The Hide-and-Seek Ghost

by Dori Hillestad Butler

  FOR MY MOM

  —DHB

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Penguin Young Readers Group

  An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  Text copyright © 2016 by Dori Hillestad Butler. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Aurore Damant. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 9780448489421 (pbk)

  ISBN 9780448489438 (hc)

  ISBN 9780399539565 (ebook)

  Version_1

  Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Glossary

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  EXPAND

  When ghosts make themselves larger

  GLOW

  What ghosts do so humans can see them

  HAUNT

  Where ghosts live

  PASS THROUGH

  When ghosts travel through walls, doors, and other solid objects

  SHRINK

  When ghosts make themselves smaller

  SKIZZY

  When ghosts feel sick to their stomachs

  SOLIDS

  What ghosts call humans

  SPEW

  Ghostly vomit

  SWIM

  When ghosts move freely through the air

  TRANSFORMATION

  When a ghost takes a solid object and turns it into a ghostly object

  WAIL

  What ghosts do so humans can hear them

  One . . . two . . . three . . . GLOW!” Little John shouted.

  It was nighttime, and all the solid people who lived above the library were asleep. Kaz hovered in the library entryway with his mom, pops, and little brother. They were all glowing.

  Kaz scrunched up his face. He gritted his teeth. He squeezed his hands into tight fists. And he tried, tried, tried to glow like the rest of his family. But no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, Kaz couldn’t glow.

  “I know you can do this,” Mom told Kaz as the glow faded from her body.

  “You’ve mastered all your other ghost skills,” Pops said.

  It was true. Kaz could wail now. He could also pass through solid walls and pick up solid objects. He could even transform solid objects into ghostly objects.

  Back when he and his family lived in the old schoolhouse, Kaz couldn’t do any of those things. He could only shrink and expand.

  So much had happened since then.

  Kaz remembered how he and his brothers used to swim around the old schoolhouse. His big brother, Finn, liked to scare Kaz and Little John by sticking an arm or a leg through the Outside wall. But one day Finn stuck his head a little too far through the wall, and the wind pulled him all the way into the Outside. Grandmom and Grandpop tried to rescue him, but they couldn’t. The wind blew them all away.

  After that, Mom and Pops tried even harder to teach Kaz his ghost skills. But before Kaz had learned any new skills, the old schoolhouse was torn down. Kaz and the rest of his family ended up in the Outside, and they all got separated in the wind.

  The wind blew Kaz to the library, where he met Beckett, the other ghost who lived there, and Claire. Claire was a solid girl, just Kaz’s age. She could see ghosts when they weren’t glowing, and she could hear ghosts when they weren’t wailing. No one knew why.

  Claire and Kaz started a detective agency to solve ghostly mysteries and try to find Kaz’s missing family. They’d found Kaz’s parents last week. Now Finn was the only one left to find. Kaz was worried he’d never see Finn again.

  “It’s getting light outside,” Pops said now. “It won’t be long before Claire wakes up. Try again, son.”

  “This time don’t squeeze your hands together,” Mom suggested. “And don’t grit your teeth. It’s hard to glow when you’re all tensed up. Let the glow flow through your skin.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” Kaz said.

  “You don’t know what what means?” Beckett asked as he wafted into the entryway. “Oh!” he said when he saw Kaz’s mom. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in here.”

  “It’s okay,” Mom said tightly. Now she was the one who was all tensed up.

  Kaz and Little John had hardly seen Beckett since their parents had come to the library. For some reason, Beckett and Mom didn’t like to be around each other.

  “We’re trying to teach Kaz how to glow,” Little John told Beckett. “Maybe you can help?”

  Beckett shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He turned to leave.

  “Why not?” Kaz asked. Before Kaz’s parents had arrived, Beckett used to work with Kaz on his ghost skills all the time.

  But Beckett wafted away without answering.

  Kaz turned to his mom. “Why don’t you and Beckett like each other?” he asked.

  “What are you talking about?” Mom asked, not quite meeting Kaz’s gaze. “Beckett and I like each other just fine.”

  “It doesn’t seem like it,” Little John said.

  “You never want to be in the same room together,” Kaz pointed out.

  “How do you two know each other, anyway?” Pops asked.

  Mom shrugged like it was no big deal. “We spent some time together when we were kids.”

  “And . . . ?” Little John waved his hand for Mom to go on.

  “And nothing,” Mom said. “It was a long time ago.”

  Kaz could tell there was more to the story than that. What would it take to get Mom or Beckett to tell the rest of the story?

  “Are you ghosts ready to go to Valley View?” Claire asked later that afternoon. It was Sunday and she had promised to take Kaz, Little John, and their parents to visit Grandmom and Grandpop at the nursing home. Mom and Pops hadn’t seen Grandmom and Grandpop in so long.

  Woof! Woof! Cosmo barked.

