The Skeletons in City Park Read online

  CHAPTER 1: SOGGY-JEANS BLUES

  CHAPTER 2: FIRST DAY

  CHAPTER 3: NO BONES ABOUT IT

  CHAPTER 4: HALL PASS

  CHAPTER 5: INFESTED!

  CHAPTER 6: THE BONE TALISMAN

  CHAPTER 7: MR. PANJI'S PICNIC

  CHAPTER 8: PARK PURSUIT

  CHAPTER 9: SURROUNDED!

  CHAPTER 10: GIVE A DOG A BONE

  CHAPTER 11: FINAL NOTE

  CHAPTER 1

  “Oh, c’mon,” Flo Gardner said. She reached into the dryer in the basement laundry room at Corman Towers. It was the morning of her first day of school, and her day was already off to a bad start. The jeans she wanted to wear were still damp, along with the rest of the clothes she’d put in the dryer the night before.

  Flo yanked her jeans out of the dryer and looked around the dingy laundry room. There was only one other dryer open, so she tossed in the soggy jeans, followed by the rest of the clothes. She added a few more quarters and pressed start.

  “What a rip-off,” Flo muttered as she hopped up onto the dryer to wait.

  Leaning back a bit, Flo glanced at the open space behind the bank of dryers. Up until a few weeks ago, that space had been home to a mysterious blue crack in the floor. Then, she and Furry, her only friend in the building, had leapt through the crack and ended up in Furry’s old world — a strange land filled with mummies and other monsters. They’d barely made it back through the portal to their own world before the portal’s location shifted.

  As soon as they told Curtis, the former building caretaker, what had happened, he’d gone to work right away. Now, the crack was completely cemented over.

  It looks like it was never even there, Flo thought. Maybe this time it’ll stay closed for good. I sure hope so. I’ve dealt with as many creepy creatures as I can handle in one summer.

  Even though Flo was keeping her fingers crossed, she remembered what Furry had said. The crack can’t be closed up. Not forever anyway. After all, they’d tried to cover it up before. Somehow, some way, the monsters from Furry’s world managed to come through.

  Just then, a man whistling an off-key tune walked into the laundry room holding a toolbox. He had jet-black hair and a thick mustache. Seeing Flo sitting on top of the dryer, the man smiled. “Hello,” he said with a heavy accent. “I am Mr. Panji.”

  “Hi,” Flo said. “Are you the new caretaker?”

  “Oh, no,” Mr. Panji replied, shaking his head. “I am from the repair shop. I am told there is a dryer here that is not feeling so good.”

  Flo pointed at the dryer that left her load of clothes damp. “It’s that one,” she said. “You’re really fast. I didn’t even call —”

  “Mrs. Pitzfatrick called last night,” Mr. Panji interrupted. He wasted no time in scooting back behind the dryers and getting to work. “Let’s see what the trouble is, my friend.”

  Flo watched the repairman work, smiling as she listened to his off-key whistling. A few times, Mr. Panji’s leg crossed over the spot where the crack used to be, making Flo even more relieved the cement had been completely sealed up. If it hadn’t, there would’ve been big trouble.

  After several minutes, Mr. Panji stood up. He held a big wad of dryer lint in his hand. It was a dark, nasty mess of fluff and string.

  “Do you want some of this cotton candy?” Mr. Panji asked. Before Flo could respond, he shook his head. “It is not real, sorry. This is a joke I tell.”

  The repairman walked around the back of the dryers toward the garbage can. As he did, his foot kicked something, sending it skittering noisily across the floor.

  “What is this?” Mr. Panji asked. He bent down to pick up the object and studied it as he threw away the lint ball. “It looks like an old brooch. Is this yours?”

  Flo shook her head. “Nope,” she said. The only thing she had that she cared about was on the dryer next to her — her Dyno-Katz lunchbox. It was never far from her side. Today it was fully loaded with a turkey sandwich for her first day of school.

