Ben looked at his stool in surprise. It was halfway across the room.
Ben, however, was floating exactly where he'd been.
Mog lay sprawled on the floor. "He tried to knock me over!" Ben realized.
"Mog!" cried Mrs. Hag. "What are you doing?"
The monster got up off the floor. "I was, um, trying to get my stool back."
He pointed to the stool he had knocked across the room.
"That's not your stool," said Mrs. Hag.
"That's Ben's stool. Now sit down and behave yourself!"
Mog sat down as Ben got the stool.
When Ben came back, Mog leaned over the table, scowling at him.
"Listen, you pathetic excuse for a monster," Mog whispered.
"Stay away from Winnie, or you'll end up all alone, haunting a ghost town!"
"Oh, Mog," said Winnie. "He wouldn't be alone in a ghost town.
Those places are filled with ghosts." She flashed a smile at Ben.
"Grr," snarled Mog, still glaring at Ben.
"He's a really nice guy," Winnie whispered to Ben.
"He's just not showing it today."
Mrs. Hag clapped her hands. "Let's start cooking!
Mog, get out the soap and scrub brush so you're ready to clean up when we're done."
Ben watched Mog get up. Ben had stood up to Mog earlier.
But he was new at school, and he couldn't afford to make enemies.
He'd better stay out of Mog's way for now.
Then he stole another quick look at Winnie, hoping she hadn't read his thoughts again.
Maybe he'd better stay out of her way too.
At lunch Gaby told Ben more about the dance that Waldo had mentioned.
And over the next few days, that's all anyone was talking about at Monster Academy.
Who was going with whom to the Monster Mash dance?
Which girl monsters had asked boy monsters?
Why did the girl mummies always spend the evening giggling and running to the restroom to rewrap their bandages?
Ben wanted to go to the dance.
He had already met a bunch of girl monsters at Monster Academy.
But there was only one he really liked—and she was taken.
A few days later during homeroom, Mr. Freaky made an announcement.
"Attention, monsters!" His voice crackled over the loudspeaker.
"As you know, we've been having some strange problems with our brooms since school started.
We've found brooms everywhere—the restrooms, the gym, the soccer field.
Just yesterday one crashed through my office window!"
"We're not sure who's causing the empty brooms to fly around, but we will find the monster responsible.
In the meantime, because of the danger, we're canceling all extracurricular activities.
That includes the Monster Mash dance."
"What?"
"That's not fair!"
Everyone in Ben's homeroom started complaining.
"Furthermore," continued Mr. Freaky, "all broom-flying classes will be suspended until the broom incidents stop."
"No broom-flying class?" shrieked a witch sitting next to Winnie. "That stinks!"
"You're not kidding." Winnie looked like she might cry.
"My parents promised to get me my own broom as soon as I got my broom-flying license." She sighed.
"I'll be an ugly old witch before I can fly a broom by myself."
"You could never be an ugly old witch," thought Ben as he gazed over at Winnie.
Winnie suddenly looked up, and her green eyes stared right into his.
Ben looked away quickly.
The bell rang, and all the students headed off to class.
As Ben drifted down the hallway, he thought about the sad look on Winnie's face again.
Poor Winnie. She'd looked so disappointed.
Suddenly Ben got a brilliant idea.
"I'll figure out who's crashing the brooms!" he thought.
"Then Winnie can go back to broom-flying class and get her own broom."
He was new at Monster Academy, but he could find the mysterious broom-flyer and help Winnie.
He knew he could.
Later Ben heard a voice behind him in the cafeteria.
It was Gaby. He turned to look up at her.
"Guess what?" she cried, jumping up and down. The entire cafeteria shook.
"Hey, quit jumping!" complained a goblin at the next table.
"You spilled my toad juice!"
"What is it? Tell me!" said Ben.
Gaby stopped jumping. "Waldo Wizz asked me to go see a movie on Friday night!" she said.
"That's fantastic!" said Ben.
"Waldo is so nice," Gaby gushed.
"He's cute too. Have I told you about how great he is at magic?"
"Yes." Ben rolled his eyes.
Gaby had told him about Waldo Wizz's magic skills—along with his bright blue eyes—many, many times.
Ben was about to remind Gaby of this when another idea came to him.
Waldo was supposed to be some kind of genius at magic.
Maybe he could help find the monster who was crashing all the brooms.