Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? Page 8

  I was interviewed by a man named Captain Randall. He explained that the Plover School isn't a military school. But everyone has a rank, and you have to call everyone by their rank.

  Captain Randall is pretty old. I mean, he has white hair and a lot of wrinkles in his forehead. But he sat up very straight, like a soldier, and he kinda barked his questions at me.

  I was a little scared before we started to talk. But once the interview started, I thought it went very well.

  First, Captain Randall asked me how I liked school.

  I said, “Jabbba jabbba gubbba.”

  He narrowed his tiny, steel-colored eyes at me. “I didn't really hear you. Tell me, Max, what are you interested in? What are your favorite subjects?”

  “Hubbba gubbba?” I replied. And then I dropped to the floor and started to roll around the room.

  Captain Randall jumped to his feet. “Max, what's wrong?” he cried.

  “Hubbbba jabbbba,” I said. I climbed up, lowered my head, and went crashing into the chalkboard. I hit it so hard, it cracked in two. Then I went spinning crazily around the room four or five times, knocking over chairs, tables, everything in sight.

  And that pretty much ended the interview.

  When I got back home, I told Nicky and Tara all about it. They both looked confused.

  “So you were rejected by the Plover School?” Nicky asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Do you believe it? They told Dad never to bring me there again. Is that cool or what?”

  Tara tugged at one of her earrings. “But Max, the Berserker Ghoul flew out of your body yesterday. We saw it go.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I replied.

  “So … you mean another ghoul possessed your body?” Nicky asked.

  “No. No other ghoul,” I said.

  Then I burst out laughing. And they did too. They finally caught on to what I had done.

  Hey, they don't call me Brainimon for nothing.

  Of course, I can't keep this page in my diary. I don't want Ms. McDonald to see it. She'd never believe any of it. She'd accuse me of writing fiction and give me a big fat F.

  So I'm ripping out this page too. So far, I've ripped out almost all the pages in this journal.

  Will Phears return and bring more of his ghostly friends? Will Nicky and Tara find their parents? And will they find out what turned them into ghosts?

  Sorry, Diary. I can't write about any of that. If I did, I'd have to tear out those pages too.

  Maybe I'll write about how it rained today. It was a pretty good rain. I can describe the clouds and the puddles and everything. Ms. McDonald will really like that….

  TO BE CONTINUED

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Robert Lawrence Stine's scary stories have made him one of the bestselling children's authors in history. “Kids like to be scared!” he says, and he has proven it by selling more than 300 million books. R.L. teamed up with Parachute Press to create Fear Street, the first and number one bestselling young adult horror series. He then went on to launch Goosebumps, the creepy bestselling series that gave kids chills all over the world and made him the number one children's author of all time (The Guinness Book of Records).

  R.L. Stine lives in Manhattan with his wife, Jane, their son, Matthew, and their dog, Nadine. He says he has never seen a ghost—but he's still looking!

  One Night in Doom House

  Don't miss Mostly Ghostly Book 3:

  DRAGGED INTO A HAUNTED house by his friend Aaron, Max finds some objects that he thinks might help Nicky and Tara. But when he takes them home for further research, he upsets a whole colony of evil ghosts—and sends a crazy human-melting heat ghost after the girl of his dreams! When Max realizes what he's done, he embarks on a wild ride across town to keep the ghost from melting his classmates. Will he make it in time—or will his whole school melt to the ground, with all his friends inside?

  Look for

  One Night in Doom House

  in January 2005!

  Published by

  Delacorte Press

  an imprint of

  Random House Children's Books

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  New York

  A Parachute Press Book

  Copyright © 2004 by Parachute Publishing, L.L.C.

  Cover copyright © 2004 by Parachute Publishing, L.L.C.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

  The trademark Delacorte Press is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at

  www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Stine, R.L.

  Have you met my ghoulfriend? / R.L. Stine.

  p. cm.—(Mostly ghostly)

  Summary: Phears, an evil ghost, wants eleven-year-old Max to help him capture the ghosts of two children whose parents once trapped him, and he sends a Berserker Ghoul to possess Max and convince him to obey.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-53068-4 (lib. bdg.)

  [1. Ghosts—Fiction. 2. Ghouls and ogres—Fiction. 3. Demoniac

  possession—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Series.

  PZ7.S86037Hav 2004

  [Fic]—dc22

  2003026134

  August 2004

  v 3.0