  “With your permission, could I have this?” Mr. Panji asked. He held the brooch up so Flo could see it. It looked like a piece of gaudy costume jewelry. A round blue stone was set in a thin gold setting. It was so covered in dust and grime that it barely sparkled.

  Flo shrugged. “Sure, why not?” she said. She knew it wasn’t hers to give, but she didn’t think anyone would miss the ugly thing. “Whoever owned it probably doesn’t live here anymore, anyway.”

  Mr. Panji nodded and dropped the dusty blue brooch into his jacket pocket. “I shall give it to my wife. She loves antique jewelry. Blue is also her favorite color,” he said. “Should anyone ask about it, just have them call my shop.”

  “Okay, sure,” Flo said. She glanced up at the clock, getting a little antsy. If her clothes didn’t finish soon, she wouldn’t have time for breakfast.

  Mr. Panji finished collecting his tools. Then he leaned over and stuck something on the back of the dryer. He stood up, wadded up a small piece of paper, and dropped it into the trash.

  “Let me know if any other dryers are feeling sick,” Mr. Panji said with a laugh. “And have a good day.”

  “Sure thing,” Flo said and waved. “I will.”

  As Mr. Panji walked out of the laundry room, the dryer buzzed. Her clothes were dry.

  Finally, Flo thought. At least I won’t have to go pants-less on my first day.

  CHAPTER 2

  Thirty minutes later, Flo was getting on the school bus to Raimi Elementary. “Holy socks,” she said as Furry bounded on after her. “I almost didn’t recognize you. You’re wearing a shirt!”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Furry mumbled. He flopped down into the seat behind her. “Not my choice. My mom made me. But at least I can tuck my shard inside it.”

  To prove his point, Furry carefully tucked the blue stone shard tied around his neck inside his navy hoodie and out of sight. As Flo had learned during their last adventure, Furry’s shard was more than just a necklace — it was the reason the crack in the laundry room was open in the first place. Furry had used it to open a portal between his world and the human one.

  As the bus rattled through the city and made stops at several other apartment buildings, Flo looked around at the other kids. I wonder if any of them will be my friends, she thought.

  Since she and her mom moved around so much, Flo had become an expert at being the new kid. Unfortunately, that didn’t necessarily mean she was an expert at making friends. When you moved every few months, it was hard to get too attached to anyone.

  Except Furry, Flo thought with a smile.

  Flo turned around in her seat. “Are you excited for third grade?” she asked.

  Furry shrugged. “Probably as excited as you are for fourth grade,” he said. “I’m excited about gym class, though.”

  Flo glanced around to make sure no one was listening. “You don’t do any crazy, like, werewolf stunts in gym, do you?” she whispered.

  Furry shook his head and waved her off. “Nah,” he replied. He paused and then shot her a mischievous grin. “Well, not too many, at least.”

  * * *

  When the bus dropped them off in front of Raimi Elementary School, Flo pulled a slip of paper from her lunchbox. She had a letter telling her which classroom she’d been assigned.

  “See you later, Flo!” Furry called as he headed upstairs with the rest of the third graders.

  Flo waved goodbye and looked around the busy hallway. For the first time since she’d moved to the city, Flo felt alone.

  “Are you lost, dear?” a familiar voice asked. “Can I help you?”

/>   Flo glanced up and recognized Ms. Franklin, the school secretary who’d helped her register for school at the beginning of summer. She remembered her being nice. She also remembered that Ms. Franklin had called her Florence instead of Flo. She hated that name.

  “Uh, yeah,” Flo admitted. She adjusted her backpack strap and glanced down at the paper again. “I’m supposed to go to Mrs. Shamp’s room. Do you know where that is? It doesn’t say which floor or anything.”

  Ms. Franklin smiled and bent down to look at the letter in Flo’s hand. She lifted her old-fashioned glasses and nodded. “Yes,” the older woman said. “Go straight down the main hall, past the nurse’s office, and take a right at the trophy case. It’ll be the first door on your left.”

  “Okay,” Flo said. “Thanks.”

  “Wait a minute,” Ms. Franklin said. “I remember you. You’re the girl with the lunchbox.”

