Rules for Ghosting Read Online Free Page A

house had seen better days, sure, but couldn’t his parents see its potential? As far as Oliver was concerned, his feeling about Silverton Manor was growing stronger by the minute.
    Poppy yanked open her door before Dad even turned offthe engine, and Oliver followed her across the driveway. Car doors slammed as the others clambered out behind them.
    â€œWow,” Oliver breathed.
    â€œ
Wow
?” Poppy said, spitting the word out like an overcooked brussels sprout. “
This
is our new place? Really?”
    â€œI think it looks mysterious,” Oliver said. “And totally awesome.”
    â€œIf by
mysterious
you mean creepy, and by
awesome
you mean falling apart in the worst way,” Poppy said. But Oliver noticed that she was pretty quick to take off around the side of the house, probably looking for an open back door so she could be the first one inside.
    The twins, meanwhile, were running in circles around Rutabartle, who had been leaning next to his car while the Days took in their new surroundings. “Our house! Our new house!” JJ chorused. “Let’s all go in!”
    Rutabartle’s hands shot up in the air and he wobbled, fighting for balance. Oliver couldn’t figure out what was going on until he saw that Rutabartle held the old-fashioned skeleton key to the front door. But going up against JJ was to play a losing game. “Let us in!” they clamored, and Joe started jumping in place like a key-hungry piranha. Junie, meanwhile, was innocently bending down to poke around the ground by the town official’s shoe. There was something in her hand, and Oliver was immediately suspicious.
    â€œWe need the key!” Joe yelled. “We can do it! We’re great door openers!”
    Finally Rutabartle let out a loud groan and lowered his hands, reluctantly thrusting the key at them. Joe nabbed it and Junie followed him as they shot up the steps toward the front door.
    â€œThey are quite the little dervishes, those two,” Dad said, shaking his head fondly.
    Rutabartle looked like steam might billow from his ears at any minute, but he composed himself with effort. “Well. Let us move on to the important matters we have to discuss, shall we? I’m sure you have heard of Silverton Manor’s
reputation
around Longbrook. The primary reason you have been hired is to help restore that tarnished image. And so the thing to remember, as you get settled,” he said, his voice casual and conversational, “is the need to act as normal as possible.” Deliberately straightening his sunglasses, he took a big stride across the paving stones.
    His right foot shot ahead; his left foot stayed stuck in place.
    Rutabartle toppled face-first, like a felled tree.
    A giggling titter erupted from inside the half-open front door.
    â€œJunie! Joe!” Mom called reprovingly after them, while Dad bent over to help Rutabartle extract his shoe from the paving stone, to which Junie had apparently fastened it with supersticky bubble gum. Oliver sighed. It sure hadn’t taken JJ long to get up to their tricksy ways!
    Oliver couldn’t feel entirely sorry for Rutabartle, though.Something about that guy gave him the creeps. If anyone needed to be pranked, it was Rutabartle.
    The man’s biggest concern right now appeared to be his sunglasses, which had gone spiraling across the ground when he fell. They were extra fancy, with embellished frames and some kind of a Bluetooth phone device built into the side. Rutabartle was polishing the lenses with a soft cloth, puffing and blowing on them, lifting them up to the light as if to make sure all was in tip-top running order. After a moment he replaced them on his nose, adjusted them with care, and turned toward Dad.
    â€œI was just beginning to speak,” he resumed, clearly intending to act as if nothing had happened, “about acting
normal
.” Placing one arm around Mom’s shoulders and the other around