whites.”
Trixie blinked and regarded Di doubtfully. “Wait. Are you trying to say our cheerleaders need… cheerleaders?”
Di puffed out a breath, briefly lifting her bangs from her forehead. Her gaze wandered the courtyard, as if she was seeking help in dealing with her stubborn friend. Thanks to the near-perfect weather, a large portion of the student body had elected to lunch outdoors, enjoying the cool, crisp air and bright sunshine. “Okay, fine,” she said with grimace. “It’s like this. Honey’s worried about you. All three of you.”
“Because?”
“I dunno! She says you’ve been acting really strange for the past few days. When I pressed her for details, she got kinda cagey, but she’s insisting she’s seen you talking to yourself in the halls between classes. Like you were having a conversation with someone who wasn’t even there. I told her you were probably just on your phone or something.”
“Oh.”
“She wants you guys to come to the game tonight. Hang out and have a good time and then we can all go to Wimpy’s together after.”
“I, um… we sorta already had plans.”
“So something is going on?” Di demanded, one delicate brow raised.
Trixie wanted to groan out loud. Where were Dan and Mart when she really needed them? “It’s… hard to explain.”
Di dropped down on the seat across from her, swinging one leg around as if she were sitting side-saddle. “Try me,” she said simply.
Several excuses ran through Trixie’s head, but none of them made it to her lips. Instead, she surprised herself by blurting out the truth. “Mart read these spells from an old journal that belonged to Sarah Sligo and Dan found a magic amulet he can’t get rid of even though he tried several times and now we see dead people. And mostly? They're annoying as Hell. They want our help solving all their stupid problems.”
Di stared at her open-mouthed for several long moments. Finally, she cleared her throat and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “Is it drugs? Is that the problem? Tell me you guys didn’t start smoking or snorting something.”
“No!” Trixie exclaimed in indignation. “Of course not! I’m telling you the truth, Di. Ghosts. We can see them and they are everywhere.”
“Oh, come on, Trix. Seriously. What are you really – “ Di cut herself off mid-sentence. Suddenly, her baffled frown cleared and was replaced by a broad smile. “Oh. My. God! This is it, isn’t it? This is Dan’s latest idea! The one he refused to tell Honey. The one he claimed he was dropping in favor of… what was it? Glitter and unicorns or something?” She tossed her head and laughed.
“Di-“
“Oh, this is absolutely brilliant! If he was here right now, I’d kiss him! I love it! Love, love, love it!”
“Di, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t, Trix,” Di responded with a knowing look. “You guys! Thank you so much. This is going to be the best Halloween bash ever! Look, keep up what you’re doing. Especially the bit about talking to yourself in the halls like you’re carrying on a conversation with a ghost. Only, kick it up a notch. Make sure people really notice what you’re doing. Meanwhile, I’ll get with Amy about some ideas for decorating my house to look like a haunted mansion. No, wait. You said something about Sarah Sligo’s diary, right? We should make over my place to be Lisgard House!”
Trixie stared at her friend, dumbfounded.
“Yeah. This is perfect. First, we’ll build anticipation with some kind of ‘Ghosts are Everywhere. Can you see dead people?’ campaign. Then, we’ll start moving things. I can get a couple of guys from the team to help me with that after practices. The school’s mostly deserted by then. We could rearrange the tables in the cafeteria and stack books on the desks in the media center. Stuff like that. Oh! And we could sneak into some of the classrooms and leave creepy messages scrawled on the white boards!”
“You – you’re really going with this,” Trixie mumbled weakly.
“And isn’t it awesome that this year Halloween is on a Friday so our party actually falls on Halloween night? We’ll put out word that there’s going to be a séance to rid Lisgard House of Sarah Sligo’s evil spirit once and for all, and rid Sleepyside of all the other ghosts, too. We can stage the séance for the evening of the 30th. Then, on Friday night we have a huge party to celebrate our ‘victory’ over the spirit world.”
Better and better, Trixie thought. “Are we inviting everyone to the séance as well as the party? Because that could get out-of-control pretty fast.”
“Hmmm. No. You know what? We’ll let it be known the séance is by special invite only. And then we can choose our attendees from those who get the most into everything leading up to it. The ones who do the best job seeing dead people.” Di jumped up from her seat. “I gotta run! There’re a couple of people I want to talk to about this right away.” She started to rush off, but then stopped, spun around, and returned to Trixie’s table. “Listen, I am so sorry about that whole drugs thing! I don’t know what I was thinking! Of course I should’ve trusted you guys. Come to the game tonight and after we’ll go grab some burgers and flesh out our plans, okay?” With that, she hurried away, making for the nearest entrance into the school’s main building.
“Well, that didn’t really go the way you expected, huh?”
Trixie turned to look at the middle-aged woman sitting next to her. “No. No, it did not.”
“Still. Look at the bright side. This could work out in your favor. Now, instead of running the risk of having all your classmates think you’re utterly insane, they’ll think this is all some sort of elaborate game.”
“Uh, huh. And this séance she’s planning? There’s no chance that could actually, you know… do anything?”
The woman laughed merrily. “No! Not with an amateur production, anyway, and not as long as you make absolutely sure that Sarah’s spell book isn’t used. If you use that, all bets are off. I can tell you there are some spirits who like to amuse themselves with attending séances for the sheer comedic value, but your friend won’t actually be able to summon or banish anyone or anything like that. That would take the combination of a very powerful spell, the presence of the amulet, and a genuine witch.”
