Free You Can't Scare Me! by R. L. Stine Page B

Creek,” Charlene told Kevin.
    â€œI know,” Kevin replied. “We did our video there. We used the tree house in the video. The Mud Monsters climbed up into the tree house to murder a guy. It was cool.”
    â€œGreat!” Molly cried. “How about an instant replay?”
    â€œPlease!” I pleaded. I’d been doing a
lot
of pleading with Kevin ever since I got the idea.
    â€œSo you want the three of us to wait in the woods at night, right?” Kevin asked.
    I untangled the hose. Water sprayed out onto Hat’s sneakers.
    He jumped back with a startled cry. We all laughed.
    â€œSorry,” Kevin said, turning the spray on the flowers. “It was an accident.”
    â€œYeah. You and your friends wait in the woods. Then, when it’s really dark, you come out and scare Courtney to death!”
    â€œYou mean we make weird sounds and stagger around with slimy mud dripping off us and pretend to chase her,” Kevin said.
    â€œRight,” I replied eagerly. I could see he was starting to get interested.
    â€œHow are you going to get her to the tree house at night?” Kevin asked.
    A good question. I hadn’t really thought about that.
    â€œI’ll get her there,” Molly said suddenly. She’d been very quiet all afternoon.
    â€œYou’ll pretend to be Denise?” I asked. “That didn’t work out well last time.”
    â€œI won’t need to be Denise this time,” Molly said mysteriously. “Don’t worry. I’ll get her there.”
    Kevin raised the hose till the strong spray rose up the side of the house. He had his back turned to me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
    â€œWell? Will you do it?” I asked, ready to start pleading and begging again. “Will you get your friends to help out, too?”
    â€œWhat’s in it for me?” Kevin asked without turning around.
    â€œUh …” I thought quickly. “I’ll be your servant for a week, Kevin,” I said. “I’ll do all your lawn chores. I’ll mow the lawn. I’ll water and weed. And … I’ll do the dishes every night. And I’ll clean your room.”
    He turned and narrowed his eyes at me. “Get serious,” he muttered.
    â€œNo. Really!” I insisted. “I’ll be a total servant. Total! For a whole week.”
    He turned off the nozzle. The water fizzled, then slowed to a drip. “How about for a month?” he said.
    Whoa. A month was a long time. A month of doing all of Kevin’s chores and jumping at his every command. A whole month …
    Was it worth it? Was it worth turning myself into a pitiful, overworked servant for a month just to scare Courtney?
    Of
course
it was!
    â€œOkay,” I said. “A month.”
    He grinned and shook my hand. His hand was wet from the hose.
    He handed the hose to me. “Take over, servant,” he ordered.
    I took the hose from him. Water dripped onto the front of my jeans.
    â€œWhen do you want the three Mud Monsters to appear?” Kevin asked. “When do you want to scare Courtney?”
    â€œTomorrow night,” I replied.

23
    I’m not really sure how the legend of the Mud Monsters got started. I heard about them first from another kid when I was little. The kid was trying to scare me, and he did a pretty good job of it.
    The legend goes something like this:
    Some early settlers of our town were too poor to build houses. So they set up little huts in the woods along the banks of Muddy Creek.
    The creek was much bigger then, much deeper and wider. It wasn’t just a muddy trickle of water the way it is today.
    The people were poor and hardworking and, pretty soon, they’d built an entire village of huts along the creek. But the people in town looked down on them. They refused to help them in any way.
    The town officials refused to share the city water supply with the Muddy Creek people. Thestore owners refused to