The High Street Dares: The Locket of Doom & The Ghostly Connection

By Buffy Andrews

Dares and danger…

 

Dare Mags to do anything and she's gone. Make it a double dare and face the whole High Street Gang.

 

In The Locket of Doom, Mags' sister and A.J.'s brother double dare the gang to walk through the cemetery at midnight and perform a spell to make a stone statue cry. But weird things have been happening ever since A.J. started wearing an old locket she found in the park. For one thing, she can't take the locket off. When an old woman who smells like rotten garbage and has different-colored eyes shows up, things go from bad to worse. Every time A.J. sees the old woman, the locket shrinks. Somehow the locket, the stone statue, and the lady are related. Can the gang figure out the mystery in time to save A.J.?

 

In The Ghostly Connection, the gang faces another dare—sleeping in a haunted barn. But there's a lot more to the dare, including another mystery to solve. There's a good ghost, a bad ghost, and an important message to deliver. Oh, and a treasure to find!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrews Creative Concepts
• Release date: Jul 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737435112

Book preview

The Locket of Doom

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

The Ghostly Connection

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Locket of Doom

Chapter One

I tried to convince A.J. walking through the cemetery at midnight wasn’t a big deal, but she wasn’t buying it.

I sat down on the park bench beside her. We have to. If we don’t, everyone will think we’re wimps.

But I’m scared, Mags. I don’t mind walking through the cemetery during the day, but at night? Walking on top of all those dead people when it’s dark gives me the creeps.

I wasn’t crazy about the idea either. I mean, standing in the middle of a cemetery at midnight isn’t my idea of fun. But I, Margaret Mary O’Malley, never back down from a dare. A.J.’s older brother, Tom, had dared our group, the High Street Gang, to walk through the dark cemetery.

What’s there to be afraid of? I asked. Everyone’s dead. Besides, I really want to see if the statue cries.

What statue?

The one in the middle of the cemetery. You know the one. The lady. It’s the only statue in the entire cemetery. It cries.

A.J. turned as white as a ghost. Come on, Mags. You don’t really believe all that crap.

I know it sounds crazy, but what if it does? Wouldn’t it be cool to see? Elizabeth said if you walk around the statue at midnight, three times to the left then three times to the right, with your eyes closed, and say ‘Show us your tears,’ she’ll cry.

If you think I’m going to walk around some stupid stone statue at midnight, you’re crazy. Besides, I thought the dare was to walk through the cemetery, not dance around some statue.

Oh, guess I sort of forgot to mention the double dare.

We’ve been double dared?

I nodded. When Elizabeth heard about Tom’s dare, she dared us to make the statue cry by performing the ceremony.

A.J. sliced the air with her skinny arm. You can count me out. No way am I going near that statue.

But the whole gang’s going. I have it all figured out. We’ll go Friday night. Becca and you are sleeping at my house, right? Micah is staying at Toad’s. We can meet and go to the cemetery at midnight.

A.J. bit her lower lip and stared straight ahead. I so hate when she does that staring thing. She’s been doing it a lot lately. Talking to her has been like talking to my old neighbor, who never hears a word I say because she refuses to wear her hearing aids. A.J.’s there, but she’s not really there. Ever since she started wearing the old necklace we found in the park, she’s been acting weird. And I mean weird.

I’d spotted the necklace on the ground by the water fountain and pointed it out to A.J. She picked it up and asked me if I wanted to keep it. I’m not into jewelry like she is, so I let her have it. Good thing, too, or maybe I’d be the one acting weird.

I waved my hands in front of her. Earth to A.J. Earth to A.J.

She jumped. What? What?

So, you’re going to the cemetery, right?

I’ll think about it. I just don’t have a good feeling about it.

Your feelings have been wrong before, I said.

Yeah, but they’re usually right, and you know it.

A.J. did have a sort of sixth sense. But I really couldn’t think of anything that could possibly go wrong. It was just a little dare. Well, double dare. Either way it should be no big deal, nothing we couldn’t handle. 

Chapter Two

Yo!

