Chapter 1 Basement Monster Malcolm Malcolm crept down wincing at the strange noises the stairs Tap scrape THUMP Tap scrape THUMP Tap scrape THUMP Whether ghost or monster something scary lurked in his basement laboratory Maybe a ghost had come to haunt him Maybe a monster escaped from a movie It wouldn’t be the first time Whatever it was he intended to teach it not to mess with his laboratory 4
Malcolm gripped the baseball bat he'd borrowed from Dad's room He would fend off the monster until his friend Dandy could reach the Ecto Handheld Automatic Heat Sensitive Laser Enhanced Ghost Zapper Dandy pressed against his back jumping with each THUMP Maybe we should wait upstairs he whispered Until it goes away
That’s not what Ghost Detectors do Malcolm said Besides his ghost dog Spooky was in his lab And he wasn’t going to risk some monster hurting his dog At the bottom of the stairs he took a breath Then he rushed into the basement with the baseball bat over his head Aaaaahhhh Aaaaahhhh shrieked Malcolm’s older sister Cocoa She jumped back on the floor with a THUMP Cocoa was wearing tap shoes and a black leotard Her bright pink pants matched her bright pink lip gloss and pink streaks in her hair She snarled at Malcolm You You he yelled back You were making those noises He looked around the space Someone had shoved his old desk in the corner and 6
tossed the beanbag chair after it to make room for two big sheets of plywood that lay on the floor like wooden rugs You wrecked my laboratory Cocoa scrambled up and put her hands on her hips You ruined my dance practice This is trespassing Get out of my lab Malcolm pointed toward the stairs and looked to Dandy for support Dandy didn’t notice He walked over and flopped on the beanbag chair near the desk He found an old cheese curl in the folds of the chair and popped it in his mouth If this is your lab then he must be your lab experiment Cocoa sneered Look nerd You and your experiment need to clear out Dad brought these boards down here so I can practice You don’t own the basement 7
