Ben tucked the two paintings under his arm.
"Follow me!" he said, grabbing Pixel's arm.
Together the ghosts floated smoothly through a wall of the darkroom and out into the classroom.
Then they glided through another door into the hallway.
"Whoa! This is what I call floating," Pixel exclaimed.
"We haven't bumped into anything or knocked stuff over!"
"You'll get better soon," Ben promised him. "I'll help you."
The two ghosts zipped downstairs and quickly hung up the two missing paintings.
Then they got the third one from the newspaper office and hung it up too.
After they'd picked out some good photos for the newspaper article, they flew to the gym.
The witches were still flying around, frantically putting the finishing touches on the flying painting.
When Ben went up close, he could see the fresh paint in several places.
But the paint would dry, and from a distance, nobody would notice a thing.
"It looks great, Winnie," Ben said.
"Thanks!" Her green eyes glowed with relief. "I think so too."
Only Mr. Freaky still looked worried as he wrung his hands and blew his noses.
"Hurry up, witches! Leonardo da Creepy will be here in fifteen minutes!"
At seven o'clock Ben went into the main lobby, where Mr. Freaky and Ms. Van Ghoul were waiting nervously.
A few minutes later, a sleek black car pulled up in front of the school.
The famous artist emerged, carrying a large painting wrapped in brown paper.
Ms. Van Ghoul and Mr. Freaky hurried to greet him.
"Welcome back, and please come with us," Ms. Van Ghoul said.
"We're holding the ceremony in the gym.
Everyone is very excited to see your new painting."
"It's one of my best," Mr. da Creepy boasted.
"It might be even better than Moaning Lisa."
"Wow," Ben thought. "It must be a spectacular painting."
"And don't worry about all the commotion," Mr. Freaky went on.
"If you need quiet time, you can use the newspaper office.
It's very quiet in there."
They entered the gym, which was crowded now with students and a news crew.
A camerawoman was shooting the flying painting as a reporter stood in front of it with a microphone.
Ben pointed them out to Winnie.
"Look! Your flying painting is going to be on TV!"
"Thanks, but I bet they're just killing time until Mr. da Creepy unveils his new painting."
Ben shook his head.
"Nope. Everybody loves that painting.
It's the best work of art in the whole school."
Winnie grinned slyly. "Better than Moving Inspiration?"
"Hmm." Ben pretended to think for a minute.
"Yep! Much, much, much better!"
At last the lights dimmed, and the Boneyard Brass Band played a couple of songs.
Then Mr. Freaky and Ms. Van Ghoul each gave a long speech about Art Week and how great everything had turned out.
At last it was Leonardo da Creepy's turn.
Everyone clapped as the artist stepped up to the microphone.
His painting stood on a big easel next to the podium, still wrapped in brown paper.
Winnie gripped Ben's hand. "This is so exciting!"
Ben nodded, jotting down a few notes for his newspaper story. "It sure is."
Leonardo da Creepy cleared his throat.
"Good evening, students and members of the Monster Academy community.
I'm very proud to be here to present a gift to this wonderful, artistic school—it's my latest masterpiece."
Several monsters cheered.
"Let's see it!" cried a skeleton.
"It sounds like you're all very eager to get to it," Mr. da Creepy said with a smile.
"So, with no further ado . . . "
He leaned closer to the painting.
"I'll present my latest work of art."
Ms. Van Ghoul hurried forward, and together they removed the brown paper wrapping.
A gasp rippled through the audience as the covering fell away.
Ben looked at Winnie, and Winnie looked back at Ben.
They both burst out laughing at the same time.
"It's a portrait of Mr. Freaky!" Ben said.
"I'm sorry, but—" Winnie covered her mouth as she laughed even harder.
"That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen!"
"I know!" Ben said. "His noses look huge!"
But onstage Leonardo da Creepy was beaming.
And so was Mr. Freaky.
In fact, Ben had never seen the principal look prouder.
"Mr. Freaky loves it!" Mog said.
"And you know what?" Mog cocked his head and stared at the painting.
"I like it too. I think it captures his personality."
"I guess Ms. Van Ghoul was right," Ben whispered to Winnie.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!"