The witches' flying painting hovered in the air along one wall of the gym.
It showed a famous race, with witches zooming through a moonlit sky on sleek brooms.
Some areas of the painting still looked beautiful, but Ben saw several long, messy smears across one section.
In another spot, colors ran together, and little blobs of paint floated in the air all around the flying painting.
A few witches stood looking at it in horror.
Greta was chewing nervously on her hat.
"After all that work!" she sobbed.
"Our painting is ruined!"
Ben stood helplessly beside Winnie.
"It's not that bad," he mumbled.
"I mean, I know it's not perfect anymore, but—" Winnie shot him a look, and he stopped talking.
Waldo burst into the room, his glasses flying off his face.
"This is terrible!" He stooped to pick up his glasses.
"Who ruined the painting?"
Mr. Freaky spun toward Ben.
"I think I know who the culprit is!"
Several monsters gasped.
Ben held up his hands.
"I'm not the vandal, Mr. Freaky," he said.
"As I was trying to tell you earlier, I had nothing to do with that missing painting.
I had nothing to do with this mischief either."
Mr. Freaky stared at Ben for a second before nodding.
Then he slumped over, looking defeated.
"Leonardo da Creepy will be here at seven," he moaned.
"Art Week is totally out of control!
What are we going to do?"
"I know what we're going to do," Winnie said suddenly.
"We're going to fix it. We have to anyway.
Greta, round up as many sixth-grade witches as you can find," she commanded.
"Samantha, see if you can locate the witches from the broom-flying squad."
"Okay!" The two witches raced off on their brooms.
"We need some new paints," Waldo said.
"I'll start mixing them."
"I can help you," another witch said.
"I'm in Advanced Magic class this year."
The two of them went into a corner of the gym to cast spells.
While the other monsters worked, Ben looked for clues.
Soon he spotted the gym teacher talking to Mr. Freaky.
"Mr. Gwarg, did you see anything suspicious?" Ben asked.
Mr. Gwarg shrugged.
"I did hear a commotion a little while ago.
But when I got inside the gym, the painting had already been damaged.
The gym was deserted."
Ben sighed. "It looks like the vandal got away again."
"That means he or she could try to ruin some of our artwork again," Mr. Freaky said.
"I'd better go check on my sculpture."
"And I'll patrol the halls," Mr. Gwarg said.
"Ben, let me know if you discover any clues in here."
Ben nodded and went to the painting to see if he could do anything to help.
Several witches were arguing about the best way to fix the painting.
"We should start at the bottom and work our way to the top."
"No! We should start at the top and work our way down."
"I want to add a better finish line," Greta said.
"No way!" Winnie called out.
"We're not making any changes, you guys.
As soon as the paint is ready, we'll just patch up what we can."
"I think I'll focus on the investigation for now," Ben thought.
He drifted away from the witches again.
"Let's see," he murmured.
"The vandal probably slipped out the gym's rear door."
As Ben floated toward the back of the room, an object under the bleachers caught his eye.
Ben stooped down.
"It's Pixel's camera."
Ben looked around the gym, but he didn't see the younger ghost anywhere.
"That's odd," Ben thought.
Pixel had come to the gym to take photos of the flying painting.
So why wasn't he here?
And why did he abandon his camera?
Ben turned on the camera and started looking at the photos.
The most recent ones showed the witches' painting—looking absolutely perfect.
"So Pixel was here before the vandal struck," Ben thought.
"I wonder if the vandal was chasing him and that's how Pixel dropped his camera."
Ben suddenly felt very worried.
He didn't know Pixel well, but he did know that the ghost loved his camera.
There was no way Pixel would abandon his camera unless something terrible had happened.
Ben froze, the camera still in his hands.
Where would Pixel go if he needed to hide or get away from someone?
"The old photography classroom!" Ben thought.
It was a tiny room upstairs, which nobody ever used anymore.
Ben needed to get there right away!