Free The Girls' Revenge by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page B

care. They hadn't got in trouble, because their parents believed that the Hatford boys were just playing a trick. It was great to have Beth and Eddie back again, thinking of ways to torment the guys, even though Eddie really wanted to make the softball team and Beth was sweet on Josh. The thing about the Hatford boys, they were a ready audience. Boys fell for so many things you wouldn'tthink they'd believe. It was really incredible. None of her friends back home had been quite so stupid.
    Well, stupid wasn't exactly the right word, because the Hatfords came up with some pretty good tricks themselves. Fun was more like it. And then she put into words something none of them had really said before: “At least the boys are fun.”
    “And cute,” added Beth. “Josh is, anyway. And Peter.”
    Eddie wrinkled her nose. “Spare me,” she said. “I can live without cute. Tell me that Jake or Josh or Wally has anything on his mind besides acting silly, and maybe I'll get interested.”
    Caroline had never heard her sisters talk like this before.
    “Why can't people stay the same, Mother?” she asked later, as they were putting the Christmas bells and holly on the mantel and getting out the holiday candles.
    “And whom would we be talking about, I wonder?” said Mother. “Your sisters?”
    “Yes. Sometimes they act like they always were, and sometimes they just… just act different. Growing weird, is what they are.”
    “Or maybe just growing up?” Mother suggested.
    “Whatever,” said Caroline.
    When the girls left for school the next morning, West Virginia was having its first big snow of the season. The river had frozen over, and snow was beginning to collect on top of the ice. When the Malloy sisters crossed the swinging bridge, they slid their feet along, rather than risk slipping and falling on thefrozen boards. All around them the leafless branches and twigs had taken on a soft furry appearance, and the snow on the roads muted the sound of traffic.
    It would have been a perfect morning, Caroline was thinking, if the Hatford boys had not been waiting for them on the other side of the bridge.
    “Don't even think it,” Eddie said, as she eyed Jake tossing a snowball from one hand to the other.
    “Hey, Whomper, Weirdo, and Crazie!” said Jake. “What was all the excitement over at your place last night? We saw a police car pull up. Somebody get murdered or something?”
    “They had the wrong address,” Beth retorted. “They were looking for your place. We sent them back across the river. What was happening at your house, anyway?”
    Caroline had to admire her sisters. Nobody could think of an answer faster than Beth or Eddie. They'd make good actresses if they wanted to, because they'd be able to cover up when something went wrong. She remembered reading once about a great actress who was onstage during a play with a young, beginning actress, and the phone rang when it wasn't supposed to. As the famous actress lifted the phone and said hello, the young actress was eager to see how she would handle the situation. The great actress handed the phone to her and said, “It's for you.”
    Caroline thought about that story a lot. If she had been the young actress, what would she have said? What would she have done? All she could think of to say was, “Wrong number.”
    “Nothing happened,” said Wally.
    “It did so!” said Peter. “Wally and Jake and Josh saw Caroline hit Beth over the head with the hammer!”
    “Shut up, Peter!” muttered Wally.
    Eddie and Beth burst into laughter as they turned and started up the street toward school. “Boy, you guys sure have big imaginations!” she said.
    Caroline was trotting happily between her sisters when suddenly, Pow! Pow! Pow!
    One snowball hit Beth on the shoulder, another hit Caroline on the leg, and a third landed squarely on the back of Eddie's neck.
    Instantly Eddie's book bag was on the ground and her hands were a blur as she packed a snowball. Beth was