50 - Calling All Creeps! Read Free Page A

only by driveways.
    Some kids had marked off the street for a street hockey game. They were
skating back and forth, leaning on their sticks, cheering and shouting.
    “Do you skate?” Iris asked.
    “A little,” I told her. “My Rollerblades are kind of broken. The brakes came
loose and—”
    “I always take off the brakes,” she said. “It’s a lot more fun without the
brakes—don’t you think?”
    I started to answer. But a sound from behind the tall hedge made me stop.
    Was someone whispering?
    Did I hear someone giggling?
    Iris and I kept walking. She was telling me something about how kids skated
in the town she moved from. I didn’t really listen.
    I kept hearing footsteps. Whispers. Scraping sounds. From the other side of
the hedge.
    Finally, I raised a finger to my lips. “Iris—shhh,” I whispered.
    Her blue eyes widened in surprise. “Ricky—what’s the matter?”
    “I think we’re being followed,” I told her.

 
 
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    “I don’t hear anything,” Iris whispered. She narrowed her eyes at me.
    We both listened.
    Silence. Except for the cheers of the street hockey players behind us down
the block.
    We started walking.
    I heard a giggle. Some whispers.
    I turned into the next driveway and darted behind the hedge.
    “Who’s there?” Iris called. She came running up behind me. Her eyes searched
the hedge, then the front yard.
    “No one here,” I said.
    She laughed, “Ricky, why do you look so worried? You probably heard a bird or
something.”
    “Yeah. A bird,” I repeated. I led the way around the hedge to the sidewalk. I
didn’t want Iris to think I was crazy. But I knew I’d heard something.
    We walked past a few more houses. Then I heard a whispered chant from behind the hedge: “Sicky Ricky… Sicky Ricky…”
    “Did you hear that?” I asked Iris.
    She shook her head. I heard the distant hum of a plane, high overhead. “Do
you mean that plane?” she asked.
    “No,” I replied. “I heard a voice.”
    A soft giggle floated out from the hedge.
    I ran to check it out. Nearly slipped on a slick patch of ice.
    I grabbed the hedge to catch my balance. No one back there. An empty front
yard.
    Straightening my backpack, I hurried to Iris on the sidewalk.
    “Ricky, you’re a little weird,” she said. She laughed. But I could tell she
was starting to wonder about me. Starting to think maybe I was too weird to be
her friend.
    “I heard someone back there. Really,” I insisted. “They must be hiding in the
hedge or—”
    “AAAAAIIIIIII!” I heard a scream of attack!
    The hedge shook.
    I staggered backwards toward the street.
    And four figures came leaping out of the hedge. Four kids shrieking and
cheering.
    My four enemies!
    I saw Iris’ face twist in surprise. And then Wart grabbed me. David grabbed
me too. Brenda and Jared joined them.
    They pushed me one way. Then pulled me back.
    Laughing and shouting, they spun me around.
    Then David tackled me to the ground.
    They swarmed around me. Pushed me down. Held me in the cold, wet mud.
    “Let go of me!” I shrieked.
    I tried to kick and thrash and squirm free. But the four of them held me
firmly.
    “Let go of me!” I wailed. “What are you going to do?”

 
 
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    “Let him go!” I heard Iris cry.
    “Okay,” Wart replied. “No problem.” The big chubby wart had been sitting on
my chest. He climbed to his feet.
    I took a deep breath.
    The other three let go of me and took a step back.
    I sat up, rubbing mud off my parka sleeve. I glanced at Iris. She stood near
the curb, hands balled into fists, her eyes wide with alarm.
    With a groan, I started to stand up.
    But Wart and Jared shoved me back down. “Not so fast,” Jared said. Jared is
short and skinny, but he’s real mean.
    “What do you want?” I demanded.
    Wart leaned over me. “Why did you tell Tasha that the soda can accident was
my fault?” he asked.
    “Because it was your fault,” I shot back. I pulled a dead brown leaf
from my