ماسک روح زده فصل 04

The Haunted Mask - Chapter 4

“QUAAAAAAACCCK!”

With a hideous cry, an enormous white-feathered duck, its eyes wild and frenzied, leapt at Carly Beth.

As she staggered backwards in astonishment, the duck knocked her over and pinned her to the hallway floor.

“QUAAACCCK! QUAAAACK!”

The costume has come alive!

That was Carly Beth’s first frightened thought.

Then she quickly realized the truth. “Noah—get off me!” she demanded, trying to push the big duck off her chest.

The white feathers brushed against her nose. “Hey—that tickles!”

She sneezed.

“Noah—come on!”

“QUAAAAACCCK!”

“Noah, I mean it!” she told her eight-year-old brother. “What are you doing in my costume? It’s supposed to be my costume.”

“I was just trying it on,” Noah said, his blue eyes staring down at her through the white-and-yellow duck mask. “Did I scare you?”

“Not a bit,” Carly Beth lied. “Now get up! You’re heavy!”

He refused to budge.

“Why do you always want everything that’s mine?” Carly Beth demanded angrily.

“I don’t,” he replied.

“And why do you think it’s so funny to try to scare me all the time?” she asked.

“I can’t help it if you get scared every time I say boo,” he replied nastily.

“Get up! Get up!”

He quacked a few more times, flapping the feathery wings. Then he climbed to his feet. “Can I have this costume? It’s really neat.”

Carly Beth frowned and shook her head. “You got feathers all over me. You’re molting!”

“Molting? What’s that mean?” Noah demanded. He pulled off the mask. His blond hair was damp from sweat and matted against his head.

“It means you’re going to be a bald duck!” Carly Beth told him.

“I don’t care. Can I have this costume?” Noah asked, examining the mask. “It fits me. Really!”

“I don’t know,” Carly Beth told him. “Maybe.”

The phone rang in her room. “Get lost, okay? Go fly south for the winter or something,” she said, and hurried to answer the phone.

As she ran to her desk, she saw white feathers all over her bed. That costume will never survive till Halloween! she thought.

She picked up the receiver. “Hello? Oh, hi, Sabrina. Yeah. I’m okay.”

Sabrina had called to remind Carly Beth that the school Science Fair was tomorrow. They had to finish their project, a model of the solar system constructed with Ping-Pong balls.

“Come over after dinner,” Carly Beth told her. “It’s almost finished. We just have to paint it. My mom said she’d help us take it to school tomorrow.”

They chatted for a while. Then Carly Beth confided, “I was so mad, Sabrina. At lunch today. Why do Chuck and Steve think it’s so funny to do things like that to me?”

Sabrina was silent for a moment. “I guess it’s because you’re so scare-able, Carly Beth.”

“Scare-able?”

“You scream so easily,” Sabrina said. “Other people get scared. But they’re more quiet about it. You know Chuck and Steve. They don’t really mean to be mean. They just think it’s funny.”

“Well, I don’t think it’s funny at all,” Carly Beth replied unhappily. “And I’m not going to be scare-able anymore. I mean it. I’m not ever going to scream or get frightened again.”

The science projects were all set up for judging on the stage in the auditorium. Mrs. Armbruster, the principal, and Mr. Smythe, the science teacher, walked from display to display, making notes on their clipboards.

The solar system, as designed by Carly Beth and Sabrina, had survived the trip to school in pretty good shape. Pluto had a slight dent in it, which the girls had struggled unsuccessfully to straighten out. And Earth kept coming loose from its string and bouncing across the floor. But both girls agreed the display looked pretty good.

Maybe it wasn’t as impressive as Martin Goodman’s project. Martin had built a computer from scratch. But Martin was a genius. And Carly Beth figured the judges didn’t expect everyone else to be geniuses, too.

Looking around the crowded, noisy stage, Carly Beth saw other interesting projects. Mary Sue Chong had built some kind of electronic robot arm that could pick up a cup or wave to people. And Brian Baldwin had several glass bottles filled with brown gunky stuff that he claimed was toxic waste.

Someone had done a chemical analysis of the town’s drinking water. And someone had built a volcano that would erupt when the two judges came by.

“Our project is kind of boring,” Sabrina whispered nervously to Carly Beth, her eyes on the two judges who were oohing and aahing over Martin Goodman’s homemade computer. “I mean, it’s just painted Ping-Pong balls on strings.”

“I like our project,” Carly Beth insisted. “We worked hard on it, Sabrina.”

“I know,” Sabrina replied fretfully. “But it’s still kind of boring.”

The volcano erupted, sending up a gusher of red liquid. The judges appeared impressed. Several kids cheered.

“Uh-oh. Here they come,” Carly Beth whispered, jamming her hands into her jeans pockets. Mrs. Armbruster and Mr. Smythe, smiles plastered across their faces, were coming closer.

They stopped to examine a display of light and crystals.

Suddenly, Carly Beth heard an excited shout from somewhere behind her on the stage. “My tarantula! Hey—my tarantula got out!”

She recognized Steve’s voice.

“Where’s my tarantula?” he called.

Several kids uttered startled cries. Some kids laughed.

I’m not going to get scared, Carly Beth told herself, swallowing hard.

She knew she was terrified of tarantulas. But this time she was determined not to show it.

“My tarantula—it got away!” Steve shouted over the roar of excited voices.

I’m not going to get scared. I’m not going to get scared, Carly Beth repeated to herself.

But then she felt something pinch the back of her leg and dig its spiny pincer into her skin—and Carly Beth uttered a shrill scream of terror that rang out through the auditorium.