Weirdville: The Clumsy Magician (Lower Grade Spooky Fun Adventure) Read online

  Copyright

  www.EvolvedPub.com

  THE CLUMSY MAGICIAN

  (A Weirdville Book)

  Copyright © 2014 Majanka Verstraete

  Cover Art Copyright © 2014 Noelle Giffin

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  ISBN (EPUB Version): 1622530780

  ISBN-13 (EPUB Version): 978-1-62253-078-6

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  Edited by Lane Diamond

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  eBook License Notes:

  You may not use, reproduce or transmit in any manner, any part of this book without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews, or in accordance with federal Fair Use laws. All rights are reserved.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only; it may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to your eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Disclaimer:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or the author has used them fictitiously.

  Other Books by Majanka Verstraete

  Weirdville

  Drowning in Fear

  Fright Train

  House of Horrors

  The Doll Maker

  Valentina’s Spooky Adventures

  Valentina and the Haunted Mansion

  Valentina and the Masked Mummy

  Valentina and the Whackadoodle Witch

  www.MajankaVerstraete.com

  Dedication:

  For all those kids out there who love telling scary stories to their friends, and reading scary books in bed at night, wondering if they should leave the lights on or not after reading. Hope you enjoy this story as well!

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  What’s Next?

  More from Majanka Verstraete

  More from Evolved Publishing

  Chapter 1

  Ryan’s cheeks burned up. He glared at the top hat he clutched in his hands. “I....” His voice trembled as violently as his hands. “I have no idea why it won’t work. I’ve done this trick a thousand times.”

  Mrs. Bell, the young, blonde-haired teacher who always wore three coats of makeup, yet still managed to look so pretty half the boys had a crush on her, leaned forward until her eyes were level with his. “Don’t panic. Take a deep breath.”

  She spoke in a soft, melodious voice, reminding him of the songs his mom used to sing to him before bedtime.

  “Loser can’t do it.” The voice booming through the classroom belonged to Timothy, the leader of a gang of bullies who always picked on Ryan. Since he’d failed fifth grade several years in a row, he towered two heads above the other kids in class.

  “Timothy.” Mrs. Bell spoke in a sharp voice. “One more insult, and I’ll put you in detention tonight.”

  Timothy snorted, leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head, as if wanting to show the entire class detention didn’t scare him.

  Knowing his track record, that didn’t surprise Ryan in the slightest. The bully had detention several days a week; collecting it the way other kids collected Pokémon cards.

  “Please, Ryan, give it another shot.” Mrs. Bell put a hand on his shoulder.

  His heart leapt up and flipped in his chest. He nodded before he could stop himself. “Okay.”

  Yesterday, Mrs. Bell had asked all kids to prepare a demonstration for their favorite hobby, so they could show it to the other kids today. Timothy had showed them some kick-box moves. Ally loved baking, so she’d brought a box full of cupcakes and handed them out to everyone. Ryan’s best friend, Aaron, had played the violin so well he’d even managed to shut Timothy up for a while.

  Ryan had planned to show off one of his latest magic tricks. He’d conjure up a rabbit from his hat—not a real rabbit, of course, but a stuffed animal. But someone had messed up his trick—on purpose. Ryan glared at Timothy. If anyone would ruin Ryan’s moment to shine, it would be the bully who stole his lunch money every other day.

  Ryan grabbed the top hat and investigated it. He lifted up the hat to show to the others, and then tried to pull away the fake bottom layer, so he could grab the bunny and pull it out. Except this time, just like before, he couldn’t pull the false bottom back, as if someone had glued it stuck.

  “It won’t work.” His shoulders fell, and he stared at the floor, afraid to meet the eyes of his classmates, and of Mrs. Bell. “I messed up.”

  “Do you know any other tricks?” Mrs. Bell smiled at him, encouraging him.

  “Yeah.” Trying to keep his hands steady, he grabbed his pack of cards from his pocket, and struggled to pry it open. He pulled them too hard, and all the cards dropped onto the floor.

  A chorus of laughter erupted through the classroom.

  Ryan swallowed the tears burning in the back of his throat.

  “It’s okay. You can go sit down now.” Even Mrs. Bell wouldn’t save him anymore now. She didn’t even look at him.

  Ryan pulled his cape closer around his body, grabbed the hat, a handful of the cards, and moved to his seat, all the while keeping his eyes on the floor and trying to ignore the laughter exploding all around him.

  Chapter 2

  “Cheer up! It could’ve been worse. You could’ve slipped over your cape, for example.” Aaron nudged Ryan in the side while they sat down at their usual table in the school cafeteria.

  “Right. I doubt it could go any more horrible than it did.” Ryan sniffed, still struggling to keep himself from crying. His throat felt tight, a bump in his throat making it difficult to swallow his food. “I’m the lousiest magician ever.”

  “At least you wore the part.” Aaron pointed at his cape.

  “Yeah.” Ryan pushed his glasses further up his nose. They tended to drop down whenever he bent over. “I can’t believe I wore this stupid cape to school.”

