Free Home, Sweet Haunt by P.J. Night

felt a surge of joy. Maybe things were going to change. Maybe they could all be friends!
    â€œYou live upstairs?” Caitlin’s mom was asking as Nora stepped into view. She explained how they were new to town. “What apartment are you in?”
    â€œOh, there you are,” Nora’s father said, as if seeing her for the first time in the hallway, though she’d been standing there a few seconds already. “It’s past curfew, young lady.”
    â€œDid you have a nice time?” her mother asked.
    â€œYes.” Nora thanked Caitlin’s parents.
    Caitlin’s mother asked her question again. “You wereabout to tell us where you lived. What number apartment is it?”
    â€œDo you have your bag of candy?” Mrs. Wilson asked Nora.
    â€œAnd your mask?” her father asked. Then, seeing Nora’s shoes, he wondered, “Where are your flip-flops?”
    â€œI have them.” Caitlin appeared in the hallway. She had Nora’s flip-flops, and behind her Aleah and LL had Nora’s mask and treats.
    There was a lot of hugging before Nora left.
    â€œThanks for inviting me tonight,” Nora said. “Sorry about the ghosts.” She winked.
    â€œWe can try again next year,” Caitlin said with a big grin. “Maybe we’ll see a luminous disembodied soul next Halloween.” She gave Nora one more hug. “Will you come trick-or-treating again?”
    â€œOf course,” Nora said. “Nothing will keep me away!”
    â€œAnd we’ll see you soon,” Aleah said. “Right?”
    â€œOf course!” Nora said again. Caitlin was only a few floors down, so she could pop by anytime, and as for the others, she was determined to ask her parents about gymnastics lessons.
    As they walked out into the hallway and waitedfor the elevator, Nora’s dad glanced over Nora’s shoulder at her mom, then asked, “Ghosts, huh? What about ghosts?”
    â€œCaitlin heard a rumor that our building is haunted,” Nora explained. Her mother appeared frightened at the thought, so Nora said, “We checked around. No real ghosts. All we found was an old man pretending to be a ghost.” Then Nora told them, “Aleah did discover a really scary story on the Internet. A creepy thing that happened a block away from here.” She told them about the strange soldier as they rode the elevator to the tenth floor.
    â€œWhat happened at the end?” her mother asked when the elevator door opened.
    Nora shrugged and sighed. Her parents had picked her up, that’s what happened. But she didn’t say that. Instead she answered truthfully, “I have no idea.”

CHAPTER 10
    Nora went to her room immediately. She didn’t want to go to sleep. She wasn’t tired. It was still Halloween. Nora had never ended the night without pulling a Halloween prank on Hallie and Lindsay. Well, she’d already pulled one on them today and it hadn’t turned out as planned. But Halloween wasn’t over yet. This year she decided that she’d prank her new friends, LL, Aleah, and Caitlin!
    They were all convinced now that the building wasn’t haunted. And they all thought Nora had gone to bed.
    All she needed to do was to use the dumbwaiter shaft. The panel in Caitlin’s TV room was still loose from when Lucas had fallen through. She could push through it, leap out, and scare them. Her parents wouldnever even know she was gone.
    Ha! This would be the best Halloween prank ever.
    One of Nora’s favorite kitten posters was lying, slightly crumpled, on the floor. Just above it was the panel. Nora couldn’t believe that in all the years they’d lived in the apartment, she’d had no idea the dumbwaiter was there. When she’d started collecting posters, her dad had put them up for her. He must have covered the old panel and then forgotten it existed.
    â€œHey.” Lucas stuck his head out of the dumbwaiter