A Spy Among the Girls (2 page)

Wally hung around the hall as long as he could, talking to his buddies. He had learned several things since starting fourth grade with Caroline: (1) Stay out in the hall as long as possible before taking your seat; (2) Don't speak to Caroline unless you have to; (3) Never lean back in your seat until Miss Applebaum has started the lesson: once class began, Caroline usually behaved herself, but until then, Wally could expect a poke in the back with a ruler or pen—Caroline's way of saying “Good morning.”

He took his seat, leaning as far forward as possible, bracing himself for the sharp edge of a ruler or the prickly point of a pen. But nothing happened. He didn't even hear “Good
morning,
Wally!” There was no sound at all.

Miss Applebaum was talking about the month of February and how Americans celebrated two presidents’ birthdays in that month. She talked about how
students wouldn't remember
every
thing they learned in history, but she hoped they would learn enough so that when a famous person's name was mentioned, each student would remember at least
some
thing that person had done.

Still no poke in the back. Wally began to wonder if Caroline was there. Had he actually seen her when he sat down? Maybe she was absent. Maybe Miss Applebaum had switched seats around and Caroline was sitting somewhere else.

He slowly turned his head and glanced behind him. There was Caroline, all right, smiling the strangest smile he had ever seen, with all her teeth showing and her eyelids half closed. Wally jerked back around again, facing forward. Now, what kind of a smile was
that
?

“Let's hear some other famous names and what you remember about them,” said Miss Applebaum.

“Alexander Graham Bell; the telephone,” said someone.

“Good, Bobby!” said the teacher.

“Orville and Wilbur Wright; the airplane,” said someone else.

The names came faster.

“Laura Ingalls Wilder;
Little House on the Prairie
.”

“Michael Jordan; basketball.”

“Babe Ruth; baseball.”

“Florence Nightingale; nursing.”

“Rosa Parks; desegregation.”

“Excellent!” said Miss Applebaum, looking pleased. “Caroline, did I see your hand?”

“Antony and Cleopatra,” said the voice behind Wally.

There was a pause. “Yes?” said the teacher.

“Love,” said Caroline.

And Wally wasn't sure why, but it felt as though a tray of ice cubes were sliding down his back.

Josh walked home with Beth again that afternoon, and he even stood at the end of the swinging bridge for five minutes talking to her.

Jake watched disgustedly from the porch, and when his twin brother came up the walk at last, Jake, Wally, and Peter followed him inside.

“What?”
Josh asked, looking from one brother to the next as they stared at him accusingly.

“Why did you have to go and do that?” Jake barked.

“Do
what
?” asked Josh, looking uncomfortable.

“Fall in love with Beth Malloy,” said Wally.

“Who said we're in love? We're just friends, that's all,” Josh argued.

“I'll bet!” said Wally. “You walk home with her every chance you get.”

“You talk to her all the time,” said Jake.

The phone rang and Wally answered. It was their mom, calling from the hardware store where she worked, wanting to make sure the boys had got home okay and that an ax murderer wasn't lurking there in the living room.

“Everyone's okay except Josh,” Wally told her. “He's in love.”

“Tell him to take two aspirin and talk to me in the morning,” Mrs. Hatford joked. And then, “There are a few pieces of pizza left in the fridge. You guys can have those, but don't eat anything else or you'll spoil your appetite for dinner.”

Wally hung up and turned again to face Josh, who had already found the pizza and was heating it in the microwave. “Mom said to take two aspirin.”

“What?” said Josh.
“Why?”

“I don't know. That's what she said.”

Seven-year-old Peter was sitting at one end of the table, still wearing his coat, carefully unfolding a small piece of paper that seemed to have been folded a hundred times.

“What's that, Peter?” Jake asked.

Peter shrugged. “I don't know. Just something I found on the playground.” He went on unfolding it, and the piece of notebook paper grew larger and larger. The boys watched as they waited for the microwave to ding.

When the wrinkled paper was smoothed out in front of him, Peter studied it a moment, then read aloud, “ ‘Beth loves Josh.’ ”

Josh instantly colored.

“See?
See
?
” yelled Jake.

“That's not even her notebook paper. It's the wrong size,” Josh said quickly.

“You even know the size of her notebook paper?” Wally croaked.

“She's
not
my girlfriend!” Josh bellowed. “That
paper's probably a joke. You guys don't know what you're talking about. I'm just hanging around Beth because… because…well, actually, I'm spying on them.”

Jake and Wally were surprised. Josh's face was still pink.

“I'm just trying to find out what the girls are up to,” Josh went on. “You should be
thanking
me, that's what.”

“Well, why didn't you tell us before?” asked Jake, looking doubtful.

“Yeah,” said Wally. “So what did you find out?” He was still worried. Those three little words,
Beth loves Josh,
were scary.

“Oh, nothing important yet, but if they're planning any kind of tricks on us, she'll tell me, you can bet.”

“Yeah, but how can you be sure
Beth
isn't in love with
you
?” asked Jake.

“Don't be nuts,” said Josh.

Peter was still studying the wrinkled piece of paper. “What does
X-X-X-X-X, O-O-O-O-O
spell?” he asked.

Three
Love

C
aroline lay in bed the next morning thinking about all the things she needed to experience to become a really great actress. Joy, anger, fear, and sorrow. Happiness and tragedy, she decided.

The problem was that her life had been mostly happy up to this point. The worst thing that had ever happened to her was being sick the night of the community play and not getting to say her lines, but she'd been so sick she could hardly remember it.

Anger? She'd been angry at the Hatford boys, but she
enjoyed
being angry, so that didn't much count.