  Flo looked down at her Dyno-Katz lunchbox. It had gotten pretty beat up since the last time she’d been inside the school. Her adventures with Furry had left her prized possession a little more scuffed and dented than she liked.

  “Yep, that’s me,” Flo said with a smile. “Feels like I was just here signing up for school with my mom.”

  “Summer always seems to fly by. Must’ve been a good one,” Ms. Franklin said, straightening up. “Have a great year, Flo.”

  “You too,” Flo said. She grinned as she headed down the hallway. Maybe school won’t be so bad after all.

  * * *

  It didn’t take long for Flo to find her new classroom. She walked in just as the bell rang. Her teacher stood in front of the room, talking to a nearly full classroom of kids. The words MRS. SHAMP were written in capital letters on the whiteboard.

  Mrs. Shamp turned as Flo entered the room. She was a skinny lady with big glasses that made her eyes seem tiny. Her hair was long, dark, and curly.

  “Ah, you must be Florence,” Mrs. Shamp said. “Come on in. There’s a seat for you on the left.”

  Flo felt her face grow hot as twenty-four pairs of eyes turned to look at her. “Okay,” Flo said. She took a deep breath and walked toward the empty seat.

  “Oh, and you can leave your lunchbox in your locker,” Mrs. Shamp said.

  Flo walked over to Mrs. Shamp. “I’d really like to keep my lunchbox close if that’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s really important to me. Also, I don’t go by Florence. Everyone calls me Flo.”

  Mrs. Shamp nodded. “You got it, Flo,” she whispered back. “As long as I don’t see you dipping into your lunch during class, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

  “Thanks,” Flo said quietly. “I like you.”

  Mrs. Shamp smiled back at her. “I like you, too.”

  * * *

  The rest of Flo’s morning went smoothly. Everything seemed to be going well until they started the math unit. Mrs. Shamp had just handed out their workbooks for reviewing fractions when Flo saw something thin and white sneaking past the ground-floor window.

  “What was that?” Flo blurted out before she could stop herself.

  “Flo?” Mrs. Shamp asked. “Is everything okay?”

  Flo looked away from the window and realized everyone was staring at her. Great, she thought. Not only am I the new kid, but I’m the weird new kid.

  “Um, yeah,” Flo said quickly. “I just thought I saw something outside.”

  “Well, if you see it again, let me know,” Mrs. Shamp said. “Now you’ve got me curious.”

  A few of the kids in the class laughed.

  Flo took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She tried to force herself to focus on the instructions for completing the worksheet correctly. But she couldn’t help it. She glanced back up at the window.

  Flo gasped. There it was again — a skeleton.

  CHAPTER 3

  Flo couldn’t believe what she was seeing. There, peering through her classroom window, was a skeleton. The creepy thing had a large crack down the center of its skull. Its empty eye sockets were dark, and it was missing the majority of its teeth.

  “Whoa,” Flo whispered. “Freaky.”

  Mrs. Shamp turned from the board. “Flo?” the teacher asked. “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a —”

  “Skeleton,” Flo whispered, pointing to the window. But the skeleton was gone. All she saw outside was the empty playground.

  “You saw a skeleton?” a boy asked. “How is that possible?”

  “I saw one in a scary movie my brother watched,” a girl in the next row added. “It had a sword.”

  “Class,” Mrs. Shamp called. “Let’s focus. We all know skeletons exist inside our bodies. There aren’t any running around outside.”

  That’s what she thinks, Flo thought. What is happening? I just saw the crack this morning, and it was sealed. With cement!

  “Flo?” Mrs. Shamp called. “Join me up here for a moment, please.”

  “Okay,” Flo said. But she stayed right where she was, her eyes glued to the window.

  “Flo,” Mrs. Shamp said. “I’m waiting.”

  “She’s probably still looking for skeletons,” someone muttered. A few of the kids sitting nearby laughed.

  That was enough to snap Flo out of her stupor. She hopped off of her chair and walked toward the front of the room. She felt everyone’s eyes on her again.

