For the first time in his life, Bobby was looking forward to PE.

“What’s going on?” Holly asked as the teams lined up and Mr. Rainerhaus took roll.

“Nothing,” Bobby said, trying to hide a grin.

“Bobby Ellis-Chan, I know you,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re up to something.”

Just then, a loud, deep voice yelled, “Where’s Mr. Rainerhaus?”

Everyone froze as a large figure in full football gear stampeded toward Mr. Rainerhaus. It stopped short of knocking him over, and growled with one arm out in the trademarked Freezer stance.

Elated, Mr. Rainerhaus stuck his arm out and growled back. “Everyone!” he cried. “It’s Roy Ellis-Chan, The Freezer!”

The kids clapped and crowded around Bobby’s dad. He normally looked big, but when he was in his LA Earthquakes uniform with all the pads, he was even more impressive.

As The Freezer gave the class tips on throwing and catching the football, Bobby watched carefully. Everyone was listening to his father and laughing and nodding. And Mr. Ellis-Chan looked happy, unlike when he burned dinner, or ruined the laundry, or sewed a dog costume.

“If it’s okay with your teacher, I brought something for all of you,” The Freezer was saying. Mr. Rainerhaus nodded, then beamed when Bobby’s father opened a big cloth sack. Inside were special edition Freezer foam LA Earthquakes footballs. There were enough for everyone. Bobby knew the Ellis-Chan garage was full of boxes of Freezer footballs, Freezer posters, Freezer jerseys, and tons of other Freezer stuff from when his dad played pro ball.

“Bobby, will you be in charge of handing all this out?” his father asked.

“Sure thing, Dad!” Bobby said.

“My son said you were playing football, and suggested I come by,” The Freezer explained to Mr. Rainerhaus as the kids tested their new footballs. “When Bobby asks me to do something, I do it!”

“Wow,” St. James told Bobby as he caught Jillian Zarr’s football and then threw it over the fence. “You sure are lucky.”

Bobby nodded. He did feel lucky.

 

That afternoon, Bobby raced to his bedroom. Next to the poster of Troy Eagle doing his record-setting ollie, Bobby put up another poster: This one was of The Freezer flying through the air, catching a football.

“Halloween’s this weekend,” he told Koloff and Beatrice as he stood back and admired the posters. “I’m still not sure what my costume’s going to be. I know for sure it won’t be Sandy the dog.” Bobby took the little soccer ball out of the cigar box. “Are you ready to practice?”

When neither fish responded, he said, “What? Are you trying to tell me you don’t want to do tricks? Sure you do! You should have seen all the amazing things Rover could do with this soccer ball.” Beatrice turned away and explored the castle, while Koloff just stared at Bobby. “Come on you two, you can be exactly like Rover —”

Suddenly the smile fell off of Bobby’s face. In shock, he sat down on his bed and stared straight ahead. Then he got up and went over to the aquarium. “Oh man, I owe you two an apology,” he told the goldfish. “I was trying to get you to do tricks like Rover, but that was what I wanted, not what you wanted. I am so sorry. Here, look!” Bobby took the ball and the hoops out of the fish tank. “See, you don’t have to do tricks. Not if you don’t want to. Really, I promise. You two are terrific just the way you are!”

Upon hearing this, Beatrice swam up to the top of the fish tank, and Koloff joined her. Then together they swam to the bottom and, side by side, circled the tank twice before returning to the surface.

“What was that?” Bobby asked.

Again, the fish swam side by side, this time doing flips and spins along the way.

Bobby couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Koloff and Beatrice were dancing.

 

The outside of the Ellis-Chan house was decorated with not-too-scary skeletons and big pumpkins carved to look like Annie, Bobby, and Casey. Fake friendly bats hung from the rafters of the front porch and sparkly cobwebs adorned the windows. Mr. Ellis-Chan secured a giant spider made from plastic garbage bags to the roof as Annie raked the leaves off the lawn and then put up fake tombstones.

