The Scarytales Sleepover Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Chillin’ with Villains

  Chapter 2: Fee-Fi-Fo-Run!

  Chapter 3: Library Crook

  Chapter 4: Yo, Ho—Oh, No!

  Chapter 5: Bubble Trouble

  Chapter 6: Stairs to Where?

  Chapter 7: Tricky Troll

  Chapter 8: Party On!

  1

  Chillin’ with Villains

  Since when do parrots go to sleepovers?” eight-year-old Nancy Drew asked her friend Katie Zaleski.

  “My cousin is visiting and he’s allergic to feathers,” Katie answered. “So Amara told me I could bring Lester to the party.”

  Katie sat in the backseat of the Drews’ car. She held her pet parrot’s cage on her lap.

  “Row, row, row your boat!” Lester screeched. “Arrrk!”

  “He’s going to keep us up all night!” Nancy’s best friend Bess Marvin groaned.

  “It’s a sleepover!” Nancy’s other best friend, George Fayne, said. “We’re supposed to stay up all night!”

  Nancy smiled. She sat in the front seat between her friend Mari Cheng and the Drews’ housekeeper, Hannah Gruen. Bess, George, and Katie sat in the backseat.

  “All aboard the sleepover express!” Hannah announced as she started the car.

  Hannah had been the Drews’ housekeeper since Nancy was only three years old. Hannah cooked yummy meals for Nancy and made sure her clothes were neat and clean. But today Hannah was driving Nancy and her friends to Amara Shane’s first sleepover.

  Nancy had been to sleepovers before, but this one would be special.

  Amara was having her sleepover at Scarytales—a big old house where the villains from all different fairy tales—like the wolf from “Little Red Riding Hood” and Captain Hook from Peter Pan— came to life.

  Amara’s aunt Ellen owned Scarytales. She lived there with her seven-year-old son, Ernest.

  “I can’t believe we’re spending the night with fairy tale villains!” Bess said. She tugged at her blond ponytail. “Those parts of the stories always gave me goose bumps!”

  “Amara told us it’s more fun than scary,” Nancy said. “She’s been there so many times she knows exactly what will happen.”

  “Villains are the best!” George said, her dark eyes flashing. “What would Hansel and Gretel be without the witch?”

  “Safe!” Bess shuddered.

  Mari shook her head at Bess and George. “Are you two sure you’re cousins?”

  “Last we checked!” George joked. George’s real name was Georgia. But hardly anyone called her that.

  Hannah drove the car through River Heights. It was only six o’clock but the October night sky was already dark.

  “What’s that around your neck, Mari?” Hannah asked.

  “A camera!” Mari said proudly. “It develops pictures in just a few seconds!”

  “Great!” Nancy said. “You can take pictures of all the villains!”

  “If they let you,” Bess groaned.

  Hannah slowed the car down. “Here it is,” she announced. “Scarytales!”

  Nancy leaned over Mari to look out the side window. She saw a big old house and a yard filled with brown leaves. In front of the house was a narrow creek and a wooden bridge.

  “This place is spooked,” Mari said in a hushed voice.

  “It just looks spooked!” Nancy said.

  “Check out the tower on the roof!” Bess gasped. “Towers mean bats!” she exclaimed.

  “No bats,” Katie said, shaking her head. “Just witches, pirates, and trolls.”

  Hannah parked the car on the street. She helped the girls unload their sleeping bags and backpacks. Most of them wore jeans, sneakers, and long-sleeve T-shirts. Bess wore black pants and a bright orange sweater. Crunching through the leaves, they carried their gear toward the house. Hannah held Katie’s sleeping bag so she could carry Lester’s cage.

  “I guess we have to cross that bridge to get to the house,” Nancy said.

  “Not so fast!” came a gruff voice.

  A short man with a long white beard crawled out from under the bridge. He wore blue overalls, a yellow shirt, and a pointed red hat. Three people dressed as goats ran out after him.

  “You have to pay the toll first!” the little man said, holding out his hand.

  “Or go baaaaack!” a goat said.