“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.” Trixie picked at her salad. “But anyway, back to your story. Before Di busted in on us, you were saying something about getting a message to your son?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trixie slammed her locker shut and turned to glare at her brother and Dan. “Where were you at lunch today?” she demanded. “I texted you like a dozen times each! You are not going to believe what happened!”
“If you’re referring to Lady Diana’s ‘Ghosts are Everywhere’ party theme,” Dan replied sourly, “we already heard.”
“Yeah. By seventh period, I think everyone was talking about it,” Mart added.
As if on cue, they were interrupted by a loud scream. Jane Morgan stood in the middle of the hall, pointing a shaky finger toward an open classroom door. “G- g- ghost!” she cried, once she was sure all eyes were on her. “It’s a ghost!” With another scream, she turned and fled with several of her friends shrieking and following.
Trixie rolled her eyes and slumped back against her locker. “She is such a drama queen.”
A sophomore boy staggered up to them. “Help me,” he moaned. “I see dead people, and they’re everywhere…”
“Try pepper spray!” Trixie snapped. “And shoo! Go away!”
“This is going to get out-of-hand fast,” Mart predicted unhappily as the boy wandered off.
“Yeah, well, as I was sitting in Algebra 2 and not paying attention, I realized we may have a bigger problem on our hands then you might think.”
“What do you mean?” Dan wanted to know. “What could be worse than having all our classmates faking ghost sightings while we’re trying to deal with the real thing?”
“Lisgard House.”
“Huh?”
“So, here’s what happened. Di confronted me at lunch and said that Honey told her we’ve been acting like candidates for the insane asylum. I panicked. I told her the truth.”
“You what?” Mart exclaimed. “What were you thinking?”
“I told you! I panicked. And you guys weren’t around to help me-“
“We were dealing with the school’s first principal. Apparently he never got over the elimination of corporal punishment and he wanted us to leave some paddle on Stratton’s desk,” Mart explained. “Of course, that meant we first had to find the paddle. Which? Disturbing fact. It really was actually still here on campus, stored away in a cabinet in the guidance counselor’s office. I don’t know why it wasn’t thrown away years ago, and I don't think I want to know why.”
“Yeesh. You win. My lunch ghost just needed me to let her son know she’d left her will in her underwear drawer. I sent him a text, claiming I was an old friend of his mom’s who’d told me to let him know where it was if she didn’t beat her battle with cancer. Easy peasy.”
“Uh, can we please get back on track here?” Dan asked. “Freckles? What’s this bigger problem you were referring to and what’s it got to do with Lisgard House?”
“Okay, so I told Di about the journal and the amulet and how we can talk to ghosts now. And first? She thought we’d become meth addicts or something, but then she got it into her head that this is all an act. She thinks this is your idea, Dan. For the Halloween bash. Which, of course, it really was originally, but now she’s taken it and run with it. She wants to pull pranks here at school, hold a séance… and decorate her house to look like the Lisgard mansion.”
“That really was my idea!”
“I know. But think about it. When you concocted this theme, what did you want to do first? Go to the real Lisgard House and see what we could find. How many other kids do you think are gonna have the exact same idea now, Mr. I’m-Supposed-to-Be-Watching-for-Vandals-and-Curiosity-Seekers Caretaker?”
“Oh, damn.”
“Precisely.”
“We’d better get over there right away. I don’t think I even locked the gate when we left yesterday.”
“Yeah. And we should probably do something about the front door hanging open.”
“Help us. Please.”
Trixie whirled around at the voice. “Yeah. We get it! You see dead… crap.”
Three girls dressed in old fashioned cheerleader uniforms stood before them.
“Crap. Crap. Crappity crap. I walked right into this one." Trixie knew it was no use acting as if she couldn't see the girls. She had to remember to be more cautious!
“Ladies,” Dan said, adopting his friendliest smile. “I’m afraid you’ve come to us at a really bad time. How about we meet you here Monday morning and we can discuss whatever’s troubling you then?”
“But it has to be tonight, or we’ll have to wait another whole year!” one of the girls wailed pitifully. “And we’ve been waiting for such a long time!”
Trixie snapped her fingers impatiently. “Right. Lay it on us. We don’t have a lot of time. What are your names, how’d you die, and what do you need?”
“Well, I’m Betty, and these are my best friends, Joan and Lizzy. We were having a slumber party and there was some kind of gas… it killed us in our sleep. It was awful!”
“Carbon monoxide?” Mart hazarded. “You died of carbon monoxide poisoning?”
“That’s the one! Joan’s parents died from it, too.”
“Tragic,” Trixie said flatly. “So what do you want now?”
“Our party was the night before the big game. We’d been working forever on a special cheer.”
“Uh, huh. And…?”
“Tonight’s the game!” Betty said earnestly. “Against Croton!”
“Yeah? So?”
“Isn't it obvious? We have to do our cheer, of course!”
Trixie’s brow furrowed as she considered Betty's declaration. “Okay. So do your cheer. Nothing’s preventing you from that.”
“It’s a cheer,” Betty said slowly, as if speaking to a small, ignorant child. “What good is it if the crowd doesn’t join in and the team can’t hear it?”
“We can’t make everyone else see and hear you.”
“Yes. We know. Which is why you’ll have to get out there with us. We’ll lead the cheer and you can follow along for the crowd.”
“Excuse me? Uh, uh. No. Freakin’. Way.” Trixie crossed her arms over her chest. “This is where I draw the line. I am not a cheerleader.”
“Well, it can’t be us, Freckles,” Dan said, his lips twitching with suppressed laughter. “We don’t have guy cheerleaders in this school.”
