The Revenge

The Revenge is a story in Goosebumps Triple Header: Book One.

Plot
Amelia and her friend Isaac are playing with her dog Fluffy, tossing a glow-in-the-dark ball back and forth. Cory Calder, the improbably-named school bully, breaks up the fun by accusing Amelia of squealing on him. He calls her "A-Squealia," but wait, that's not the most crushing blow he'll land. Cory picks up the dog's ball and throws it into the busiest street in town, leaving Amelia to watch in horror as her dog rushes towards the busy intersection.

Fluffy survives and Amelia vows revenge. Amelia briefly thinks about telling the police-- why is it that characters in these books only think about calling the police when there's a dog involved? She eventually remembers that Isaac (Or "I-Sick" as Cory calls him-- this bully really needs some tutoring on his phonetics) told her about a fortune teller he had met who promised that for $100, she could teach anyone the secrets of astral-projection. Remember that list with "church" and "sorcerer" on it? Time to mark off "astral-projection." Amelia withdraws the contents of her savings account, which just happens to be $100, and heads to Madam Margo's.

Isaac waits for her outside while she trudges up to see the fortune teller. Margo greets her at the door. An enormously obese figure, the woman struggles to take a seat across a table from Amelia. After getting every prediction about her wrong, Margo finally guesses that she wants to learn the secret of astral-projection. Margo explains that Amelia can only use astral-projection for a sum total of one hour. Aw man, but Amelia is a big Van Morrison fan and wanted to go for a couple of weeks! Margo warns that if she stays out of her body for longer than an hour, she'll be trapped in the spirit world forever. However, she can split up the hour how ever she wants. Margo suggests six ten minute trips, the exact time needed to make one pass of an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Margot says a strange chant, counts Amelia's money and then kicks her out. Outside the fortune teller's, Cory hits Amelia with his bike, bloodying both her knees. He then runs over Isaac's foot while shouting, "Death to all white sneakers!" Who is this kid, George Wallace's nephew?

The next day at school, Amelia puts her plan into action. She hides in the janitor's closet and floats out of her body. Her ultimate revenge? She floats into Cory's science lab and messes with his dissection frog, flinging it at the teacher and then dropping it down the back of his shirt. I guess Amelia and I have different concepts of what $100 is worth.

Back in her body she sees that she still has 46 minutes left to torture Cory. After school, Cory is preparing to play The Big Basketball Game, so Amelia locks herself in a toilet stall and goes out to wreak some more havoc. Amelia has a pretty heavy task ahead of her: how can she top that excellent frog revenge? By tying Cory's shoelaces together! That's about even with him trying to kill her dog. She's having so much fun that she doesn't notice that her astral-wristwatch has astral-stopped working. Amelia rushes back into the bathroom and astral-glides back into her body. Out in the hall after the game, Amelia is disappointed that her revenges haven't rehabilitated Cory, as he beats Isaac up again.

That night, Amelia sneaks out of the house and crouches below Cory's bedroom window. Amelia only has ten more astral-minutes left, so she has to use them wisely. The way her revenges are going, I sure hope she can get the shallow bowl of warm water ready in that time. She decides that since she's already sort of like a ghost in astral-form, she'll pretend to be a ghost and scare Cory. Man, pretending to be a ghost, that's gotta stop him from being a bully! Before she can leave her body she's stopped by Fluffy, who followed her all the way to Cory's-- dogs in these books either disappear, bark at ghosts, or follow the protagonist so they can disappear or bark at a ghost. She hugs the dog then astral-ogies into Cory's bedroom. She tries to scare him awake but discovers nothing works. Unexpectedly he feels a hand grab her astral-wrist: It's Cory!

Cory tells her that his Aunt Margo told him about her visit and that he plans to keep her in his bedroom until it's too late for her to return to her body.

As Amelia counts down the last minute, Cory suddenly loosens his grip and howls out in pain. What's attacking Cory? Why, it's Fluffy. Amelia recalls that she was hugging Fluffy when she made like a Lynnfield Pioneer and ascended to the plane. The dog distracts Cory long enough for her to jump back into her body just in the nick of time. Unfortunately for Fluffy, she never makes it back to her body, but it all works out okay. Cory doesn't bother Amelia or Isaac anymore since Fluffy keeps him in line.