Megan Stine_Jeffery & the Third-Grade Ghost 03 (2 page)

“Who’s interested in an art project?” Mrs. Becker asked when everyone was out of their wet snow clothes.

“Uh-oh,” Jeffrey told his friends. “The last ‘art’ project Mom thought of was painting the basement steps.”

“This is different,” Jeffrey’s mother said with a smile. “I made some cutout gingerbread cookies. I wondered if your friends wanted to decorate them?”

“Great idea, Mrs. Becker,” said Ben.

In the kitchen, Jeffrey’s mother put one cookie for each kid on a piece of waxed paper. There were three kinds to choose from: gingerbread men, gingerbread women, and, for some reason, gingerbread crocodiles. Next, Mrs. Becker brought out a large bowl of icing. Then she handed out little bottles of food coloring and jars of sprinkles. Finally, she put aprons on each of the kids and then got out of the way.

“I’m going to turn this guy into one cool robot,” Ricky Reyes said. He put gold candy eyes on his cookie.

“You already have about two hundred toy robots, don’t you?” asked Jeffrey.

“Yeah, but I haven’t
eaten
one since I was a baby,” Ricky said with a laugh.

When they were done with all of the icing and the sprinkles, they put the cookies aside until after lunch. But when they came back, all of the cookie decorations had been changed.

“What’s going on?” Melissa said. She had put a pink-icing ballet tutu on her gingerbread cookie. But now it had lots of chocolate sprinkles on it. Her ballerina looked like it had hairy arms and legs like a gorilla.

“And look at my doctor!” Ben said. Ben had given his cookie a white-icing doctor’s gown and mask. But now it was covered with red food coloring. It looked like blood.

“Jeffrey,” asked Mrs. Becker, “how could this happen?”

Jeffrey immediately knew that the answer was one word: Max! But Jeffrey couldn’t tell the truth because no one would believe him.

“I don’t know, Mom,” Jeffrey said. “It must be a weird time warp caused by the snowstorm. Somehow I think we made Halloween cookies by mistake!”

The next morning the snowy roads were cleared and everyone went back to school. Everyone except Jeffrey. He had a bad cold and lay on the living-room couch sneezing and coughing. He was wrapped in a cocoon of blankets to keep warm.

At first, Jeffrey was miserable. Was there anything worse than being sick and not being able to play in the snow? On top of that, there was no one to keep him company. His friends were all in school. And his mom was busy with her work. She was writing an article for the newspaper. That meant Jeffrey couldn’t watch television because it was too noisy.

But at about ten
A.M
. Max appeared in the doorway. As usual, he was wearing an old-fashioned flannel plaid shirt. Max was from the 1950s. Everything about him was from another time.

Jeffrey smiled at his ghost friend.

“Max!” Jeffrey said. “Are you going to keep me company?”

“Sure, but not here,” Max said. “Let’s split this scene, Sleeping Beauty.”

“I’m not sleeping. I’m sick,” Jeffrey mumbled to Max.

Max came over and picked up the thermometer. He put it in his own mouth. “Daddy-o, like, once I had a temperature that was so high, they baked a pie right on my forehead.”

Jeffrey laughed and rolled his eyes. According to Max’s stories,
everything
had happened to him. Only it was better, or bigger, or worse than what happened to anyone else.

“What should we do for fun?” Jeffrey asked his friend.

“Are you kidding? This
is
fun,” Max said. “I mean, what could be more funsville than staying in bed and being waited on by your mom all day?” He immediately turned on the TV—loud.

“You’d better turn it off, Max,” Jeffrey said.

“But, like, this is medicine, Jeffrey,” explained the ghost.

“No TV. My mom needs quiet to write.”

“Why doesn’t she use a pencil like everyone else?” Max asked. Then he cracked up at his own joke.

“Jeffrey!” Mrs. Becker called. She walked into
the living room a few seconds later. “Jeffrey, you know better than to turn on the TV while I’m working.”

“Uh, well, Mom,” Jeffrey said. “I
had
to turn it on. Im using TV to fight my cold.”

“This I’ve got to hear,” Mrs. Becker said. She turned off the TV, crossed her arms, and waited for an explanation. But before Jeffrey could answer, Max turned the TV back on again.

“Not funny, Jeffrey,” his mother said. “Let go of the remote.”

“But, Mom! I can’t! You know how you always tell me that too much TV will rot my brain?” Jeffrey said. “Well, I just read that the part of the brain that rots is the same part that makes you get colds. So I need to rot my brain to fight my cold.”

Mrs. Becker ran her fingers through her hair. “Keep the volume down, Jeffrey,” she said. “I’ve got to finish my work.”

“Whew. That was a close one,” Jeffrey said as his mother returned to the den.

“Naah,” Max said. “Like, she’s a mom, dig? That’s her job—cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids.”

“Moms aren’t always like that anymore,” Jeffrey said. “Boy, are you living in the past.”