  “Are you feeling okay, Flo?” Mrs. Shamp asked when Flo got close.

  Flo shook her head. “Not really,” she admitted. She did feel a little hot. Maybe it was from embarrassment. Or maybe it was from seeing a skeleton peeking through the window at her. She wasn’t sure.

  “We can’t have these kinds of interruptions in class,” Mrs. Shamp said. “If we do, we’ll never get our work done.”

  “I know,” Flo said. “I’m sorry. I just thought I saw something out there.”

  “A skeleton?” Mrs. Shamp asked.

  Flo nodded.

  “It would be cool if you did, huh?” Mrs. Shamp said, smiling. “But you and I both know that kind of thing doesn’t really happen.”

  If you only knew, Flo thought. But since she couldn’t exactly tell her teacher about the giant spiders, goblins, and mummies she’d battled over the summer, Flo nodded again.

  “So do we have a deal?” Mrs. Shamp asked. “No more outbursts?”

  “Yes,” Flo said.

  Mrs. Shamp smiled, and Flo forced herself to smile back. But something wasn’t right, and Flo wished more than ever that Furry was in her class.

  * * *

  Flo managed to make it through the rest of the morning with no more skeleton sightings. By the time lunch rolled around, she was starting to wonder if she had just imagined it after all.

  Maybe I’m losing it, Flo thought as she walked into the cafeteria. She took a seat at a table by herself. Within minutes, a figure appeared next to her.

  “I thought I smelled you over here,” Furry said.

  “Okay, geez,” Flo muttered, glancing around. “Not so loud. People are going to know you’re a werewolf.”

  “Nah, they’ll just think you smell,” Furry said with a wink. He tossed his bagged lunch onto the table and took a seat next to Flo. He opened his bag, pulled out his chips and juice box, and dug in.

  After a few minutes of chewing, Furry stopped stuffing his face long enough to say, “So, I think we have problem.”

  Flo closed her eyes. She had a bad feeling that she knew exactly what problem Furry was talking about. It was the same one she’d seen creeping past her classroom window.

  “Earth to Flo. Did you hear me?” Furry asked as he took a drink of his juice.

  “I heard you,” Flo said, opening her eyes. “Skeletons, right?”

  Furry nodded. “Yeah, skeletons. A lot of them. How did you know?”

  Flo leaned closer to her friend so she
wouldn’t be overheard. “I saw one outside my classroom window earlier,” she whispered. “But what are we supposed to do about it? We’re in school!”

  “I know,” Furry whispered back. “But we’re the only ones who know how to handle this kind of thing.”

  Flo opened her lunchbox and studied the picture of her and her dad taped inside the lid. She never went anywhere without that lunchbox. It reminded her of her dad, and her dad had always told her she should do what was right, no matter what.

  I wonder if that includes getting in trouble at school to stop skeletons from taking over the city, Flo thought.

  Flo closed her lunchbox. There was no way she could eat now. Not knowing that there were skeletons roaming free. “That stupid crack,” she muttered.

  “How do you know it’s the crack?” Furry asked.

  “Well, what else could it be?” Flo said. “That thing is nothing but trouble, I swear.”

  “I know,” Furry said, finishing the last of his chips. “And it’s all my fault.”

  Flo hated to admit it, but Furry was sort of right. When he’d used his portal shard to escape from his world as a young werewolf, he’d left a pathway open between their two worlds. As Flo had learned during an unplanned trip back to Furry’s world, it was the portal shard that had been keeping the crack in the basement laundry room open. And as long as the crack stayed open, anything from Furry’s world could sneak through the crack to wreak havoc in her world.

  Still, Flo knew that if it came down to a choice between losing her best friend and closing the crack, she’d rather have Furry here. She took a deep breath and forced herself to ask, “So what do we do?”

  CHAPTER 4

  When Flo returned to class after lunch, her stomach felt like it was full of butterflies. She and Furry had decided to meet in the hallway at 1:35, but now that she was alone again, she was having doubts about their plan. And she really wasn’t looking forward to taking on a bunch of skeletons.