“How about this? Dan? You and Mart go out to Lisgard House and see what you can do to make the property more secure. I’ll take the Barbie triplets here to see Di. They can teach me this cheer of theirs, I’ll teach it to Di, and then the whole squad can perform it at half time or something. Honey’s on a tear to have us at this game, anyway, so we can meet up there. Deal?”
“That won’t work,” Mart said with a sharp shake of his head. “I think you’re overlooking something, Sis.”
“What? What am I overlooking?”
“Di thinks this is all fake, remember?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Well, it wouldn’t make sense for you to go to her alone and teach her a cheer you supposedly learned from a few dead cheerleaders. What would you even say to her? 'Di? I want to show you a cheer the fake ghosts taught me?' If this was really all about drumming up excitement for the bash, you wouldn’t only talk to her.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
Dan cracked a wide grin. “Find yourself a set of pom-poms, Freckles. Tonight? You’re gonna be out on that field.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Di and Honey exchanged a speaking glance. “Trix? I love this idea. I do,” Di told her as she pulled her duffle bag from her gym locker. “I can’t tell you how much, and especially how much I appreciate what you’re doing here, because I know this isn’t your thing.”
“Uh, huh. I feel a ‘but’ coming on here.”
“It’s about the cheer itself.”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got about twenty minutes before we’re meeting the other girls for a light dinner before the game, and… how about Honey and I teach you a cheer you can use? You know, so it seems more, um… authentic? Believable?”
Trixie avoided looking in Betty’s direction, but she could guess what the girl’s expression would be. “No. Really. It’s okay. I’ve got this.”
“You’ve already made up the cheer you’re going to use?” Di’s tone was understandably skeptical.
“You know… I have help. Uh, had help. From online. The internet. I found some videos on YouTube.” Trixie fought back a cringe. She was an awful liar. She always had been. She couldn’t ever meet anyone’s eyes when she tried to fib. And the worse the lie, the worse her fidgeting became. As she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, she was sure her friends could tell she was prevaricating.
“Is it complicated?”
“Um…” Trixie glanced to her left to see Lizzy shaking her head while Joan nodded. “Is it complicated?” she echoed, stalling. “I don’t know. What do you mean by ‘complicated’?”
“Well, usually a crowd cheer is something simple to follow and repeat in a chant. A few rhyming phrases. Things like that.”
“Uh, yeah. I know that. I mean, it’s not like I’m gonna get out there and do any of those crazy back flips and stuff you guys do.” She turned, pretending to study a poster someone had taped to the wall. “Go, Stallions! Slay the Giants!” She met Betty’s gaze. “It’s not like I’d even know how,” she added pointedly. “No wild gymnastics for me.”
Di still seemed uncertain, but she cast Trixie a warm smile. “All right. If you’re sure… Let’s go raid the storage closet and find you a uniform that’ll fit.”
Trixie’s head whipped back around and she stared at the other girl. “Do what? Uniform?”
“Well, of course,” Di said with a light chuckle. “What were you planning to do? Go out on the field in your jeans and t-shirt?”
“As a matter of fact…”
“Don’t even think about it, Trix!” Honey exclaimed. “If we're gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trixie stood on the sidelines, waiting for the marching band to finish its routine. “I hate everyone right now,” she muttered. “Everyone.”
“But you look adorable,” Dan told her with a snicker. “Even Uncle Bill said so. I especially love that enormous bow in your hair. It really brings out the color of your eyes.”
“Shut. Up.”
As the band made its way toward the stands, Di, Honey, and the other cheerleaders rushed out onto the field. Di lifted a megaphone as someone somewhere blew a loud whistle. “Hey, Sleepyside High! Let's hear some noise! We’ve got spirits! Yes, we do! We’ve got spirits! How ‘bout you? It’s a dark and spooky night! Can you see the ghosts?”
The students in the stands went wild. Trixie could only guess what all the teachers, parents, and other adults thought, not to mention the people all watching from the opposing team’s side.
“We’ve got a new Stallions cheer for you tonight, brought to us by the class of 1953! You might not see them, but there’s a special guest spirit squad out here with us tonight. And joining us to help lead our cheer? Trixie Belden!”
“You're up, Freckles.”
Trixie stomped out to join the others. Di smiled brilliantly at her. “Trixie! This is fantastic! This really is Dan’s best idea ever. People will be talking about this for years!”
“Great. Super. Glad you’re happy about it, at least.” Trixie turned to face the crowd and froze in place, eyes wide. The bleachers were packed, and not just with the living. Everywhere she looked, she could see them, ghosts from seemingly every period in American history; even, as near as she could tell by his tricorn hat and musket, an elderly man who’d fought in the Revolution. There were men. Women. Children. Some sitting alone, others in clumps. If every single one of them had a problem they needed solving, she, Mart, and Dan would be in business until they died of old age themselves.
Next to her, Betty lifted her pom-poms. “Ready? Okay!”
Trixie drew her lips up in a smile she was willing to bet made her looked positively deranged and mimicked the dead girl’s pose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wimpy’s was overflowing with jubilant teenagers, celebrating the absolute destruction of the Croton team, 42 – 7. Honey was only able to secure them a booth by agreeing to help Constance Cleary with her math homework the following week. Constance surrendered her seat, and the Bob-Whites crammed themselves around the table.
“Dan? Tonight is on me,” Di said gleefully. “Thanks to you? Our Halloween bash is already the event of the year. Heck! Of the decade!”
“I see dead people!” someone shouted from another table.
“Yeah! And they all went to Croton High!” someone else hollered, to raucous cheers and applause.
