Free Boys Rock! by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page B

said Jake impatiently. “All in favor of putting our baby pictures in the
Hatford Herald
?”
    “Aye!” said Eddie, Beth, and Caroline.
    “All opposed say no,” said Jake.
    “
No
!”shouted Jake and Josh and Wally and Peter, so loudly that the walls shook.
    There was nothing left to do but give the photos back to the boys.
    “Okay,” said Eddie with a sigh. “Anybody want to stick around and help me put the paper together?”
    “Sure, we’ll help,” said Josh.

    When Mr. Malloy walked into the dining room later, he found Eddie at the computer in one corner, Jake and Josh taking papers out of the printer, Peter and Caroline stapling them together, Wally and Beth stacking them in piles, the whole production moving along as if on an assembly line. Anyone would have thought the kids never quarreled. Anyone would have thought that they got along like peas in a pod, grapes in a bunch, sardines in a tin.
    “Now, this is what I like to see,” Mr. Malloy said. “Cooperation.” He smiled around the room. “When’s the pub date?”
    “Tomorrow,” said Eddie. “We told Mr. Oldaker we’d get them to the bookstore tonight.”
    And Caroline asked, “How did the trip go, Dad? Are we going to move back to Ohio or not?”
    “Well, I’m about seventy percent sure that we will, but there are still a number of things that bother me about the contract. I’ll be driving back on Monday to see if we can work things out.”
    Could she stand to leave this place? Caroline wondered as she put the last newspaper in the box. Did she really want to leave this house? The river, with the swinging footbridge? The old elementary school building with the real stage and velvet curtain?
    She looked across the table where Jake and Josh weregrinning at each other, smug and satisfied now that they had gotten their way. She looked at Wally, who had turned one of his pockets inside out and was intently examining the crumbs and lint and paper scraps that had fallen into his hand. At Peter, who was digging one finger up his left nostril. Well, yes and no, she decided. Maybe she wouldn’t mind leaving the Hatfords at all.

Fifteen

Letter from Georgia
    Dear Wally (and Jake and Josh and Peter)
:
    Of
course
we want to come back to Buckman, and we’re not kissing any Georgia peaches, either. It’s just that we signed up for a bunch of stuff here—Steve’s on a diving team—so we can’t leave till summer’s over. Since the Malloys aren’t sure whether they’re moving back to Ohio or not, Mom said we should keep our house here till September. That will give them time to find another place if they stay. Dad will be back August first, though, so he can start training the football team
.
    How does our house look? The girls haven’t changed anything, have they? Boy, they better not do anything to our rooms! We don’t trust those Malloy girls any more than you do
.
    Yeah, I’m sorry we couldn’t be in on that newspaper thing. I think I would have liked doing it even if you didn’t. I wouldn’t want Eddie Malloy bossing me around, though. I hope it turns out to be the best newspaper of all
.
I hope everyone in Buckman reads it! I hope the Malloys go back to Ohio for good, and that when we get back from Georgia, everything will be just like it always was
.
    Bill (and Danny and Steve and Tony and Doug)
    P.S. If you want to be scared out of your socks, your underwear, and the hair on your head, get that old video
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
You won’t sleep for a week after that
.

Sixteen

Uh-oh
    C opies of the
Hatford Herald were
neatly stacked by the window of Oldakers’ Bookstore, all four pages of it, stapled together.
    It was exciting to see the newspaper there on the window shelf between the
Buckman Bugle
and the
New York Times
. Beth took a picture of it, and Mike Oldaker let Peter stand at the door for a while, handing a copy to each customer who left the store. Both Mrs. Malloy and Mrs. Hatford asked for extra copies to send to