The book starts with a little foreshadowing. It's pretty subtle, but essentially the narrator, Brooke Rodgers and her improbably-named friend Zeke are going to discover a phantom who has been haunting their school for over seventy years. We figure this out when Brooke tells us the preceding, verbatim. Great, now I don't even have to read the rest of the book!
Brooke and Zeke are aspiring thespians, having appeared in last year's elementary school production of Guys and Dolls. A lot of fifth grade classes put on a production of Guys and Dolls, that's what makes this believable. When Brooke and Zeke go to look at the cast list for the new, "scary" play the sixth grade class is putting on, Brooke discovers a note pinned to the board telling her that she has been suspended. Brooke believes this because she is unbelievably stupid. Zeke reveals he's equally stupid by taking pride in having set up the "joke." Hey RL Stine, can anyone but these two be the main characters of this book?
Zeke gets the title role as the Phantom and Brooke will be playing Esmerelda. A 7th grader named Tina who doesn't much like Brooke finds out she's Brooke's understudy and also is in charge of scenery. At the script reading the next week, Tina reveals that the play is cursed and also that the school puts it on every year. Maybe the school is being cursed by having to put on the same play, not the other way around. Tina starts to tell about how there is an actual phantom (Hey remember the foreshadowing!!!!!) in the school, but she is interrupted by Ms. Walker, the teacher directing the play, who tells her that the story is "Very scary... very upsetting." Ms. Walker might as well have lit firecrackers and handed out candy and puppywhips for as much interest as she generated by saying that, but she refuses to entertain the class with the story. But then she gives in to peer pressure and does reveal the tale to the class. Not particularly effective authoritativeness there, Ms. Walker.
72 awfully specific years ago, when the middle school was first built, a student found a copy of a play called the Phantom in the basement that someone had left. I don't want to be one of those internet people who points out mistakes, but why would anyone think this made sense if the school had just been built? Who left it, thespian contractors? The boy shows the play to a teacher who decides the school will perform it and then on opening night, the boy disappears, never to be found again. After that night, all copies of the script were destroyed except one, which was kept locked in a safe because burglars are going to be after a kid's play, and the play was never performed again... UNTIL NOW. It's really too bad they couldn't have destroyed the Cuban Swimmer or any number of other plays instead.
Ms. Walker tells the class that they'll be ignoring the rumour that the Phantom won't let them perform the play and then she accidentally falls down a trap door below the stage. She has the kids help her up and then excitedly tells them that they'll be using the trap door in the stage during their play. That's like driving and getting into a car accident and then turning to the person next to you and going "Your turn to drive!"
Brooke gives us a brief synopsis of the play (actually brief, not like thisbrief):
Carlos owns a theatre. Beneath the theatre lives a phantom with a scarred face. (This sounds familiar... what does it sound like...hmm) Esmerelda, the daughter of Carlos, falls in love with the Phantom, but then her boyfriend Eric finds out and he kills the Phantom. Esmerelda runs away and the Phantom haunts the theatre forever. I have a suggestion: Keep this play locked up longer.
After everyone leaves rehearsals, Zeke and Brooke stick around to try out the trap door in secret. Brooke has a brief asthma attack because trying out a trap door is just that exciting. They go down in the trap door but they keep going down and eventually they're "a mile" beneath the school, which doesn't sound believable to me but sometimes I forget who wrote what I'm reading. They're in a vast, dark corridor and this is interesting to them for reasons not explained to the reader. Kids love dark corridors, I guess. Suddenly the platform begins to move up again and the two jump onto it as it goes back up. The platform stops a little short of the stage so the two have to hoist themselves up. Once on the stage, they run into Emile, the night janitor, an old man with a big purple scar on his face. The janitor chides them on using the trap door and kicks them out of the school.