Trixie looked up at the waitress hovering over them. She was patting her apron, a look of consternation on her face. Trixie waved one hand in a brief, vague gesture. “Uh… Mona?” she asked, reading the woman’s name tag. “It’s behind your ear.”
“What? Oh! Silly me!” Mona blushed as she grabbed her pen. “Your order?” She held up her pad expectantly and vanished.
Honey let out a giggle. “Oh, Trix! You’re really good at this! I could actually believe you were talking to some ghost just now.”
“Yep. Guess you never knew I’m such a great actress.”
Di reached into her backpack and pulled out a tablet. “Now, I haven’t had a lot of time today, because of the game and all, but I’ve been brainstorming some ideas. What I’d like to do is divide up tasks we can each take care of. Is that all right with everyone?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure,” Dan answered slowly. “Just… remember I have a new job that might take up a lot of my time.”
Trixie snorted at his words. “I think you can consider that a given, Danny Boy.”
Mart pulled his cell phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Oh, shoot. Sorry, you guys, but we can’t stay. Looks like Moms wants me and Trix home.”
“Ugh. Probably she’s still upset with us for not getting all our chores done yet.” Trixie levered herself up from her seat. “Sorry, Di. Why don’t we meet at the clubhouse tomorrow after lunch and you can tell us what you’ve come up with.”
Di looked disappointed, but nodded her agreement. “How’s 1:00?”
“We’ll be there,” Trixie promised.
Mart stood as well, stretching his arms over his head. “Dan? You think we could bum a ride?”
“Sure. No prob. Uh… I’ll have to take you up on buying me a thank you burger some other time, Di.”
The sidewalks along Main Street were packed. It seemed all of Sleepyside was out, celebrating the Stallions victory. The unusual increase in cars had forced Dan to park his van several blocks from the diner, on a side street of old duplexes and single story homes.
“Is Moms really mad?” Trixie asked her brother as they walked along. “’Cause we don’t really have time to be grounded at the moment.”
Mart held his phone out to her. Trixie accepted it and tapped the screen.
Hi, sweetie. Let your sister know Dad and I decided to go to White Plains for a date night. Bobby is with the Lynch boys. Don’t stay out too late. Love you.
“Wow. Your mom even uses proper grammar and punctuation in her text messages?” Dan asked, reading over Trixie’s shoulder. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or alarmed.”
“I don’t understand. She doesn’t want us home right now? Why’d you say she did?”
Mart shrugged and tucked his phone back into his pocket. “So we could get out of there? I really wanted to talk with you guys alone. We need to come up with our own plans.”
“Tell me about it!” Dan muttered grumpily. “I’m probably going to be stuck spending all my free time at Lisgard House, chasing away unwanted visitors of the natural and supernatural kind.”
“And there’s something else that occurred to me tonight at the game,” Mart continued. “About Vernon.”
“What about him?” Trixie asked.
“He must have lied to us.”
“Uh… no. He said we were going to be seeing spooks in need and he was right.”
“Not about that,” Mart said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I mean about his problem.”
“With his psycho wife?”
“He asked us to get rid of her and we did.”
“Yeah…?”
“So why didn’t he go ‘poof!’ like the others? Why was he still around?”
“Because he wanted to stay in his house?” Dan guessed.
“Yeah. And there were a whole lotta dead folks who wanted to see us crush Croton tonight, too, apparently. I think they can do things they want, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those things are the actual unfinished business that keeps them lurking around.”
Trixie stopped walking and studied her brother intently. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying Vernon lied to us about what he needed us to do, and that there must be some specific reason he doesn’t want us to solve his particular problem. He clearly wants to remain here on our… uh, plane of existence, at least for a while longer, and I don’t know if we can trust his reasons for that or trust him in general.”
“You think he’s gonna turn up again?” Trixie asked, wondering if she had enough money in her piggy bank to buy herself a one-piece swim suit that revealed less than her bikini. And whether she could even find a suit for sale at this time of year.
“I think it’s a safe bet.”
Trixie shuddered, glancing around the dark street. “Fan – freakin’ – tastic. I don’t suppose somewhere in Sarah’s book, you came across some sorta Ghost-Be-Gone repellent spell that can, I dunno, make it impossible for them to enter your home. Like vampires who need permission?”
“No. Not that I saw.”
A convertible Mustang came screeching around the corner. The top was down and there were at least three more teens than seat belts riding inside.
“Wooo!” one boy shouted. “Sleepyside is number one!”
“Go, Stallions!” Trixie yelled back with patently false cheer.
“Look out behind you!” the brunette in the front seat called to them with a laugh. “There’s a ghost!”
With that, the car sped off with a series of loud honks.
“I don’t know about you,” Trixie muttered, “but I am not about to turn around and see if anyone really is there.”
“Agreed. Keep your head down and let’s move,” Dan said shortly.
A few minutes later, they discovered Dan’s van was not exactly in the same condition they’d left it in earlier that evening. Someone had used blue glass chalk to paint a message on the windshield.
“’The Sleepyside Phantom was here,’” Mart read aloud. “Oh, brother. I don’t know if we’re even going to make it all the way to the Halloween bash at this rate. It’s only the 3rd and this town is already bordering on mass hysteria.”
Diana Lynch tossed her pom-poms down on the concrete table and fixed Trixie with a steely-eyed look. “All right. No arguments. You guys will be coming to the game tonight.”
“Uh… why?” Trixie asked slowly.
“It’s Croton! Our biggest rival!”
“So?”
“So? So, round up Dan and Mart and come out and support your team, Trix!”
