Boys Rock! (14 page)

Read Boys Rock! Online

Authors: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

“What kind of settlement?” asked Eddie.

Mr. Rawley said, “We call them the Archaic people. We knew they lived in the northern and eastern panhandles between 7000 and 1000 BC, but your grandfather seemed to think they might also have had a settlement where Buckman is today. In fact, right under our downtown.”

Wally’s eyes opened so wide he thought they might push his eyebrows right off the top of his head. Maybe the bookstore
was
haunted. Maybe it was haunted by people of long ago!

“And because this bookstore is the only building left on the block with a dirt floor in its cellar, Gordon asked if he could do some digging down there in secret to see if he could find anything,” Mike explained.

“And I did!” said Mr. Rawley, smiling. “Bones. Pieces of bones, anyway. A few shards of pottery.” He reached into his pocket and carefully drew out a few fragments.

“Wow!” said Jake.

“But why did you have to keep it secret?” asked Wally.

“Because there are a couple of guys in my department
at the university who got wind of my idea, and my thesis will be a lot more important if I’m the first one to discover these artifacts in Buckman,” Mr. Rawley explained.

“Well, I haven’t told anyone,” said Wally, as his brothers gasped and the girls gaped.

“That’s good,” said Mr. Rawley. “I’m just lucky enough to be friends with Mike here, and I remembered this cellar. He and I used to play down there sometimes when we were kids, back when his dad ran the store, but we had no idea that there might be something historic about it.”

“Wally knew about this all the time?” Jake exclaimed.

Mike grinned. “He knew there was something secret going on in our cellar, but he didn’t know what.”

“So can we break the story in the
Hatford Herald
?” asked Josh excitedly.

“Absolutely,” said Mike. “Gordon has written an article for this Sunday’s
Buckman Bugle
, but since it was your grandfather who’s really responsible for this, we thought you guys should be the first to spill the beans. I tipped off Wally a few weeks ago, and he promised he’d keep it secret.”

Jake and Josh turned to grin at Wally. So did the Malloys.

“Hey, Wally, nice going!” said Jake, punching his arm again.

“All this time he’s been sitting on a scoop!” said Eddie.

Wally was the center of attention, and he actually found himself smiling. He had goose bumps on his arms, but not because he was scared. Maybe he
wouldn’t
want to sit in a tree all summer long with no one else to talk to. Maybe sometimes it
was
sort of nice to do something different, even with people as weird as the Malloys.

Two days later when the
Hatford Herald
came out, the banner headline read
News Flash.… Important Discovery
! Wally, with the help of Jake and Josh, had written the story of the discovery in the cellar of Oldakers’ Bookstore.

All afternoon and evening the phone rang. Friends and neighbors congratulated the boys on a top story, and the
Buckman Bugle
wanted a picture of the four Hatford boys standing in front of the bookstore to use in its Sunday edition, along with Gordon Rawley’s article.

When Sunday came and their picture appeared, Wally had to tell people again and again the story of how Mike Oldaker had told him there were bones down there in the bookstore’s cellar, and Wally hadn’t known whether they were the bones of someone dead or alive. He talked about the scratching and scraping and clawing and thumping, at which point Peter, who never tired of the story, provided the sound effects.

Jake and Josh and Wally and Peter, along with Eddie, Beth, and Caroline, walked downtown to pick up the
copy of the
Hatford Herald
that Mrs. Hatford had taken to a frame shop. They were going to present the framed newspaper to Oldakers’ Bookstore to hang on the wall in appreciation for Mike’s letting them have the biggest scoop of the year.

What a day! They still didn’t know whether the girls were moving back to Ohio or staying in Buckman, but they weren’t thinking about that now. They were thinking about the triple scoops of ice cream they were going to have later at the soda fountain in Larkin’s drugstore—a great way to celebrate the final issue of their newspaper.

“All ready to go!” the man at the frame shop said. He picked up a large rectangular package wrapped in brown paper. “I taped it up good so you wouldn’t get fingerprints on the glass,” he explained. “Now see if you can get it down to the bookstore all in one piece.”

“Thanks!” Jake grinned. “We’ll take good care of it.”

So down the street they went, Wally in the lead.

“What’s this?” said Mike, looking up from the cash register as the group entered the store.

“A token of our appreciation, so that no matter where we go or what we do in life, you will always remember us as—”

“Stuff it, Caroline,” said Eddie.

“It’s just something we’d like you to hang in your store,” said Wally.

“Well, this is a surprise!” said Mike. He took off the wrapper and stared at the last copy of the
Hatford Herald
. “This is great!” he said. “This is really neat!” He
looked around at the walls of his bookstore. “There’s a spot by the front door next to the window. Why don’t we hang it there?”

“Sounds good to us!” said Eddie.

A clerk appeared with a hammer and nail, and after Mike had hung the framed newspaper, the Malloys and the Hatfords stood back to make sure it was straight.

“A little to the left,” said Josh.

“Now a little to the right,” said Caroline.

Finally it seemed balanced perfectly, and they all gathered around to admire it.

“Hey!” Eddie said suddenly. “What’s that?”

“What?” asked Beth.

“There at the bottom!” said Eddie. “Don’t you see it?” She pointed.

