Ivy and Bean (7 page)

There was Nancy. She was sitting at the kitchen table. She was alone. She was crying.

Bean got a funny feeling. Nancy was usually so bossy, so nosy, so sure she was right. It was weird to see her cry, all alone.

“Maybe she’s crying because she thinks you’re lost,” whispered Ivy. “That’s kind of nice.”

Bean didn’t answer. She had never thought she could make Nancy cry. Bean felt a lump in her throat. She remembered that Nancy let her snuggle into her bed when she had bad dreams about the spooky man. She remembered that Nancy let her play with her glass animals sometimes, even after she had broken the starfish. She remembered that Nancy had once bought her a fairy coloring book with her own money. Bean looked at the tears rolling down Nancy’s cheeks. Poor Nancy. Bean sniffed. Maybe she didn’t want to put the dancing spell on her sister, after all.

Nancy said something. Bean couldn’t hear it, but she was sure it was something about missing her.

“What?” said Bean’s mother’s voice from another room.

“Everybody has them!” Nancy shouted. “Everybody but me! I’m the only one who has to wait!” She began to cry harder.

What? Bean pressed her face against the window.

Her mother’s voice said, “We’ve talked about this a million times. You can have them when you’re twelve.”

“Even some of stupid Bean’s friends have them!” yelled Nancy.

Suddenly Bean knew what Nancy was crying about. “She’s not sad about me at all! She’s crying about pierced ears!” hissed Bean to Ivy. Bean got mad. Really mad. She was even madder than she had been when Nancy tried to drag her into the house. Bean was so mad she forgot all about being sneaky. She stood up and banged on the window with her fist. “You’re a big turkey!” she yelled.

Nancy stared and then jumped up. “Hey! Hey! Mom! Bean’s back! Get in here, Bean breath!” She flashed out the back door before Bean could even begin to run. In two seconds flat, she had Bean by the arm and was pulling her in the door. “Just wait till Mom gets hold of you,” she was saying. “You’re going to be in so, so, so much trouble—”

“STOP!” yelled Ivy. She stood in front of Nancy, waving the wand at her face. “I command you to free Bean!”

Nancy stopped dragging Bean across the porch and looked at Ivy. “Who are you?” she asked.

Ivy smiled and slitted her eyes. With her white face and red blood drops, she looked very witchy. “It matters not. Free my friend,” she hissed.

Wow, thought Bean. She’s really going for it.

Nancy dropped Bean’s arm and lifted one eyebrow, which was something she had just learned how to do and did all the time. “What’s that supposed to be?” she asked in a snippy, grown-up way, looking at Ivy’s wand.

Ivy shook the wand in Nancy’s face. “This is your doom,” she said in a deep voice.

“It’s a wand,” said Bean, looking back and forth between Ivy and Nancy. She was beginning to worry. Maybe Ivy was going for it too much. With older sisters, you had to be able to say that you never meant what you said, that you were kidding the whole time. Ivy didn’t seem to know that.

Nancy snorted. “It’s a
stick
,” she said. She looked at Ivy’s robe and giggled. “Nice bathrobe, too. You guys are complete and total dweebs.”

Uh-oh. Bean looked at Ivy. Her cheeks were red under the white paint, and her eyes glittered. She looked like she might cry.

Suddenly, Bean was furious. Before, she had been really mad. But now Nancy was making fun of Ivy, and that made Bean furious.

Without even stopping to think about it, Bean reached down into the bucket she was still carrying. She got a big handful of pink worms. For a second, they squiggled in her hand. And then she threw them at Nancy’s face.

Some of them fell onto Nancy’s shirt. Some of them got stuck in her hair. But one landed on her eyebrow and wiggled there, trying to find some dirt.

Nancy was so surprised she froze. She just stood with her mouth hanging open, staring at Bean.

Calmly, Bean reached into the bucket again and got another handful of worms. She aimed better this time. She got one in Nancy’s mouth.

“Phoo!”
The pink worm went flying as Nancy spit it out. There was a tiny moment of quiet, and then she opened her mouth wide and let out a giant scream.

Bean and Ivy looked at each other and smiled. “Whatever happens next,” their eyes said, “that was worth it.” And then they began to run.

Nancy tore after them, still screaming. Bean zigzagged across the lawn because she knew it was harder to catch someone who was zigzagging. Ivy zigzagged, too, right behind Bean.

“Worms! Worms!” Nancy was screaming. She had lost her mind.
“Ahhhhhh!”

Bean could hear her mother calling, “What on earth?! Girls! Girls!” Bean and Ivy ran around the trampoline, with Nancy close behind. They jumped over the hula hoops and the stilt and headed for the trees. Nancy followed, still screaming. She was right behind them. She was so close she could almost grab the soft folds of Ivy’s robe—she was just about to get it.

“Help!” squealed Ivy. Bean gave a yank and pulled the robe away in the nick of time.

Ivy and Bean swerved for the playhouse. Maybe they could get inside it before Nancy tackled them.

“Come on!” Bean yelled. Together they jumped over the worm pit, squeezed into the playhouse, and slammed the door. “Whew!” they said together.

Then it happened.

Nancy was still chasing them. She was running toward the playhouse.

And toward the worm pit.

The big, muddy worm pit.

Bean and Ivy knew it was there.

But Nancy didn’t. And she didn’t see it.
She charged toward the playhouse, and—whoops!—her foot landed on the side of the muddy pit. Ivy and Bean looked out the playhouse window, and they saw Nancy skidding on the slimy edge of the hole. Back and forth she wobbled, trying to keep her balance. She kicked out one foot. She waved her arms wildly. She kicked out her other foot. She waved. She kicked.