  Nancy giggled. It was the mean troll from “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

  “Well?” the troll said. He was so small that he looked Nancy straight in the eye. “Are you going to cough it up?”

  “Sorry.” Hannah smiled. “These girls don’t get their allowances until Monday.”

  Katie put Lester’s cage on the ground. She reached into her pocket. “But you can have some cinnamon gum,” she said.

  “Nan,” the troll said. “Cinnamon makes me sneeze.”

  “How about a baseball card?” George asked. She pulled a card from her pocket.

  “Baseball?” the troll cried. He rubbed his hands. “Now you’re talking!”

  “If you’re such a fan,” George said, tilting her curly head, “how come you’re not watching the play-offs tonight?”

  The troll didn’t answer as he snatched the baseball card. “You can cross now,” he said.

  “What a grouch!” Bess whispered.

  “He was just pretending,” Hannah said as they walked over the bridge.

  “Wait!” Mari said. “I want to get a picture of the troll and the goats!”

  Nancy, Mari, and George ran back to the middle of the bridge. They leaned over the rail. Nancy couldn’t see the troll or the goats. But she could hear them.

  “Who says I’m not watching the baseball game tonight?” a voice asked.

  Nancy looked at Mari and George. It was the troll’s gruff voice.

  “I happen to have a little plan up my sleeve,” the troll went on.

  The goats began to laugh. “You are so baaaad!” one goat said.

  “I think I’ll pass on that picture,” Mari said softly.

  But Nancy was curious. “What plan do you think the troll was talking about?” she whispered to her friends.

  George shrugged and sighed. “Villains. You just can’t figure them out,” she whispered back.

  Nancy, George, and Mari ran back over the bridge to join the others. They walked across the yard toward the front door.

  Suddenly a tall man dressed in a wolf costume jumped out from behind a tree. Over his costume was a flannel nightgown.

  “Greetings!” he said. He tipped his nightcap. “Are you on your way to Grandma’s house?”

  Nancy decided to play along. “My!” She laughed. “What big teeth you have!”

  The wolf reached behind the tree and pulled out a pizza box. “The better to eat mushroom and pepperoni pizza with!” he declared. “You will share some with me, won’t you?”

  “Pizza isn’t good for wolves,” Hannah joked. “Especially if they wolf it down.”

  Hannah borrowed Mari’s camera to take a picture of the wolf and the girls. They posed on the doorstep.

  “Say cheese!” Hannah called.

  “Pepperoni!” the wolf called back.

  Hannah took the picture. The wolf gave a little wave. Then he disappeared behind the tree again.

  “Amara was right,” Nancy said excitedly. “This place is a blast!”

  The front door flew open. Amara stood in the doorway. “I hope you weren’t scared of the big bad wolf!” She giggled.

  Mari held up her instant picture. All of the girls were smiling and laughing. “Does this look like scared?” she asked.

  Amara waved everyone through the door. “My first sleepover!” she said. “This is going to be soooo cool!”
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  “Have a good time,” Hannah said. “I’ll pick you all up in the morning.”

  After Hannah left, Amara turned to her guests. “You can leave your stuff in the hall,” she said. “I’ll take you up to the tower to meet my aunt.”

  The girls propped their bags against the wall. Katie took Lester out of his cage and perched him on her shoulder.

  Then Amara led everyone up a long staircase. The stairs took them straight to the tower.

  “Ta-daa!” Amara sang. “Check out my aunt’s office!”

  “Wow!” Nancy exclaimed. The room looked like something out of a fairy tale. The dark blue wallpaper was covered with gold stars. Wind chimes hung over a large desk. Wands, colorful bottles, and magic books lined rows of shelves.

  “Now where did that go?” a woman’s voice piped up.

  Nancy saw a tall pointed hat rise up from behind a desk. Slowly a woman dressed in a star-covered robe stood up.

  “Oh, hi!” she said, surprised. “I’m Aunt Ellen. Welcome to Scarytales!”

  “Did you lose something?” Bess asked.

  “My crystal ball.” Aunt Ellen sighed. “I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”

  “Are you a real wizard?” Mari asked.

  “No!” Aunt Ellen laughed. “But I like to think I have the magic touch.”

