idea of being in the highest grade at Waxberry Elementary Dandy chewed a fingernail I bet fifth grade will be a lot harder than fourth Yeah Malcolm agreed But we’ll get to ride in the very back of the bus Dandy continued That’s the bumpiest part Malcolm said Dandy suddenly sat forward Oh no I just remembered fifth graders have the last lunch of the day Malcolm shook his head Let’s hope there’s enough food left Dandy looked like he’d just dropped his last piece of gum on the floor The only lively creature in the basement was Malcolm’s ghostly pet Yip Yip Spooky hopped and bounced jumping at Malcolm to play
Malcolm scooted off the desk onto the floor Spooky tried to grab Malcolm’s shirt for tug-of-war but his teeth went right through the shirt Once Spooky learned he couldn’t hang on he decided a game of run-through Malcolm would be more fun He dashed in and out one side then the other
Stop Spooky That tickles Sit Spooky sat eagerly tail wagging Malcolm looked at Dandy and sighed You know the worst part of going back to school Dandy slid another finger in his mouth and chewed on that nail There’s something worse than 12 45 lunch We can only ghost hunt on weekends Malcolm and Dandy had already had two exciting ghost adventures this summer First they’d gone into the Freaky McBleaky house and been chased out by the ghost Herbert McBleaky Malcolm still cringed at the thought of the major wedgie the jokester had given him Then Malcolm waited weeks for his Ecto-Handheld-Automatic-Heat-Sensitive Laser-Enhanced Ghost Zapper to arrive
When it finally did he went ghost hunting again He zapped a ghost at the Millers house and met his late great grandfather and Spooky And we were just getting started Dandy said Malcolm fidgeted with his specter detector flipping it off and on Spooky flicked off and on too He faded then returned over and over as the specter detector detected him We won’t let it end Ghost hunting is what we do Malcolm said trying to sound encouraging We’ll devote every weekend to searching out ghosts Right Dandy agreed Nothing will stand in our way Dandy straightened chin high Yep Nothing
