Changes: The Revenge

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Story

"The Revenge" is the second story in Goosebumps Triple Header: Book 2.

Plot

Friends Amelia and Isaac are hanging out. Isaac tells Amelia how he went to a fortune teller named Madame Margo, who told him all about astral projection. Isaac, a skeptic, dismisses the claims as bogus, but Amelia wonders if it's real. The duo is approached by Cory Calder, a local bully. He accuses Amelia of reporting one of his school pranks to the principal. Cory sees that Amelia's dog, Fluffy, is playing with a ball, so he takes it and throws it into a trafficked street. The dog chases partway, narrowly avoiding a dump truck.

The next day, Amelia empties her savings account without telling her parents, retrieving $100. She uses the money to gain an appointment with Madame Margo, hoping to acquire the power of astral projection. Margo explains to Amelia that if she is granted the power of astral projection, she will only be able to project for one hour total. Going over this limit is described as dangerous. Amelia accepts this, and Margo chants a few words, supposedly giving Amelia the power she desires. Margo tells Amelia to leave without answering any more questions. Later, when Amelia is walking with Isaac, Cory hits her with his bike.

During school the following day, Amelia sees Cory in science class, dissecting a frog. She decides it is time to test out her alleged powers. Amelia sneaks into the janitor's closet and begins projecting. She finds herself able to fly outside of her own body. She can go through objects or interact with them if she wants to. She floats into the science room and grabs Cory's frog. She throws it at the teacher, and Cory is blamed. When Cory gets the frog back, Amelia takes it and shoves it down his shirt. Cory's sent to the principal's office. Amelia goes back into her body. According to her watch, she has forty-six minutes of projection time left. Later in the day, Amelia sees Cory bullying Isaac again. When Cory goes to basketball team tryouts, Amelia uses her astral projection to make him fail. Amelia notices that her watch has stopped, so she rushes back to her body. When she checks a wall clock, she finds that she has ten minutes remaining. Having not learned his lesson, Cory punches Isaac in the gut later in the day.

Amelia decides upon one final revenge scheme. She is going to act like a ghost and scare Cory. Amelia sits down near Cory's house and prepares to project, but she notices that her dog Fluffy has followed her. Amelia tells Fluffy to sit on her lap, and Amelia proceeds to project. Soon, she enters Cory's house and sees him sleeping. She throws objects off of his shelf, trying to wake him up, but he doesn't move. Suddenly, someone grabs her shoulder. It's Cory.

Cory reveals that his aunt is Madame Margo, and she gave him the power of astral projection, too. Cory grabs Amelia, and he is intent on preventing her from going back to her body until it's too late. Cory suddenly cries out in pain. Fluffy, in astral form, bit Cory. Amelia flies back to her body, taking Fluffy with her. Amelia returns to her body, but she can't find Fluffy's body. Cory, in his physical form, storms outside. He's about to hit Amelia, but Fluffy, still in astral projection form, bites him again. Cory flees, and Amelia grabs onto her invisible pet. She spends the next hour hopelessly searching for her dog's body, but she can't find it.

In the end, Fluffy doesn't get her body back. While her pet is invisible forever, Amelia isn't too upset. Fluffy gets to accompany her everywhere she goes, and the invisible dog has been keeping Cory in line.

Trivia

The protagonists mention a film called Ghost Patrol. There is a real film from 1936 with this name, but this appears to be coincidental. The film mentioned in this story is about the supernatural, while the 1936 film is not.
This story references Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The concept of someone whom the protagonist enlists to get revenge on eventually being revealed to be working with the person they plotted revenge on would later be used in Revenge R Us.
Issac mentions having a cousin named Rachael. There was a character named Rachel in the preceding story, Ghoul School.

