7 THE BIG BOOK OF PRACTICAL JOKES

CHAPTER 7 THE BIG BOOK OF PRACTICAL JOKES Lauren hurried up the stairs. "Is she the ghost?" Little John asked. "I don't know. I don't think so," Kaz said. "I think she is," Little John said. "Otherwise, why is she here when everyone else is gone?" "Maybe she just got home," Kaz suggested. "Or maybe she's been here all along. Maybe she was hiding, and maybe she's the one who dropped the marbles down the stairs and scared those people away," Little John said. Kaz frowned. "Why would she do that?" "Same reason Eli would," Little John said. "Maybe she doesn't want to move. Or maybe she wants everyone to think Eli's the ghost. She could

be playing a trick on him because he plays tricks on everyone else." "Could be," Kaz said. But he thought it was more likely that Eli was the ghost. A little while later, the front door opened, and Eli and his mom walked in. Eli's mom was talking on her cell phone. "Yes, I understand," she said, closing the door behind her. Eli started to walk away, but his mom held him by the elbow. "I will have a talk with him," she said into the phone. "Thanks for letting me know." She set the phone on the table with the bowl of marbles. "Marbles on the stairs this time?" she said as she grabbed a handful of marbles from the bowl. "This behavior has to stop, Eli. Someone could have gotten hurt." "I didn't do it!" Eli said. Lauren came partway down the stairs. "Didn't do what?" she asked, resting her chin on the railing.

"Oh, I didn't know you were home, Lauren," her mother said. "I just got home," Lauren said. "Cheer-leading practice was canceled today." "The ghost was here again," Eli told Lauren. "It rolled marbles down the stairs and scared away the people who came to look at our house." "There's no such thing as ghosts," Eli's mom said in a tired voice. Lauren turned and ran back up the stairs. "Well, I know I didn't do it. I wasn't even here," Eli said. Lauren returned a couple of seconds later with a heavy book. "Look what I found on Eli's bed," she said, tromping down the stairs. She marked a page with her finger and held the book so her mom could read the title: The Big Book of Practical Jokes. "What were you doing in my room?" Eli cried. "You borrowed my markers yesterday. I went to get them back," Lauren said. She turned to their

mother. "Look what page the book was open to." She opened the book and read out loud, "'How to Make People Think Your House Is Haunted. Number one, roll marbles down the stairs.'" "Eli!" their mom cried, hands on her hips.

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"What?" Eli said. "That book was on my shelf when we left. It wasn't on my bed." "It was on your bed," Lauren argued. Kaz and Little John looked at each other. They'd seen the book on Eli's bed, too. But they didn't know whether it was there when Eli and Claire were looking around upstairs or whether it had appeared after they left. "I wasn't here when any of that stuff happened," Eli said again. "You could have rigged up something to go off when you're not here," Lauren said. "You like to play tricks on people. You know you do!" Kaz knew it, too. He had seen Eli borrow books on the subject from the library. "I'm being framed!" Eli insisted. "Someone's trying to make it look like I'm the one doing all this stuff." Lauren snorted. "Who would do that?" "A ghost," Eli said. "I'm being framed by a ghost."