by R. L. Stine
“It’s my birthday!” I insisted.
We compromised. We played Twister. Then we watched some of the Terminator movie until it was time to eat.
It was a pretty good party. I think everyone had an okay time. Even April seemed to be having fun. She was usually really quiet and nervous-looking at parties.
Lefty spilled his Coke and ate his slice of chocolate birthday cake with his hands because he thought it was funny. But he was the only animal in the group.
I told him the only reason he was invited was because he was in the family and there was nowhere else we could stash him. He replied by opening his mouth up real wide so everyone could see his chewed-up chocolate cake inside.
After I opened presents, I put the Terminator movie back on. But everyone started to leave. I guess it was about five o’clock. It looked much later. It was dark as night out, still storming.
My parents were in the kitchen cleaning up. Erin and April were the only ones left. Erin’s mother was supposed to pick them up. She called and said she’d be a little late.
Whitey was standing at the living room window, barking his head off. I looked outside. I didn’t see anyone there. I grabbed him with both hands and wrestled him away from the window.
“Let’s go up to my room,” I suggested when I finally got the dumb dog quiet. “I got a new video game I want to try.”
Erin and April gladly followed me upstairs. They didn’t like the movie, for some reason.
The upstairs hallway was pitch black. I clicked the light switch, but the overhead light didn’t come on. “The bulb must be burned out,” I said.
My room was at the end of the hall. We made our way slowly through the darkness.
“It’s kind of spooky up here,” April said quietly.
And just as she said it, the linen closet door swung open and, with a deafening howl, a dark figure leapt out at us.
R.L. Stine’s books are read all over the world. So far, his books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children’s authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written the teen series Fear Street and the funny series Rotten School, as well as the Mostly Ghostly series, The Nightmare Room series, and the two-book thriller Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and Minnie, his King Charles spaniel. You can learn more about him at www.RLStine.com.
Goosebumps book series created by Parachute Press, Inc.
Copyright © 1995 by Scholastic Inc.
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This edition first printing, May 2015
e-ISBN 978-0-545-82057-8
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