Megan Stine_Jeffery & the Third-Grade Ghost 03 by Christmas Visitors Page B

sprinkles, they put the cookies aside until after lunch. But when they came back, all of the cookie decorations had been changed.

    “What’s going on?” Melissa said. She had put a pink-icing ballet tutu on her gingerbread cookie. But now it had lots of chocolate sprinkles on it. Her ballerina looked like it had hairy arms and legs like a gorilla.
    “And look at my doctor!” Ben said. Ben had given his cookie a white-icing doctor’s gown and mask. But now it was covered with red food coloring. It looked like blood.
    “Jeffrey,” asked Mrs. Becker, “how could this happen?”
    Jeffrey immediately knew that the answer was one word: Max! But Jeffrey couldn’t tell the truth because no one would believe him.
    “I don’t know, Mom,” Jeffrey said. “It must be a weird time warp caused by the snowstorm. Somehow I think we made Halloween cookies by mistake!”

Chapter Two

    The next morning the snowy roads were cleared and everyone went back to school. Everyone except Jeffrey. He had a bad cold and lay on the living-room couch sneezing and coughing. He was wrapped in a cocoon of blankets to keep warm.
    At first, Jeffrey was miserable. Was there anything worse than being sick and not being able to play in the snow? On top of that, there was no one to keep him company. His friends were all in school. And his mom was busy with her work. She was writing an article for the newspaper. That meant Jeffrey couldn’t watch television because it was too noisy.
    But at about ten A.M . Max appeared in the doorway. As usual, he was wearing an old-fashioned flannel plaid shirt. Max was from the 1950s. Everything about him was from another time.
    Jeffrey smiled at his ghost friend.
    “Max!” Jeffrey said. “Are you going to keep me company?”
    “Sure, but not here,” Max said. “Let’s split this scene, Sleeping Beauty.”
    “I’m not sleeping. I’m sick,” Jeffrey mumbled to Max.
    Max came over and picked up the thermometer. He put it in his own mouth. “Daddy-o, like, once I had a temperature that was so high, they baked a pie right on my forehead.”
    Jeffrey laughed and rolled his eyes. According to Max’s stories,
everything
had happened to him. Only it was better, or bigger, or worse than what happened to anyone else.
    “What should we do for fun?” Jeffrey asked his friend.
    “Are you kidding? This
is
fun,” Max said. “I mean, what could be more funsville than staying in bed and being waited on by your mom all day?” He immediately turned on the TV—loud.
    “You’d better turn it off, Max,” Jeffrey said.
    “But, like, this is medicine, Jeffrey,” explained the ghost.
    “No TV. My mom needs quiet to write.”
    “Why doesn’t she use a pencil like everyone else?” Max asked. Then he cracked up at his own joke.
    “Jeffrey!” Mrs. Becker called. She walked intothe living room a few seconds later. “Jeffrey, you know better than to turn on the TV while I’m working.”
    “Uh, well, Mom,” Jeffrey said. “I
had
to turn it on. Im using TV to fight my cold.”
    “This I’ve got to hear,” Mrs. Becker said. She turned off the TV, crossed her arms, and waited for an explanation. But before Jeffrey could answer, Max turned the TV back on again.
    “Not funny, Jeffrey,” his mother said. “Let go of the remote.”
    “But, Mom! I can’t! You know how you always tell me that too much TV will rot my brain?” Jeffrey said. “Well, I just read that the part of the brain that rots is the same part that makes you get colds. So I need to rot my brain to fight my cold.”
    Mrs. Becker ran her fingers through her hair. “Keep the volume down, Jeffrey,” she said. “I’ve got to finish my work.”
    “Whew. That was a close one,” Jeffrey said as his mother returned to the den.
    “Naah,” Max said. “Like, she’s a mom, dig? That’s her job—cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids.”
    “Moms aren’t always like that anymore,” Jeffrey said. “Boy, are you living in the