Goosebumps Triple Header series
Book 1	Ghost Granny • Spin the Wheel of Horror • Teenage Sponge Boys from Outer Space
Book 2	Ghoul School • The Revenge • The Mummy with My Face

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''The Revenge '''is a story in ''Goosebumps Triple Header: Book Two''
+{{Tabber/Story|previous=Ghoul School|next=The Mummy with My Face}}"'''The Revenge'''" is the second story in ''[[Goosebumps Triple Header|Goosebumps Triple Header: Book 2]]''.
 == Plot ==
+Friends Amelia and Isaac are hanging out. Isaac tells Amelia how he went to a fortune teller named Madame Margo, who told him all about [[wikipedia:Astral projection|astral projection]]. Isaac, a skeptic, dismisses the claims as bogus, but Amelia wonders if it's real. The duo is approached by [[Cory Calder]], a local bully. He accuses Amelia of reporting one of his school pranks to the principal. Cory sees that Amelia's dog, Fluffy, is playing with a ball, so he takes it and throws it into a trafficked street. The dog chases partway, narrowly avoiding a dump truck.
-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.
+The next day, Amelia empties her savings account without telling her parents, retrieving $100. She uses the money to gain an appointment with Madame Margo, hoping to acquire the power of astral projection. Margo explains to Amelia that if she is granted the power of astral projection, she will only be able to project for one hour total. Going over this limit is described as dangerous. Amelia accepts this, and Margo chants a few words, supposedly giving Amelia the power she desires. Margo tells Amelia to leave without answering any more questions. Later, when Amelia is walking with Isaac, Cory hits her with his bike.
-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.
+During school the following day, Amelia sees Cory in science class, dissecting a frog. She decides it is time to test out her alleged powers. Amelia sneaks into the janitor's closet and begins projecting. She finds herself able to fly outside of her own body. She can go through objects or interact with them if she wants to. She floats into the science room and grabs Cory's frog. She throws it at the teacher, and Cory is blamed. When Cory gets the frog back, Amelia takes it and shoves it down his shirt. Cory's sent to the principal's office. Amelia goes back into her body. According to her watch, she has forty-six minutes of projection time left. Later in the day, Amelia sees Cory bullying Isaac again. When Cory goes to basketball team tryouts, Amelia uses her astral projection to make him fail. Amelia notices that her watch has stopped, so she rushes back to her body. When she checks a wall clock, she finds that she has ten minutes remaining. Having not learned his lesson, Cory punches Isaac in the gut later in the day.
-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?
+Amelia decides upon one final revenge scheme. She is going to act like a ghost and scare Cory. Amelia sits down near Cory's house and prepares to project, but she notices that her dog Fluffy has followed her. Amelia tells Fluffy to sit on her lap, and Amelia proceeds to project. Soon, she enters Cory's house and sees him sleeping. She throws objects off of his shelf, trying to wake him up, but he doesn't move. Suddenly, someone grabs her shoulder. It's Cory.
-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.
+Cory reveals that his aunt is Madame Margo, and she gave him the power of astral projection, too. Cory grabs Amelia, and he is intent on preventing her from going back to her body until it's too late. Cory suddenly cries out in pain. Fluffy, in astral form, bit Cory. Amelia flies back to her body, taking Fluffy with her. Amelia returns to her body, but she can't find Fluffy's body. Cory, in his physical form, storms outside. He's about to hit Amelia, but Fluffy, still in astral projection form, bites him again. Cory flees, and Amelia grabs onto her invisible pet. She spends the next hour hopelessly searching for her dog's body, but she can't find it.
-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.
+In the end, Fluffy doesn't get her body back. While her pet is invisible forever, Amelia isn't too upset. Fluffy gets to accompany her everywhere she goes, and the invisible dog has been keeping Cory in line.
-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!
+==Trivia==
-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.
+*The protagonists mention a film called ''Ghost Patrol''. There is [[wikipedia:Ghost Patrol|a real film]] from 1936 with this name, but this appears to be coincidental. The film mentioned in this story is about the supernatural, while the 1936 film is not.
+*This story references [[wikipedia:Arnold Schwarzenegger|Arnold Schwarzenegger]].
+*The concept of someone whom the protagonist enlists to get revenge on eventually being revealed to be working with the person they plotted revenge on would later be used in ''[[Revenge R Us]].''
+* Issac mentions having a cousin named Rachael. There was a character named Rachel in the preceding story, ''[[Ghoul School]]''.
+{{GoosebumpsTH}}
-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.
+[[Category:Goosebumps Triple Header]]
+[[Category:Short Stories]]
+[[Category:Pets (topic)]]
+[[Category:Bullies (topic)]]
+[[Category:Magic]]
+[[Category:Dogs]]
+[[Category:Human villains (topic)]]
+[[Category:Aunts]]