  Just then Nancy heard Bess scream. She turned and saw why....

  Fluttering over Bess’s shoulder was a brown bat!

  2

  Fee-Fi-Fo-Run!

  I hate bats!” Bess squealed.

  “That’s not a bat,” Amara said angrily. “That’s my cousin Ernest!”

  Nancy looked closer. The bat was dangling from a string attached to a pole.

  Holding the pole was a seven-year-old boy. He wore a baseball cap and a grin.

  “Ernest Shane!” Aunt Ellen scolded. “You just scared Amara’s guest!”

  Ernest pouted. “I wouldn’t be doing this scary stuff if I could just go to Amara’s sleepover!” he said.

  “I told you a zillion times!” Amara cried. “This sleepover is for girls only!”

  “But you’re going to be scared!” Ernest said. He flexed his scrawny muscles. “You need a big strong guy like me to protect you!”

  “Thanks,” Katie said. “But we can protect ourselves. Right, Lester?”

  “Right on!” Lester squawked. “Arrk!”

  Ernest’s eyes lit up when he saw the parrot. “A parrot!” he gasped. “Way cool!”

  Nancy smiled. She couldn’t blame Ernest for wanting to join the sleepover.

  “You can have some of our pizza if you’d like,” Nancy suggested kindly.

  “No thanks,” Ernest said. “I have better things to do.” He flung his rubber bat over his shoulder and left the tower.

  “Sorry, girls.” Aunt Ellen sighed. “But Ernest can be a bit lively.”

  “You mean pesty!” Amara muttered.

  Aunt Ellen shook hands with all the girls and learned each of their names.

  “Are you going to show us around the house?” Nancy asked. “And introduce us to the villains?”

  “No, Nancy,” Aunt Ellen said. She smiled. “The villains will find you!”

  “Say cheese!” Mari said, quickly snapping a picture of Aunt Ellen.

  Aunt Ellen rubbed her eyes from the flash. “Now, why don’t you girls settle downstairs in the library?” she said. “Before your pizza gets cold.”

  Amara explained the house as they ran down the stairs.

  “Aunt Ellen and Ernest live on the second floor,” she said. “There’s a storage room in the basement. But all the fun stuff happens on the main floor.”

  The girls reached the main floor and they had company—a woman with a huge warty nose.

  “Have you seen Hansel and Gretel?” the witch asked. She licked her lips. “They’re late . . . for dinner.”

  Nancy recognized the witch from “Hansel and Gretel.” She wore a long black skirt, a scarf, and a tattered shawl.

  “May I take your picture?” Mari asked.

  “Only if you get my best side,” the witch said. She turned her head sideways.

  That nose can’t be real, Nancy thought as Mari snapped the picture.

  “Wicked witch!” Lester squawked from Katie’s shoulder. “Wicked witch—arrrk!”

  “Ahh!” the witch said. She leaned in close to Lester. “That’s exactly what I need for my next brew: feather of parrot!”

  Lester stretched his neck. He nipped the witch right on her nose!

  “Owwww!” the witch yelled. She grabbed her nose. “No one pecks me on the wart and lives to squawk about it!”

  The witch then spun around and huffed down the hall.

  “She was just pretending to be mad, right?” Bess asked.

  Amara shook her head slowly. “I never saw her pretend like that,” she said.

  “And I never saw such a big honker,” Mari said as she pulled out the picture.

  The girls followed Amara down a hallway and past doors.

  Nancy stopped at a door covered with vines. “What’s this?” she asked.

  “See for yourself,” Amara said. She grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.

  The girls stepped inside a room filled with plastic plants, trees, and flowers. In the middle was a thick green pole covered with vines.

  “That’s the bean stalk!” Amara said proudly. “Like the one Jack climbed.”

  Nancy looked up the bean stalk. It led to a big hole in the ceiling.

  “What’s up there?” Nancy asked.

  “Climb it and find out! “Amara said.

  A narrow green ladder was attached to the bean stalk. George climbed first. The others followed.

  “Up, up, and awaaaay!” Lester squawked from his perch on top of Katie’s head.

