R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 06 Read Free Page A

slapping a high five. I liked having Quentin over. It took my mind off the creepy guy in black.
    “It's not so hard,” Quentin replied, droppingthe balls back into his black suitcase. “I'll teach you how.”
    “Cool,” I said. “Did you work up some new tricks for the party?”
    He nodded. His smile faded. “Too bad about Traci Wayne,” he said. “She really said she wouldn't come?”
    “Well, I probably asked her at a bad time,” I replied. “I mean, I fell on top of her, and her face was buried in dirt.”
    “Too bad,” Quentin murmured. “If she doesn't come, none of the cool kids will come.” He started pawing through his magic kit.
    “Tell me something I
don't
know,” I said, sighing. “Hey, I just remembered something I wanted to ask you.”
    He let go of the suitcase and turned to me.
    “Remember a few weeks ago when my brother came in here while we were doing magic? He was giving me a hard time, and you wanted to get him out of here? So you pulled out your eyeball and held it out to him? And he totally freaked and heaved up his lunch?”
    Quentin grinned at me. “An awesome moment!” he said. “You probably wonder how I did it.”
    “Well, yeah,” I said. “It looked so real. I —”
    “Watch,” Quentin said. He raised his hand to his left eye, plucked it out, and held it upin the palm of his hand. The blue eye stared at me.
    “Yikes!” I said. “It totally looks real.”
    Quentin nodded. He opened his left eye. The eyeball was still in there. He'd only pretended to pluck it out.
    “This is why magicians always wear long sleeves,” he said, raising his arm and tugging at the shirt cuff. “I always carry an extra eyeball with me. You never know when it will come in handy.”
    We both laughed.
    “Now I'll show you my newest trick,” he said. “We'll need a real rabbit for the night of the party. But for now I brought a stuffed rabbit.”
    He put the stuffed bunny rabbit into a shiny black top hat. “This trick is called the Flying Rabbit,” he said. “Watch carefully, Max.”
    He set the top hat upside down on my computer table. Then he began to wave his hands slowly back and forth over the hat.
    “Whoa, dude!” I cried out as the bunny slowly rose up from the hat.
    Quentin waved his hands in the air, and the bunny floated up … higher … higher …The bunny rose up to the ceiling and just hung there. Then Quentin gave a fast signal with one hand — and it came shooting back down. It dropped with a
thump
back into the top hat.
    “Wow,” I said. “I mean, wow. That's totally awesome, Quentin.”
    He grinned at me. “You liked it?”
    “I'm pretty good with basic hand stuff,” I said. “But your tricks are like …
amazing
!”
    His grin grew wider. He brushed his blond hair off his forehead. “It isn't that hard, really.”
    “Let me show you a water trick I've been practicing,” I said. I started toward the bathroom to get a glass of water —but Colin stepped into the doorway and blocked my path.
    “Let me out,” I said. “Quentin and I are practicing for my party.”
    Of course my brother didn't step out of the way. Instead, he bumped me backward with his chest. Then bumped me again until I fell onto my bed.
    “Hey, Blubber Butt, what's the theme of your party?” he asked, pinning me on my back.
    “Theme?”
    “Every cool party has a theme,” Colin said. “Oh, I know. I've got the perfect one for you. How about‘armpits’?”
    “I don't think so —” I started.
    “Yeah. Armpits. It's perfect,” Colin said. He grabbed me, dug both hands deep into my armpits, and started tickling.
    “Unh unh unh!” A horrible choking sound came out of my mouth. He was tickling me so hard, I couldn't
breathe.
    “Ow! Stop! Owwww!” I pleaded and begged. But Colin kept tickling, digging his fingers in deeper and deeper.
    “Owwwwww!” I shrieked in pain.
    Finally, he stopped. “Maxie, you don't like that party theme?”
    I glanced over at Quentin. There was