JJ MADE SURE his mom RSVP’d. Every day, he reminded her of the trip they were taking on Friday. On Wednesday, he placed her small suitcase by the closet. On Thursday, he left sticky notes on her mirror, on the fridge, and by her phone.

THREE P.M. FRIDAY

BARCLAY HOTEL

BRING JJ

Once upon a time, before JJ’s mom became a big-shot CEO of her own company, she would help JJ with his sight words for school. They were a list of words sent home every week that he was supposed to remember just by looking at them, so reading went faster. This was hard for JJ.

So his mom came up with a game where they would take three words from the list and turn them into a story every day. By the end of the week, they usually had the word list used up, and JJ had an easier time remembering them. Mostly because of all the crazy stories.

Like SUDDENLY, PINK, and CAPTAIN.

Or BREAKFAST, CIRCUS, and UMBRELLA. These words made for some fun stories.

That Friday, JJ was packed and ready to go at two o’clock. JJ’s secret was still safe, and his dad had left him a book for the weekend. The History of the Barclay Hotel. It was fat (four hundred pages!) and looked super boring. He stuffed it in the bottom of his backpack.

JJ also packed his basic ghost hunting kit: the voice recorder, the EMF detector, his infrared camera, a logbook, and a flashlight. He was ready to catch some ghosts.

JJ even packed some extra gear—you can never be too prepared. He had three tripods, which he borrowed from his friend and fellow ghost hunter Tristan, because if he did see a ghost, he wanted to make sure he got the best angle. JJ brought three reels of power cables, just in case the nearest outlet was far away from the ghost. He couldn’t expect the ghost to cater to the needs of his camera. He brought his laptop, a pad of sticky notes, four extra notebooks, and five pens, because—

Well, the ghost hunting life is unpredictable. He fit all his ghost hunting gear into two giant suitcases he found in the attic.

JJ was ready.

When his mom had called to RSVP, the estate manager told her that the Barclay Hotel would send a car to the house to pick them up. This made the whole thing even fancier, and JJ was extra excited.

Now it was Friday, two thirty, and JJ began to worry. At two forty, JJ texted her.

THREE P.M.! BARCLAY HOTEL! BRING JJ!

No reply. And at three o’clock sharp, the doorbell rang. This was the car service, and his mom still wasn’t here.

He rushed downstairs, with his backpack and the invitation in hand. The suitcases were parked neatly by the front door.

The driver, dressed in black and wearing dark sunglasses, looked very serious. “Are you JJ Jacobson?”

JJ gulped and then gave a quick nod. How was he going to stall this serious-looking man until his mom was there?

The suitcases. “Hang on, I have more,” he told the driver. JJ darted back into the house and rolled the last piece of luggage outside.

The driver looked at JJ and then back at the car.

“Hold up, kid,” the driver said with a frown. “I can’t fit that in there. Small luggage only.”

JJ looked back at his two giant suitcases. “Are you sure?” he asked the driver. “I was thinking we could tie them to the roof . . . ?”

The man gave one stern shake of the head.

“Okay.” Now JJ frantically racked his brain for ways to stall the driver until his mom got there. “My mom isn’t here yet, but she should be here any second.”

The driver looked over his shoulder at the car.

The back window lowered and his mom waved. “Three p.m., right? I got your notes.”

JJ smiled. This weekend was going to be great!