Sunny Sweet Is So Not Scary (5 page)

Lightning blinded me.

I knocked over a beaker.

“Watch out! That's my density experiment!” Sunny shout-whispered, making me lose my balance.

I reached out to break my fall. I grabbed a hold of something thin and smooth . . . and not at all strong enough to stop me from falling. I think it was a rib. Whatever it was, it cracked right off in my hand and I landed in a tangled heap on top of Sunny's skeleton.

“ALLAN!”

My pajamas got hooked onto a couple of bony fingers. I tried to get away, but he held on to me tightly.

Thunder shook the room.

I ripped the bones from my pants and threw that thing about ten feet. It sounded like a thousand pots falling when it hit the wall.

I was so out of there.

I leaped off the ground as if it were on fire, swiped the iPad off the desk, and swiveled around toward the bed just in time for the flashlight to go out.

“Help!”

I hopped across the room like a crazy rabbit, lifting my feet up high so each of them was spending as little
time as possible on the floor. Two steps from safety, something touched my toe. It felt just like a tiny hand!

I flung myself at the bed, ramming into Alice.

She hugged me tight.

I was safe . . . I was safe . . . I was safe.

My heart thudded in my ears.

I was safe . . . I was safe . . . I was safe.

I never wanted her to let me go—except that I did—because she was hugging me so hard that I was sure she would crack my mom's iPad, and I really needed her to let go of my lungs so I could breathe.

“Allan,” Sunny moaned.

“The battery died!” I howled as soon as I had enough air in my lungs so I wouldn't die.

“Highly unlikely,” Sunny whispered.

I would have strangled her, but my arms felt like wet noodles after being almost eaten by the little men. “Just find out how to get rid of the ghost,” I told her, handing her the iPad.

She turned it on and began to search. “Okay,” she said, her face lit up by the glow of the screen. “This looks like a good site. It's called UnwantedGhost dot com.”

“That sounds perfect,” Alice said.

Junchao unburied herself from our wall of pillows and stuffed animals.

Sunny read, “‘So you think you have a ghost? The first thing you will want to do is keep from jumping to conclusions. You must make sure that you have a real ghost. Many times there can be a logical explanation for strange occurrences in your home. Just because a door rattles or you hear a bang in the basement is not proof that you have a ghost in your house.'”

“It sounds reasonable,” Junchao said.

I agreed. It did sound reasonable. Maybe we were jumping to conclusions. Had I really seen a ghost in the closet? Did the door really open up wider after Sunny and I got back to the couch? Could it just be Mrs. Song walking around in her sleep and snoring in a strange, ghost-howling way?
This whole thing was probably a mistake
.

Sunny continued, “‘Perhaps you are feeling drafts. Many old homes don't have enough insulation and may even have cracks in their walls where air is getting in. Just by fixing these cracks, you may notice that the
drafts are gone and that the door that seemed to open or close all on its own has stopped.'”

I bet this was it! A draft opened the front hall closet. It wasn't a ghost. I could feel Alice and Junchao relaxing a little too as we listened to Sunny.

“‘If lights in your home turn on and off, you should have your electrical system checked right away. It is most likely faulty or damaged wiring and not a ghost.'”

Of course! Of course it's faulty wiring.
Happiness filled my chest. My stomach growled. I was hungry. I thought about the rest of Mrs. Song's dumplings in the kitchen. We could heat those up and then watch a movie . . . not a scary movie, just a movie. And thank goodness I did not wake up Mrs. Song!

Sunny kept reading.

“‘Have you heard knocking or tapping on your walls? You may have something living in your walls, but that something isn't necessarily a ghost. It's most likely a rodent. It may also be a tree branch scraping against the outside walls of your house. Check your basement and attic for critters such as mice, raccoons, squirrels, or bats. Check your exterior walls
for branches or anything that might be swinging in the wind and bumping against your home.'”

A raccoon! That's what the footsteps were. It wasn't Mrs. Song but a raccoon. It was probably walking around on the roof. Or maybe it got into the attic. Raccoons are so cute, but still, they shouldn't be in your house.

