Free Off the Wall by P.J. Night

his head gently.
    But as he came closer, it made a quick grab and grasped him by the scruff of his neck.
    â€œMrrrrggggOWWW!” the cat yowled. In a split second he had twisted himself free, streaked past the girls, and vanished from sight.
    The girls hardly noticed that he was gone. They were staring, mesmerized, at the statue. Someone—or something—emerged from behind it.
    It was a girl their own age. She paced slowly and steadily toward them, her eyes unseeing and fixed on nothing.
    She was certainly acting strange, but she wasn’t a mummy.
    â€œMegan!” gasped Lucy. “What are you doing here?”
    Megan didn’t answer.
    She just kept walking. She would have passed them without stopping if Jane hadn’t reached out and touched her arm.
    â€œJane,” said Megan in a dead-sounding voice.
    â€œShe’s sleepwalking!” whispered Jane. “What should we do?”
    â€œI think I read online that you’re not supposed towake someone who’s sleepwalking,” said Lucy.
    â€œFine,” snapped Daria. “Leave her here and let’s keep looking for the mummy. She’ll find her way back to the Great Hall sooner or later.”
    â€œWe can’t leave her,” said Lucy. “What if she bangs into something and sets off an alarm? She’ll die of embarrassment or fright.”
    â€œWell, we can’t bring her back. Someone else might wake up, and then how would we explain everything?” asked Daria.
    Lucy bit her lip, thinking. “You’re right. We’ll have to wake her up.” Gently she shook Megan’s shoulder. “Megan? Megan? You need to wake up.”
    Megan blinked and shook her head a few times. “Hi, guys,” she said. Then suddenly she seemed to realize that she wasn’t in bed. “Lucy! What are you doing here? Wait, what am I doing here?”
    â€œThat’s exactly what I was going to ask you,” said Lucy. “Why were you hiding behind that totem pole?”
    â€œTotem pole?” repeated Megan. “What on Earth are you talking about?”
    Lucy pointed, and Megan made a face. “Ewww! I was totally not hiding behind that dusty thing!” Then shefrowned, thinking. “But I did have a dream that I was hiding behind a tree. I was trying to signal someone, or something.”
    â€œWas it a cat, by any chance?” asked Jane.
    â€œY-y-y-yes, I think so. Yes, that’s what it was. I dreamed a cat was lost and I was following it, and it ran up this huge, huge tree. I knew I had to try to coax it down without scaring it. It came closer and closer, and—and then I don’t remember what happened. I woke up and I was here.”
    â€œMegan, do you sleepwalk a lot?” said Lucy.
    â€œSometimes, if I get nervous.”
    â€œSo what you’re saying is, you sleepwalk all the time,” put in Daria sourly.
    â€œNo, no,” said Megan. “But I did once wake up in bed with my parka on the night before a test. I must have put it on in my sleep. And once I started playing the piano at three in the morning the day before I had a piano recital. So I guess I must have been nervous about this lock-in or something. I’m so lucky that you guys found me!”
    Suddenly she frowned in a puzzled way. “But how did you find me? What are you doing here, anyway?”
    â€œWe were, uh . . .” Jane’s voice trailed off.
    â€œWe had to . . . ,” Lucy said at the same time.
    â€œWe have an errand to attend to,” finished Daria crisply. “It has nothing to do with you. So you might as well go back to the Great Hall. And don’t tell anyone you saw us!”
    Megan looked horrified. “Go back by myself? I’m not walking through this museum alone!”
    â€œWhy not?” said Daria. “Nothing happened to you when you were sleepwalking alone.”
    â€œBut now that I’m awake, I’ll be afraid