  “Don’t call the cape stupid—it looks great. Being a magician is awesome.” Aaron shoveled a handful of potatoes in his mouth.

  “No, it’s not. Nobody wants to be a magician anymore. Judo and kickboxing are all the rage, but magicians and magic tricks are boring.”

  “As boring as playing the violin? I’m sure the others nearly dozed off while I played.”

  “They loved it. Don’t bring yourself down trying to cheer me up. I failed, and now I can’t do anything about it.” Ryan shivered as he remembered dropping the cards, his cheeks growing hot from embarrassment.

  “I don’t get it, though. I mean, I’ve seen you do the rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick a thousand times. What happened?”

  Ryan shrugged. The food tasted like plastic. “The false bottom got stuck. I couldn’t pry it loose.”

  Aaron’s eyes turned wide and he nearly dropped his fork. “You think someone did it on purpose?”

  “No idea. If someone did, then I bet my money on him.” He nodded toward a table in the middle of the room.

  Timothy and his friends occupied the table, a set of twins who looked
sixteen instead of ten years old, and who’d both stayed behind a grade, and Matthew, a sluggish, tall, pencil-shaped boy who always had this mean, menacing look in his eyes.

  Even though Timothy beat them up every other day, demanding lunch money, Ryan would prefer him over Matthew every day. At times, even the giant seemed afraid of Matthew.

  Timothy’s voice thundered through the cafeteria. “...and then the idiot dropped all the cards.” The twins laughed out loud, their tummies jiggling when they moved.

  “Ugh,” Ryan said. “Now he’s telling everyone about what happened this morning.” He’d have a hard enough time coping with everyone in his grade knowing about his flop, but it looked like Timothy planned to tell the entire school.

  He looked at Timothy’s table, trying hard not to glare too much. If the older boy caught him glaring, he’d do more than steal his lunch money tomorrow. At least it hadn’t been his turn today. One day, Timothy would steal lunch money from Ryan or Aaron, depending on his mood, and the next day, he would steal from Marcy Jenkins, the other school outcast.

  Ryan searched for Marcy in the lunch room.

  She sat alone at a table in the back, reading a book, her oversized glasses covering most of her face, and her unruly, curly hair jumping out on all sides.

  Then he turned back to watch Timothy’s table, and stared straight into Matthew’s dark eyes. The older boy had been staring at him.

  An army of spiders crawled down Ryan’s back. The bump in his throat vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, but now his stomach groaned, his sadness replaced by fear.

  Matthew didn’t turn away. He titled his head to the right, as if thinking something through, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on Ryan.

  “Are you okay?” Aaron put a hand on his arm.

  Ryan looked away, breaking the spell. He turned back, and caught Matthew staring at his food as if nothing had happened.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about stuff.”

  “I asked if you wanted to hang out after school. We could work on the volcano.” Aaron’s parents had given him a science set for his birthday that allowed him to build a small but working volcano. “Or we could do some magic tricks.”

  “I’m not in the mood for magic.” Sitting here dressed like a magician, when he’d failed at one of the most basic tricks, was bad enough. If he couldn’t even do the rabbit-out-of-the-hat trick, then he had no business performing magic ever again.

  “Don’t be like that. Don’t let them put you down. Your dad loved magicians, remember?”

  Ryan nodded, too shocked to talk. They never talked about his dad, not since he left him and Mom for a younger woman—a woman whom Ryan had seen only once, but who looked like a cheap replica of Mrs. Bell.

  Since his dad left, Ryan had seen him two times in six months. Mom had told him he could visit any time, but Dad seemed too busy traveling the world with the new woman to spend any time with Ryan.

  Dad had been the one who’d given him the magic box, though, on the first of those two visits. “I loved magicians when I was a kid,” he said. “And I always wanted to be one. So I thought, if Ryan is anything like me, then he’ll love this magic box.” He handed him the magic kit, complete with tutorials, a pack of cards, a wand, cape, top hat, and stuffed bunny. “I may not be around that much, but I still love you, kiddo.”

  With those words, Dad had patted him on the head, and left.

  Ryan didn’t see him again for four months. The next time he showed up, he’d bought him a book on magic. They hadn’t talked since his last visit but, as if by magic, Dad had known he loved the magic kit.

  “I’m sorry.” Aaron put a hand on his best friend’s arm. “It must be tough. A divorce.”

  “Yeah.” Ryan left it at that. No need to bore his friend with stories about how his dad didn’t have time to visit him anymore.

  He glanced at Aaron. His friend probably knew. They spent most of their after-school time together, so he must’ve noticed his dad never dropped by. But if he knew, Aaron hadn’t breathed a word about it.

  “Let’s get to class.” Aaron kept his eyes fixed on the table of bullies in the middle of the room.

  Ryan nodded. If they got to class before the bullies did, they’d be spared another round of bullying, at least until tonight. Even though he only stole their lunch money every other day, Timothy had no qualms about harassing them at every opportunity.

