A Traitor Among the Boys (3 page)

“Whoop-de-doo! Now, that ought to be a real sellout!” said Jake.

“They're looking for two boys,” Caroline added. “Why don't some of you try out for the parts?”

“I'd rather have my fingernails pulled out one by one,” said Jake.

Beth studied him. “That's funny. Eddie said she'd rather have her teeth pulled out than get up on a stage.”

“I don't want my teeth
or
my fingernails pulled out!” Peter declared warily.

The sky was gray, the air was cold, and the snow that was left: on the ground was old and dirty. It seemed to Wally as though the new year could at least bring in some new snow. Why should they have to keep going to the same old school in the same old town in the same old snow that had been around for days?

He didn't know much about how Buckman got started, but he didn't think the two hundredth anniversary
could be all that great a celebration. “Wait till June when we have the strawberry festival,” he said. “Now,
that's
worth seeing. There's a strawberry parade, a strawberry float, strawberry ice cream, strawberry pie….”

“Is there a strawberry princess?” Caroline wanted to know. “If there is, I'm going to try out for it.”

“Ha!” said Wally, and he would have said more, but he remembered he was supposed to be nice to the girls. It was just that Caroline really bugged him sometimes. Whenever there was a part to be played center stage, Caroline wanted to be there, in the spotlight if possible.

The old brick building loomed up ahead, and he tried to prepare himself for Miss Applebaum, who always had a pile of work waiting.

The girls went on ahead; Peter followed, then Josh, then Wally, then—

Wally turned around.

Jake was a few feet behind him, packing a huge ball of dirty snow in his two gloved hands.

And just as Eddie put her feet on the top step and reached out to open the door, Jake drew his arm back and took aim.

“Jake!” Wally warned him.

“Treat them like sisters, remember?” Jake said, and let the snowball fly.

At that exact moment Eddie opened the door and stepped back to let Peter go through. The snowball went flying right through the doorway and into the face of the principal.

Four
Big, Big Mistake

C
aroline, Beth, and Eddie could only stare.

The big fat snowball positively exploded in Mr. Kelly's face. Clumps of snow skittered down his shirt-front, then onto his shoes.

The principal leaned forward, removed his glasses and shook them, then pulled a handkerchief from his pants pocket and wiped his face.

Out on the sidewalk, the Hatford boys froze like toy soldiers facing the enemy. When Mr. Kelly put his glasses on again, his eyes fell at once on Eddie, who was still holding the door open.

“I'm sorry,” said Eddie. “I missed.”

Caroline gasped in astonishment.

“You
missedi”
the principal repeated.

“Yes. That snowball was thrown to me and I didn't catch it.”

Beth and Caroline looked at each other. Out on the
sidewalk, the Hatford boys' mouths fell open one by one, first Jake's, then his brothers'.
Why
was she covering for Jake?

“You know the rules about snowballs on the playground!” Mr. Kelly thundered.

“Yes, sir, but we were only practicing for the baseball team. We weren't having a snowball fight.”

Caroline blinked.

Mr. Kelly stepped to the door and looked out at the Hatford brothers and the other children who were waiting to come in. Then he looked again at Eddie.

“You
were practicing for the baseball team?”

“Yes, sir. And usually I'm very,
very
good. If
I'd
been the pitcher instead of the catcher, this wouldn't have happened.” She gave him her most winsome smile.

But Mr. Kelly still had a big red mark on his forehead. As much as Eddie wanted to make the team, come April, Caroline could not believe she had taken the blame for a snowball meant for her.

“Who were you playing catch with?” Mr. Kelly asked.

“I threw it,” said Jake, stepping forward suddenly.

“You will not go down to the gym for morning recess,” the principal said. “You will stay in your classroom, and Eddie will write /
will not play catch with snowbalL
one hundred times on the blackboard while Jake watches. Jake will wipe it off. Then you will both stay in your classroom for afternoon recess. Jake will write /
will not play catch with snowballs
one hundred times while Eddie watches. Then Eddie will wipe it
off. And if I see you throwing snowballs again on the playground, you will both be banned from the team. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” said Jake.

“Yes,” said Eddie, and Caroline didn't think she had ever seen her sister look happier.

Mr. Kelly went on down the hall. The Hatford boys scattered as soon as they got inside, but Caroline and Beth crowded around Eddie as she stopped by the drinking fountain.

“Are you out of your mind?” asked Beth. “Why did you take half the blame for Jake? He wasn't being nice to us at all! You
know
he tried to hit you with that snowball. So much for his New Year's resolu-
tion.

But Eddie's eyes were shining. “Didn't you hear what the principal said? If I throw any more snowballs on school property I'm banned from the team. That means if I
don't
throw any snowballs, I'm
not
banned. I
can
try out! He practically said so.”

So that was it, Caroline realized. Eddie's mind was as quick as her pitching arm. She herself would never have been able to think up something so fast.

Eddie grabbed her sisters’ arms. “But I'm not through with Jake yet! Wait for me after school at that big oak tree just off the playground. We want to be waiting when the boys go by.”

Caroline had two wonderfully exciting things to think about all day—the tryouts for the Buckman Community Players that evening, and what Eddie was going to do to Jake that day after school.

