Wednesday morning big group practice went by smoothly, and Robert was relieved. He had come to camp to become a better cheerleader, not to chase ghosts and get in trouble.
Head Coach Jennifer had chosen him to be one of the tumblers in front of the pyramid. He could hardly wait for his parents to come to the final performance on Friday. They would be excited to watch him turn a back handspring during the cheer.
Even lunch with the Destroyers wasn’t half bad. The group talked about the morning’s practice and what it was like to cheer back home. Ellie and Madison talked about teaching the small group cheer they learned on Tuesday to the basketball cheerleaders back home.
Robert walked back to Oak Manor with Ellie and Maryam. Actually, Ellie and Maryam cartwheeled back to the cabin, while Robert judged them on who turned the better cartwheel.
The three of them had actually become friends. Robert was glad. Madison and Josh were okay, but they could be mean.
The three were laughing and out of breath when they got to the cabin. Suddenly they heard shrieking coming from the girls’ room. They ran in to find Kiley sitting on the floor. Her poms were covered in sticky caramel sauce and gooey hot fudge.
Kiley looked miserable. “How am I going to be part of the big group cheer without my poms?”
Maryam shook her head. “Ugh. Who would have done this?”
“I guess the Ghost of Oak Manor,” said Kiley. She held out a piece of paper with typing on it.
Maryam, Robert, and Ellie read the paper silently to themselves: YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO WIN THE CAMP COMPETITION. THINK AGAIN. HEATHER, THE GHOST OF OAK MANOR.
“Can ghosts type?” asked Ellie.
Robert shook his head. “There are no ghosts,” he said. “This is just another prank.”
He turned and looked at Ellie. “Are you sure you don’t know anything about this?”
Ellie now looked like she was about to cry. “I would never do anything like this,” she said.
“No, but your fellow Destroyers would,” Robert said. “Notice only the Dream Machine have had pranks played on them. First Maryam was locked in the bathroom, now Kiley’s poms. Doesn’t that seem suspicious?”
“I’m telling you that we had nothing to do with this,” said Ellie. She turned around and walked out of the girls’ room, just as Josh and Madison were coming in.
“Gross! What a mess!” said Josh, laughing. “I guess the ghost struck again!”
“Come on, Kiley, let’s go to the bathroom. We can try to clean these up,” said Maryam.
“Don’t get locked in again!” called out Madison.
Robert was sure it was the Destroyers playing these pranks. Maybe they thought it was the only way they’d win the camp competition. Or maybe they were just mean.
Either way, Robert vowed to himself that he was going to catch them in the act next time. He’d prove that there was no ghost and maybe even get them expelled from camp.
A voice came from downstairs. “Five minutes to practice! I repeat, five minutes to small group practice!” called Coach Amber.
Kiley and Maryam were the last to arrive at practice, with Kiley holding two sad, droopy poms.
“I couldn’t get the caramel sauce off them,” she said. “It’s too sticky. I guess I can’t cheer. Maybe I should just go home.”
Coach Amber put her arm around Kiley. “It’s okay,” she said. “Hold on.”
Coach Amber jumped up and ran to her room, then came back with two of the nicest, fluffiest gold sparkly poms that Robert had ever seen. She handed them to Kiley.
“Here! You can use mine. I always carry a spare pair of poms.” She winked. “You never know when you’re going to run into a pom emergency, and today proves that!”
Kiley turned them over slowly, then shook them a little. “Thank you. So much,” she said. “This is really nice of you, Coach Amber.”
“Okay!” Amber clapped. “Let’s start practicing our small group routines. No more talk about ghosts or caramel syrup or locked bathrooms. Just cheerleading.”
The Dream Machine went to one side of the room and the Destroyers went to the other.
Robert whispered so the Destroyers wouldn’t overhear their ideas. “We need to come up with an amazing routine. Now we really need to beat the Destroyers. Nothing can stop us!”
“Hey, that’s good!” said Maryam. “Nothing can stop us. Can we turn that into a cheer somehow?”
While Robert and Maryam planned out the cheer, Robert noticed that Kiley was quieter than usual. Normally she was full of ideas and energy and excitement. It’s what made her a good cheerleader. But that day she quietly looked at her loaner poms and agreed with all of Robert and Maryam’s suggestions.
Robert figured that she was just upset about all of the weird things happening at camp. Or maybe … she was scared of ghosts? She didn’t really believe there was a ghost, did she?
Before he could help himself, Robert blurted out, “Kiley, do you believe in ghosts?”
Kiley thought for a moment. “I don’t not believe in ghosts.” She shook her head. “I mean, it’s hard to believe or not believe in something you can’t even see. Maybe there are ghosts, and maybe not.”
Maryam looked surprised. “Really? You actually think there might be a Ghost of Oak Manor?”
Kiley shrugged her shoulders. “Why not? Anything is possible.”
Robert stood up. “Come on, let’s practice. We can talk about ghosts later.”