“That’s what they have you and Honey and the rest of your squad for. Right?”
“Well, then come out and support us, as fellow Bob-Whites.”
Trixie blinked and regarded Di doubtfully. “Wait. Are you trying to say our cheerleaders need… cheerleaders?”
Di puffed out a breath, briefly lifting her bangs from her forehead. Her gaze wandered the courtyard, as if she was seeking help in dealing with her stubborn friend. Thanks to the near-perfect weather, a large portion of the student body had elected to lunch outdoors, enjoying the cool, crisp air and bright sunshine. “Okay, fine,” she said with grimace. “It’s like this. Honey’s worried about you. All three of you.”
“Because?”
“I dunno! She says you’ve been acting really strange for the past few days. When I pressed her for details, she got kinda cagey, but she’s insisting she’s seen you talking to yourself in the halls between classes. Like you were having a conversation with someone who wasn’t even there. I told her you were probably just on your phone or something.”
“Oh.”
“She wants you guys to come to the game tonight. Hang out and have a good time and then we can all go to Wimpy’s together after.”
“I, um… we sorta already had plans.”
“So something is going on?” Di demanded, one delicate brow raised.
Trixie wanted to groan out loud. Where were Dan and Mart when she really needed them? “It’s… hard to explain.”
Di dropped down on the seat across from her, swinging one leg around as if she were sitting side-saddle. “Try me,” she said simply.
Several excuses ran through Trixie’s head, but none of them made it to her lips. Instead, she surprised herself by blurting out the truth. “Mart read these spells from an old journal that belonged to Sarah Sligo and Dan found a magic amulet he can’t get rid of even though he tried several times and now we see dead people. And mostly? They're annoying as Hell. They want our help solving all their stupid problems.”
Di stared at her open-mouthed for several long moments. Finally, she cleared her throat and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “Is it drugs? Is that the problem? Tell me you guys didn’t start smoking or snorting something.”
“No!” Trixie exclaimed in indignation. “Of course not! I’m telling you the truth, Di. Ghosts. We can see them and they are everywhere.”
“Oh, come on, Trix. Seriously. What are you really – “ Di cut herself off mid-sentence. Suddenly, her baffled frown cleared and was replaced by a broad smile. “Oh. My. God! This is it, isn’t it? This is Dan’s latest idea! The one he refused to tell Honey. The one he claimed he was dropping in favor of… what was it? Glitter and unicorns or something?” She tossed her head and laughed.
“Di-“
“Oh, this is absolutely brilliant! If he was here right now, I’d kiss him! I love it! Love, love, love it!”
“Di, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t, Trix,” Di responded with a knowing look. “You guys! Thank you so much. This is going to be the best Halloween bash ever! Look, keep up what you’re doing. Especially the bit about talking to yourself in the halls like you’re carrying on a conversation with a ghost. Only, kick it up a notch. Make sure people really notice what you’re doing. Meanwhile, I’ll get with Amy about some ideas for decorating my house to look like a haunted mansion. No, wait. You said something about Sarah Sligo’s diary, right? We should make over my place to be Lisgard House!”
Trixie stared at her friend, dumbfounded.
“Yeah. This is perfect. First, we’ll build anticipation with some kind of ‘Ghosts are Everywhere. Can you see dead people?’ campaign. Then, we’ll start moving things. I can get a couple of guys from the team to help me with that after practices. The school’s mostly deserted by then. We could rearrange the tables in the cafeteria and stack books on the desks in the media center. Stuff like that. Oh! And we could sneak into some of the classrooms and leave creepy messages scrawled on the white boards!”
“You – you’re really going with this,” Trixie mumbled weakly.
“And isn’t it awesome that this year Halloween is on a Friday so our party actually falls on Halloween night? We’ll put out word that there’s going to be a séance to rid Lisgard House of Sarah Sligo’s evil spirit once and for all, and rid Sleepyside of all the other ghosts, too. We can stage the séance for the evening of the 30th. Then, on Friday night we have a huge party to celebrate our ‘victory’ over the spirit world.”
Better and better, Trixie thought. “Are we inviting everyone to the séance as well as the party? Because that could get out-of-control pretty fast.”
“Hmmm. No. You know what? We’ll let it be known the séance is by special invite only. And then we can choose our attendees from those who get the most into everything leading up to it. The ones who do the best job seeing dead people.” Di jumped up from her seat. “I gotta run! There’re a couple of people I want to talk to about this right away.” She started to rush off, but then stopped, spun around, and returned to Trixie’s table. “Listen, I am so sorry about that whole drugs thing! I don’t know what I was thinking! Of course I should’ve trusted you guys. Come to the game tonight and after we’ll go grab some burgers and flesh out our plans, okay?” With that, she hurried away, making for the nearest entrance into the school’s main building.
“Well, that didn’t really go the way you expected, huh?”
Trixie turned to look at the middle-aged woman sitting next to her. “No. No, it did not.”
“Still. Look at the bright side. This could work out in your favor. Now, instead of running the risk of having all your classmates think you’re utterly insane, they’ll think this is all some sort of elaborate game.”
“Uh, huh. And this séance she’s planning? There’s no chance that could actually, you know… do anything?”
The woman laughed merrily. “No! Not with an amateur production, anyway, and not as long as you make absolutely sure that Sarah’s spell book isn’t used. If you use that, all bets are off. I can tell you there are some spirits who like to amuse themselves with attending séances for the sheer comedic value, but your friend won’t actually be able to summon or banish anyone or anything like that. That would take the combination of a very powerful spell, the presence of the amulet, and a genuine witch.”
