The beginning of today’s story–Mr. Dimwater’s Graveyard School.

The bodies arrived before lunch.

Fourteen-year-old Sofie Hartmore slammed her book shut and threw her pencil hard across the room. It barely missed Tobin Yu, who had just lifted himself up off the floor. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and ignored the clatter of Sofie’s abused pencil, which smacked the window, bounced against the desk lamp, hit the librarian’s forgotten coffee mug, and landed on a stack of magazines before rolling onto the carpet.

“But I’m so hungry!” Sofie said at no one in particular. Even though she ate every scrap of breakfast, by lunchtime she was always starving.

Tobin yawned. “Don’t ever fall asleep while reading A History of Ocean Graves,” he said. “I feel like my lungs are full of water.”

“You’ve got carpet lint on your face.”

He shrugged. “Is it lunchtime yet?”

Sofie groaned. “Tobin! The body van has arrived. The big one. Where have you been?”

“The bottom of the ocean, obviously.” He took both hands and dragged them down his face. “Did I get all the lint?”

But Sofie wasn’t looking. She marched over to the library door. “C’mon. Hurry up. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we get to eat.”

Thank you for reading!