A Spy Among the Girls (9 page)

“Peter?” said Josh.

Peter stopped with one foot in the air.

Josh got up from the sofa and went out into the hall, Wally and Jake at his heels. Peter put his foot on the stairs and paused again, avoiding Josh's eyes.

“Don't you want your quarter?” Josh asked, digging in his pocket.

“No, you can keep it,” Peter murmured, and took another step.

“Why? You delivered the candy, didn't you?”

Peter didn't answer.

“Peter! What
happened
?” Josh asked. “You didn't drop it in the river, did you?”

Peter shook his head.

“What
did
you do?” Josh asked in alarm.

“I gave it to Beth,” said Peter. “She came along and I just gave it to her.”

Josh looked relieved. “Well, what did she say?”

Peter shrugged. “I don't know.”

Josh reached out and turned Peter around. “What's that on your jacket?” His voice rose. “What's that on your
chin
? Peter, you ate those chocolates, didn't you!”

Peter broke away and dashed upstairs, his brothers after him, and managed to lock his door before Josh could get it open.

Josh put his mouth to the door. “Boy, you'd better not come out of there as long as you live,” he whispered
through the crack. “You'd better not come out of there until I go to college, Peter, because I'm going to pulverize you.”

There was a small squeak from behind the door. “I didn't eat them all!” Peter said.

Josh banged his head against the door.

“How many
did
you eat?” asked Wally.

There was a pause, but the boys could hear Peter counting. “Maybe four,” he said. “I only took a little bite off the others.”

Josh moaned.

“Why?”
asked Wally. “Why would you open the chocolates Josh was sending to Beth?”

“I was hungry!” Peter answered in a pitiful little voice.

“See what a dumb idea that was, Josh? See what trouble a girlfriend is?” said Jake.

Mrs. Hatford came upstairs. “What's going on?” she asked. “Where's Peter?”

“In his room,” said Wally.

“What's he doing in there? Why are you three standing out here?”

“We're trying not to kill him,” said Josh, and went into the bedroom he shared with Jake, shutting the door behind him.

Mrs. Hatford looked at Jake and then at Wally and then at the two closed doors. “No,” she said finally. “This is too nice a day to ruin. I don't think I want to know.” And she went back downstairs.

Peter stayed in his room most of the day, and Josh was too angry to come out of his. Just before dinner, however, when dark had settled in, the doorbell rang, and when Wally answered it, all he found was a box. A low square box with the words
For Josh
on the outside. He took it upstairs, where the twins were playing a computer game.

“What's that?” asked Josh.

“Somebody rang the doorbell, and when I answered, I found this,” Wally said.

“So open it!” said Jake. “Looks like my hunch was right.”

Josh opened the box. Instead of fancy cookies, there was a large, delicious-looking chocolate heart, with
B+J
written in frosting.

“See? See?” said Jake. “She's your girlfriend.”

Josh's face and neck were bright red. He didn't say a word as the boys took turns examining the chocolate heart. They sniffed it and turned it from side to side. To Wally, it smelled simply delicious.

“Okay, so let's see you throw it out. That's what you said you'd do,” Jake told his twin.

Josh hesitated.

“You aren't even going to
taste
it?” cried Wally.

“Go ahead! Taste it or toss it; we're waiting,” said Jake. “If Beth's not your girlfriend, I dare you to throw it out.”

Josh swallowed. “Of course she's not my girlfriend,” he said quickly. “And you can bet it's made out of
something gross.” He took one last look at the chocolate heart, then opened the window and tossed it out over the porch roof and onto the ground below.

After dinner, with Peter sitting as far away from Josh as he could manage, Josh took Wally aside and said, “I have to go over to Beth's and leave her a note. She must think I'm nuts, sending her a box of half-eaten chocolates.”

“Why don't you just call her up?” Wally suggested.

“Mom would hear, and anyway, I'd rather leave a note. You come with me, boost me up on their back-porch roof, and I'll slip it in Beth's window.”