A.J. and I turned to see the rest of the High Street Gang running toward us. Besides A.J. and me, there’s Micah, Toad, and Becca. We’ve lived on High Street all of our lives. Well, all of us except A.J., which is short for Allison Jane. Her last name’s Hunter. She moved to the street when we were in first grade. We started calling ourselves the High Street Gang when we were in second grade. We thought it sounded cool, and the name just stuck.

We’ve been looking all over for you guys, Toad said.

Toad’s real name is Peter James Knight. He doesn’t have big, bulging eyes or bumpy skin like a toad. In fact, he looks a lot like me. When A.J. first met us, she thought he was my brother. We both have blue eyes and curly blond hair.

We started calling Peter Toad because he can jump farther than anyone in the sixth grade. He also has a really long tongue. He’s the only person I know who can touch his tongue to the tip of his nose. Toad’s cool as a friend, but no way would I want him as a brother.

Everyone was chillin’ and laughing and having a good time—everyone except A.J. She watched an old lady walking her dog.

What’s with the old lady? Toad asked. Know her?

A.J. stuffed the necklace she found down inside her shirt. No. I’ve never seen her before.

Toad coughed and hocked a slimy ball of spit on the ground. Looks like she’s headed this way.

The lady wore a blue skirt and blazer. With her white hair tightly twisted in a bun at the back of her head, she reminded me of a librarian you’d see in a cartoon. All prim and proper. As she approached, I noticed her eyes were two different colors, one light green and the other dark brown. Kind of creeped me out. Never saw someone with different-colored eyes. She had a gap between her front teeth so wide you could fit another tooth in there. I guess I take after my mom when it comes to noticing body stuff.

The old lady and A.J. stared at each other. Neither spoke. The tension was as thick as the school janitor’s German accent. A smirk crawled onto the old lady’s face. The left side of her mouth curled up, pushing her boney cheek into her eye and turning it into a snake slit.

Something was wrong. Something was most definitely wrong.

Chapter Three

I thought for sure the old Toadster would say something. He usually does. Before he had a chance, the old lady’s dog started barking at A.J. And it wasn’t a wimpy bark; it was a war bark, the kind that makes your heart jump out of your chest. The little itsy-bitsy poodle went ballistic. It peeled back its lips and bared its teeth. The old lady could hardly keep it from attacking A.J. I swear if you’d seen this dog you would’ve believed it was a pit bull in a poodle suit. It was mean. Real mean.

The old lady tried to pick up the poodle, but the poodle kept jumping out of her arms. She yanked the poodle’s leash, making it gag, but that only seemed to make the poodle more determined to bite A.J. Eventually, the old lady was able to drag the dog away.

The whole time the poodle was going crazy, A.J. didn’t budge. She was as still as that stone statue in the cemetery. After the old lady and the dog left, A.J. felt around her neck.

Toad sniffed. What stinks?

Leave it to Toad to smell it first, but he was right. A foul rotting garbage smell hung in the air.

I didn’t smell it until the old lady walked over, Toad said. She must’ve farted. She needs some of those pills my gramps takes when he eats too many beans.

Yeah, right, Toad, Micah said. Blame it on the old lady.

Hey, I’m not taking the rap this time. I admit I fart sometimes, but not this time. It was the old lady. Or her dog.

A.J. rubbed her neck. All of her blood seemed to rush to her face.

Are you okay? I asked. You don’t look well.

I gotta go, she blurted.

Want me to come?

A.J. shook her head and ran in the opposite direction than the old lady and the dog.

Toad spit another loogie. What’s up with A.J.? She’s been acting weird lately.

I scratched my head. Yeah. Ever since she started wearing that necklace.

Tell me about it, Becca said. What’s wrong with the necklace anyway? Every time I look at A.J., she’s tugging on it.

Becca Lynn Hill is the smallest girl I know. I swear she’s afraid of her own shadow. And she’s super superstitious. She won’t go anywhere without her good luck charm, a rabbit’s foot she won at the fair. She also has an annoying habit of over-exaggerating.

But I had to agree with her. A.J. was definitely acting odd, and it seemed to have something to do