I'd tell my mom as soon as she got home tomorrow. And I'd tell her that she had to call an electrician too. Mrs. Song's son was an electrician. And he was really nice. He always gave Sunny and me little toys out of his truck when he visited Mrs. Song. Last time he gave us these little plastic soldier guys with parachutes stuck to them. Sunny and I had so much fun winding up the parachutes into balls around the soldiers, throwing them out of Mrs. Song's second-floor bathroom window, and watching them float down into her azalea bushes.

The raccoon that is up in the attic probably ate through some wires up there and now our lights are out. All I had to do was tell my mom all about it when
she got home. I wondered what Mrs. Song's son would bring Sunny and me this time.

My stomach grumbled again.
Mrs. Song's dumplings, here we come!

Sunny was still reading.

I tried to pay attention even though all I wanted to do was think about dumplings in salty soy sauce.

“‘Once you have reviewed any maintenance or repairs that your house may need, only then can you consider that you may have a ghost problem.'”

“Okay,” I said. “I'll tell Mom about the raccoon and the house repairs when she gets home tomorrow. So do you guys want to go eat more dumplings?”

“What raccoon?” asked Junchao.

“I'm not done,” Sunny said. “I didn't get to the ten warning signs.”

“Warning signs?” I asked.

Sunny read, “‘Below are the ten warning signs to determine if there is ghostly activity in your home. If you have experienced any of these ten warning signs, or more than one, you may not be alone in your home.'”

“I don't like the sound of that,” said Junchao.

I didn't either.

 

Warning Signs

Warning signs,'” read Sunny. “‘Number one: Items in your home disappear, then reappear frequently.'”

Alice and Junchao looked at me. “Nothing is missing,” I said, kind of excited.

“What about Mommy's glasses when she was packing up for her conference?” Sunny said.

“She loses those all the time.”

Sunny shrugged.

I heard Junchao gulp.

“What's the second one?” I asked.

“‘Items or furniture move all on their own,'” read Sunny.

“We're good on that one,” I said. “Nothing has moved. Next one!”

“‘Number three: You see flashes of light.'”

“No flashes,” I said.

Sunny went to open her mouth.

“That was lightning.”

She shut it.

“What's the next one?” asked Junchao.

“‘You see shadows moving,'” read Sunny.

Junchao, Alice, and I glanced around the room.

“No shadows,” I whispered, hoping that the ghost didn't hear me and make a shadow. “So far, so good.” I said. “That's four. Only six more to go.”

“‘Number five: You feel cold spots in your home,'” Sunny read.

“I was feeling cold before, remember?” said Alice.

“But that was the vein thing, right, Sunny?” I looked at my little sister.

She gave a tiny shrug. “I thought it was.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, glaring at Sunny. “What are you up to?”

“What?” asked Sunny.

“What do you mean, you
thought
. You never just
think
anything. You
know
.”

“No one can know everything,” she said.

I hopped to my knees on the bed. “Sunny Sweet,” I said, “you are totally up to something!” How could I have not seen this before? I looked over at Alice and Junchao. Their eyes were wide as they blinked back at me in the dark. “She's behind this. Don't you see it? Don't you believe me?” I said to my friends.

“How could Sunny have made those footstep sounds or howled?” asked Alice. “She was with us.”

“And she did try to be a ghost. Remember how she hid behind the curtain,” Junchao added. “Plus, she doesn't even believe in ghosts.”

I narrowed my eyes and frowned at my little sister.

“It says here on the site,” Sunny continued, “‘When we are emotionally stressed out, we attract negative energy to us.'”

“What do you mean?” I growled.

“I know what it means,” said Alice. “My grandmother talks about it all the time. If you only look at the bad things, then sometimes the bad things find you!”

“So you think this ghost is here because I'm not being nice to my sister!” I shouted.

CLOMP. CLOMP. CLOMP.

We all dove under the pillow wall.