  “Okay, Cosmo,” Kaz said, grabbing his dog around the middle. “You can come, too.”

  The whole family shrank down . . . down . . . down . . . and swam into Claire’s water bottle. It was a tight squeeze.

  Claire flung the strap from the bottle over her shoulder and called to her family, “I’m going to visit people at Valley View!”

  “That’s nice, honey,” Grandma Karen called back. “Be back in time for dinner.”

  Claire walked down the street, her water bottle swinging over her shoulder. She stopped for a red light near the fire station.

  “Hey, remember when we got to see the fire trucks, Kaz?” Little John asked, glancing over at the fire station. Unfortunately, the big fire doors were closed, so Little John couldn’t see the trucks inside.

  “Yes,” Kaz said. “I also remember that you got lost inside one of those trucks for a wh
ile.”

  “You did?” Mom’s eyebrows shot up.

  “I wasn’t really lost,” Little John said. “I knew where I was.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t know where you were,” Kaz said. “Just like when we were looking for the five o’clock ghost and you went inside that house and didn’t come out.” That was the first case Little John had helped Kaz and Claire solve.

  “It’s good that you thought I was lost that day because that made you pass through the wall to come find me,” Little John said.

  Kaz couldn’t argue with that. For a long time, he didn’t like passing through walls. It made him feel all skizzy inside. But the more Kaz did it, the easier it got.

  “It sounds like you boys have had a lot of adventures since we’ve been apart,” Mom said as Claire turned onto Forest Street.

  “We have,” Kaz agreed. He turned all around inside Claire’s water bottle. “In fact, this is where I first saw Cosmo. Claire and I were inside that house over there.” He pointed. “The lady who lives there thought she had a ghost in her attic, so she hired us to come find it. I looked out her window and that’s when I saw Cosmo. He was right here. Right where we are now. Except he wasn’t in a water bottle. He was just floating around in the Outside.”

  Woof! Woof! Cosmo barked, his tail wagging.

  “I think he remembers!” Little John said.

  “How did you ever catch him?” Mom asked.

  But before Kaz could answer, a voice yelled from the window next door, “Hey! Hey, you! You’re that girl who solves ghostly mysteries, aren’t you? Come here! I’ve got a case for you.”

  Oh no,” Kaz said. He recognized that boy in the window.

  “What? Who is that?” Little John asked. He, Mom, and Pops all craned their necks to see around Cosmo and the stars on Claire’s water bottle.

  “You don’t know him,” Kaz said. “But Claire and I do. His name is Eli, and he likes to play tricks on people. When we were trying to find the ghost in Mrs. Beesley’s attic, we thought he was the ghost. Remember, Claire?”

  Claire nodded slightly. “He goes to my school, too,” she said in a low voice. “He’s always in trouble for something.”

  “Why are you just standing there?” Eli called to Claire. “Come over here so I can talk to you.” He waved his arm.

  “Don’t, Claire,” Kaz said. He didn’t trust Eli.

  “He might have a case for us,” Claire said. “I think we should find out.” She adjusted the strap on her water bottle and marched over to Eli’s house.

  Kaz groaned.

  “Don’t be such a scaredy-ghost, Kaz,” Little John said.

  “I’m not a scaredy-ghost. I just—whoa!” Kaz shrieked as Cosmo suddenly bolted from his grasp. The dog was halfway through the bottle before Kaz and his parents managed to pull him back in.

  Woof! Woof!

  “No, Cosmo!” Kaz said, holding tight to his dog.

  Claire stopped right below Eli’s window. “Okay, I’m here,” she said, shading her eyes. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

  “I told you. I have a case for you,” Eli said, leaning out the window. “A ghost case.”

  Woof! Woof! Cosmo wiggled and squirmed in Kaz’s arms.

  “Help! He’s still trying to escape!” Kaz exclaimed.

  It took the entire ghost family to hold Cosmo inside the water bottle.

  Claire planted a hand on her hip. “I thought you didn’t believe in ghosts,” she said to Eli. “That’s what you said when I told you that Mrs. Beesley hired me to find a ghost in her house. You even laughed at me when I said it.”

  Eli scratched his head. “Yeah, well, that was before a ghost moved into my house,” he said.

  “What makes you think there’s a ghost in your house?” Claire asked.

  “I saw it,” Eli said.

  “So, it was glowing,” Little John said.

  “If it was a real ghost,” Kaz said, clinging to his dog. He knew Eli couldn’t see ghosts like Claire could.

  Claire unzipped her backpack and pulled out her ghost book and pen. “Can you describe it?” she asked.

  Woof! Woof! Woof!

  “I don’t know,” Eli said. “It looked like a ghost.”

  “What was it doing?” Claire asked.

  “Hiding,” Eli said. “I saw it go under my sister’s bed once. I also saw it walk through a wall. And last night it hid in my closet and yelled, ‘Boo!’ when I opened the door.”

