to join us?”
To his surprise, the boys thought that might be a good idea. “We may as well. It’s going to have to happen at some point!” Stewart mumbled, not overly enthused about the possibility of joining forces.
“Well, you do it,” Andy said pointing to Zack. “You ask or tell them we’ll share a meeting or whatever for now. I’m not!”
Zack shoved him. “Whatever,” he laughed, throwing a rock playfully toward the girls. “I don’t care.”
The rock landed right between Kendall and Krista, and the girls jumped, not realizing that the boys were there. This in turn made the boys laugh, though the girls weren’t quite as amused.
“Mind if we join you, or is this a private ghost hunt?” Zack asked, and the girls giggled. After all, Zack was pretty cute.
Stewart finally built up the nerve to speak. “Well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, and I have no idea how this happened, but I think we need to join forces.”
Andy suggested making sure that they were alone. First, they should scope out the Willows and see if they saw anything unusual before they spoke about the situation. Everyone agreed that was probably a great place to start. The girls went in one direction and the boys went in the other.
Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. No sign of temperatures drops or unusual eerie feelings; they didn’t get goose bumps, hear unusual sounds, or even see any odd shadows. They regrouped under the willows and went over some of their notes.
Andy was quite impressed with Kendall’s handwriting. It was nice and neat, just like his. He was also impressed with the details that she had noted. He might have even noticed the same ones. Even Stewart thought the girls had done a good job recording what they had seen, though he did try to hide his surprise.
Kendall had an idea, a suggestion that took them all by surprise. “Why don’t we try to initiate a conversation with the ghosts?” Kendall said. “I’m not sure how we would do it, but we might be able to figure it out together. What do you think?” she asked.
It was something that had never occurred to the others, but it made perfect sense. There was only one problem: no one knew how to contact the ghosts. “Anybody know what we should do or, more importantly, say?” Krista asked. “Maybe we should ask them something?”
Stewart sat down on a log and motioned for everyone else to sit down, too, which they did. He looked serious. Andy had known Stewart long enough to know that look on Stewart’s face meant he had a plan. Whatever it was could work. Andy knew it was worth a shot. “Think about it. We know that they’re here, but we don’t know why they’re here,” Stewart said. “We don’t know who they are or what they want. They’re playing with us – or at least, the boy is!” Stewart laughed. “So rather than just hunting them, let’s get our ghosts in a row, so to speak. Let’s research them or who they could possibly be first.”
Maggie moved a little closer to Ally as Stewart spoke, and Andy thought that she was afraid. “Seriously, we haven’t started yet. Scared already?” Andy said jokingly, but one scowl from the girls and he wished that he hadn’t said anything at all. How come they do everything in groups, including dirty looks? “You know that they could be watching us right now. They’ve been watching us for who knows how long. They could have chosen to stay out of sight or something,” Andy added, looking over his shoulder and checking behind his back. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t anyone or anything watching them.
Stewart started talking again, but his voice seemed a little shaky, especially to the girls. This only made them more nervous. Was Andy serious? “Anyway,” Stewart continued, “I think that we should split up into three groups: investigation, reporting, and research. There may be a history in the Willows, a lost history that we don’t know about!” He waited for a response from the group; they seemed to like the idea.
“Isn’t reporting and research the same thing?” Ally asked. “But I don’t mind going to the library and researching the Willows. I have a project due anyway, so my parents won’t think anything of it, and I’m sure one of you guys can go with me, right?” she asked, glancing at the other girls. That was good. Because if Stewart suddenly volunteered to do anything at the library, his parents would ask too many questions for sure!
“If there aren’t any objections, meaning from you girls,” Stewart said, “then we’ll continue the actual investigation in the woods. We do have all of the equipment set up; no point in moving it.” He hesitated and then addressed the last part: the reporting. “Girls, I thought that the reporting group could actually interview existing long time neighbors or surrounding people in the Willows area. That’s what I meant by reporting; you know, people who live close to the woods and have been in the area for years, generations even, like the Johnsons,” Stewart said.
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