Fear? Well, she'd been sort of afraid when the Hat-fords had locked her in the cellar of Oldakers’ Bookstore.

What she had
not
experienced was a great tragedy or a great love, and she wondered how to go about falling
in love with Wally Hatford. More to the point, how to make Wally Hatford fall in love with
her.

She would dress with care that morning because, she decided, you can't expect someone to fall in love with you if you don't look your best. She put on black tights, a black skirt, and a red sweater with little black sheep all over it.

When she went down to breakfast, she asked, “Mother, how did you make Dad fall in love with you?”

Mrs. Malloy turned around from the stove, where she was making pancakes, and stared at her youngest daughter. “Sweetheart, you can't
make
anybody love you. It just has to come naturally.”

Coach Malloy looked up from his newspaper and took another sip of coffee. “It was witchcraft,” he said. “Seductive glances, a dulcet voice, shining hair, sparkling eyes…” He and Mrs. Malloy smiled at each other.

“Who are
you
trying to make fall in love with you?” Eddie asked, pouring the raspberry syrup. “If one more person in this family falls in love, we'll all go nuts. Beth's moping around is bad enough. Don't you start, Caroline.”

But Caroline rather liked the thought of it. She imagined a play on Broadway titled
Caroline in Love
. It would be romantic and funny at the same time, but it would end tragically. Caroline liked playing tragedy best of all. She was just about to ask her parents what great tragedy had ever happened to them when Coach Malloy suddenly gave a little whistle.

“What about this!” he said, staring at a newspaper story. “It says the abaguchie has been sighted again.”

“The what?” asked Caroline. And then she remembered the strange animal that had been glimpsed now and then around Buckman. Since no one knew what it was, someone had nicknamed it the abaguchie.

“The creature who stole the Thanksgiving turkey off the Hatfords’ back porch,” Eddie reminded her. “Where did they see it this time, Dad?”

“A man was out gathering firewood along the river last week, it says, and claims he saw just a glimpse of the animal from a distance,” Coach Malloy told them, scanning the page. “It was a tawny color, but certainly not a dog, he claims.”

“Something else to worry about!” said Mrs. Malloy.

Beth came into the kitchen just then and announced that she was reserving the kitchen the day before Valentine's Day because she was going to make a double-chocolate frosted heart for Josh.

“Oh, brother!” said Eddie.

“Sounds wonderful,” said Coach Malloy. “Would you consider making one for your dad, too? I could do with a double-chocolate frosted heart.” He grinned.

Beth smiled. “I'll think about it.”

“Just don't put it out on the porch to cool or the abaguchie might get it,” said Caroline.

“It's back?” asked Beth.

“Just once I'd like it to stick around long enough for somebody to get a really good look at the beast and tell what it is,” Coach Malloy said. “No one's seen more
than its tail and a flash of color. The sheriff says his best guess is a bobcat.”

“Whatever, I want you girls to stay out of the woods for a while,” said their mother.

When Caroline went upstairs to brush her teeth, she imagined Wally Hatford rescuing her from the clutches of the abaguchie. Or even her rescuing Wally. She decided that if Wally was going to fall in love with her, perhaps she ought to give
him
a valentine—a really gorgeous valentine. If he gave her one in return, she decided, she could claim she'd experienced love. If he didn't, at least she would know what rejection felt like, and she could call it a tragedy.

At school, however, Wally was proving more difficult than she had imagined. She hadn't even told him yet that she was going to fall in love with him, but he was leaning about as far forward, away from her, as he could get.

When she tapped him, very gently, on the shoulder before class, he didn't even turn around.

“What?”
he said. Not very pleasantly, either.

“I just wondered if you'd noticed my new sweater,” Caroline said sweetly. “I wore it just for you.”

Wally's back seemed to stiffen and his ears turned pink.

“Why?” was all he said, and he still didn't turn around.

Caroline stood up and leaned way over her desk until her mouth was right by Wally's left ear. “Because I
think I'm falling in love with you, Wally,” she whispered, as softly and sweetly as she knew how.

Wally Hatford rose straight out of his seat and asked permission to use the rest room, and Miss Applebaum looked at Caroline strangely. Caroline just smiled innocently and tried to imagine how an actress would act out the part of someone dying because of a broken heart.

That afternoon the class voted on whether or not to have a Valentine's party. The sixth-graders had already voted no. The fifth grade voted no just to be like the sixth grade, but when the fourth grade realized that there would be no punch and valentine cookies and chocolate hearts without a party, they voted yes.

“There's one rule, however,” Miss Applebaum said. “You don't have to give out any valentines at all if you don't want to, but if you do, you can't leave anyone out. If you want to give valentines just to girls, you have to give one to every girl. If you want to give only to boys, you have to give one to all the boys. This isn't a popularity contest.”

Great. Just great,
thought Caroline. She had already planned to give some crazy valentines to the girls in her class, but she wanted to give a valentine to only one boy, namely Wally. Well, she'd just give her valentine to Wally after the party was over, that was all. There was no rule that said she couldn't hand a boy a valentine out in the hall. But Wally would get the biggest, most beautiful valentine she could find.

After school she walked down to the business district to Oldakers’ Bookstore and looked over the rack of valentines. There were funny cards, serious cards, valentines for mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. But it wasn't until Caroline looked in the sweethearts’ section that she found just the right valentine for Wally, just the kind to get him to fall in love with her.

It was the largest card on the rack, with a big red satin heart in the middle, surrounded by a ruffle of white lace.

To the man of my dreams,
it said on the card. And a verse on the inside read:

My sun, my moon; my stars, my air; The music I hear everywhere. My summer, fall; my winter, spring; Darling, you're my everything.