  One by one the girls scurried through the hole in the ceiling. Soon they were standing in a room filled with a giant table, a giant chair, even a giant pair of slippers on the floor!

  “Welcome to the giant’s house!” Amara announced.

  “Hey, look!” Mari said. She pointed to a plate of giant cookies on the table.

  “They’re from my aunt Ellen,” Amara said. She held up a note that read: HOPE YOUR SLEEPOVER IS HUGE! LOVE, AUNT ELLEN.

  The girls grabbed cookies. Then—

  “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum!” a voice boomed. “I smell chocolate chip cookies—YUM!”

  The sound of thunderous footsteps filled the room. “Uh-oh!” Katie giggled. “Here comes the giant.”

  Nancy’s eyes grew big. The floor felt like it was trembling!

  The girls laughed and shrieked as they scurried back down the bean stalk.

  “That was fun, Amara,” Nancy said.

  Amara wasn’t smiling. “I think I need some . . . pizza,” she said in shaky voice.

  Hmm, Nancy thought. Maybe Amara is afraid of heights!

  The girls stopped in the hallway and grabbed their gear.

  “Don’t go into the library until I take a picture,” Mari said.

  Nancy and her friends posed between the library door and a potted plant.

  “If I say cheese one more time I’ll turn into a mouse!” George whispered.

  Mari snapped the picture. Then everyone filed into the library.

  “This room isn’t scary at all,” Nancy said with a smile. There was a crackling fire in the fireplace, soft leather furniture, and bookshelves filled with fairy-tale books.

  “It may be a library,” Amara said, “but you don’t have to whisper.”

  The girls piled their gear in a corner. Katie put Lester back in his cage. She placed the cage on a small round table.

  “Okay, gang,” Amara said. She lifted the lid of a pizza box. “Let’s pig out!”

  But when Nancy looked at the pizza she gasped. Written with mushrooms was the word BEWARE!

  “That’s a joke, right?” George asked.

  Amara didn’t answer. She handed out paper plates and the girls began to eat.

&nbs
p; “Mmm,” Bess said. “For a creepy pizza it sure is yummy.”

  “You guys,” Mari said slowly. “Wasn’t there a fire in the fireplace?”

  Nancy turned to the fireplace. The flames were out. But then all of a sudden they shot back up!

  “Did you see that?” Bess squeaked.

  Just then a book fell off the shelf. Then another! And another! And another!

  The girls giggled and screamed. They jumped up and ran out of the library.

  “Way cool!” George cried.

  “I’ll bet you’ve seen that a gazillion times, Amara!” Nancy said.

  Amara’s eyes were as wide as Frisbees. She shook her head slowly. “No,” Amara said. “I never saw the books fall off the shelves. Or the fireplace go on and off. And I never felt the giant’s footsteps either!”

  Nancy stared at Amara. No wonder she looked so scared!

  “Uh-oh,” Mari said. “Maybe this place really is spooked!”

  3

  Library Crook

  I think I want to go home!” Bess said as the girls stood in the hallway.

  Nancy didn’t want Bess to be scared. She didn’t want her to go home either.

  “This is Scarytales,” Nancy said. “Weird things are supposed to happen.”

  “Not like this,” Amara said with a shudder. “This stuff is all new to me!”

  Nancy heard someone humming. She looked back and saw Aunt Ellen.

  “Let’s ask your aunt,” Nancy said to Amara. “She’ll tell us what’s going on.”

  Nancy told Aunt Ellen about the fireplace, the tumbling books, and the giant footsteps. She looked surprised.

  “Really?” Aunt Ellen asked. “I’ve never seen those things either!”

  “Y-y-you haven’t?” Amara stammered.

  “But I will look into it! “Aunt Ellen said. She scratched her forehead as she continued up the hall. “Now if I could just find my crystal ball!”

  The girls looked at one another. Everyone except Bess began to laugh.

  “This is too weird!” George said, smiling.

  “Now I know why they call it Scarytales!” Katie said with a giggle.

  “But how did all that stuff happen?” Amara wanted to know.

  Nancy gave it a thought. “What if,” she said, “someone is trying to scare us?”