R. L. Stine_Mostly Ghostly 06 Read Free Page B

something wrong with him.
    He stood beside the desk, totally frozen. Not moving. Not blinking. Arms straight down. Face straight forward. Frozen still, as if he was in a trance.
    I pushed Colin away and leaped off the bed. My heart pounding, I ran to my friend. “Quentin?” I cried. “Quentin? What's wrong?”

7
    I G RABBED HIS SHOULDERS and shook him. “Quentin? Hey —Quentin?”
    Colin came up to me and bumped me from behind. “What's up with your friend?”
    “Something is wrong,” I said. I shook him some more. “Quentin?”
    Finally, Quentin blinked. He wrinkled his nose. He squinted at me.
    I let go of his shoulders, and he staggered back a few steps.
    “Quentin? What happened?” I asked.
    “I … I'm painfully ticklish,” he said finally. His hand shook as he brushed a thick strand of hair off his forehead. “It's crazy. But if I even
see
someone getting tickled, I panic.”
    Colin giggled. “You're joking, right?”
    “It's true,” Quentin insisted. “I'm so ticklish, I can't even stand to
think
about being tickled. And if I see someone else being tickled, I … I freeze. It's like I go into a trance state.”
    Colin gave me a hard shove. “Whoa, dude.Your new friend is as weird as your old one, Aaron.”
    “Hey —cut me some slack,” Quentin said. The poor guy was still trembling.
    Colin raised two fingers in the air and pretended to tickle me.
    “Stop it!” I shouted. “That's not funny!”
    Shaking his head, Colin trotted out of the room.
    I turned back to Quentin. “Are you feeling okay now?” I asked.
    He nodded. “Yeah. I'm all right. But I'd better get home. It's kinda late.”
    I glanced at the clock. Only a little after eight. “Just let me show you my new trick,” I said.
    “Sorry. I'm outta here,” Quentin replied. “I'm working on a project at home and I want to get back to it. You know, I build things too.”
    “Cool,” I said. I walked him downstairs to the front door. “Sorry about Colin,” I said. “He's kind of a jerk.”
    “Kind of,” Quentin murmured.
    We both laughed. My armpits still burned as if they were on fire.
    I said good night to Quentin and climbed back upstairs. I could hear the TV on in Colin's room at the end of the hall. When I walked into my room, Nicky and Tara were waiting for me.
    “There's something strange about Quentin,”Tara said. She was pacing back and forth, pulling at her long earrings. She does that when she's stressed or when she's thinking hard about something.
    “Don't pick on Quentin,” I said. “He had a rough night.”
    “That's just my point,” Tara replied. She stopped pacing and stared at me. “There's something totally weird about how he just froze like that. Like he's a robot and his circuits blew out.”
    “You've been seeing too many dumb movies,” I said. “He explained what happened. He's just very ticklish.”
    “Hel-
lo.
No one is
that
ticklish,” Nicky said. He was sitting on my bed, juggling one duckpin between his hands. “No one goes into a trance because someone
else
is being tickled.”
    “Quentin does,” I said, frowning at him. “Since when are you a tickling expert?”
    “There's something else very strange about him,” Tara said. One of her earrings had gotten tangled in her floppy hat, and she struggled to free it.
    I rolled my eyes. “What else?”
    “His magic is too good,” she replied. “Way too good.”
    “I hate to say it, but Tara is right,” Nicky said, tossing up the duckpin. “There's something very suspicious about Quentin.”
    I let out a long sigh. “You two are just jealous,” I snapped. “You're jealous because he's my best friend now.”
    Tara laughed. “Us? Jealous? You're joking, right?”
    “Hel-
lo,
” Nicky said. “We're just looking out for you, Max. You've already got that weird boy in black following you.”
    “Whoa. Wait!” Tara stopped pacing and clapped her hands together. “That's it! Quentin is working with that weird ghost in black. They're