Two of a Kind #37: Hocus-pocus

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Dear Diary,

Boo!

Hah! Did I scare you, Diary? Sorry -- I just couldn't help myself. It's that time of year again! Halloween is less than two weeks away.

I know I'm supposed to be past all that trick-or-treating stuff. But I still think Halloween is cool.

I like carving pumpkins and decorating our room. (Everyone in the First Form -- that's seventh grade -- at my boarding school, the White Oak Academy for Girls, decorates her room for Halloween.)

I like seeing all the little kids in their costumes. They are really cute. And, of course, I love, love, love Halloween candy.

I even like the color orange. As a matter of fact, my favorite local sports team-the Hampshire Hoops-have orange and white jerseys.

Let's see... what other orange things do I like?

Scree scree screeeeee ...

The scratching sound startled me out of my orange thoughts. "What's that?" I asked.

My roommate, Campbell Smith, looked up from I her textbook. She ran her fingers through her short brown hair. It stuck out in jagged spikes around her face. I didn't bother to tell her about her hair. Campbell doesn't worry about how it looks, except on special occasions. Studying in ourdorm room is not a special occasion! At the moment, she was wearing an oversized Boston Red Sox T-shirt (she has about ten of them) and a pair of baggy sweatpants. Campbell is a big Red Sox fan. She's totally into sports, and is the pitcher on our school baseball team, the Mighty Oaks.

"I think there's something scratching on the window," she said, narrowing her brown eyes.

Scree scree screeeeee ...

I stared at the window between our beds. What could be making that noise?

"Well," I said, a little nervously. "We live on the second floor of Porter House. It's probably a tree branch or something banging against the window."

Campbell frowned. "I don't think it's a tree branch," she said. "There's something weird about it .... It's scratching in a kind of pattern."

Scree scree screeeeee ...

I listened hard. Campbell was right. The scratching was very regular. A little chill went down my back.

"Should we go look to see what it is?" Campbell asked me.

"I-I guess so," I said.

We both stood up from our desks and stared out the window. All we could see was blackness. Neither one of us moved.

I shook off my inner squeamies. "Come on, Campbell," I declared. "There's no reason to be scared. I'm sure it's nothing."

We both slowly walked to the window. The night sky was pitch black. For a minute, I couldn't see anything.

Scree scree screeeeeee!

Suddenly a ghostly white face peered in at us through the glass! It had a leering smile, pointy teeth, and red eyes.

Campbell shrieked and grabbed my arm.

I just stood there. I didn't say a word.

Was I speechless? Petrified with fear? Did I scream?

No way, Diary. I laughed.

"It's just my cousin, Jeremy," I told Campbell, rolling my eyes. "He's trying to scare me... again."

Jeremy Burke goes to the nearby Harrington Academy for Boys. He's twelve -- the same age as my sister Ashley and me.

"Jeremy has been trying to scare us on Halloween ever since Ashley and I were five years old," I told Campbell.

The creepy face outside moved slowly back and forth. "Whoooooooooo," Jeremy moaned.

"That first year," I said, ignoring Jeremy's groans, "he got dressed up in one of his mom's white sheets and pretended to be a ghost.

"One problem, though," I continued, "it was a queen-sized sheet. Jeremy got all tangled up in it and fell down the stairs."

"Did he get hurt?" Campbell asked, gazing out the window at Jeremy in the mask.

"Actually, he was lucky," I said. "There was so much sheet wrapped around him that he didn't hurt himself at all. But," I added, giggling, "he did get in a lot of trouble. He had cut holes in the sheet for his eyes, nose, and mouth. Since it was one of his mom's best sheets, she yelled at him for a whole hour!"

"Whoooo-ooooo!" Jeremy groaned louder and louder. "Whoooo-oooooooooooo!" He tapped on the window.

"He's been trying to scare us every year since," I told Campbell. "He's put on skeleton costumes, goblin costumes, vampire costumes, ghoul costumes, and one very ugly E.T. costume."

Campbell studied the mask still staring at us through the window. "I guess he's pretending to be the Shroud in the movie The Ghost of Cragun County."

I shrugged. "No matter what costume he puts on, Jeremy is just not a good scarer. He can't even get to Ashley -- and you know what a scaredy-cat she is."

Diary, Ashley is the kind of person who doesn't ever go to horror movies. Me? I love them.

That's one of the ways my sister Ashley and I are totally different -- even though everybody thinks we look alike. We do both have long, wavy strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes, and we're the same size. In fact, we could trade clothes -- if we didn't have totally different taste. I go for sporty and casual. She's into more trendy and fashionable stuff.

But one thing we both agree on: Jeremy will never, ever be able to frighten us.

Campbell's eyes were still glued to the window. "What is he doing out there?" she asked.

"Whooooo-whooooo!" Jeremy shouted. The mask moved from side to side. "Whooo-whooo! Whoo-whoa! Whoa!"

Jeremy's groans suddenly changed to yelps. His arms spiraled wildly. "Whoa!"

There was a big cracking sound. The branch he was sitting on broke.

Campbell and I raced to the window. For the first time ever, Jeremy actually managed to scare me! Was he okay?

I flung open the window and peered out.

I spotted Jeremy clinging to a vine below the window. "Phew," I said. He didn't seem hurt.

"Do you think he's okay?" Campbell cried.

"Probably," I said, hurrying toward the door. "Jeremy somehow always bounces back. But we should go down to check."

Continues...

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Excerpted from Two of a Kind #37: Hocus-pocus by Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen Copyright © 2006 by Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen. Excerpted by permission.
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