You Can't Scare Me! Read Free

screaming. But most everyone was laughing uproariously.
    I had my eye on the bee on the grass. It buzzed loudly off the ground and made a dive for my face.
    â€œWhoa!” I screamed and dropped to my knees, flailing my hands above my head.
    â€œI think it’s time to get back to school,” I heard Mr. Melvin say over the laughter of the other kids.
    Courtney flashed me a smug grin as I walked past her down the aisle on the bus. I kept my eyes straight ahead and walked faster, ignoring her.
    Some kids were making buzzing bee sounds. Others were hissing like snakes. Everyone thought it was a total riot that Hat and I had acted like such chickens.
    I slumped down into the very last seat with a sigh. Hat dropped beside me and pulled his cap down over his eyes.
    The seat stretched all the way across the back of the bus. Molly and Charlene joined us. Charlene was chewing her bubble gum furiously. Molly was trying to unstick her gum from her braces.
    None of us said a word until the bus pulled away.
    Then we started to grumble in low voices about Courtney and what a show-off she was. “She just thinks she’s the greatest,” Hat muttered unhappily.
    â€œShe acts as if she isn’t afraid of anything,” Charlene said. “Like she’s Superwoman or something.”
    â€œThrowing those bees at Eddie was a mean joke,” Molly added, still struggling to unstick the gum from her braces.
    â€œShe knows what a chicken Eddie is,” Hat said. “She knew he’d scream and carry on like a jerk.”
    â€œWell, so did you!” I cried, not meaning to sound so babyish.
    â€œHey, I’m on
your
side!” Hat insisted, giving me a shove.
    I shoved him back. I was really angry. Mostly with myself, I guess.
    â€œThere’s got to be
something
that Courtney is afraid of,” Charlene said thoughtfully.
    The bus stopped at a red light. I glanced out the window and saw that we were at the woods that led to Muddy Creek. “Maybe she’s afraid of the Mud Monsters,” I suggested.
    My three friends laughed bitterly. “No way,” Charlene said. “No one really believes in the Mud Monsters anymore. That’s a stupid old fairy tale. No way Courtney would be afraid of them.”
    There’s a legend in our town that the Mud Monsters live under the muddy banks of the creek. And sometimes, when the moon is full, the Mud Monsters rise up from the creek bed, all dripping with mud, and look for victims to pull down into the mud with them.
    It’s a good story. I used to believe it when I was a little kid. My brother, Kevin, always took me into the woods there. He would tell me about the Mud Monsters rising up. Then he’d start to point and tremble and say that he saw them. I tried not to get scared. But I couldn’t help it. I always startedscreaming and running for my life!
    â€œIs your brother still making that movie about the Mud Monsters?” Hat asked.
    I nodded. “Yeah. You should see the disgusting costumes he and his friends cooked up. They’re really gross.”
    Kevin and some of his friends were making a home video for one of their high school courses. It was a horror movie called
The Mud Monsters of Muddy Creek.
    I begged him to let me be in it. But he said he couldn’t take the risk. “What if the
real
Mud Monsters rose up and came after you?” he asked, grinning at me.
    I tried to explain that I was too old, that he couldn’t scare me with that stuff anymore. But Kevin still wouldn’t let me be in the video.
    The bus started with a jolt. I glanced up to the front and saw Courtney and Denise staring back at me, laughing.
    I turned to my friends. “We’ve got to find a way to scare Courtney,” I said heatedly. “We’ve
got
to!”
    â€œEddie’s right,” Hat quickly agreed. “We’ve got to find a way to scare Courtney and embarrass her in front of a whole bunch of kids.