“All right, but all we need is for the Malloys to call the police and report a burglar on the roof, and Mom would
really
freak out.”

“Don't tell Jake, though. You know how he is,” Josh cautioned him.

Jake, however, followed Josh around like a shadow, and when he saw him leaving the house with Wally, he came too.

“Who asked you?” said Josh.

“Hey, whatever you're going to do, I can help,” said Jake.

“Yeah? Well, I just want to tell Beth that Peter ate those chocolates. I don't want her to think
I
did. I've written her a note, and if you guys will boost me up onto the porch roof, I'll just slip the note in her window, see what the girls are up to.”

“Ha! You'd better explain why you sent Peter instead of taking them over yourself,” Jake told him.

“Because Mom doesn't want us to have anything more to do with the Malloys,” Josh said.

“Sure. So you send Peter. Now, that makes sense,” Jake jeered.

Josh shrugged. “All right, so I don't know what to say to a girl when I give her candy. So what? You wouldn't know what to say either. If I'm going to spy on her, I have to pretend to like her.”

They crossed the bridge in the February darkness, the twins in front, Wally walking behind. He didn't know why he was even along, to tell the truth. Jake
would
have to horn in just when Josh and Wally were beginning to do things together, when Josh was beginning to confide in him. Wally could see it all now. No matter how good a friend he was to Josh, Jake and Josh would always be best friends because they were twins, and he'd be stuck with Peter.

They reached the other side of the bridge and started up the hill toward the Malloys’ back door. Wally tried to remember what things had been like when the Ben-sons lived in the house. Weird, but he was having a hard time remembering exactly what things they used to do with the Benson boys that were so much fun. He must have crossed the swinging bridge and come up the hill to the Bensons’ house dozens and dozens of times—hundreds, even—but what did they
do
when they got together? Played baseball, maybe. Played Clue. Flew model planes. Played Kick the Can. It was all fun stuff, but somehow it didn't seem as exciting as it once had.

As the boys reached the top of the hill, they could see a square yellow patch of light from the kitchen window shining on the hard ground. The porch light was off, however.

Josh dug one hand into his pocket for the note he had written to Beth.

“I just want you to boost me up on the porch roof, and I'll slide this note under her window.”

“What if the window won't open?” asked Jake.

“I already thought of that. I'll just tape it to the glass,” said Josh, and showed them a roll of tape in his pocket.

Wally began to feel useless. “So what am I, your cheering section?” he asked. “I don't think you need me at all. I think—”

He didn't finish. He stopped in midsentence and didn't even close his mouth. Because there, just beyond the garage, were two shining eyes, glowing like hot coals in the darkness.

Wally could only gasp and clutch his brothers’ sleeves, but Jake and Josh had seen the eyes too, and neither of them moved a muscle. They didn't even seem to be breathing.

For what seemed like sixty seconds the boys stood frozen, the two hot coals staring back at them.

Then the creature took a step forward.

“Abaguchie!” Wally croaked, and suddenly the three boys were stumbling onto the Malloys’ back porch, pounding on the door, so that when it opened at last, they tumbled inside and fell at the feet of Coach Malloy.

Thirteen
The Confrontation

“B
oys?” said Caroline's father, as though he wasn't sure whether the creatures sprawled at his feet were animal or vegetable.

“We saw it!” Jake gasped.

“The abaguchie!” said Wally.

By now the girls had gathered, wide-eyed, in the kitchen, and Mrs. Malloy came up from the basement where she had been doing the laundry. The whole family was staring at the Hatford boys, who were awkwardly getting to their feet.

“You saw something outside just now?” Coach Malloy quizzed them.

“Standing right beside the garage! It was horrible!”

said Wally.

“Fiery red eyes!” said Josh.

“Pointed ears!” said Jake.

“A long pointed tail. Sort of like a…a devil's tail,” Josh finished uncertainly.

