9. The Horrible Truth

THE HORRIBLE TRUTH 9 The school kept flinging Lucy through the air. Back and forth. Back and forth. Sam got an idea: I must be turning the wheel the wrong way! "Hang on!" he shouted. Sam spun the big wheel in the opposite direction. The water began draining from the pipes. It was working! The pipes were losing their energy. They were becoming weaker. Then the pipe around Lucy's ankle loosened its grip. And it dropped her!

"Ahhhhhhhh!" yelled Lucy, falling. At the last moment, Lucy grabbed ahold of a lower- hanging pipe. Antonio helped her get down. "You're okay," Antonio said. Lucy wiped some sweat from her forehead. "So," she said, "what took you guys so long?" Sam and Antonio smiled. Their friend was safe. "What is all that?" Lucy said, pointing to the papers sticking up out of Sam and Antonio's pockets. "Oh, yeah!" Sam said. "We found this creepy office back there. It was full of lots of old junk!"

"Maybe that blueprint will show us how to get back upstairs," said Antonio. "Good thinking!" said Lucy. "You find a way out of here while I dig through this other stuff." Sam, Antonio, and Lucy took a seat on the floor and got to work. "Look at this!" Lucy said, holding up a red leather book. "This is Orson Eerie's journal. It sounds like he was some sort of mad scientist!" "Whoa," Antonio whispered. "What else does his journal say?" Sam asked.

Lucy's eyes darted over the pages. After a minute, she lowered the book and said, "As Orson Eerie grew old, all he cared about was the idea of endless life. In his last journal entry, he writes, 'I've done it! I've found a way to live forever.'" Sam remembered something. "Lucy, do you still have the library book?" Lucy's eyes lit up. "Yes!" she said. She slipped her backpack off her shoulder and handed the book to Sam.

"Look!" Sam said, flipping to the page where he had left off that morning. "It says Orson Eerie was an architect— someone who designs buildings. And, oh, man— he designed Eerie Elementary!" "Wait a minute," said Antonio. "A mad scientist designed our school? No wonder it's crazy creepy!" Sam, Antonio, and Lucy were silent. The only sound came from the water heater. It sounded like a heart beating. Ba BUMP, Ba BUMP. Ba BUMP, Ba BUMP. Ba BUMP, Ba BUMP. It was then that Sam Graves understood the terrible truth about Orson Eerie and about Eerie Elementary.