8 MORE TROUBLE BACKSTAGE

CHAPTER 8 MORE TROUBLE BACKSTAGE The next morning, Beckett was still trying to figure out how to make something disappear from the solid world. "How close were you to that lamp when you made it disappear?" Beckett asked Kaz. "Were you hovering above it or were you beside it? Were you upside down or right side up?" "I don't know!" "How do you not know?" Beckett cried, pulling at his hair. "You were there, too," Kaz pointed out. "If you don't remember, how do you expect me to?"

"Because you're the one who did it!" "Good morning," Claire said cheerfully as she joined Kaz and Beckett in the craft room. "Good morning," Kaz said. Beckett grunted. Kaz swam over to Claire. "Can I come to school with you today?" he whispered as he hovered near Claire's ear. He needed a break from Beckett. "Of course," Claire said. "You should come to school. We still haven't solved the case of the backstage ghost. We can't stop until we solve the case!" So Kaz went to school with Claire. While Claire was busy in her classroom, Kaz drifted up and down hallways... in and out of classrooms... He didn't find any clues. But he did find a wadded-up piece of paper on the floor in an empty hallway. He swam over and tried to pick it up. His hand passed through it.

He tried to make that paper disappear from the solid world. He stared hard at it and reached for it again. His hand passed through it again. What did I do differently last night to make that lamp disappear from the table in the craft room? While he was thinking about that, he heard a familiar voice coming from the classroom behind him: "I don't know where my science book is." Kaz glided over to the doorway to see who had said that. It was Andy, the boy who would be working in the control room during the play. "You haven't had your science book all week," the teacher told Andy. She did not look happy. "I know," Andy said, his shoe digging into the floor. "I wish I knew what happened to it." At lunch, Kaz hovered around Claire and Jonathan. While they were talking, Noah snuck up behind Jonathan and yelled, "BOO!"

Both Claire and Jonathan jumped. "Got you, Ghost Boy!" Noah laughed. "You jumped a mile!" "Stop calling me 'Ghost Boy,'" Jonathan said. "Ghost Boy! Ghost Boy!" Noah taunted as he walked away. "That isn't very nice!" Claire called to Noah. "No one's ever nice to me," Jonathan said. "Except for you. When I was in third grade, they called me Puke Boy. Because I threw up in school once. Ghost Boy is actually better." "No, it's not," Claire said. "People shouldn't call names at all." Kaz agreed. He wished he could make kids stop calling Jonathan "Ghost Boy." But what could he do? He was just a ghost. Then he got an idea. He wasn't sure it would work, but it was worth a try. Kaz floated over to Noah and... blew into his hair. Surprisingly enough, the hair around Noah's

ear moved a little. Kaz blew into Noah's hair again. This time Noah reached up and pushed the piece of hair back into place. Kaz did it again. Harder this time. Noah shivered, then turned all around like he was trying to figure out what was making his hair move. Claire grinned at Kaz as Noah left the cafetorium. Kaz felt pleased with himself. He may not have

figured out how to pick up a solid object or make it disappear, but he'd found a way to move a solid object. "I'd like you all to try on costumes today," Mr. Hartshorn said at the beginning of rehearsal that afternoon. "Amber and Kenya went through all the costumes the other day. I pinned your names to the ones I'd like each of you to try on. You'll find them hanging on a rack in the storage room." Claire and the other performers went back behind the curtain. Kaz waited in the cafetorium. He watched the backstage workers piece together the beanstalk. They were building it right beside Jack's house. A few minutes later, the performers wandered back onto the stage. None of them were in costume. Mr. Hartshorn glanced up at them in surprise. "What's the matter?" he asked. "Our costumes are missing," Claire said.