5 WHAT IF IT'S A TRICK

CHAPTER 5 WHAT IF IT'S A TRICK? Eli waited for Claire under the big oak tree outside their school. "There you are!" he said, falling into step with her. He carried a book under his arm. "Here I am," Claire said. Kaz and Little John watched and listened from inside Claire's water bottle. "I'm not grounded anymore," Eli said. He opened the door and they went in the school. "Can you come over this afternoon and find the ghost at my house?" Claire dodged several kids in the hallway. "Your mom and your sister think you're the ghost," she said. "They said you don't want to

第五章如果这是个骗局呢？ 伊莱在学校外面的大橡树下等克莱尔。 “你来了！”他说着，跟上了她的步伐。 他腋下夹着一本书。 “我在这里，”克莱尔说。卡兹和小约翰在克莱尔的水瓶里边看边听。 “我不再被禁足了，”伊莱说。 他打开门，他们走进了学校。 “你今天下午能来我家找鬼魂吗？”克莱尔在走廊里躲开了几个孩子。 “你妈妈和你妹妹认为你是鬼，”她说。 “他们说你不想

move, so you're trying to make people think your house is haunted." "But I'm not!" Eli said. Claire spun the dial on her locker and opened the door. Kaz and Little John passed through the water bottle and floated up above Claire and Eli's heads. Eli leaned against the locker next to Claire's. "I'll pay you if you can find the ghost," he said. Claire wiggled out of her jacket and hung it in her locker. "Don't do it, Claire," Kaz said. He dropped down in front of her. "Please, don't go over to his house." "Why don't you want Claire to go to Eli's house?" Little John asked Kaz. "Because I don't trust him," Kaz replied. "What if Eli plays a trick on her? We won't be there to help her. We're not going home with her after school, remember? We're staying here until Mom says we don't have to go to Valley View."

搬家，所以你想让人们认为你的房子闹鬼。” “可我不是！”伊莱说。克莱尔转动了储物柜上的刻度盘，打开了门。 卡兹和小约翰穿过水瓶，漂浮在克莱尔和伊莱的头顶上。 伊莱靠在克莱尔旁边的柜子上。 “如果你能找到鬼魂，我就付钱给你，”他说。 克莱尔脱下夹克，把它挂在储物柜里。 “别这样，克莱尔，”卡兹说。 他在她面前摔倒了。 “求你了，别去他家。” “你为什么不想让克莱尔去伊莱家？”小约翰问卡兹。 “因为我不信任他，”和子回答。 “如果伊莱捉弄她怎么办？” 我们不会帮她的。 放学后我们不能和她一起回家，记得吗？ 我们要一直待在这里，直到妈妈说我们不用去谷景城。”

"We don't have to stay here. We could go to Eli's house with Claire," Little John said. "If he plays a trick on her, we could play a trick on him. Like this." Little John grabbed the book right out of Eli's hands, then let it fall to the floor. Claire tried to hide her smile as Eli bent to pick up his book. He didn't even know why he'd dropped it. "We can stay at his house tonight and then come to school with him inside his backpack tomorrow," Little John said. "Well...," Kaz said. There was no reason they couldn't do that.

“我们不必呆在这里。 我们可以和克莱尔一起去伊莱家，”小约翰说。 “如果他捉弄她，我们也可以捉弄他。 这样的。”小约翰从伊莱手中抢过书，然后让它掉在地上。 当伊莱弯腰捡起他的书时，克莱尔试图掩饰她的笑容。 他甚至不知道自己为什么会把它掉在地上。 小约翰说：“我们今晚可以住在他家，然后明天把他装在书包里一起来上学。” “嗯……卡兹说。他们没有理由不这样做。

"Earth to Claire," Eli said, waving his hand in front of Claire's face. "Will you come over after school or not?" Claire closed her locker. "Okay, I'll come," she said. "But this better not be a trick!" "It's not," Eli said with a grin. "I promise." While Claire went about her school day, Kaz and Little John hung out behind the stage in the school cafetorium. The last time Kaz was back here was when he and Claire had solved the case of the

“地球给克莱尔，”伊莱说，在克莱尔面前挥舞着他的手。 “你放学后来不来？”克莱尔关上了储物柜。 “好吧，我来，”她说。 “但这最好不是一个诡计！”“不是的，”伊莱笑着说。 “我保证。”克莱尔去上学的时候，卡兹和小约翰在学校食堂的舞台后面闲逛。 卡兹上次回来是在他和克莱尔解决了那个

ghost backstage. That was before he'd found any of his family except for Cosmo. "I like your idea of us playing a trick on Eli if he plays a trick on Claire," Kaz told Little John. "But what kind of trick could we play on him?" Little John shrugged. "He wants people to think his house is haunted. We could haunt him. We could glow and wail at him. You could transform some of his stuff. Then when anyone else comes into the room, we won't do anything." "If only I could glow," Kaz said. "You can. You did it at Valley View," Little John pointed out. "Yeah, but I don't know how I did it," Kaz said. "Well, there's no one around," Little John said. "Why don't you practice?" Kaz looked at his arms. He looked at his legs. Glow, he told his body. Glow! Glow! Glow! He clenched his teeth and squeezed his fists. Nothing happened.

鬼后台。那是在他找到除了Cosmo以外的家人之前。 卡兹对小约翰说：“我喜欢你的主意，如果伊莱捉弄克莱尔，我们也捉弄他。” “但是我们能对他开什么玩笑呢？”小约翰耸了耸肩。 “他想让人们认为他的房子闹鬼。 我们可以缠着他。我们可以对他怒目而视，嚎啕大哭。 你可以改造他的一些东西。 然后，当其他人进入房间时，我们什么也不做。” “要是我能发光就好了。”和子说。 “你可以。你在谷景城就做到了，”小约翰指出。 “是的，但我不知道我是怎么做到的，”卡兹说。 “嗯，周围没有人，”小约翰说。 “你为什么不练习呢？”卡兹看着他的手臂。 他看了看自己的腿。发光，他对自己的身体说。 发光!发光!发光!他咬紧牙关，握紧拳头。 什么也没有发生。

Kaz sighed. While he was trying to figure out what else to try, Little John expaaaaanded really big in front of Kaz and screamed in his face, "BOO!" Kaz almost jumped out of his skin. "What did you do that for?" he asked. "I was trying to scare you," Little John said. "I thought maybe you glowed at Valley View because Petey had scared you." "I don't think that's it," Kaz said, rubbing his arms. He wasn't glowing at all. "Okay, relax," Little John said. "How am I supposed to relax when you just scared me to death?" Kaz asked. Little John swam behind Kaz and squeezed his shoulders. "Like this. Breathe...," he said.

Kaz叹了口气。就在他想还能做些什么时，小约翰在卡兹面前膨胀得很大，对着他的脸尖叫：“嘘！”卡兹几乎吓了一跳。 “你为什么这样做？”他问。 “我只是想吓唬你，”小约翰说。 “我还以为你在山谷景城会发光是因为彼得吓到你了呢。” “我不这么认为。”卡兹搓着胳膊说。 他一点也不发光。“好吧，放轻松，”小约翰说。 “你刚把我吓死了，我怎么能放松？”Kaz问道。 小约翰游到卡兹身后，捏了捏他的肩膀。 “就像这样。呼吸……他说。