CHAPTER 8
What Was That?
After we finished stuffing our faces with cupcakes, we went to play Pin the Tail on the Werewolf. That’s when we heard the noise.
“What was that?” Robbie asked.
“What was what?” asked Chloe.
“That noise.”
“What noise?”
“Maybe if you’d just be quiet for a minute, you’d hear it.” We all stood perfectly still and listened.
“That noise,” Robbie said.
“I’m sure it’s just some spooky music from the haunted house,” said Jessie.
Chloe’s eyes got big and wide. “I … don’t … think … so …,” she stuttered. “It sounds like it’s coming from down in the basement, and there is no haunted house down there.”
Then we heard it again. “EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.”
“I’m scared,” said Chloe. “It sounds like a ghost. Do you think it’s a ghost?”
“Ghosts aren’t real,” said Robbie.
“Some people think they are,” said Jessie. “My abuela believes in ghosts.”
“Stop talking about ghosts,” Chloe cried, covering her ears. “You’re scaring me!”
“You are all such wimps,” Max said as he came over to the group. “I’ll go downstairs and check it out.”
“All by yourself?” Chloe asked.
“I know none of you fraidy-cats are going to go down there with me.”
“Freddy’s not a fraidy-cat, remember?” Jessie butted in. “He’s a shark, and sharks aren’t afraid of anything. He’ll go down there with you.”
Great! Why did she have to say that? I did not want to go down into that basement with Max, but if I didn’t, then everyone would start calling me a fraidy-cat again. I had to go.
“Yeah, right.” Max snickered.
I took a deep breath. “Let’s go,” I said.
Max’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Are you kidding me? You’re going to go down there?”
I swallowed hard. “Yep,” I said, trying not to let my voice shake.
“Wow! You guys are really brave,” Chloe said. “Be careful.”
As we started down, we heard the noise again. “EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.” My heart was beating faster and faster with each step I took. What if it really was a ghost? What were Max and I going to do?
We finally reached the basement. It was really dark down there, and we couldn’t find the light switch. Luckily there was a full moon, so there was a little bit of moonlight shining in the window.
“EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.”
There it was again. What if it attacked us?
“Max, I think the noise is coming from over there,” I whispered, pointing to the far corner of the room.
Silence.
“Max,” I whispered again, “do you want to go check it out?” Silence.
“Max?”
I turned around and saw Max frozen like a statue. His mouth was hanging open, his eyes were huge, and he didn’t move a muscle. I couldn’t believe it. Max, the biggest bully in the whole first grade, the toughest kid in school, was actually a fraidy-cat.
I grabbed his hand, just as Jessie had grabbed mine. “Max, it’s OK to be scared,” I said. “Everyone gets scared once in a while.”
“EEEOOOWWW … EEEOOOWWW.” The noise sent a shiver down my spine. Max was still frozen. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“You stay here, Max. I’ll go see what it is.”
I tiptoed quietly over toward the noise. I was breathing really fast, and my palms were sweating like crazy. As I got closer, I could tell the noise was coming from behind the washing machine. I bent down and slowly peeked behind the machine….
“Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” I started laughing hysterically.
“Hey, stop laughing at me,” Max said.
“I’m not laughing at you,” I said and giggled. “I’m laughing at this!”
“At what?” Max asked, walking over to where I was.
I held up a small black kitten. “This is what we were all so scared of. This little thing was making all that noise. I guess it got trapped behind the machine and couldn’t get out. Let’s go upstairs and tell everybody.”
Max grabbed my arm. “Wait, Freddy. Tell everybody what?”
“Tell them that the ghost was actually a little kitten.”
“Is that all you’re going to tell them?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Why?”
“So you’re not going to tell them about how scared I was?” Max asked.
“Nope. Your secret’s safe with me,” I said, patting him on the back. “Like I said, even tough guys get scared once in a while.”
“Thanks, Freddy,” said Max, with a sigh of relief. “I owe you one.”
I hid the kitten behind me as we started up the stairs. I wanted to surprise everybody. When we reached the top of the stairs, all the kids were there, anxiously waiting for us.
“Now I’ll tell you about the real fraidy-cat,” I announced.
Max looked at me in a panic, wondering if I was going to give away his secret.
“Here it is!” I said, pulling the kitten out from behind my back.
“Fifi!” Chloe cried, reaching for the little fluffball. “That’s my new kitten. Where did you find her? Tell me the whole story.”
“Max and I found her down in the basement trapped behind the washing machine. She must have gotten stuck and was crying so someone would get her out. This little thing was making all that noise!”
“How did you ever get her out of there?” asked Chloe.
“Max and I worked together to rescue her. We were a good team.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Max said.
“Freddy, you and Max are so brave,” said Chloe. “Thank you for rescuing Fifi.”
“Oh, it was nothing,” I said.
“No problem,” said Max.
“There’s only one real fraidy-cat in this room,” Jessie said, patting me on the back, “and it’s a little ball of fur.”