Inside, Mrs. Ellis-Chan, Bobby, and Casey were seated around the kitchen table. In the middle were piles of individually wrapped gumballs, fun-sized chocolate bars, and sparkly Go Girly Girl stickers.

“You still haven’t told me what your costume is,” Bobby said to Casey. He popped an orange gumball into his mouth, then blew a bubble. Bobby was good at blowing bubbles. Sometimes they got so big that the gum got stuck in his hair.

“Guess! Bobby, guess who I’m going to be for Halloween!” Casey said as she slapped a sticker on her forehead and then one on his.

Bobby pretended to think about it. “Princess Becky?” It was a pretty safe bet, since that’s who Casey dressed as every day.

“Nope.” She giggled. “You’ll see.”

“What about you, Bobby?” Mrs. Ellis-Chan asked as she dropped a gumball, a chocolate, and some stickers into a bag and then tied a ribbon around it. “Since you can’t wear your Sandy costume, we can run to the store, or maybe cobble together something from home. How about your space alien costume from last year? Does that still fit?”

“One of the heads fell off,” he informed his mother. Bobby snuck his fifth gumball. It was getting hard to talk. “But don’t worry about it. I have something else in mind.”

After the bags were filled, Bobby went into the yard to admire the tombstones. Casey was talking to Wormy Worm Worm as Gnomey Gnome Gnome stood quietly off to the side.

Bobby picked up the gnome. “Casey,” he said. “This doesn’t belong to you.”

“I know,” she said. “I gave it to my worm.”

He shook his head. “You took it from someone’s yard, and now you have to give it back.”

Casey’s eyes filled with tears. “But Bobby, Mommy said she wanted something for her garden. Plus, that’s Wormy Worm Worm’s best friend.”

“I thought you were Wormy Worm Worm’s best friend,” he said.

Casey smiled. “I am!” she said gleefully. “I guess I forgot.”

“Come on, Casey,” he said. “I’ll help you make something for Mom’s garden later. In the meantime, let’s ask Holly to take us back to where this lawn gnome lives. He’s been on vacation long enough.”

 

“Swoozie lives there,” Holly said, pointing to a tidy two-story brick house with a lady lawn gnome and three smaller gnomes standing next to her in the garden.

Bobby could see a brown patch on the grass where another lawn gnome had once stood. “Put him back, Casey,” he instructed.

Reluctantly, his sister shuffled over to the brown patch, holding Gnomey Gnome Gnome. She kissed his head, then returned him to his family.

As they walked back, Casey’s lower lip began to quiver. “I miss Gnomey Gnome Gnome.”

“Well, I’m sure he’s happy to be home,” Holly told her. “You can visit him anytime.”

Casey brightened at the thought. “Hey, Holly Holly Holly, did you know that Beatrice and Koloff can dance?”

Holly smiled. “That’s nice, Casey,” she said.

“It’s true!” Bobby told her. “Come on, I’ll show you. Let’s race to my house!”

 

Holly peered into the aquarium. Then she rubbed her eyes and looked again. “Bobby! It really does look like they’re doing synchronized swimming.”

Casey pressed her nose against the glass. “What’s stinkronized swimming? Does it hurt? Does it stink? Holly, did you know that fish poop and pee in the water?”

“Casey, stop that,” Bobby said, wiping her nose print off the glass. “Synchronized swimming is like dancing in the water together. See how Koloff and Beatrice are swimming side by side?”

“Can they twirl?” Casey asked. “I can.” She twirled around the room to prove it.

“It’s amazing,” Holly gushed as Casey spun past her. “How did you get Beatrice and Koloff to swim together?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Bobby said. “I kept trying to get them to do Rover’s tricks, but they weren’t interested. This was all their idea.”

Casey twirled past again, then fell over. When no one said anything, she leapt up and fell over again, then got up and left in a huff.

“I’m going to wear my Miss Hannigan costume tonight,” Holly told Bobby. “What are you going to be for Halloween?”

“All the guys are going as superheroes this year. I’m going as one too,” Bobby said.