“Okay. I’ll keep that in mind.” Trixie picked at her salad. “But anyway, back to your story. Before Di busted in on us, you were saying something about getting a message to your son?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trixie slammed her locker shut and turned to glare at her brother and Dan. “Where were you at lunch today?” she demanded. “I texted you like a dozen times each! You are not going to believe what happened!”
“If you’re referring to Lady Diana’s ‘Ghosts are Everywhere’ party theme,” Dan replied sourly, “we already heard.”
“Yeah. By seventh period, I think everyone was talking about it,” Mart added.
As if on cue, they were interrupted by a loud scream. Jane Morgan stood in the middle of the hall, pointing a shaky finger toward an open classroom door. “G- g- ghost!” she cried, once she was sure all eyes were on her. “It’s a ghost!” With another scream, she turned and fled with several of her friends shrieking and following.
Trixie rolled her eyes and slumped back against her locker. “She is such a drama queen.”
A sophomore boy staggered up to them. “Help me,” he moaned. “I see dead people, and they’re everywhere…”
“Try pepper spray!” Trixie snapped. “And shoo! Go away!”
“This is going to get out-of-hand fast,” Mart predicted unhappily as the boy wandered off.
“Yeah, well, as I was sitting in Algebra 2 and not paying attention, I realized we may have a bigger problem on our hands then you might think.”
“What do you mean?” Dan wanted to know. “What could be worse than having all our classmates faking ghost sightings while we’re trying to deal with the real thing?”
“Lisgard House.”
“Huh?”
“So, here’s what happened. Di confronted me at lunch and said that Honey told her we’ve been acting like candidates for the insane asylum. I panicked. I told her the truth.”
“You what?” Mart exclaimed. “What were you thinking?”
“I told you! I panicked. And you guys weren’t around to help me-“
“We were dealing with the school’s first principal. Apparently he never got over the elimination of corporal punishment and he wanted us to leave some paddle on Stratton’s desk,” Mart explained. “Of course, that meant we first had to find the paddle. Which? Disturbing fact. It really was actually still here on campus, stored away in a cabinet in the guidance counselor’s office. I don’t know why it wasn’t thrown away years ago, and I don't think I want to know why.”
“Yeesh. You win. My lunch ghost just needed me to let her son know she’d left her will in her underwear drawer. I sent him a text, claiming I was an old friend of his mom’s who’d told me to let him know where it was if she didn’t beat her battle with cancer. Easy peasy.”
“Uh, can we please get back on track here?” Dan asked. “Freckles? What’s this bigger problem you were referring to and what’s it got to do with Lisgard House?”
“Okay, so I told Di about the journal and the amulet and how we can talk to ghosts now. And first? She thought we’d become meth addicts or something, but then she got it into her head that this is all an act. She thinks this is your idea, Dan. For the Halloween bash. Which, of course, it really was originally, but now she’s taken it and run with it. She wants to pull pranks here at school, hold a séance… and decorate her house to look like the Lisgard mansion.”
“That really was my idea!”
“I know. But think about it. When you concocted this theme, what did you want to do first? Go to the real Lisgard House and see what we could find. How many other kids do you think are gonna have the exact same idea now, Mr. I’m-Supposed-to-Be-Watching-for-Vandals-and-Curiosity-Seekers Caretaker?”
“Oh, damn.”
“Precisely.”
“We’d better get over there right away. I don’t think I even locked the gate when we left yesterday.”
“Yeah. And we should probably do something about the front door hanging open.”
“Help us. Please.”
Trixie whirled around at the voice. “Yeah. We get it! You see dead… crap.”
Three girls dressed in old fashioned cheerleader uniforms stood before them.
“Crap. Crap. Crappity crap. I walked right into this one." Trixie knew it was no use acting as if she couldn't see the girls. She had to remember to be more cautious!
“Ladies,” Dan said, adopting his friendliest smile. “I’m afraid you’ve come to us at a really bad time. How about we meet you here Monday morning and we can discuss whatever’s troubling you then?”
“But it has to be tonight, or we’ll have to wait another whole year!” one of the girls wailed pitifully. “And we’ve been waiting for such a long time!”
Trixie snapped her fingers impatiently. “Right. Lay it on us. We don’t have a lot of time. What are your names, how’d you die, and what do you need?”
“Well, I’m Betty, and these are my best friends, Joan and Lizzy. We were having a slumber party and there was some kind of gas… it killed us in our sleep. It was awful!”
“Carbon monoxide?” Mart hazarded. “You died of carbon monoxide poisoning?”
“That’s the one! Joan’s parents died from it, too.”
“Tragic,” Trixie said flatly. “So what do you want now?”
“Our party was the night before the big game. We’d been working forever on a special cheer.”
“Uh, huh. And…?”
“Tonight’s the game!” Betty said earnestly. “Against Croton!”
“Yeah? So?”
“Isn't it obvious? We have to do our cheer, of course!”
Trixie’s brow furrowed as she considered Betty's declaration. “Okay. So do your cheer. Nothing’s preventing you from that.”
“It’s a cheer,” Betty said slowly, as if speaking to a small, ignorant child. “What good is it if the crowd doesn’t join in and the team can’t hear it?”
“We can’t make everyone else see and hear you.”
“Yes. We know. Which is why you’ll have to get out there with us. We’ll lead the cheer and you can follow along for the crowd.”
“Excuse me? Uh, uh. No. Freakin’. Way.” Trixie crossed her arms over her chest. “This is where I draw the line. I am not a cheerleader.”