  “Ghosts don’t hide from solids,” Pops said with a scowl.

  Kaz cringed when Pops said “solids.” He knew Claire didn’t like that word.

  “We don’t have to hide,” Pops said. “If we don’t want solids to see us, we simply don’t glow.”

  “Whenever I try and follow the ghost or tell someone in my family about it, it disappears,” Eli told Claire. “And then later it reappears someplace else. I think it likes to play hide-and-seek.”

  “Uh-huh,” Claire said as she wrote down everything Eli said.

  “I’m not the only one who’s seen it,” Eli said. “Our house is for sale. Almost everyone who has come to look at our house has seen it, too. That’s why no one wants to buy our house. They think it’s haunted. But no one else in my family has seen it.”

  Honk! Honk! A car pulled into the driveway behind Claire.

  “Oh no,” Eli said. “That’s my mom. She and my sister are home!” He slammed his window shut and darted away.

  Claire stepped onto the grass so Eli’s mom could pull all the way into the driveway. She was still writing in her notebook when Eli’s mom and sister got out of the car. The sister looked a little older than Claire and Kaz.

  Cosmo turned to them and wagged his tail. For some reason, he seemed a lot calmer now.

  Eli’s mom gave Claire a half smile, then raised her eyes to the window. “Eli,” she called.

  When Eli didn’t appear at the window, she cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Eli!”

  “Someone’s in trouuuuble,” his sister sang.

  Eli slowly returned to the window. His mom motioned for him to open it. “What does grounded mean?” she asked once the window was open.

  Eli lowered his eyes. “It means I can’t go anywhere. I can’t use the computer. And I can’t text,” he grumbled.

  “It also means you’re not supposed to talk to your friends out the window.” His mom gave Claire a hard look.

  “I wouldn’t call us Eli’s friends,” Kaz said. Not that Eli’s mom could see or hear him.

  “I’m sorry,” Claire said as she stuffed her notebook back inside her backpack. “I was just walking by and—”

  “Let me guess,” Eli’s sister interrupted. “You’re that girl who finds ghosts. Eli said he was going to call you.” She leaned closer to Claire. “You do know my brother likes to prank people, don’t you?”

  “It’s not a prank, Lauren!” Eli hollered out the window.

  Eli’s mom put her arm around Claire and led her over to the sidewalk. “I don’t know why you’re here, but Eli’s grounded. He can’t see you today. And I assure you, there are no ghosts in our house.”

  Just then, Kaz caught a glimpse of something darting across the window next to Eli’s. Something ghostly.

  Kaz blinked. “Did you see that?” he asked his family.

  “See what?” Little John asked.

  “I don’t see anything,” Kaz’s mom said.

  “Neither do I,” Pops said.

  Kaz kept his eyes peeled to that window. But whatever he had seen didn’t come back.

  Eli’s mom was still talking to Claire. “You may have noticed the For Sale sign in our yard,” she said. “Eli is unhappy that we’re moving, so he’s been trying to trick people into believing our house is haunted.”

  “I am not!” Eli banged his f
ist against the window frame.

  “He thinks that if we don’t sell the house, we won’t move,” Lauren said.

  “We do have a ghost in our house, Claire,” Eli cried. “We really, really do!”

  “Well, there’s nothing I can do about it today,” Claire told him. “Your mom says you’re grounded. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” She waved to Eli and headed down the street.

  What were you talking about when you said, ‘Did you see that?’” Little John asked Kaz as they floated inside Claire’s water bottle. They were almost to Valley View.

  Kaz held tight to Cosmo. “I thought I saw a ghost in the window next to Eli’s,” he explained. “I only saw it for a second, so maybe I imagined it.”

  “Maybe you saw the sun reflecting against the window,” Mom suggested.

  “Lots of things look like ghosts from a distance, but they turn out to be something else,” Pops added.

  Kaz knew Pops was right. He and Claire had been called to solve quite a few ghostly mysteries, but none of them had resulted in any real ghosts.

  “It could be a ghost,” Little John said. “We’re not the only ghosts around here, you know. There’s Beckett, there’s the family that lives in the purple house, and there are a bunch of old lady ghosts at Valley View.”

  “Don’t call them old ladies,” Mom scolded. “That’s not polite.”

  “But they are old ladies,” Little John said. “Everyone at Valley View is old.”

  “We’re here,” Kaz announced as Claire walked up to a small brick building. She pulled open the door, and a large colorful bird in the entryway squawked, “Hello! Hello!”

  “Ack!” Kaz shrieked, even though the bird was in a cage.

  Grrrrr! Cosmo bared his teeth and growled at the bird.

  “What in the world is that?” Mom asked.

  Little John giggled. “It’s a bird. His name is Petey. Right, Kaz?” Little John glanced at Kaz, then looked again. “Kaz? Are you glowing?”

  “You are glowing!” Pops exclaimed.