<i><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"><span style="font-size: 18px">'Why am I so stupid?' </span></span></i><span style="font-family: 'Arial'"><span style="font-size: 18px">wondered nineteen year old Sarah Meisie to herself.  The tall, gawky, auburn haired girl had been told by her mother that she would be beautiful like a swan but all Sarah saw when she looked into a mirror was a cartoon duck.  If anyone or anything believed that Sarah was beautiful, they would likely be like the extraterrestrial "Grays".  Maybe they would find her oddly angled face atop her long body and long neck to be appealing, but she wasn't holding her breath for 'Prince Alien' to arrive from outer space with a marriage proposal.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Bad Script', 'cursive'"><span style="font-size: 18px"><div class="bbm_float fright" style="float:right;margin:0 0 5px 10px">
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</div></span></span>.<br/><br/><span style="font-size: 18px">Sarah and Mary were having lunch together, in a café near the college, when Chelsie, Sarah's older next-door-neighbor and years ago sometime babysitter sat down at the table next to theirs.  Sarah wasn't trying to eavesdrop on the cheerleader, but you can't shut your ears like you shut your eyes and they were talking about a haunted house that was supposed to be somewhere near town.  Sarah's posture involuntarily stiffened.<br/>
<br/>
Chelsie must have planned and practiced the conversation, to make it sound so natural, but it had to have been a deliberate trap.  Chelsie went on about how, on some nights, people could hear the sound of a ghostly piano being played inside the old mansion.  Then, Chelsie's companion chimed in that she had also heard the story of the ghostly music and supposedly it was from a very rare French piano..., a 'Pleyel' if she remembered correctly.<br/>
<br/>
Sarah had just been nervously taking a sip of water, to wash down a bit of dry cornbread, coughed uncontrollably when she heard the name, 'Pleyel'.  <br/>
<br/>
Everyone nearby looked at her until she stopped coughing, but Chelsie and her friend didn't look away after she'd gotten the coughing under control.  They confronted Sarah about her eavesdropping.  Chelsie remarked how easily frightened Sarah was and Sarah tried to deny it, but Sarah couldn't make her denial sound believable.  Chelsie then taunted Sarah, saying that she knew Sarah would be dying to see the rare piano, but would be too scared to spend a night in a haunted house.<br/>
<br/>
It was the perfect bait.  Sarah stammered that she doubted there was a Pleyel in the old mansion and that the older girls were just teasing her.  Besides, she said, there's no such things as ghosts.<br/>
<br/>
Then they sprung the trap, saying that if there were no such things as ghosts then Sarah had nothing to be afraid of.  Then came the bet.  Sarah was triply trapped.  Not only did she want to see if there really was a Pleyel piano in the old mansion, but she wanted revenge on her former babysitter AND she wanted to prove to herself that she could overcome her fears.<br/>
<br/>
Mary had been a true friend and told Chelsie that she wanted in on the bet, too.  If Mary had any grudges against Chelsie then Sarah hadn't known about them, but Sarah could ask Mary about it later.  Another girl, 'Evie', had heard the house on a dare from some other mutual friends of Chelsie and got her invitation to the Haunted Mansion Sleepover.<br/>
<br/>
Standing in her belted loose blue jeans, long sleeve navy blue shirt and canvas sneakers, Sarah could imagine Chelsie cackling as the little bitch drove away from the three girls and the old house.  She could also imagine that Chelsie might have even left some little 'surprises' at the house, to frighten the girls.<br/>
<br/>
She wasn't exactly sure why she did it, but along with her sandwich, two plastic bottles of water, sleeping bag, piano tools, electric torch and lantern, Sarah packed her pastel pink silk pajama shorts and top.  Probably she didn't want anyone to see her in her old comfy flannels, she told herself.<br/>
<br/>
Mustering a face more courageous than she really felt, Sarah winked at Mary and Evie, saying, "Well, girls, let's go play,<i>'Scooby Do' </i>or<i> 'Ghostbusters' </i>or whatever the hell this is, right?"</span>