“Well, it can’t be us, Freckles,” Dan said, his lips twitching with suppressed laughter. “We don’t have guy cheerleaders in this school.”
“How about this? Dan? You and Mart go out to Lisgard House and see what you can do to make the property more secure. I’ll take the Barbie triplets here to see Di. They can teach me this cheer of theirs, I’ll teach it to Di, and then the whole squad can perform it at half time or something. Honey’s on a tear to have us at this game, anyway, so we can meet up there. Deal?”
“That won’t work,” Mart said with a sharp shake of his head. “I think you’re overlooking something, Sis.”
“What? What am I overlooking?”
“Di thinks this is all fake, remember?”
“Yeah. So?”
“Well, it wouldn’t make sense for you to go to her alone and teach her a cheer you supposedly learned from a few dead cheerleaders. What would you even say to her? 'Di? I want to show you a cheer the fake ghosts taught me?' If this was really all about drumming up excitement for the bash, you wouldn’t only talk to her.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
Dan cracked a wide grin. “Find yourself a set of pom-poms, Freckles. Tonight? You’re gonna be out on that field.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Di and Honey exchanged a speaking glance. “Trix? I love this idea. I do,” Di told her as she pulled her duffle bag from her gym locker. “I can’t tell you how much, and especially how much I appreciate what you’re doing here, because I know this isn’t your thing.”
“Uh, huh. I feel a ‘but’ coming on here.”
“It’s about the cheer itself.”
“Yeah?”
“We’ve got about twenty minutes before we’re meeting the other girls for a light dinner before the game, and… how about Honey and I teach you a cheer you can use? You know, so it seems more, um… authentic? Believable?”
Trixie avoided looking in Betty’s direction, but she could guess what the girl’s expression would be. “No. Really. It’s okay. I’ve got this.”
“You’ve already made up the cheer you’re going to use?” Di’s tone was understandably skeptical.
“You know… I have help. Uh, had help. From online. The internet. I found some videos on YouTube.” Trixie fought back a cringe. She was an awful liar. She always had been. She couldn’t ever meet anyone’s eyes when she tried to fib. And the worse the lie, the worse her fidgeting became. As she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, she was sure her friends could tell she was prevaricating.
“Is it complicated?”
“Um…” Trixie glanced to her left to see Lizzy shaking her head while Joan nodded. “Is it complicated?” she echoed, stalling. “I don’t know. What do you mean by ‘complicated’?”
“Well, usually a crowd cheer is something simple to follow and repeat in a chant. A few rhyming phrases. Things like that.”
“Uh, yeah. I know that. I mean, it’s not like I’m gonna get out there and do any of those crazy back flips and stuff you guys do.” She turned, pretending to study a poster someone had taped to the wall. “Go, Stallions! Slay the Giants!” She met Betty’s gaze. “It’s not like I’d even know how,” she added pointedly. “No wild gymnastics for me.”
Di still seemed uncertain, but she cast Trixie a warm smile. “All right. If you’re sure… Let’s go raid the storage closet and find you a uniform that’ll fit.”
Trixie’s head whipped back around and she stared at the other girl. “Do what? Uniform?”
“Well, of course,” Di said with a light chuckle. “What were you planning to do? Go out on the field in your jeans and t-shirt?”
“As a matter of fact…”
“Don’t even think about it, Trix!” Honey exclaimed. “If we're gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trixie stood on the sidelines, waiting for the marching band to finish its routine. “I hate everyone right now,” she muttered. “Everyone.”
“But you look adorable,” Dan told her with a snicker. “Even Uncle Bill said so. I especially love that enormous bow in your hair. It really brings out the color of your eyes.”
“Shut. Up.”
As the band made its way toward the stands, Di, Honey, and the other cheerleaders rushed out onto the field. Di lifted a megaphone as someone somewhere blew a loud whistle. “Hey, Sleepyside High! Let's hear some noise! We’ve got spirits! Yes, we do! We’ve got spirits! How ‘bout you? It’s a dark and spooky night! Can you see the ghosts?”
The students in the stands went wild. Trixie could only guess what all the teachers, parents, and other adults thought, not to mention the people all watching from the opposing team’s side.
“We’ve got a new Stallions cheer for you tonight, brought to us by the class of 1953! You might not see them, but there’s a special guest spirit squad out here with us tonight. And joining us to help lead our cheer? Trixie Belden!”
“You're up, Freckles.”
Trixie stomped out to join the others. Di smiled brilliantly at her. “Trixie! This is fantastic! This really is Dan’s best idea ever. People will be talking about this for years!”
“Great. Super. Glad you’re happy about it, at least.” Trixie turned to face the crowd and froze in place, eyes wide. The bleachers were packed, and not just with the living. Everywhere she looked, she could see them, ghosts from seemingly every period in American history; even, as near as she could tell by his tricorn hat and musket, an elderly man who’d fought in the Revolution. There were men. Women. Children. Some sitting alone, others in clumps. If every single one of them had a problem they needed solving, she, Mart, and Dan would be in business until they died of old age themselves.
Next to her, Betty lifted her pom-poms. “Ready? Okay!”
Trixie drew her lips up in a smile she was willing to bet made her looked positively deranged and mimicked the dead girl’s pose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wimpy’s was overflowing with jubilant teenagers, celebrating the absolute destruction of the Croton team, 42 – 7. Honey was only able to secure them a booth by agreeing to help Constance Cleary with her math homework the following week. Constance surrendered her seat, and the Bob-Whites crammed themselves around the table.