Wally, however, who sat in front of Caroline in
Miss Applebaum's class, seemed completely baffled by what Eddie had done. As the other kids were hanging up their coats, he turned around in his seat and asked, “What got into Eddie?”

Caroline shrugged and looked as innocent as she could manage. “I don't know! I guess she was just feeling … well, a little sisterly today, that's all.”

When the fourth-graders went out for recess that morning, Caroline went by the sixth-grade classroom, and there was Eddie writing /
will not play catch with snowbalh
one hundred times on the blackboard, while Jake, looking as puzzled as Caroline had ever seen him, watched.

When the fourth-graders went out for recess that afternoon, Caroline went by the sixth-grade classroom again, and there was Jake writing /
will not play catch with snowbalh
with Eddie watching, and Eddie still had a sly little smile on her face.

Caroline had her books all ready at three o'clock, so as soon as the bell rang, she grabbed her jacket and was the first one out the door.

She was halfway across the playground before anyone else even came out of the building, and was soon joined at the oak tree by Beth and Eddie.

“What's up?” asked Beth.

“You mean, what's
down,’
said Eddie, her eyes beginning to glower. “Or, what's
going
to be down.
Jake's
going to be down, that's what.” She led her sisters over to a hedge just beyond the school property. “We're going to wait here,” she said, “and when the Hatfords come by, we're going to leap on Jake— all three of us. Before Wally and Josh can even think
of stopping us, we are going to stuff Jake so full of snow he'll think he's a snowman. Beth, you push snow down his collar; Caroline, you rub snow in his face; and I'm going to cram a snowball right into his mouth. As soon as you're done, run like crazy and I'll meet you at home.”

When Eddie got even, she didn't fool around.

Beth looked at her older sister uncertainly. “Isn't this just going to start the war all over again?”

“All over again?” asked Eddie. “It never stopped! If the war was over, how come Jake was trying to plaster me against the school door with a giant snowball?”

“Yeah, but if we try to get even, then
they'll
try to get even, and it will just go on and on.”

“Trust me,” said Eddie.

So the girls hid behind the hedge, backpacks firmly secured so they could make a quick getaway. When other kids passed, they pretended they were just standing there having a casual conversation, but when they heard the Hatford boys coming down the sidewalk, they flattened themselves against the bushes and prepared to jump.

“… I
told
you they were nice!” Peter was saying.

“I can't understand it,” came Josh's voice. “If Eddie hadn't taken part of the blame, Jake, you would have been toast!”

“I don't know….” Wally's voice now. “I have a feeling they're up to something. Eddie wouldn't do something like that without—”

The boys passed the hedge and the girls leaped.

Eddie tackled Jake's legs.

Beth sat on him.

Caroline grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed it in his face.

It was hard to tell what was happening because the boys were yelling, feet were kicking, arms were flying, and the next thing Caroline knew, Beth and Eddie were running in two different directions. Caroline herself headed for the backyard of the nearest house as fast as her legs would carry her.

Around a tree, under a clothesline, through a gate, over a fence, but the boys were still gaining.

Why were they all after
hen
It had been Eddie's idea, after all. Yet here came the Hatfords, howling like hyenas, and before she knew it she was in the Hatfords’ own backyard, backed into a corner next to the house.

Five
Trapped

C
aroline looked more frightened than Wally had ever seen her. She looked like a cat trapped by a pack of wild dogs. She looked, in fact, as if she were about to die. To cry, anyway.

It was Peter, though, who was crying.

“We're supposed to be friendly/’ he wept, afraid of what they might do to Caroline. “We're supposed to be
nice”

“Was it friendly of them to stuff snow down my neck?” Jake bellowed.

“But that was probably Eddie's idea, not Caroline's,” Josh reminded him.

Jake was confused. Why
did
Eddie take part of the blame for smacking the principal in the kisser with a snowball? And if she was willing to do that, why did she turn on him and practically suffocate him with snow? There was absolutely no understanding girls.

“I think you're crazy, all three of you!” he told Caroline. “I think the Malloys are all a little bit nuts.”

“Okay/’ said Caroline meekly. “Can I go home now?

“Yeah, Jake, let her go,” Wally said, eager to get inside and have a snack. “You know—treat her like a sister.”

“Oh, no, she's not going to get off that easy,” said Jake. “Bring her in the house.”

So Caroline, with Josh on one side of her and Wally on the other, was escorted up the back steps. She waited while Jake opened the door with the house key.

“Sit down on a chair,” Jake commanded, throwing his backpack on the table.

Caroline sat.

“Whose idea was it to ambush us?” asked Jake.

“Whose idea was it to throw that snowball at Eddie?” Caroline retorted.

“Mine, but I didn't hit her. If I'd hit her, I could see why she'd want to fight, but I missed her!” Jake said.

Caroline shrugged. “I guess you'll have to ask Eddie,” she said. “Can I go now?”

“No, you can't go! Eddie has to learn she can't go around tackling people!” Jake yelled.

The phone began to ring.

“Mom!” said Wally.

Their mother always called from the hardware store to see if everything was all right if the boys didn't call her the minute they got in the door. She had to be sure a murderer hadn't followed them home.