At the very bottom of the front page, in a box insert, someone had added these words:

This is the last issue of our paper, the
Hatford Herald
. We have enjoyed bringing you stories of Buckman in the olden days and hope you enjoyed it too. The boys—Peter, Wally, Jake, and Josh Hatford—who wrote the important stuff. The girls—Caroline, Beth, and Eddie Malloy— who wrote the rest.

BOYS ROCK
!

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor writes:

“I don’t remember starting a neighborhood newspaper when I was young, but I did write little books. We didn’t have much money, so I was only allowed to use scrap paper that was blank on one side. I was the author, the illustrator, and the binder, all three. When a book was finished, I would cut an envelope in two, paste half of it in the front of the book, and stick an index card in it like the card in a library book. Then I would sign it out to neighborhood children and charge a penny if it was returned overdue! My mother saved many of these books, and I take some of them with me when I speak at a school. What did I write about? Well, one of them is called ‘The Food Fairies,’ and it’s about all the food in a refrigerator going to war. I even drew a picture of the hot dogs with rifles over their shoulders. It wouldn’t win any prizes, believe me.”

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
is the author of more than 125 books, including the Newbery Award—winning
Shiloh
and the other two books in the Shiloh trilogy,
Shiloh Season
and
Saving Shiloh
. She and her husband live in Bethesda, Maryland. They are the parents of two grown sons and have three grandchildren: Sophia, Tressa, and Garrett.

Read all about the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls
The Boys Start the War

Just when the Hatford brothers are expecting three boys to move into the house across the river where their best friends used to live, the Malloy girls arrive instead. Wally and his brothers decide to make Caroline and her sisters so miserable that they’ll want to go back to Ohio, but they haven’t counted on the ingenuity of the girls. From dead fish to dead bodies, floating cakes to floating heads, the pranks continue—first by the boys, then by the girls—until someone is taken prisoner!

The Girls Get Even

Still smarting from the boys’ latest trick, the girls are determined to get even. Caroline is thrilled to play the part of Goblin Queen in the school play, especially since Wally Hatford has to be her footman. The boys, however, have a creepy plan for Halloween night. They’re certain the girls will walk right into their trap. Little do the boys know what the Malloy sisters have in store.

Boys Against Girls

Abaguchie mania! Caroline Malloy shivers happily when her on-again, off-again enemy Wally Hatford tells her that the remains of a strange animal known as the abaguchie have been spotted in their area. Wally swears Caroline to secrecy and warns her not to search by herself. But Caroline will do anything to find the secret of the bones and finds out the hard way that she should have listened.

The Girls’ Revenge

Christmas is coming, but Caroline Malloy and Wally Hatford aren’t singing carols around the tree. Instead, these sworn enemies must interview each other for the dreaded December class project. Caroline, as usual, has a trick up her sleeve that’s sure to shock Wally. In the meantime, Wally and his brothers find a way to spy on the Malloy girls at home. The girls vow to get revenge on those sneaky Hatfords with a trap the boys won’t soon forget.

A Traitor Among the Boys

The Hatford boys make a New Year’s resolution to treat the Malloy girls like sisters. But who says you can’t play tricks on sisters? The girls will need to stay one step
ahead of the boys and are willing to pay big-time for advance information. Homemade cookies should be all it takes to make a traitor spill the beans. In the meantime, Caroline is delighted with her role in the town play. Don’t ask how Beth, Josh, and Wally get roped into it—just wait until showtime, when Caroline pulls her wildest stunt yet!

A Spy Among the Girls

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and love is in the air for Beth Malloy and Josh Hatford. When they’re spotted holding hands, Josh tells his teasing brothers that he’s simply spying on the girls to see what they’re plotting next. At the same time, Caroline Malloy, the family actress, decides she must know what it’s like to fall in love. Poor Wally Hatford is in for it when she chooses him as the object of her affection!
is haunted. Meanwhile, everyone in town has heard that there’s a hungry cougar on the prowl. When the kids decide to take a break from their tricks and join forces to catch the cougar, guess who gets stuck with the scariest job?

The Girls Take Over

The Hatford boys and the Malloy girls are ready to outdo each other again. Eddie is the first girl ever to try out for the school baseball team. Now she and Jake are vying for the same position, while Caroline and Wally compete to become class spelling champ. As if that’s not enough, the kids decide to race bottles down the rising Buckman River to see whose will travel farthest by the end of the month. Of course, neither team trusts the other, and when the girls go down to the river to capture the boys’ bottles, well & it looks as if those Malloy girls may be in over their heads this time! especially when the Malloy girls stumble across an embarrassing item from the boys’ past. But Wally finally gets his chance to turn the tables on the girls’ scheme and prove who’s really in control. Boys rule!

Girls Rule!

The rivalry between the Malloy sisters and the Hatford boys is heating up! The kids have two weeks to earn money for a fund-raising contest. All those who collect twenty dollars or more for the new children’s wing at the hospital can be in the annual Strawberry Festival Parade or get lots of strawberry treats. The only place Caroline wants to be is on the Strawberry Queen’s float. How will she earn the money in time? Do the Hatfords have moneymaking secrets they’re not telling the girls?

Copyright © 2005 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the
written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

For information address Delacorte Press.

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eISBN: 978-0-307-51484-4

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