Free Laugh Till You Cry by Joan Lowery Nixon

sleep,” she said. Obviously, the school hadn’t contacted her yet.
    Cody flopped into the nearest kitchen chair and leaned on the table, propping up his chin in his hands. “The school got another bomb threat,” he said.
    Mrs. Carter sat next to him and put an arm around his shoulders. “That’s terrible,” she said. “But at least this time no one is blaming you.”
    Cody groaned and said, “Mom, that’s not the way it was. I’ll tell you everything that happened, and I want you to believe me. I didn’t make that telephone call.”
    “I do believe you,” she said, and she listened while Cody poured out the whole story.
    When he finished, he said, “Jake is going to check where the phone call came from, and he’s going to talk to Bobby and his mom and see what he can find out.”
    It suddenly occurred to Cody that his mom hadn’t been surprised when he told her about the phone call. “You already knew about the call,” he said. “Did someone from the school telephone you?”
    Mrs. Carter shook her head. “No. Hayden and his friends told me. I asked why they were out of school early.”
    “Hayden was here?”
    “Yes. He and the other boys visited for a while with Grandma. That’s why she’s sleeping now. She loves to have visitors, but they tire her.”
    Cody stiffened as the jealous ache returned.
She’s
my
grandma!
he wanted to shout, as if he were a little kid. But, of course, she was Hayden’s grandmother, too.
    Mrs. Carter suddenly enveloped Cody in a smothering hug. “Oh, honey, don’t look so unhappy. Grandma is going to get better. I promise. And Aunt Tillie is thinking about selling her house in Arkansas and moving in with Grandma so neither one of them will be alone—maybe by Christmas.”
    Feeling guilty because his mother had the wrong idea about what was disturbing him, Cody pulled away. He tried to sort through what she had said. “Do you mean your aunt Tillie will live with us, too?”
    “We’ll make sure that Tillie is settled in and Grandma is feeling well and both of them are happy with the arrangement. Then we’ll be able to go home. Of course,” Mrs. Carter said, “that means we have to do our best to help Grandma get well. I know that you and Hayden will cooperate.”
    Cody sighed. Why did adults say they knew something when they couldn’t possibly know it? “When the guys were here, what else did they tell you?” he asked.
    “Eddie said something about seeing you follow that boy you mentioned, Bobby, but Hayden pulled him out of the kitchen, so I didn’t hear the rest.”
    Mrs. Carter smiled at Cody. “But you told me the whole story. I didn’t need to hear it from Eddie.”
    “The principal and the coach still think I made the calls, Mom.”
    She patted his shoulder. “We both know you didn’t. Sooner or later the real culprit will turn up and the case will be solved.”
    Cody remembered what Jake had said about the perps who made these calls. They weren’t always found out. It wasn’t that easy.
    His thoughts took a sudden turn. “Mom,” he asked, “what would you do with a two-pound sack of powdered sugar?”
    “A sack that big would last a good long time in our house,” she said. “Powdered sugar is good sprinkled on cinnamon toast and dusted on brownies. And I suppose, with that much on hand, I’d find plenty of cookie recipes that would call for it.”
    “Would you only use it for cooking?”
    “I can’t think of anything else powdered sugar would be used for.” She looked at the clock. “Hadn’t you better get to your homework?”
    “I can’t,” he said. “My books are all in my locker, and we couldn’t get into the building because the bomb squad had to examine it.”
    “Well, whatever you decide to do, be quiet about it,” she told him. “We don’t want to disturb Grandma’s nap.”
    “I’ll do some stuff on my computer,” Cody said. He walked upstairs wondering why he hadn’t thought of a computer search before. Hayden