“Dan? Tonight is on me,” Di said gleefully. “Thanks to you? Our Halloween bash is already the event of the year. Heck! Of the decade!”
“I see dead people!” someone shouted from another table.
“Yeah! And they all went to Croton High!” someone else hollered, to raucous cheers and applause.
Trixie looked up at the waitress hovering over them. She was patting her apron, a look of consternation on her face. Trixie waved one hand in a brief, vague gesture. “Uh… Mona?” she asked, reading the woman’s name tag. “It’s behind your ear.”
“What? Oh! Silly me!” Mona blushed as she grabbed her pen. “Your order?” She held up her pad expectantly and vanished.
Honey let out a giggle. “Oh, Trix! You’re really good at this! I could actually believe you were talking to some ghost just now.”
“Yep. Guess you never knew I’m such a great actress.”
Di reached into her backpack and pulled out a tablet. “Now, I haven’t had a lot of time today, because of the game and all, but I’ve been brainstorming some ideas. What I’d like to do is divide up tasks we can each take care of. Is that all right with everyone?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure,” Dan answered slowly. “Just… remember I have a new job that might take up a lot of my time.”
Trixie snorted at his words. “I think you can consider that a given, Danny Boy.”
Mart pulled his cell phone from his pocket and glanced at the screen. “Oh, shoot. Sorry, you guys, but we can’t stay. Looks like Moms wants me and Trix home.”
“Ugh. Probably she’s still upset with us for not getting all our chores done yet.” Trixie levered herself up from her seat. “Sorry, Di. Why don’t we meet at the clubhouse tomorrow after lunch and you can tell us what you’ve come up with.”
Di looked disappointed, but nodded her agreement. “How’s 1:00?”
“We’ll be there,” Trixie promised.
Mart stood as well, stretching his arms over his head. “Dan? You think we could bum a ride?”
“Sure. No prob. Uh… I’ll have to take you up on buying me a thank you burger some other time, Di.”
The sidewalks along Main Street were packed. It seemed all of Sleepyside was out, celebrating the Stallions victory. The unusual increase in cars had forced Dan to park his van several blocks from the diner, on a side street of old duplexes and single story homes.
“Is Moms really mad?” Trixie asked her brother as they walked along. “’Cause we don’t really have time to be grounded at the moment.”
Mart held his phone out to her. Trixie accepted it and tapped the screen.
Hi, sweetie. Let your sister know Dad and I decided to go to White Plains for a date night. Bobby is with the Lynch boys. Don’t stay out too late. Love you.
“Wow. Your mom even uses proper grammar and punctuation in her text messages?” Dan asked, reading over Trixie’s shoulder. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or alarmed.”
“I don’t understand. She doesn’t want us home right now? Why’d you say she did?”
Mart shrugged and tucked his phone back into his pocket. “So we could get out of there? I really wanted to talk with you guys alone. We need to come up with our own plans.”
“Tell me about it!” Dan muttered grumpily. “I’m probably going to be stuck spending all my free time at Lisgard House, chasing away unwanted visitors of the natural and supernatural kind.”
“And there’s something else that occurred to me tonight at the game,” Mart continued. “About Vernon.”
“What about him?” Trixie asked.
“He must have lied to us.”
“Uh… no. He said we were going to be seeing spooks in need and he was right.”
“Not about that,” Mart said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I mean about his problem.”
“With his psycho wife?”
“He asked us to get rid of her and we did.”
“Yeah…?”
“So why didn’t he go ‘poof!’ like the others? Why was he still around?”
“Because he wanted to stay in his house?” Dan guessed.
“Yeah. And there were a whole lotta dead folks who wanted to see us crush Croton tonight, too, apparently. I think they can do things they want, but that doesn’t necessarily mean those things are the actual unfinished business that keeps them lurking around.”
Trixie stopped walking and studied her brother intently. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying Vernon lied to us about what he needed us to do, and that there must be some specific reason he doesn’t want us to solve his particular problem. He clearly wants to remain here on our… uh, plane of existence, at least for a while longer, and I don’t know if we can trust his reasons for that or trust him in general.”
“You think he’s gonna turn up again?” Trixie asked, wondering if she had enough money in her piggy bank to buy herself a one-piece swim suit that revealed less than her bikini. And whether she could even find a suit for sale at this time of year.
“I think it’s a safe bet.”
Trixie shuddered, glancing around the dark street. “Fan – freakin’ – tastic. I don’t suppose somewhere in Sarah’s book, you came across some sorta Ghost-Be-Gone repellent spell that can, I dunno, make it impossible for them to enter your home. Like vampires who need permission?”
“No. Not that I saw.”
A convertible Mustang came screeching around the corner. The top was down and there were at least three more teens than seat belts riding inside.
“Wooo!” one boy shouted. “Sleepyside is number one!”
“Go, Stallions!” Trixie yelled back with patently false cheer.
“Look out behind you!” the brunette in the front seat called to them with a laugh. “There’s a ghost!”
With that, the car sped off with a series of loud honks.
“I don’t know about you,” Trixie muttered, “but I am not about to turn around and see if anyone really is there.”
“Agreed. Keep your head down and let’s move,” Dan said shortly.
A few minutes later, they discovered Dan’s van was not exactly in the same condition they’d left it in earlier that evening. Someone had used blue glass chalk to paint a message on the windshield.
“’The Sleepyside Phantom was here,’” Mart read aloud. “Oh, brother. I don’t know if we’re even going to make it all the way to the Halloween bash at this rate. It’s only the 3rd and this town is already bordering on mass hysteria.”