CHAPTER 30

Oh, Wait…

…I forgot there’s always a 30th chapter. Plus, I kind of lied. I mean, what would Halloween be without one more trick? The blob didn’t eat Mason and Olivia. Not yet, anyway…

The BLOB kept growing and growing until its gooey green head touched the ceiling. It was huge, because anything it touched became part of it. It had swallowed everything and everyone in the 13th Classroom—except Mason and Olivia.

All the kids were inside the giant BLOB and were screaming for Mason and Olivia to do something.

“But what do we do?” Olivia shouted back. “I know the who, what, when, why, and where. But I still don’t know how to fix it.”

Mason said, “Geez. Maybe I’m not the dumb one. We hurt Classroom 13’s feelings. What do you do when you’ve hurt someone’s feelings?”

Olivia shrugged.

Mason shook his head and turned to the chalkboard of Classroom 13. He said, “I’m sorry.”

“You are?” the 13th Classroom asked. For the first time, all the students heard the Classroom.

“Of course,” Mason said. “Tell me, why’d you do all this?”

After a long pause, the 13th Classroom explained, “Because I’m jealous. I want to have fun, too.”

All the students (and Ms. Linda Riding Hood) gasped. Olivia couldn’t believe her ears. This… this didn’t make any sense! How could a… a… classroom have feelings?

“I’m tired of being left out,” the 13th Classroom continued. “Money, wishes, fame, superpowers. What classroom wouldn’t want to be part of all that? But every time, you forget about me. You never invite or include me. That’s why I wanted my revenge, so I cursed the candy. I wanted to punish all of you.”

“That’s it?” Mason said. “Silly Classroom 13. You should have spoken up sooner. If you want to join our adventures, you should!”

“You mean, you’d still want to include me? Even after all this?” Classroom 13 asked.

“Yup,” Mason said. “I mean, I thought today was pretty fun. I’m looking forward to whatever happens next. You should, too.”

“But how can I be part of it?” it asked.

“You have all these magic powers, right? You changed us into our costumes. So why can’t you change yourself into one of us?”

The 13th Classroom had never thought of that before.

“But first,” Mason said, “you have to change everyone back. Deal?”

“Deal,” said Classroom 13.

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH! A magical cyclone formed inside the classroom. Bright smoke and sugary whirlwinds turned and reversed the curse, transforming everyone from costumed Hallow-weirdoes to just weirdoes wearing Halloween costumes. (Or in Hugo’s case, Hallow-weiner costume.)

“Oh, one last thing,” Mason asked. “Could you erase the adults’ memories of today? We really like Ms. Linda. We don’t want Principal Pumpernickel to fire her.”

“Sure thing,” Classroom 13 said.

Formerly-a-Pumpkin Principal Pumpernickel returned to his office to finish his nap. When he woke, he thought he’d had the strangest dream but couldn’t remember any of it. And Ms. Linda didn’t recall anything. So even though it was almost the end of the school day, she took roll call. That’s when she noticed something was off.

Ms. Linda took a head count of her students. “… Twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight?!” She counted again. Twenty-eight.

“That can’t be right,” she said. “I only have twenty-seven students.”

“Not anymore,” Mason said. There was a brand-new face in Classroom 13—a strange young student with a cube instead of a head.

“Who are you?” Ms. Linda asked.

“My name is 13,” the student said. “I’m your new student.”