Calling All Creeps!

Calling All Creeps! was the fiftieth book in the Goosebumps book series. It was preceded by Vampire Breath and followed by Beware, the Snowman.

The illustration on the cover shows the Creeps making use of a telephone booth.

Back cover description
REACH OUT AND SCARE SOMEONE...

Ricky Beamer is furious when he gets kicked off the school paper. So he decides to play a joke on Tasha, the bossy editor in chief. Just a little joke. Harmless, really. After school one day he sticks a message in the paper. If you're a creep, call Tasha after midnight, it reads. But somehow Ricky's message gets messed up. And now he's getting calls. Strange calls from kids who say they are creeps. Creeps with scaly purple skin. And long sharp fangs. . ..

Plot
Ricky Beamer is tortured by his schoolmates and called names. He has four enemies who are eighth-graders named Wart, Brenda, David and Jared. He is on the school newspaper, which is called Harding Herald. The head of the school newspaper is an eighth-grader named Tasha McClain. She treats sixth-graders like bugs. Ricky's only friend is a girl, named Iris who is new. A few days before the school newspaper got published, Ricky was in the newspaper room. He was about to get a Pepsi can from the refreshments desk, when two of his enemies, David and Wart, come along. Wart blocks Ricky's way and David says he wants the can of Pepsi. Ricky says he wants it and both of them start snatching it from each other. The can slips from David's grasp and falls on Tasha's keyboard. She calls Ricky a creep and says he is off the paper.

The next morning, Ricky gets a call from Tasha. She says there is an emergency and she needs Ricky. She gives Ricky her father's expensive camera and says if anything happens to it, Ricky is off the paper. In other words, Ricky gets another chance. Ricky has to take pictures of the children who are washing cars for the 'car washing campaign'.

When Ricky reaches the spot, he tells the children to make a pose for the picture. But instead, they start throwing water at him from their hoses! He finds out that the children are his eighth-grade enemies. Ricky is tired of his enemies always bullying him. So he tackles Wart, takes his hose and throws water into Wart's father's car. The camera is soaked and when he tries to run away, he slips and breaks the camera.

Tasha says this was Ricky's last chance and now he is off the paper. Iris sees the whole thing and says Tasha is mean.Then Ricky plans to get revenge from Tasha the night, before the paper is about to be published. He types a message on the paper saying "Calling all Creeps. Calling all Creeps. If you're a real Creep, call Tasha at 555-6709 after midnight."

He calls Iris and tells her what he did last night, but Iris says that he is in big trouble. Ricky finds out what she meant on Wednesday morning. Instead of Tasha's name, it was Ricky's name at the end of the paper. Tasha caught on to his plan and put Ricky's name there.

And that night Ricky gets calls from children saying they are creeps, and saying weird stuff, like "When shall we meet?"

The next morning, everything goes perfectly normal at school. No children calling Ricky names, no children trying to trip Ricky, no one trying to tease him. He feels weird, because ever since he joined the school, people made fun of him. Finally, at lunchtime, someone throws a paperball on him. He looks around for someone who could have thrown it, but everyone was busy eating. He reads it and it says, "When will the creeps meet?"

When Ricky is about to leave school, his enemies get a hold on him and take him to the forest near school. They are very serious. Then they start apologizing to Ricky and start calling him commander.

At first, Ricky takes it all as a joke. Then they transform into purple lizard-like creatures with long tongues. They think Ricky is their commander because of what it said in the paper. They say humans are the past and creeps are the future! They ask Ricky where to plant the identity seeds to turn everyone into creeps.

Ricky plays along and tries to get away to get help, but Wart says he has got a plan. They will sneak into the lunchroom and put the identity seeds in the food, so everyone becomes a creep.

Ricky has to do what they say, because they think he is their commander. So he enters the kitchen and pretends to fall. All the identity seeds fall to the ground and get lost. Unfortunately, Brenda has extras. Now Ricky has no plans and he sprinkles the seeds onto the pasta.

After lunchtime, Ricky waits for all the children to turn into creeps, but they do not.

So after school ends, the creeps grab Ricky and take him to the forest again. They ask Ricky why their plan did not work. He tells them that no one eats the pasta, because they think it is old. They ask Ricky how he knew, because he only arrived a few days before the creeps did. Then they want Ricky to transform into a creep to prove he is their commander.

Just as it looks hopeless for Ricky, Iris arrived and acted as if she was the commander's assistant. Then she gives them a plan to make cookies at the bake sale and sell them for free. They could put the identity seeds in them, because they look like chocolate chips. They agree with her plan and go to Iris' house to bake the cookies.

Iris tells Ricky she saw Wart and the others turn into creeps and that's why she came to help. They decide to make a plan at the bake sale.

At the bake sale, Ricky has a plan. He will go on the stage and tell everyone not to eat the cookies, but the children laugh when Ricky warns them and start calling him names.

Brenda tells him that when the children eat the cookies, they will transform and all will become Ricky's slaves. Since everyone always made fun of him, Ricky decides to give everyone a free cookie. Then at last, he eats one himself and transforms. The last page has them all become his slaves forever...

Trivia

 * According to R.L. Stine's autobiography, he got the idea for the story from a joke he once played when he was in college, but it ended up backfiring on him afterwards.
 * This is the first Goosebumps book in which the villain succeeds in the end.

Television Adaptation

 * In the book, Harding Middle School serves pasta, but no one eats it. In the episode, it's tuna surprise.
 * Ricky doesn't get picked to show iris around the school. No one does. Instead, Ricky meets her as Ricky's enemys bully him, and they become friends.
 * In the television episode, Iris speaks out when Ricky hands out the cookies at the end. But in the book, she does nothing.
 * There are three creeps, instead of four.
 * The Creeps are yellow, instead of purple.

Television Episode Trivia

 * This is the last of three television episodes on the DVD, The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.
 * The episode was adapted into Goosebumps Presents Book #17.
 * Hamille Rustia (Iris) played Allison in Season 4's Cry of the Cat.
 * Matthew Lemche (David) played Richard Holman in Season 3's Click. His brother Kris appeared previously in The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.