Vampire Trouble by David Lubar

Author:David Lubar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

“Let’s search for what we already know is true,” she said.

“Huh?” I didn’t follow that. “Why do we need to find what we already know?” I asked.

“Because, if an article has all the stuff we know is true and nothing that we know for sure is false, it’s more likely that the rest of the stuff in it is also true. Get it?”

It took me a moment, but then I saw what she meant. “That’s pretty smart,” I said. “It’s like if someone has never lied to you, that makes it easier to believe them the next time they tell you something.”

“Exactly!” Sarah said.

Next to where I’d already typed vampire, I added all the things we’d seen or suspected. Turns into a bat. Summons rats. Needs shade. Can go outside in the daytime. We still got a lot of hits, so I narrowed it down even more as Sarah offered suggestions like emotionless. She really knew how to do research.

Eventually, we found ourselves with just a handful of websites in the results list. I copied everything that all the sites agreed on. I was happy to learn that even though vampires could drink blood, they didn’t need it to survive. And I found an explanation for how Gloomy Girl could be at the playground during recess. It turned out vampires used to be able to come out only at night. But over the centuries, they’d found ways to survive outside on cloudy days. They still had to avoid direct sunlight. When the sun was out, they couldn’t just stay indoors. They had to seek shelter in a coffin filled with their native soil. That was a little creepy, but the scariest part was another sentence: They have almost no human emotions but can be driven to rage. I decided not to think about that part right now.

“They hate the smell of garlic,” Sarah said as we studied the list. “Maybe you can drive her off.”

“It’s worth a try,” I said.

“Of course, if she can stand your regular breath, I’m not sure garlic would make all that much of a difference.” Sarah laughed at her own joke.

“Very funny,” I said.

“I thought so,” Sarah said. She pointed at our list. “At least we know what we’re dealing with. That’s a good thing.”

“Thanks for helping,” I said as I headed out.

Right before dinner, Mom dumped my backpack on the living room floor. She does that once a week, to see what papers I brought home. I sort of forget to give them to her sometimes.

“Field day,” she said to Dad as she held up the flyer. “This is wonderful. We have to go.”

“Absolutely,” Dad said. “It will be fun watching Alex compete.”

An image sprang to mind of Mom and Dad clapping and cheering as I kicked home runs. But a shadow fell across that image as clouds filled the sky and Gloomy Girl joined the other playground monitors. I pictured Mom and Dad watching me walk up to the plate. I saw myself sneezing uncontrollably.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.