Free Boys in Control by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page A

told his mother. “That's still there.”
    “Well, I imagine they were just curious, as they said. We get some frenzied shoppers at these sales, let me tell you! But in the future, don't let anyone in unless it's a member of the auxiliary, Wally, and you know who those women are.”
    “Okay,” said Wally.
    At school the next day, Miss Applebaum said, “Class, you have just one more week to turn in your book reports. I know that some of you may have been waitingfor a certain book at the library that hasn't come in yet, and that baseball season is here and a lot of you have been watching the team practice. But there are eleven of you who have not turned in your reports, and you have only seven more days to finish the project.” She turned to Caroline. “Caroline, are you still determined to write a ten-page play, or will you do a book report?”
    “I'm working on the play, Miss Applebaum,” Caroline said. “But I'll have it done in a week and I'll read it to the class.”
    “I'm sure we're all looking forward to that,” the teacher said, and perhaps she didn't hear the low moans that went around the room. A precocious girl who
knows
she is precocious is not always the most popular girl in school. Especially if that girl is a year younger than everyone else, and especially if she is Caroline Lenore Malloy. From
Ohio,
as Caroline would say, meaning that much closer to New York City and Broadway.
    After baseball practice that afternoon, the girls went on ahead and Wally walked behind with his brothers.
    “Life would be great right now if only we had those pictures,” Jake said. “That's the only thing in the world keeping me from being really happy now that I've made the Buckman Badgers.”
    “We
have
to get them back,” said Josh.
    “Maybe we should just go to the sheriff and tell him the Malloys have something that belongs to us,” saidWally. “Maybe Dad, as sheriff's deputy, could go over to the Malloys’ in uniform and demand them back.”
    Josh and Jake stared at him.
    “Are you nuts?” asked Jake. “Do you think for one minute he'd do that?”
    “If it was important enough, he would,” said Wally, beginning to waver.
    “And what would you tell him was so important?” asked Jake. “A picture of you in your bunny pajamas? A picture of me with spaghetti hanging out of my nose? Get real.”
    The day didn't seem quite as sunny, somehow, as it had before.
    Perhaps because they were out of sorts, everything seemed to irritate them. Peter had a spring cold, for one thing. His nose was dripping and he snuffled constantly.
    When they got home and were getting out the cheese and crackers, Josh said, “Peter, you're disgusting! Wipe your nose, will you?”
    Peter started to run his sleeve along under his nose, but Wally yelped, “Not snot on your sleeve! Get a Kleenex or something!”
    Peter looked around the kitchen for a box of tissues and, not finding any, dug around in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a rag. As he wiped his nose with that, he smeared chocolate across his face.
    “Yuck!” Jake yelled. “What's that?”
    Peter looked at the rag in his hand. “Chocolate,” he said.
    “Where did you get it?”
    “When I was having dinner at the Malloys',” Peter said. And because his brothers were still staring, he added, “I went out in the kitchen and took some of their fudge pie, but then I saw Caroline coming, so I grabbed the dishcloth and wiped my mouth and stuffed it in my pocket so she wouldn't see.”
    Jake's face was wrinkled in disgust as he studied the rag in Peter's hand. “Now it's got chocolate
and
snot all over it!” he said. “What a weird dishcloth. It looks like it's got elastic, too!”
    Josh leaned over. “It's got
words
all over it!” He looked even closer. “The words say
Let's play ball
!”
    Wally took the rag from Peter's hands and shook it out. Then he held it up by two fingers. The four boys gasped in unison, for Wally was holding a pair of girls’