straightened the spelling list and read the next word out loud Peace Dandy took a deep breath Peace Can I hear it in a sentence please Malcolm shrugged Sure Every beauty queen wants world peace
Peace P-e-a-c-e Malcolm shot Dandy a thumbs-up Terrific Next word Despair Despair Dandy’s eyes squinted in thought D-e-s p-a r-e Malcolm did a thumbs-down Despair D-e-s-p-a-i-r Dandy collapsed back dramatically spooking Spooky The phantom dog skittered away and hid inside the wall I’m doomed Dandy cried It’s hopeless No one will ever invent words because of me Don’t be so sure Malcolm said thinking of a couple right away He stood up and stretched Besides even if I make it to the second round Dandy said who knows what eerie stuff might happen
Malcolm raised an eyebrow It’s at the community center Dandy not a spooky old mansion Dandy sat up looking at Malcolm But I heard the community center is haunted No way said Malcolm Nothing in this town is haunted without me knowing about it After all Malcolm and Dandy called themselves the Ghost Detectors They had been tracking ghosts ever since Malcolm bought his Ecto-Handheld Automatic-Heat-Sensitive-Laser Enhanced Specter Detector The ghost finder worked like a charm Still Malcolm powered up his computer just to check He typed in the words haunted community center and narrowed his search to their area
Whoa Malcolm exclaimed scanning through all the hits It says here that twenty years ago during the sixth grade spelling bee when a guy was asked to spell opera he sang instead Dandy looked like he might throw up Please don’t let that happen to me Malcolm continued reading the article The boy insisted that something made him do it He scrolled down And look at this Twelve years ago during the fourth grade spelling bee a girl made it all the way to state finals and then she started using sign language instead of speaking I don’t have to worry about that Dandy said I don’t know sign language Malcolm tilted his head According to this neither did she Dandy gulped
