Chapter 2
Ghosts and Bodies

All the girls screamed, as Bethan drew her hands from the curtains covered in spiders, they were crawling up her arms, up her tracksuit top sleeve. She screamed. All the girls screamed again.

“Who has done this to Bethan” Skye shouted in to the
group of girls.

Mrs Rudd hearing the racket ran into the dormitory followed by Liam Ashley and Daniel Thompson.

“What on Earth is going on in here, surely you are not having nightmares about the haunted hallway again are you Lauren or you Aimmie?” Mrs Rudd asked

“No Mrs Rudd.” The two girls said together

“It’s me Mrs. Somebody has put spiders in my curtains.” Bethan told Mrs. Rudd
Liam and Daniel were on the floor laughing clutching their sides, when they finally stood up the girls looked solemn.
“OK we did it but we didn’t realise it would be Bethan opening the curtains, we hoped it would be Mrs. Herron.” Daniel said blushing and facing away from the girls, who had replaced their solemn looks with a murderous stare.
“It was a dare Liam, Ben and Jack all made us do it, they said we could” Liam stated

“I don’t care what they said you could do, all I want to know is why you would even try. There is more than a 50% chance of someone else opening those curtains, it could have even been me!” Mrs. Rudd exclaimed. “ You two are on clean up duty for the rest of the stay, every day I want the silver ware cleaned and polished perfectly.”

At 7pm the children followed Mrs Rudd to the hall where a long dinning table stood in the middle. Seeing as they had missed lunch because of their little trip down stairs the class was ravenous. After dinner Daniel and Liam followed Mrs. Herron down to the kitchen where 35 plates, 35 bowls and 105 knifes, spoons and forks stood waiting for them.

“I’ll wash and you can put things away” Liam said and started on the washing.
Half way through when Liam’s fingers were like prunes; whilst Daniel was carrying a heavy pan to the cupboard, he opened the door and looked up. He was staring into a pair of blank white eyes. Daniel screamed and ran. Liam picked the pan up and went to put it in the cupboard but found the same white eyes, he looked further down, looking for a pocket in which he might have a wallet so he could tell whom it was. There were footsteps in the hallway.

“What’s wrong!” came Chloe’s voice “is somebody scared of Mr. Bones”
All the girls of 6 white were standing in the doorway and laughing madly.
“YOU DID THIS!” Shouted Daniel from the back of the crowd.

“Yes, don’t you like Mr. Bones we found him in the science lab upstairs. Come on Mr. Bones we’ll take you back up to the lab” Lauren shouted over the laughter of the girls and with that she lifted the skeleton out of the cupboard and turned to carry him upstairs.

“I’m so tired,” Jessica moaned sleepily from a chintz armchair in the corner of the girls’ dormitory “ I think I’ll get some pyjamas on and then go to bed.”

Meanwhile in the boys dormitory the boys were betting on which girl would freak out first.
“£1, on Natasha, Skye and Bethan.” Liam Scott called across the room.

“I’ll take it, but I still think that Chloe, Aimmie and Sharna will get freaked out first.” Jack replied. So deep in conversation, the boys had no idea what was happening in the girls’ room.

Whilst Jessica had been getting her pyjamas on the other girls were guessing on whether or not Daniel would kiss her.
“I don’t think they will,” called Bethany “Jess really hates Daniel”

“But you should have saw them on the way down to dinner, they were complementing each other, Daniel even said Jessica’s hair looked nice.” Natasha argued

There was a knock at the door,
“We’ve got a free period, tomorrow how about playing football with the me and the boys?” asked Mark from the doorway.
The girls all agreed, so after breakfast, they changed into tracksuits and went out into the gardens where they found all the boys waiting for them with the goal posts made and ready. It was a terrible defeat to the girls, 12-1 to the boys, Dylon didn’t make it any better he was upfront and kept slide-tackling the girls when they didn’t expect it. Wallis kept falling over and splattering every one with mud, every time she kicked, which gave the boys a great advantage.

“My hairs a mess,” moaned April from the goal posts. Lauren Taylor who had scored the first and only goal for the girls was covered from head to toe, with mud and was later congratulated for her goal.

After showers-every one needed one- the class walked down to lunch. Mrs Rudd and Mrs Herron obviously had something to tell them as they were on the edge of their seats.
“This was found on the bathroom door, just about a minute ago,” Mrs. Herron Sympathetically said to the class, she passed a note around. It read:

Dear Children,





I’ve took Skye, Marc and Anna, If you want to see your friends again, I want my Niece Jessica Parker to meet me at the grand father clock in the entrance hall at 11:30pm on Wednesday the 14th of May 2008.





Signed




James Henry Miller-Parker.
P.S: Jessica you need to be alone. Don’t worry your friends are safe, For Now.

“Damn, that’s today, Oh I really don’t want to go.” Jessica cried desperately.
“you are going, cause I want my Skye back!” Bethan warned Jessica.
“We want Anna, back as well!” shouted Becky, Jade and Holly.
“And we want Marc back” shouted the boys.
The class advanced on Jessica slowly.
“That’s enough.” Shouted Mrs Rudd

“Ben, I can’t sort my pen knife out will you help me?” Asked Connor
Further down the table, there was an argument, Jake lunged at Ben Connell, knocking him to the ground. Jake punched Ben hard in the face, But Ben fought back he kicked Jake in the kneecap sending him to the floor. Alex, Sam and Liam Scott were crowding around them yelling “fight, fight, fight!” repeatedly

It was coming up to 11:30 and Jessica had just arrived at the grandfather clock she heard footsteps……….