  The boys shoved their seats back and got up. Ryan’s cape curled around the chair, and he nearly fell. His chair screeched as it tumbled to the floor.

  He bit his lip and looked up, only to realize their plan had failed.

  All four boys in the middle were staring at them, and Timothy’s lips curled into a sneering smile.

  Chapter 3

  “What’s the matter, four-eyes? Did you find out Harry Potter isn’t real, and you’re not a real wizard?” Timothy had been taunting Ryan ever since he dropped his chair in the lunch room.

  The older boy had woven an entire story around the incident: apparently Ryan had imagined he was a real wizard, and had tried to make the chair float, but because wizards weren’t real—even if they were, Ryan wouldn’t get chosen anyway, because he couldn’t even properly perform a magic trick—the chair came crashing down.

  Timothy had told the tale to everyone they passed as Ryan and Aaron hurried to their classroom, chased by the bullies.

  “I need to get my books,” Aaron whispered while they ran to their classroom. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” Ryan sighed. After being bullied for years, he should’ve gotten used to it by now, but Timothy’s comments hurt him just as much now as they had when he first started tormenting him.

  The two boys paused in front of Aaron’s locker. Aaron fumbled with the lock while the bullies closed in on them. His friend shot him a glance saying ‘get out of here’.

  Ryan braced himself and shook his head. He wouldn’t let his best friend face the bullies on his own. Ryan and Aaron versus the bullies—it had always been that way.

  Timothy towered over them. “So, how is your magical stuffed bunny? Did you find it yet, or was it stolen by the tooth fairy?”

  The twins laughed at the question, showing their yellow teeth. The menacing trio surrounded the two smaller boys from all sides.

  Timothy made a whole spectacle out of it, telling the small crowd that had gathered in the hallway all about Ryan’s failure to perform a simple magic trick. “Look at him. He’s even wearing a cape!” He snorted and glared down at Ryan.

  “Leave them alone,” Matthew said. His voice seemed too low to originate from his thin, frail body.

  Ryan had never heard him speak before. Matthew had always been the quiet spectator while the others hurled nasty remarks. He’d never joined in, always kept to the side, but never uttered a word to stop the bullying either.

  The pencil-shaped boy leaned against the lockers, his black hair covering most of his face like a veil. He crossed his arms in front of his chest.

  Nobody seemed to know how to react to the command.

  Timothy’s mouth dropped to the floor. He froze mid-movement, as if whatever he did would be the wrong move.

  The twins looked at each other, and then from Timothy to Matthew and back.

  Ryan held his breath and reached for his friend’s arm.

  “What... what did you say?” Timothy arched an eyebrow, his voice full of surprise.

  Nobody told Timothy what to do—Ryan doubted his own parents could force him to do anything he didn’t feel like doing—and if it had been anyone but Matthew giving him orders, the bully wouldn’t have hesitated to beat him up.

  But Matthew... Ryan had caught Timothy glancing at Matthew a few times before, wary, as if he couldn’t figure out what his deal was.

  “You heard me.” Matthew stepped away from the lockers. “You’ve bullied them enough for today. Go to class.”

  The order rang through the hallway. By now, dozens of students had gathered behin
d them, drawn to this power play.

  Timothy looked at Matthew as if he’d seen a ghost, but the latter’s expression didn’t change at all, as if he knew all along that Timothy would do as he said.

  “Fine.” The large boy uttered the word, barely audible, before he spun on his heel and left.

  The twins stared at Matthew, as if waiting for permission to follow their leader. Matthew nodded, and they rushed after Timothy.

  Ryan’s fingers dug into Aaron’s arm when the gangly boy with dark circles under his eyes, and skin so white it looked like wax, walked toward him. He’d rather deal with Timothy than with Matthew, even if the latter had just saved him from another round of humiliation.

  Matthew looked at the other students in the hallway, and nodded his head, as if saying ‘go’. One by one, they followed the wordless command, scurrying off, leaving just Aaron and Ryan standing in the hallway.

  “Relax, I don’t bite.” When he spoke, Matthew’s voice lacked any humor. “You can go,” he said to Aaron.

  Aaron bit his lip and looked at Ryan, his eyes pleading.

  Ryan slowly loosened his iron grip on the other boy’s arm. Last thing he wanted was to face Matthew alone in a hallway, but if he could find a way for his best friend not to get involved in this, whatever this was, then he’d do it.

  He stepped aside and watched as Aaron hurried off. For the first time since Aaron had moved here, Ryan was on his own to stand against a bully.

  “So I heard you like magic,” Matthew said as soon as Aaron left.

  “Umm....” Ryan’s tongue was so thick he could barely talk. He had a dry mouth too, as if he’d spent the last week walking through the Sahara. “Yeah.”

  “But your trick failed. Do you know why?”

  “Because... someone messed with the false bottom,” Ryan blurted out.

  “Wrong. It failed because it wasn’t real. You didn’t use real magic, you performed a stupid trick.” Matthew’s voice had dropped even lower. “If you want to perform magic, then perform real magic, no cheap tricks.”