Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Spooky Stories (Awesome Friendly Kid Book 3) Read online

  The Long Haul

  Old School

  Double Down

  The Getaway

  The Meltdown

  Wrecking Ball

  The Deep End

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  ALSO BY ROWLEY JEFFERSON

  GREG HEFFLEY'S

  DIARY OF A WIMPY KID BOOKS

  Diary of a Wimpy Kid

  Rodrick Rules

  The Last Straw

  Dog Days

  The Ugly Truth

  Cabin Fever

  The Third Wheel

  Hard Luck

  Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid

  Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure

  AMULET BOOKS

  New York

  by Jeff Kinney

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places,

  and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used

  fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business

  establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained

  from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN 978-1-4197-5697-9

  eISBN 978-1-64700-416-3

  Text and illustrations copyright © 2021, Wimpy Kid, Inc.

  ROWLEY JEFFERSON’S AWESOME FRIENDLY™ SPOOKY STORIES

  and the design of the book’s cover are trademarks and trade dress of

  Wimpy Kid, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Jeff Kinney, Marcie Lawrence, and Brenda E. Angelilli

  Book design by Jeff Kinney

  Published in 2021 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights

  reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

  system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic,

  photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the

  publisher.

  Amulet Books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity

  for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use.

  Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact

  [email protected] or the address below.

  Amulet Books® is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

  ABRAMS The Art of Books

  195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007

  abramsbooks.com

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  The Changing

  The Prankster

  Ghost Friend

  The Biter

  The Human Head

  The Scanner

  The Cellar

  The Nap

  The Stain

  a mummy

  The Science Project

  The Medicine Cabinet

  The Invasion

  The Demon

  SPOOKY STORIES

  BOO! Did that scare you?

  If it did maybe you should put this book

  down and pick something else that's a

  little less scary. There are some good

  books about unicorns and puppies and

  other happy things that you can read until

  you're ready for a book like this.

  But if you like stories about skeletons

  and zombies and human heads, then crawl

  under the covers and turn the page.

  And if you get too scared then you can

  always sleep in your parents' bed. But

  please don't tell them the reason you

  got spooked because I really don't want

  them to be mad at me.

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  There once was a boy named Rowan,

  and Rowan was a happy child. He had two

  parents who loved him very much and he

  had lots of toys to play with.

  Sometimes Rowan would bring his toys

  to school and play with them at recess,

  but he stopped doing that after he got

  bullied by some jerks.

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  That made Rowan sad because he thought

  playing with toys was the best thing

  about being a kid. But Rowan's classmates

  didn't feel the same way and they were

  always trying to act older than they

  really were.

  One day when Rowan was in class he felt

  a strange tickling sensation under his

  armpit. He didn't know what it was so

  he asked his teacher Mrs. Pennington

  if he could please be excused to use the

  restroom.

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  When Rowan got to the bathroom he

  took off his shirt and was shocked to see

  a single hair growing from the center of

  his armpit.

  Rowan didn't know what to do so he

  put his shirt back on and returned to

  class. And when he sat down he felt like

  everyone in the classroom could tell

  something was different about him, even

  Mrs. Pennington.

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  When the final bell rang, Rowan ran all

  the way home. He knew his mother kept

  some tweezers in the bathroom and he

  couldn't wait to use them to pull out

  that hair.

  But when Rowan took his shirt off he

  could see it was too late for tweezers.

  Suddenly hair started sprouting all OVER

  Rowan's body. And before long he was

  practically COVERED in it.

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  By now Rowan was totally panicking. He

  went through his parents' bathroom

  cabinet to see if there was anything

  that might help and he found something

  he thought would do the trick.

  But there's a reason kids shouldn't go

  poking around in their parents' bathroom

  cabinets. Because two seconds after

  Rowan opened the bottle he passed out

  from the fumes.

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  When Rowan woke up he was in his bed.

  At
first he thought maybe the whole

  thing with the hair was just a bad dream

  but one look at his arm told him it

  wasn't.

