Pee Wees on First

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“I
t’s not
your
fault you’re not handicapped,” said Jody George kindly. He looked up at Molly Duff from his wheelchair.

How did Jody know what she was thinking? thought Molly. Was he like the fortune-teller she had seen on TV? He seemed to know that she envied his shiny wheelchair with a motor and brakes.

Molly didn’t actually want to be handicapped, but she did like to ride in Jody’s wheelchair. And he got so much attention! Everyone at the Pee Wee Scout meetings
on Tuesdays made a big fuss over him, running and getting him cupcakes and soda pop and pencils. He could do all that himself, but everyone liked to help him. And Jody had great parties at his house. He had his own CD player, and he took lots of trips with his family.

“Let me take a turn pushing him now,” demanded Roger White. He shoved Molly out of the way and grabbed the wheelchair. Mrs. Peters, their Scout leader, frowned at him. “Sit down, Roger,” she said.

Maybe it wasn’t the wheelchair Molly wanted. Maybe it was Jody himself Molly envied. He was kind and generous and funny. And he was rich and got to do things the other Pee Wees didn’t do.

Whatever it was, Molly felt guilty. She had a nice home and good parents who loved her. She had her own little room with a new white canopied bed and a white rocking chair with a ruffle on the seat. It was no wheelchair, but it was more suitable for her bedroom, her mother said.

Mrs. Peters rapped a spoon on the table. “Attention!” she called. “Today we have some news.”

All of the Pee Wees stopped talking.

Roger stopped throwing plastic forks at Tim Noon.

They all sat down in their chairs and looked at Mrs. Peters.

When Mrs. Peters said “news” it could mean a party. Or a field trip. Or best of all, a new badge. Once, while they tried to earn a badge, they got caught in a blizzard and were rescued just in time, before they had to eat each other.

And once Mrs. Peters had told them she was going to have a baby! That was baby Nick, who sat in his high chair at the table with them right now.

But Mrs. Peters didn’t look like she was going to have a baby.

And it was spring, there couldn’t be any blizzard.

“This is sort of two-part news,” she went on.

The Pee Wees cheered. Two-part news was even better than one-part news. Unless, of course, it was one of those “good news, bad news” things.

Rachel Meyers waved her hand. “Mrs. Peters,” she called. “Is it a contest? My cousin’s troop in Wisconsin entered a contest and won a refrigerator.”

When everyone looked at her, puzzled, she added, “It makes these cute little ice cubes and everything.”

“Who wants a refrigerator?” scoffed Roger. “We’ve got a refrigerator.” He pointed upstairs to Mrs. Peter’s kitchen.

“No, Rachel,” said Mrs. Peters patiently. “The news isn’t a contest.”

“I’ll bet it’s the Fourth of July parade,” said Patty Baker. She had a twin brother who was a Pee Wee too. His name was Kenny.

“We had that last year,” said Sonny Stone. “I remember those horses.”

Sonny’s name used to be Betz until his mother married the fire chief, Larry Stone. Now Sonny had a real dad, and two babies, twins, a boy and a girl, who came on a plane from far away. Molly thought a father would help Sonny grow up, but it hadn’t. He was still a mama’s boy. He was the only one with training wheels still on his bike. Seven was too old for training wheels, Molly thought. The kids all laughed at him.

Mrs. Peters laughed. “No, it’s not a parade,” she said. “Today we’ll talk about the first part of the surprise, and that’s about the next badge we are going to earn.”

“Yea!” shouted the Pee Wees. Roger stomped on the floor and whistled between his teeth.

They couldn’t have too many badges, thought Molly. She already had lots of them. Badges for skiing and skating and baby-tending and horseback riding. Badges for acting and walking pets and camping. Even a badge for catching a fish and spotting a groundhog.

“Pretty soon our badges will cover our whole shirt!” said Mary Beth Kelly. She was Molly’s best friend.

“They’ll go up our sleeves!” said Tracy Barnes.

“And down our legs!” shouted Lisa Ronning.

“They’ll be on top of our head,” said Tim Noon.

“How could they be on our head, Noon?” said Kevin Moe. “That’s dumb.”

“Is not,” said Tim.

“Is too,” said Kevin Moe.

Mrs. Peters held up her hand.

“Mrs. Peters, what
do
we do when we run out of room to sew our badges?” asked Ashley Baker, frowning. Ashley was Patty and Kenny’s cousin from California. She belonged to the Saddle Scouts there. But when she visited her cousins, she was a temporary Pee Wee Scout.

“We’ll worry about that when we come to it,” said their leader. “Right now we just want to think about how we’ll earn this new badge. The badge is for something that happens in the spring. Can you guess what that is?”

The Pee Wees guessed.

“School is out in spring,” said Lisa.

“We don’t get a badge for that,” Tracy said, laughing.

“We should,” grumbled Roger. “It’s the best thing that happens all year.”

“In spring leaves come out on the trees,” said Tim.

“We don’t get a badge for that either,” scoffed Mary Beth.

“A tree should get a badge for that!” Kevin laughed.

Molly thought about spring things. Gardens. Raking. Picnics. Ants.

“Is it an insect badge?” she asked. “Lots of bugs come out in spring.”

“Yuck,” said Rachel. “I definitely don’t want a bug badge.”

The boys started making creepy-crawler motions across the floor and the table. They tried to make bug noises.

“Spring does mean bugs,” laughed Mrs. Peters. “But it is not a bug badge we’re after. I’ll give you a clue. It’s a game. Where people eat hot dogs. And it starts with a
B
.”

“Bingo!” shouted Sonny.

Everyone laughed and Sonny looked hurt. “Bingo is a game that starts with a
B
and you eat hot dogs when you play. I’d like to get a Bingo badge.”

“This game is played outdoors,” said Mrs. Peters. “In a park. And sometimes you watch it on TV.”

“It’s baseball,” said Jody. “I’ll bet anything it is.”

“Jody is right,” said Mrs. Peters. “The Pee Wees are going to play ball! It’s going to be ‘batter up!’ for Troop 23!”

“I
hate sports,” said Rachel. “My dad says there is too much interest in sports in this country.”

“I don’t know how to play baseball,” whined Sonny.

“Everybody knows how to play baseball, dummy,” said Roger. “It’s one of those things you know when you’re born.”

“Sports are dangerous,” said Ashley. “Once our neighbor got hit on the head with a baseball. He had to have stitches and everything.”

A few more of the Pee Wees were complaining, but most of them were cheering.

“You won’t get hurt at our ball game,” said Mrs. Peters. “We will use a softer ball. Pee Wee baseball will be easier than real baseball. And it will be good exercise. It is something we can do outside and we can stretch our muscles and learn a skill at the same time. To earn the badge, you just have to have fun. You’ll play in the game, and you’ll hit the ball.”

Mrs. Peters made it sound simple, thought Molly. Play a game, have fun, hit a ball. But if you couldn’t hit a ball, it wouldn’t be much fun!

“I play baseball all the time,” said Roger. “I’m on a team with my cousins.”

Now Molly began to worry. It sounded like most of the other Scouts knew more about baseball than she did. Roger sure did. And Kevin and Jody were smart at everything. But she was sure her best
friend, Mary Beth, didn’t know any more than she did.