And when Coach Malloy folded his arms across his chest and raised one eyebrow, Wally added, “It was coming right at us.”

Mr. and Mrs. Malloy exchanged glances.

“What were you guys doing over here in the first place?” the girls’ father asked.

“We were just out walking,” Jake insisted.

“Along the river,” said Josh.

“And we weren't doing
any
thing!” said Wally.

Coach Malloy took a flashlight and went out in the backyard to look around. But Mrs. Malloy said, “You were walking along the river way up here in our yard?”

At that Josh blushed, and when that happened, Beth's face grew pink as well. A minute went by in silence. Then another. Finally the girls’ father came back inside.

“Didn't see a thing,” he said. He put one hand on Josh's shoulder and sat down on the edge of the table. “Listen, you guys,” he said. “Let me tell you something. I think it's time you made other friends and started hanging out with other boys. Leave the girls alone.”

“Daddy!” Beth protested, humiliated that he would say such a thing, but Coach Malloy held up one hand to stop her.

“I don't know how it happens,” he went on. “I'm not even sure exactly
what
happens, for that matter. But whenever the seven of you get together, the roof falls
in, so to speak. Surely you boys had other friends before my daughters came to Buckman.”

The girls were aghast. They had never heard their father talk like this. It seemed so
rude
. Caroline couldn't stand it. If her father actually forbade the Hat-ford boys to come over, what in the world would she do for fun? Where would she ever find the same excitement, the romance, the mystery, the
rev
enge
?

But Wally was talking next. “We
did
have best friends, but they moved out when you moved in,” he explained.

“There are other boys in this town, surely!” said Mrs. Malloy. “You don't have to spend all your time over here.”

Caroline burst into tears. “I can't believe what you're
saying
! How can you be so rude? You're telling the Hat-fords they can't cross the river in their very own town?”

“Now, wait a minute—” said the coach.

But Eddie interrupted. “It's still a free country.”

“We don't tell
you
when
your
friends can come over,” cried Beth, real tears in her eyes, while the Hatford boys stared, openmouthed. She turned to her mother. “We don't stop
you
from being friends with that awful woman in the Faculty Wives’ Club who—”

“Now, girls!” said their father.

Suddenly Josh reached out, handed Beth his note, then charged toward the door and out into the night, his brothers at his heels.

Beth stared at the folded piece of paper for a moment, then ran up to her room and slammed her door.

“Well, Jean, it looks like we blew it,” said the coach.

“You'd make a fine dictator!” said Eddie, and followed her sister upstairs.

As her parents stared helplessly after Eddie, Caroline grandly walked over to the staircase, put one foot on the bottom step, and said, “You may win this battle, General, but don't be surprised if you lose the war.” And with her head held high, she too went upstairs.

As soon as she reached Beth's room, Caroline slipped inside and crawled onto the bed beside Beth and Eddie. Beth, her cheeks pink, had opened the note, and she handed it to her sisters. It was Josh's handwriting, all right:

I shouldn't have sent Peter with the chocolates. I didn't know he'd eat them. XXXOOO Josh

Caroline looked at the note, then at Beth, whose eyes were wide with delight. Josh was sending hugs and kisses? This was even more romantic than the box of chocolates. This was
almost
like kissing Beth in person. Beth Malloy had
almost
been kissed.

“I sure don't want any boy sending
me X’
s and
O’
s,” said Eddie disapprovingly.

“Why?” asked Beth. “Don't you ever want to fall in love?”

“Sure,” said Eddie, “but I don't want a boy acting romantic now. I want the boys on the baseball team to look at me and see a
pitcher,
not a girlfriend.”

Caroline could hardly stand it. She was caught up in
romance. Going into her own room, she took out the valentine she had bought for Wally Hatford, the one that said
For My Beloved
on the envelope, and on the inside, where she had signed it
Achingly yours,
she added a row of
X
's and a row of
O
's.