“That doesn't mean anything.” My voice sounded really loud in my own ears under the pillows.

“Well, you did kind of yell at her to go to bed before the movie,” came Junchao's muffled voice through the pillow.

“And you aren't that happy with her now, even though she's helping us,” Alice added.

I couldn't believe it! My friends were joining in with my little sister against me! “So the ghost is all my fault?” My own hot breath was making my face sweat. I was just about to unbury myself from the pillows and stomp right out of Sunny's room when . . .

Wooo. Wooo. Wooooo.

Oh no. This ghost was all my fault!

All four of us squished closer together behind our pillow wall.

“Okay,” I said. “Maybe I was a little too forceful about wanting Sunny to go to bed. But you guys have to admit that she wasn't listening to me and this is my sleepover.”

“That's a little negative, don't you think?” said Sunny.

I lunged at her.

Junchao and Alice pounced on top of me, holding me back.

“I hate to point this out, but attacking me is also negative,” Sunny said, hiding a smile.

“You don't hate pointing it out,” I said, struggling to break free from my friends. “You love pointing it out!”

“Masha,” Junchao said, “she's right.”

How many times in my life had I heard that statement? One trillion billion times. That's how many! I broke free from Junchao and Alice, but instead of strangling Sunny, I just growled at her.

“Growling . . . ,” Sunny started. Junchao covered Sunny's mouth with both her hands.

“It's okay, Masha,” Alice said. “We don't care that you brought out the ghost. You're our friend, and we're going to help you get rid of it. Right, Junchao?”

“That's right,” Junchao said. “We're all in this together.” She took her hands off Sunny's mouth.

“Yes,” Sunny said. “We're all in this together.”

I wanted to say that I didn't bring the ghost. And that maybe it had been Sunny. Or that maybe the ghost had always been here. But I didn't like the sound of that last idea, and the one before it was probably another negative thing.

Plus, I loved my friends. They were the best friends ever not to abandon me just because I had an angry ghost following me around. But since I still didn't trust myself not to say something mega negative about puny Dr. Paranormal, I just said, “Read the next one.”

“‘Number six: You smell things,'” she read.

“Smell things?” I said. “Like pancakes or something?”

“No,” Junchao said. “Like burned rubber.”

“What do you mean?” asked Alice.

“Remember when I said I smelled something?” Junchao grimaced. She looked a little like she'd just shoved a big spoonful of cold lima beans in her mouth. “It was burned rubber. You know, like a car tire was burning. But you guys didn't smell it. Remember?” She looked a little hopeful.

“I smelled it,” said Sunny.

I looked at Sunny . . . trying to tell if she really had smelled it. “Did you, Alice?” I asked.

“I . . . I don't . . . maybe I did. I can't remember,” Alice stammered. “Does burning rubber smell a little like a hot curling iron? My mom is always curling her hair with a curling iron, and I might have smelled something like that.”

“I think it does,” Junchao said glumly.

“I didn't smell a curling iron,” I said. “And I didn't smell any car tires either.” But I could tell no one was listening to me, and I could tell that number six was already checked yes by Junchao, Alice, and Sunny.

“Listen,” I said. “There was no moving furniture and no shadows and no flashing lights for sure. And cold spots and disappearing items were only kind-ofs. So
really, smelling stuff is only one definite warning sign. And one definite warning sign doesn't mean we have a ghost. Right?” I looked at Sunny. “Right, Sunny? That's only one thing so far.”

Sunny looked down at the iPad screen and reread, “‘If you experience any of these ten incidents, especially more than one, this is good evidence to support that you may not be alone in your home.'”

“Okay,” I said. “No one panic.” Unfortunately, it looked like Junchao wasn't going to listen to me. Her eyes were rolling around in her head, and she was chewing on two fingernails at once. “This is only one. And they said more than one, so we're good.”

“It does say,
especially more than one
,” Sunny piped in.

“See.” I looked at Junchao. “Sunny agrees.”

“Well, we still have four left to read,” Sunny said. “But it's good that you're being positive now, Masha.”