Ivy and Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go (8 page)

Inside was dim and quiet. Bean noticed that it smelled better than it usually did.

“Do you feel it?” said Ivy, looking around.

Nothing happened. After a moment, Bean stopped feeling sweaty. She was glad there wasn’t an army, but she wanted to see one ghost at least. She squinted and then popped her eyes out. There. “Yes,” she said. “And I see the mist.” A thin cloud was just fading in the corner. They stood still. “Do you hear something?” Bean whispered.

It was a smooth, sighing sound. It sounded as if it was coming from very far away. “I hear it,” Ivy whispered.

That was a little spooky. Bean began to feel sweaty again.

“We’d better start chanting,” Ivy breathed. Noise would help.

“Yeah,” said Bean. “We come in peace,” she whispered.

“We come in peace!” said Ivy loudly. She raised her hands to the ceiling and fluttered her fingers down.

Bean fluttered her fingers, too. “Oh, ghost friend! Haunt our school no more!” Her voice was louder now.

“Lie peacefully under our school!” wailed Ivy. That was better. The bathroom wasn’t spooky anymore. She began to turn in circles, waving her hands.

Now Bean whirled around, too, shouting, “Take our respectful greeting and fly away!” This was getting fun.

“Farewell!” shrieked Ivy, spinning faster and faster. “Return to your resting place, and we will honor you forever!” She jumped a few times. “Begone!”

“Leave the bathroom of Emerson School!” screamed Bean. She did a few high kicks.

“Leave the bathroom of Emerson School!” screamed Ivy, jumping and whirling. She banged into one of the stall doors. “Ow!”

Bean was still spinning. The bathroom zoomed around her. Whew. She stopped and held onto a stall. “Can we do the potion now?” she asked.

Ivy unscrewed the lid of the jar and crouched down. The bathroom grew quiet. “Ghost, begone,” she murmured and poured a line of potion in front of the door. She crawled around the edges of the bathroom, pouring.

“Begone,” Bean chanted softly.

Ivy stuck her hand in something wet. “Oh, yuck,” she said.

The bathroom was very quiet now. Peaceful. Three stalls down, one to go. It took a lot of concentration to pour evenly. Ivy made sure that she got every corner. The bright blue potion gleamed on the tile, and Ivy stopped under the paper towel dispenser to look at her work. It was pretty. She looked up. No mist. No sighing noise. The bathroom looked normal, except for the blue potion. The ghost was gone. “I think we did it,” she said, peering around.

Bean squinted. “Is it gone?” “Yes,” said Ivy. “Expelled. Never to return.”

“I’m sort of sad that it’s over,” said Bean. “It was fun having a haunted bathroom.”

“But we still have to do the presents,” said Ivy, taking her fossil and Zuzu’s hairclip out of her pocket.

Bean took out her half-dollar. “How are we going to—” she began.

And then there was a bang on the door.

It was Leo’s soccer ball.

Bean started for the door.

“No! No! The presents!” hissed Ivy. She stuffed the jar in the trash can and rushed into a stall.

Bean rushed after her. “What’re you doing?!”

Ivy was throwing the fossil and Zuzu’s hairclip into the toilet. “Give me your half-dollar,” she said. “Quick!”

Bean handed it to her. Ivy threw that into the toilet, too. “But why are you putting them in the—?” Bean began.

The bathroom door wheezed open.

“How else are we going to get them underground?” Ivy whispered. She flushed.

“Come out here this instant!”

They knew that voice. It wasn’t Rose the Yard Duty. It was Mrs. Noble.

Ivy and Bean came out of the stall. Mrs. Noble’s wrinkles were all pointing downward in a terrible frown. “Just what do you think you’re doing in here?!” she boomed.

“Going to the bathroom?” said Ivy. It was all she could think of. She glanced at Bean. Help!

“There are thirty children huddled out in the hall staring at this bathroom like it’s a television. I know you’re up to something!” Mrs. Noble snapped. “You can tell me, or you can tell the Principal!” She reached out and grabbed Bean by the shoulder. Her fingers were like claws.

“We just had to—to—” Bean had no idea what she was going to say next.

Then they heard something.

A groan.

A grinding. A gurgling.

A sound of water.

And then, from the toilet, a river of water came spilling and splashing over the side and onto the tiles. There was a lot of it, and it didn’t stop coming. Something under the floor was making a lot of noise.

The water ran over the sides of the toilet and streamed across the tile floor. Mrs. Noble let go of Bean’s shoulder and took a step backward. The water flowed toward her red high heels, and she stepped back again.

“We heard the toilet making a funny noise,” said Ivy, watching the water roll across the floor. “We were trying to fix it when you came in.”

“But it’s still broken,” said Bean.

The toilet water sloshed around their shoes.

“It’s kind of gross, isn’t it?” said Ivy to Mrs. Noble.

“At least there’s no you-know-what in it,” said Bean.

Mrs. Noble didn’t answer. She hopped backward, but the water touched her red high heels anyway. “Disgusting!” She hopped. “Disgusting! I’ll call the janitor! Uck!” She hopped again, yanked the door open, and was gone.

Ivy and Bean stepped into the breezeway, their shoes making wet marks on the cement. Leo was leaning against the wall with his soccer ball under his arm.

Most of the others were still sitting on the benches.

“Well?” said Emma. “What happened?”

“The ghost has been expelled,” said Ivy. “But it wasn’t easy.”

“Mrs. Noble
ran
,” said Vanessa.

Bean shrugged. “She was scared. She couldn’t take it.”

“Well, she came in during a very scary part,” Ivy said. “That ghost really wanted to stay in the bathroom.”

“What did it look like?” Eric asked.

Ivy looked at Bean. “Strange. Pale.”

Bean looked at Ivy. “Almost like water.”

“Like water?” said Emma. “Weird.”

“So it’s gone?” said Zuzu. “For good?”

“Yes,” said Ivy. “But I wouldn’t go in there for a while.”

“The bathroom got kind of messed up,” said Bean.

The second-graders looked toward the bathroom door. They were quiet, thinking about the bathroom and Mrs. Noble and the ghost.

“Come on,” said Eric. “There’s a little more recess left.”

They started walking down the breeze-way. Ivy and Bean sat down on a bench.

Leo looked at them. “So what really happened in there?” he asked.

“Secret,” said Bean.

Leo bounced the soccer ball hard against the cement and caught it. “Hey. I was the one who warned you that Mrs. Noble was coming.”

Bean looked at Ivy. Ivy looked out at the playground, where the second-graders were getting back to their regular lunch-recess stuff. Eric was chasing Drew. Mikayla and Vanessa were pulling on a jump rope. The kindergartners were grinding rocks. Emma and Zuzu were practicing cartwheels again. Only Leo had stayed. “Okay. We’ll tell you.”

Leo slitted his eyes. “Was there a ghost in there, really?”

“Yes,” said Ivy.

“Totally,” said Bean.

Leo glanced from one to the other. “And that’s why Mrs. Noble ran?”