Scare School Read Online Free PDF Page B

cage.
    “I hope your dad will let you bring in other interesting animals,” Mr. Kimpall said.
    “Over my dead body,” I muttered.
    I spotted an empty bookshelf against the back wall. “Think the rabbit will be safe over there?” I asked Mr. Kimpall. “I promised my dad …”
    “That should be fine,” Mr. Kimpall said. “I’m sure no one in class will disturb it.”
    I slid the cage onto the shelf. As I started back to my seat, the classroom door swung open.
    Tim, the fifth-grader I’d met in the hall after school yesterday, came walking in. He had a note in his chubby hand, which he carried to Mr. Kimpall.
    “Hey, Poster, did you see your brother?” Simpson called out. “Back in that cage!”
    Several kids laughed.
    Tim’s face turned bright red.
    “Poster’s ears are bigger!” a boy shouted.
    More laughter.
    Tim blushed even more. I could see that he didn’t like to be teased.
    “Since when do rabbits go oink-oink ?” another boy joked.
    “That will be enough!” Mr. Kimpall said sharply. “Not another word.”
    He opened the note Tim had brought him and read it quickly. Then he turned to me. “Sam, Ms. Simpkin wants to see you in the office.”
    I swallowed. “The principal? What did I do?”
    Some kids laughed.
    “The note doesn’t say,” the teacher replied. “Why don’t you go and find out?”
    I climbed up from my desk and hurried out of the room. The principal’s office was on the second floor near the front of the building.
    I glanced at the clock. Nearly lunchtime.
    Ms. Simpkin was a friendly-looking middle-aged woman with straight copper-colored hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a dark blue sweater over a long denim skirt.
    She had been chewing on a pencil, going through a stack of files. She set the pencil down and smiled at me. “Are you Sam?” she asked.
    I nodded. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. But I still felt nervous. “Yes. Sam Waterbury.”
    “Well, I just wanted to say welcome,” she said. She leaned forward and shook my hand. “I didn’t getto meet you yesterday. And I like to meet all of my students.”
    “Oh. Uh … thanks,” I said. I couldn’t think of anything better to say.
    She shuffled through some papers. “I need you to sign these student forms. Here.” She handed me the pencil she’d been chewing on.
    I signed the papers. When I looked up, she was staring hard at me.
    “How is it going so far?” she asked.
    “Well … ” Should I tell her about yesterday? Should I tell her about my battle with the imp?
    I couldn’t decide.
    “It’s hard to be a new kid here,” she said as if reading my mind. “I know it isn’t easy, Sam. But—”
    “Ms. Simpkin—call for you on line two!” the secretary shouted from the front office.
    Ms. Simpkin smiled again and gave me a quick wave. “Good luck,” she whispered. Then she picked up the phone.
    Good luck?
    Did that mean she knew about my problems with the imp?
    The buzzer went off for lunch period. Kids streamed out into the hall, laughing and shouting. Three guys pushed past me, racing to be first in line in the lunchroom.
    By the time I reached Mr. Kimpall’s room, it wasempty. I glanced to the front of the room. The teacher had left, too.
    Then I turned to the rabbit cage on the shelf against the back wall.
    And felt a stab of horror jolt my body.
    “Oh, no!” I cried. “No. Oh, no …” The cage door stood wide open.
    The ebony rabbit was gone.

12
    No. No way. It can’t bet I told myself.
    I had closed the cage door so carefully. And I had fastened the latch.
    My hands suddenly felt ice cold. My legs wobbled weakly as I stumbled up to the cage.
    The rabbit couldn’t get out on its own, I decided. No way it could push the door open.
    But why would anyone open the cage and let it out?
    Unless …
    No!
    The imp wouldn’t come into Mr. Kimpall’s classroom—would he?
    And how would the creature even know that mydad had brought a valuable rabbit to school?
    “Where are you,