The ghost looked thoughtful. “I know how to make you feel better,” he said. “What dessert do you dig the most?”

“That’s easy,” Jeffrey answered. “Strawberry shortcake with ice cream and whipped cream.”

“All right,” Max said. “Now tell your old lady to get on the stick and make it for you.”

“Are you crazy, Max?” Jeffrey sputtered. “No way is my mom going to spend hours in the kitchen making me strawberry shortcake. Especially not when she’s got a deadline for the newspaper.”

“Hey, dig this, man. Like, when I was sick, I had my mom running around in circles doing special scenes for me. And it worked. Believe me, if you had strawberry shortcake, you’d get better in ten seconds,” Max said. “Go ahead. Just ask her. Be sure to tell her lots of whipped cream.”

“Forget it. I’m not calling her, Max,” Jeffrey said.

Max grabbed the remote and pointed it toward the TV. Once again, the volume blasted out. Mrs. Becker came charging back into the living room.

“What is it, Jeffrey?” she asked. “I know you’re trying to annoy me to get my attention.”

“No I’m not,” Jeffrey said. “I’m just hungry, Mom.”

“Oh. Well, that’s a good sign. You must be getting
better,” Mrs. Becker said with a smile. “What would you like?”

“How about strawberry shortcake with ice cream and lots of whipped cream?”

“Jeffrey,”
his mother said sternly. “If you’re well enough to drive me crazy, you’re well enough to get your own lunch.”

With that, she walked back to the den.

“Terrific idea, Max,” Jeffrey grumbled. “Now what do we do?”

“Now we fix lunch,” Max said cheerfully.

Jeffrey got off the couch and shuffled out to the kitchen. Max, floating several inches off the ground, followed behind.

Jeffrey sat down on a tall, yellow kitchen stool. “Well, what are you going to fix, Max?”

“Me?” asked the ghost. “I already told you, my mom did the cooking. I never dug the pots and pans scene.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not too good at it, either,” Jeffrey said with a sigh.

Finally, they decided to have cereal. Jeffrey got out two bowls and Max got out the milk and raisins. When Max poured the cereal, the free prize fell into his bowl. It was a small stamp pad with a cow’s face on it.

They ate their cereal and stamped each other’s hands with the toy. After that they played board games and watched old Abbott and Costello movies on the VCR until Jeffrey’s father came home. Then Max disappeared.

Jeffrey was sick the next day, too. But it wasn’t as much fun on Wednesday as it had been on Tuesday.

For one thing, Melissa had brought Jeffrey’s homework over the night before. Jeffrey put it on his desk and tried his best to ignore it. But his eyes kept going back to it. Then Jeffrey and Max couldn’t agree on what games to play.

And Jeffrey missed his other friends. Ben and Kenny couldn’t possibly be getting along without him—or could they?

“I’ll bet right now Ben is explaining the structure of the atom to the entire class,” Jeffrey said.

“Hey, Daddy-o,” said Max. “Dig this plan. Like, maybe I’ll bop over to the little red schoolhouse and check out the scene. See who’s hip and who’s zip.”

That idea improved Jeffrey’s spirits immediately.

“Great,” Jeffrey said. “You could be my eyes and ears.”

“Yeah, but, like, I refuse to be your nose,” said Max. “It’s all red and drippy. I’ll be back in a flash after school. See you later, alligator.”

A full report about what was going on at school! That was going to be great! Jeffrey blew his nose and looked at the clock. He couldn’t wait for three-thirty to come.

Jeffrey waited all afternoon for Max to come back. He was dying to know what had happened at school. But three-thirty came and went, and still no Max. Pretty soon, Jeffrey began to wonder if something bad had happened. Maybe it was something Max didn’t want Jeffrey to know about.

But when Jeffrey went back to school the next day, he forgot all about Max. Because the minute he walked into the classroom, things started to happen.

“Hi, Santa!” said Kenny Thompsen.

“Who?” Jeffrey asked. He didn’t know what Kenny was talking about.

Then, as Jeffrey sat down at his desk, Ben called out, “Hey, Santa. How’s the big guy, Rudolph, doing?”

“What’s the joke?” Jeffrey asked Ben. But before Ben could answer, Ricky Reyes came by and slapped Jeffrey on the back. “Totally awesome Santa suit yesterday,” he said with a laugh.

Jeffrey smiled, but his mind was clicking in high
gear. Someone had come to class yesterday wearing a Santa suit, and everyone thought it was him. But who was it? Maybe it was—Oh, brother! Of course! It had to be Max!

“It wasn’t me,” Jeffrey said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ben said. “That’s what you said yesterday, too. ‘I’m not Jeffrey,’ you said. ‘I’m really Santa.’ ”

“But it wasn’t me,” Jeffrey insisted.

“Arvin Pubbler thought it was you,” Melissa said.

Jeffrey looked over at pudgy and unpopular Arvin Pubbler.