Have You Met My Ghoulfriend? Read Free

dropped open. She pointed at me and let out a long, shrill scream of horror.

4
    ID ROPPED M Y B ACKPACK and stumbled backward into the wall. I heard loud gasps as everyone turned to see where Traci was pointing.
    “Sorry I screamed,” Traci said to Ms. McDonald. “I … I thought it was some kind of creature.”
    Ms. McDonald frowned at me. “Max, please remove that huge bubblegum bubble from the side of your head. It isn't funny.”
    “It's not bubblegum,” I said. “It's my ear.”
    Ms. McDonald put down the chalk and started walking toward me. “Max, why is your ear the size of a soccer ball?”
    Because a terrifying ghost inside a wasp flew deep into my ear and stung me?
    “A … a wasp stung me,” I said. I felt my ear. A stab of pain ran through my whole body. My knees buckled. I nearly collapsed to the floor. The ear was nearly as big as my head!
    No wonder Traci Wayne screamed. No wonder she thought I was a monster.
    Ms. McDonald came close and lowered her head to examine my ear. She raised her hand to touch it but changed her mind. “You'd better see the nurse,” she said, pushing me toward the door. “That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life.”
    “Thanks,” I muttered. Just what you want to hear your teacher say to you, right?
    I slunk down the hall to the nurse's office. After Mrs. Wilpon, the nurse, got through gasping and gagging, she put an ice bag on it. I sat there with the ice bag for the rest of the morning. After that, the ear shrank down to the size of a lemon. Not bad.
    I thanked Mrs. Wilpon and headed back to class. I thought the worst part of my day was over.
    Was I wrong!

5
    I RAN INTO T RACI W AYNE in the lunchroom. Traci is blond and pretty, with olive-colored eyes and a great smile. She's very nice but she doesn't talk to me often. You see, I'm definitely not in her crowd.
    She hangs with the cool crowd. And I'm in the crowd known as “Do
you
go to this school?”
    I'm sure Traci thinks of me as a different species. You know. Like a zoo animal you want to stare at for a while but you don't want to get too close to. Because you might catch germs or something.
    I don't know if I'm in love with Traci or have a crush on her or what. But every time I see her, my cheeks turn bright red, I have trouble breathing, and my tongue twists up like a knot in my mouth.
    Traci wore a red T-shirt and a short plaid pleated skirt over red tights. A salad and a bowl of noodle soup sat on the lunch tray she was holding.
    “Hi,” I said, feeling my cheeks start to glow.
    “Max, no offense. But please go away,” Traci said. “You'll spoil my lunch.”
    “But, Traci—”
    “I can't stop thinking about your ear,” she said, making a disgusted face. “I kept gagging all through Spanish class.”
    “Thanks for caring,” I muttered.
    “It was totally gross,” she continued, gazing over my shoulder to the table where all the cool kids sit. “Like a totally disgusting horror movie.”
    “Tell me about it,” I said. I didn't know what else to say.
    “Please tell me it wasn't real. Was it one of your magic tricks?”
    Traci helped me out when I did my magic act for the whole school last Halloween. Unfortunately, that evil ghost Phears burst onstage inside a giant cockroach. He terrified everyone and sent them all running out of the auditorium. Traci was horrified by the whole thing. But somehow I convinced her it was all a trick of mine.
    “It wasn't a magic trick this time. I was stung by a wasp,” I said.
    “Well, you really made me sick,” Traci said. She started toward the table. “I'll probably have nightmares for weeks.”
    I chased after her. “Does this mean you're not coming to my birthday party?”
    She narrowed her eyes at me. “Birthday party? When is your birthday?”
    “Next April,” I said. “Six months from now. I was only checking. Think you'll come?”
    She tossed back her blond hair and laughed.
    “Was that a yes or a no?” I called.
    But she was already