Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go (4 page)

“They’ll be pouring in,” said Ivy. “An army of ghosts.”

“But there’s just one now, right?” asked Bean quickly.

Ivy jumped up. “Let’s find out,” she said, reaching for the door.

An army of ghosts! No way Bean was going in that bathroom now. “Ms. Aruba-Tate said we had to come back ASAP,” she said.

Ivy saw Bean’s face. “Oh, okay,” she said. “Let’s go back.”

“Put up your chairs, boys and girls,” said Ms. Aruba-Tate. She said it every afternoon when the bell rang, and every afternoon, half the class forgot. “Drew, please keep your hands to yourself. MacAdam, you may not put the turtle in your backpack. Thank you.”

Emma and Zuzu were already on the field when Ivy and Bean got there. They weren’t doing cartwheels. They were just waiting.

“So?” said Emma. “Tell us.”

Ivy explained about the milky cloud,
about the girl coming out of the bathroom shivering, about the moaning noise, and about the yellow eyes that shone like flashlights. When she was done, Emma and Zuzu turned to look at the blue bathroom door.

“No way,” said Zuzu.

“I don’t see anything,” said Emma.

“That’s okay. Some people just can’t see them,” said Ivy. “Bean can.”

Bean nodded. Some people couldn’t see them, but she could.

“But wait,” said Emma. “If there’s a ghost, I want to see it.” She leaned forward, staring at the bathroom.

“Keep your eyes open for a long time without blinking,” Ivy suggested.

Emma popped her eyes at the door.

A girl ran down the breezeway and into the bathroom. As the door swung shut, Emma
said, “I see a cloud! It’s a milky cloud, like you said!”

“Yeah. That’s it,” Ivy said, nodding.

Zuzu popped her eyes, too. “Is it glowing? I thought I saw something glowing.”

“That’s the eyes,” Bean said. “You must be seeing its eyes.” She felt important, helping Zuzu to see the ghost.

“What are you guys doing?” It was Leo, with a soccer ball under his arm.

“Look!” said Ivy, pointing. The girl was coming out of the bathroom. “See how she’s rubbing her hands? That’s because she just walked through the cold mist. She’s probably shivering, too!”

Leo looked at Ivy. “What?”

“There’s a ghost in our bathroom,” Bean explained.

“It’s like walking through a cold mist,” said Emma.

“And it has glowing eyes,” added Zuzu.

“You guys are wacko,” said Leo, dropping his ball on the ground and pretending to kick it.

“There’s a portal to the ghost world right outside the door, in the cement,” said Ivy to Emma and Zuzu. “Bean and I found it when we went to the bathroom. Come on. I’ll show it to you.”

“A portal?” said Emma. “What’s a portal?”

“It’s a doorway to the underworld,” Bean explained.

“Oh.” Emma stood still.

Bean understood how she felt. “We’re not going in,” she explained. “We’re just looking at the portal.”

“It will be totally safe,” said Ivy.

Bean knew that Ivy thought almost anything was safe.

“Okay,” said Emma. Zuzu nodded.

They started across the playground. Leo followed along, kicking the ball as he went.

The next day at lunch recess, there were no gymnastics on the grass. No soccer, either. Every second-grader in the school gathered around the play structure, watching the bathroom. Whenever someone went in, they could see the ghost inside. It had definitely become clearer during the night.

Pretty soon, nobody went in. Everyone knew about the ghost, even the kindergartners, and nobody wanted to use a haunted bathroom. Still, the second-graders kept watching the door, just in case an army of ghosts floated out.

“What are you kids doing?” yelled Rose the Yard Duty.

“We’re just standing here,” Bean yelled back. “It’s a free country.”

“You watch it, Miss Bean,” warned Rose, but she went away.

The ghost didn’t start causing problems until that afternoon.

It was right in the middle of Drop Everything and Read when Ms. Aruba-Tate’s classroom door burst open. Mrs. Noble marched in, holding Zuzu by the shoulder. Mrs. Noble was a fifth-grade teacher. She had a thousand tiny wrinkles on her face, and she wore high heels and stockings every day. Bean’s mother said that Mrs. Noble was an “old-fashioned teacher.” Bean’s sister Nancy said that Mrs. Noble locked kids in her art cupboard when they were bad. Bean’s mother said that Nancy was exaggerating. That was a nice way to say lying.

Bean put her book down. She didn’t like Drop Everything and Read anyway, except for the beginning, when she got to drop things. Mrs. Noble’s high heels were red with stiff black bows at the front, and her shiny red fingernails were pressed into Zuzu’s shoulder. Zuzu was about to cry. This was going to be much more interesting than a book.

Mrs. Noble didn’t bother to lower her voice. “Becky,” she boomed, “you’ve got to keep an eye on them! I found this one all the way over in the upper-school bathroom.”

Ms. Aruba-Tate looked worried. “What were you doing in the upper-school bathroom, honey?”

Zuzu opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Big tears dripped down her cheeks and fell on the floor. “Our bathroom’s h-h-haunted!” she wailed suddenly.

Oh brother. Bean looked sideways at Ivy. Trouble.

Ivy was staring at Zuzu.

Then Zuzu pointed right at Ivy and Bean. “They—they—they saw a ghost in the bathroom, and it’s mad because the school’s on top of its grave, and there’s a portal, and more ghosts are coming!” she gasped.

Ivy slid down in her chair until she could hardly see over the desktop.

Ms. Aruba-Tate put her arms around Zuzu. “Honey, the bathroom’s not haunted—”

“Oh yes it is!” hollered Eric.

“I saw him!” yelled Dusit.

“He’s got yellow, glowing eyes, Ms. Aruba-Tate,” said Vanessa. “Ivy says.”

Ivy looked at the classroom door. If she ran for it, would Ms. Aruba-Tate catch her before she got out?

Ms. Aruba-Tate turned to Ivy. “Is all this coming from you, Ivy?” She sounded like she couldn’t believe it.

Ivy swallowed. She wished she had never seen the ghost. She wished she had never said the word
ghost
. “All what?” she said finally, in a high voice.

Ms. Aruba-Tate looked over the class. “Boys and girls, who has heard this silly story?”