Free The Ghost in Room 11 by Betty Ren Wright

1
    â€œThis School Is Haunted!”
    Matt Barber sat, hunched over, on a swing and dug one heel into the dirt. He was the only person left on the school playground. He might even be the only person left in the world. What if a poison cloud were drifting across the town of Healy right now? What if the birds started to drop out of the trees, and that ant crawling across the gravel rolled over on its back and.…
    He shivered and gave himself a little push. It was no fun starting in a new school a month late. The kids at Healy Elementary had known each other since they were babies. They weren’t interested in a new kid from the big city.
    Think about tomorrow , he told himself. Tomorrow he was going to give a speech in front of his new fourth grade, and after that, everybody would know who he was.
    â€œI’m not supposed to talk about this, but I’m going to anyway.” He said the words out loud to get used to them. “I’m going to tell you about my real mother and father. My real mother does stunts in the movies. Once she jumped from a twelve-story building and landed in a pond about as big as a bathtub.” He frowned. Maybe a bathtub was too small. “About as big as two bathtubs, only a lot deeper. And once she drove a car off a cliff and blew it up before it landed.”
    Cool , he thought. That’s cool!
    â€œMy real dad is a treasure hunter. He dives down to old wrecks, and when he finds treasure he gets to keep it. Sometimes he sends me a souvenir.” When he said that, he was going to hold up the gold piece Uncle Jim had sent him as a joke, along with a book about treasure hunting. It wasn’t a real gold piece, but that didn’t matter. It would fool everybody in this dumb country school.
    He paused, wondering what his teacher, Mrs. Sanders, would think of his speech. She had said you could talk about anything, as long as the subject was important to you. Well, parents were important, weren’t they?
    â€œMy real mom does dangerous stuff every day—that’s why she let me be adopted. She didn’t want to, but she thought she might get killed or something. Next summer my real dad is going to take me to Mexico—”
    The school door burst open, and three boys tumbled out, laughing and pushing one another. Matt slid off the swing, but not fast enough. The boys raced across the yard and stopped in front of him.
    â€œI guess that’s what kids do in Milwaukee.” Charlie Peck chuckled. “They play with babies’ toys.”
    Matt clenched his fists. He hated being laughed at. His dad would probably say Charlie was just kidding, but his dad would be wrong. Everyone at Healy Elementary was mean.
    â€œI wasn’t playing,” Matt said. “I was wishing I was back at my old school. If I was, I’d be swimming right now.”
    Charlie’s eyes widened. “Your school had a swimming pool? I don’t believe it.”
    â€œWho cares whether you believe it or not?” Matt backed up, eager to get away.
    â€œWhat else did you have in that school?”
    â€œTwo gyms,” Matt said, “one for boys and one for girls. And an auditorium with a real stage.” The auditorium part was true. “And we had a big cafeteria where we could get pizza or anything else we wanted. Every day!” He stopped, aware that he’d gone too far.
    â€œSure!” Charlie laughed, and the other boys laughed, too. “Boy, pizza every day! That’s a joke!” They started to move off, but then Charlie came back.
    â€œI bet Healy has one thing your big-city school doesn’t have,” he said slyly.
    â€œLike what?” Matt glanced at the long, low school building. It looked like a prison.
    â€œWe have a ghost!” Charlie said. “This school is haunted, believe it or not.”

    â€œNot,” Matt said. “There’s no such thing as a ghost.”
    â€œSure there is!” Charlie