‘“There he is,” George heard a third-grader whisper to his friend in the lunch line later that day. The kid pointed to George. “The one who’s going to ruin everything.”

“I hear he’s new here. He probably didn’t have a Halloween parade at his old school,” the other third-grader said.

“He must really hate Halloween. Or parades.”

George’s face turned bright red. That wasn’t true at all. George loved Halloween. And parades.

“You guys know it wasn’t me,” George said to Chris, Alex, and Julianna as they sat down at the lunch table.

“I believe you,” Julianna said.

“Me too,” Alex said. “It was just weird that the skeleton in the nurse’s office was wearing the same mask you tried on in the store the other day. Good thing you were kicked out before you could buy the mask. Because if you hadn’t been . . .”

“That would have been another clue that pointed to me,” George finished.

Just then two fifth-graders walked past George and his friends.

“Jerk,” one of them said, coughing into his hand as he passed.

“If Principal McKeon really does cancel the parade, everyone will think it’s my fault,” George groaned.

“I know how to stop that from happening,” Chris said suddenly.

“How?” George asked.

“Easy,” Chris said. “We just have to find out who the real Phantom is, and tell him to stop pranking.”

“How?” George repeated.

Chris shrugged. “I didn’t figure that part out yet.”

There was something else that no one had figured out yet—how to stop the super burp from bursting out of George. That was a solution George could have really used. Right now! Because the bubbles were back.

Bing-bong. Ping-pong. The bubbles bounced on George’s bladder, and leaped onto his lungs. They jumped up to George’s jaw and tickled his tongue.

George shut his mouth tight and tried to trap the burp. But the bubbles were strong. Too strong.

Suddenly George let out a burp. It wasn’t a supersonic super burp. It was more like a mini burp. But that was enough.

His hands grabbed a big slice of salami from his tray and slapped it against his face like a mask. George’s nose poked itself right through the slice of salami.

Aachooo! George’s nose sneezed!

“Gross!” Louie yelled.

“Oh, Georgie!” Sage gasped. “You’re not going to eat that now, are you?”

George wanted to tell Sage he didn’t eat booger-covered salami. But when he opened his mouth, all that came out was, “Not without mustard!”

George’s hand folded itself into a fist and slammed down on one of the mustard packs on his tray.

Squirt! Mustard flew up in the air.

“Cut that out!” Louie shouted from across the table. “I don’t like mustard.”

“Mount Mustard is erupting!” George shouted. He popped three mustard packs with one big blow. “Take cover!”

Sage moved her chair away. “This is my favorite shirt, Georgie,” she told him. “Don’t get mustard on it, please!”

“Whoa!” Chris exclaimed as he watched a big glob of mustard shoot into the air. “I think you just got mustard on the ceiling. Impressive.”

“Dude, you gotta stop,” Alex told him. “Principal McKeon’s on her way over.”

But George couldn’t stop. He wasn’t in charge anymore. The super burp was.

George grabbed two packs of mustard from Chris’s tray. He pulled his fist back, and got ready to pound. And then . . .

Pop! George felt the air rush right out of him. The mini super burp was gone. But George was still there. With salami on his face and mustard on his fist.

“George Brown! What are you doing?” Principal McKeon demanded. “Food is not meant to be played with.”

George opened his mouth to say, “I’m sorry.” And that’s exactly what came out.

“Get some napkins and clean up this mess,” the principal told him.

As the principal walked away, Louie shook his head. “First you pull all your Phantom pranks, and now you’re making mustard explode. You won’t stop until the principal is so mad she cancels the parade!”

By now, half the kids in the cafeteria were staring at George.

George frowned. “Stick a fork in me,” he groaned to Alex, Julianna, and Chris. “I’m done.”

“Don’t worry, dude,” Alex assured him. “We’ll figure something out.”

George knew Alex was trying to be nice. But Alex had been trying for months to solve George’s burp problem. And that thing was still around.

The parade was scheduled for the day after tomorrow. If they didn’t find the true identity of the Phantom soon, George wasn’t going to need a Halloween costume. He could just go as George Brown, world’s most hated fourth-grader.