  Rowan's parents walked into his room

  and he was afraid they were gonna be

  mad at him for opening that bottle

  of hair remover without asking. But

  they didn't look mad at all. In fact, they

  seemed kind of HAPPY.

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  Rowan's parents said they'd been waiting

  for this day for years and it was time

  for them to have the "Talk."

  Rowan thought they had already had the

  Talk when his parents told him how babies

  were made. But they said this one was a

  totally different Talk.

  His parents said that sometimes when

  a child turns a certain age their body

  starts to go through a "Changing." And

  that made Rowan sad because he liked

  himself just the way he was.

  By now Rowan thought he knew where

  this was heading so he asked the question

  that had been on his mind all day.

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  Well that made Rowan's parents laugh

  and laugh. And Rowan felt embarrassed

  because it took them a long time to

  STOP laughing.

  After Rowan's dad wiped the tears from

  his eyes he said Rowan was still a boy

  but he was a different KIND of boy. And

  when Rowan asked what he meant by

  that his dad gave him some bad news.

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  This was definitely NOT what Rowan

  wanted to hear. But when Rowan's mom

  saw the worried look on her son's face

  she said this was a day to CELEBRATE.

  Rowan's parents told him he came from a

  long line of werewolves. And suddenly the

  pictures on the staircase wall made a lot

  more sense to Rowan.

  Then Rowan's parents gave him some

  MORE bad news. They said THEY were

  both werewolves too.

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  Rowan started remembering clues

  growing up that should've told him

  his parents were werewolves. But he

  guessed deep down he didn't want to

  admit the truth.

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  Then Rowan started crying. He said he

  just wanted to be a regular kid and have

  a normal life.

  But his parents said a werewolf could live a

  perfectly normal life as long as they kept

  on top of their grooming and hid who they

  really were from the rest of the world.

  Rowan didn't WANT to hide who he was

  though. He had always been taught to

  be yourself and that's what he planned

  to do.

  But Rowan's parents told him there are

  ignorant people in the world who don't

  like anyone who is different.

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  And Rowan knew exactly the type of

  people his parents were talking about.

  Then Rowan asked his parents a question

  he wasn't sure he was ready to hear the

  answer to.

  Rowan's parents looked a little

  uncomfortable and said that was a

  subject for another Talk later on.

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  But Rowan had a feeling he knew the

  answer to his question so the next day

  he brought his toys with him to recess.

  And this time nobody dared to mess

  with him.

  Rowan's example inspired his parents to

  stop hiding who THEY were too. And

  from that day on Rowan and his family

  lived as their true selves and everyone

  else just had to deal with it.

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  In a little seaside village somewhere in

  Europe there lived a man named Jasper.

  And everyone knew who Jasper was

  because he was the village prankster.

  Most of Jasper's pranks were pretty

  harmless. One time he covered the

  baker's car in gift wrap, and another

  time he filled the village's only phone

  booth with popcorn.

  Sometimes Jasper would even prank

  his own family members. And his mother

  never really forgave him for gluing all of

  her furniture to the ceiling.

  But Jasper's most famous prank was

  the time he put the mayor's underwear

  up a flagpole, which everyone thought

  was pretty hilarious. Well everyone

  except the MAYOR.

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  That was the thing about Jasper's

  pranks. Most people thought they were

  pretty hilarious unless they were the one

  being pranked.

  Anyway one morning Jasper woke up

  trying to figure out who he was gonna

  prank next. He couldn't decide if he

  wanted to toilet paper his next-door

  neighbor's house or replace the baker's

  cream-filled donuts with toothpaste.

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  The toilet paper thing felt like a lot of

  work and it had been a while since Jasper

  pranked Joris the baker so Jasper

  decided he'd go with the donut thing for

  today.

  Jasper got out of bed and brushed

  his hair, then headed up the hill to the

  bakery. And on the way there he passed

  a few people he knew.

  He waved to Marian the dressmaker and

  Miki the cheesemonger but neither one

  waved back. But he figured they were

  just sore at him for covering their shop

  windows in mustard the week before.

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