Chapter Five
Fred, the Boy Without Fear

Everyone loves Fred because he is the school hero.

The morning after the special assembly, Principal Headcrusher announced on the PA system that there were new rules to the Ghoul Games and that Scary School students would be eaten alive by the monsters if they lost. Every student in the classroom yelped at the same time, except for Fred.

Growing up, Fred had terrifying nightmares about monsters and ghouls every night and would wake up screaming at the top of his lungs. His parents would rush in and tell him over and over that there was no such thing as monsters—that it was all just a dream.

His parents were very convincing, and Fred was certain that the monsters that plagued his dreams didn’t really exist.

Therefore, when Fred started at Scary School and began seeing the creatures from his nightmares everywhere he looked, he naturally assumed he must be dreaming. Because Fred always thought he was dreaming whenever he was at school, he didn’t think anything he saw was real, so he was never afraid. He was the boy without fear.

When Dr. Dragonbreath walked down the hallway, all the kids scattered against the walls and dared not even look at him, but Fred would walk right past him and say, “Good morning!” with a smile. One time he even said, “Good morning, you big ugly dragon.” Dr. Dragonbreath was furious, but he couldn’t eat any kid who wasn’t in his class and just stormed away fuming fire.

The kids thought Fred was either very brave or had a death wish, but Fred just thought nothing bad could possibly happen to him because it was all just a dream.

Another time, Fred witnessed a werewolf Scary kid named Peter push Jason to the ground after hockey practice. It looked like Peter the Wolf was about to rip Jason apart, so Fred fearlessly jumped into the fray. Fred got scratched up pretty badly, but he fought Peter off and Peter scampered away with his werewolf tail between his legs.

“Thank you, Fred,” said Jason.

“Anytime,” said Fred. “Boy, these cuts sure do feel real.”

Jason looked at him strangely. But they were best friends after that.

Fred also started growing his fingernails long after his fight with Peter so that he wouldn’t be at such a disadvantage if he ever had to fight Peter again.

However, the reason why Fred is the school hero is because of what happened in Mr. Acidbath’s class last year. At the time, Fred was sitting with the rest of the fourth-grade class taking a spelling test. Their teacher, Mr. Rockface, was saying the words out loud and the class was writing them down.

“The final word is . . . explosion. Ex-plo-sion.”

At that very moment, there was a loud explosion down the hall. Kaboom!

Everyone dropped their pencils and ran out of the room to see what had happened.

Across the hall, Mr. Acidbath’s science classroom was a fiery inferno. Orange and blue flames were leaping out of the doorway. Mr. Acidbath and all his students were trapped inside screaming for help. I know because I, Derek the Ghost (before I was a ghost), was one of those students. I never thought I’d find out what it’s like to be cooked inside an oven, but I was finding out at that moment.

Nurse Hairymoles and several teachers tried to bring in the Scary School fire hose to put out the fire, but it wasn’t long enough to reach the classroom. No one had the courage to run in and try to save the students, and with good reason. The fire was so out of control that anyone who dared enter couldn’t possibly make it out alive.

The only one who wasn’t scared was Fred. As he watched the fire blazing before him, he was thinking, wow, this is such a vivid, realistic dream. I can really feel the heat from the flames.

Before anyone could hold him back, Fred dashed inside the classroom to rescue his schoolmates.

When he got inside, he saw dozens of kids rolling on the floor trying to put out the flames on their clothes. Fred seemed completely unaffected by the fire—it wasn’t hurting him one bit. I know this is a dream, Fred thought to himself. If this were real, I would have been burned alive by now.

What Fred didn’t know was that the fire had started when Mr. Acidbath’s experiment with Fear Gas went terribly wrong and exploded. Because it was a Fear Gas fire, the flames were enchanted and would not hurt anyone who wasn’t afraid. All the students, and even Mr. Acidbath, were terrified. The fire, feeding off their fear, was consuming them. But Fred, the boy without fear, repelled the flames like opposing magnets.

When Fred approached each of his schoolmates, the flames leaped off of them like frightened mice running away from a cat. One by one, he pulled each kid out of the fire, wrapped in a cocoon of fearless safety.

When he was finished, he had saved the lives of twenty-two kids and Mr. Acidbath, who bore the brunt of the explosion and would have to take a leave of absence. Some kids were burned pretty badly, but it was nothing Nurse Hairymoles couldn’t fix in a jiffy.

The only kid who didn’t make it out alive was me. I thought I was being smart and jumped into the chemical cabinet, but I got locked inside and was cooked alive. Oops. I certainly learned a very important life lesson about what not to do in a fire.

Out in the hallway, everyone was cheering for Fred. The boys gave him high fives, the girls hugged him, and the teachers applauded.

“This is the best dream ever!” Fred shouted.

No one dared tell him it wasn’t a dream, for fear of losing their school hero.

So, when Principal Headcrusher announced that the students would be eaten alive if they lost during the Ghoul Games, now you know why Fred was the only kid who wasn’t afraid.

Jason whispered to him, “I’m definitely playing hockey now. What are you going to play, Fred?”

“Hmm. How about a deep-sleeping contest? Because I cannot seem to wake up no matter how hard I pinch myself.”