Pickle (21 page)

Rick told us about a time in school when he put a whoopee cushion on his teacher's chair. That's about a zero for originality, but he seemed pretty pleased with himself so we acted like it was brilliant. He let us off the detention hook a week early.

The end. Mostly.

 

50 and a half

You Can Call It an Epilogue if You Want

The League of Pickle Makers still meets on Thursdays. We use the website a lot and hang out together at school. It's funny, because when we started at Fountain Point, I wouldn't have guessed I'd be friends with any of them. Frank came over to play video games last week, and he brought a couple of seventh graders. They want to join the league. We'll see. Oliver is teaching Sienna how to play guitar, and he talked Bean into joining the drama club and trying out for the next play. We stopped pickling after the
escabeche
, but then Principal Lebonsky said we couldn't collect club funding unless we were “actively pursuing the mastery of preservation.” So we made pickled eggs again. They weren't terrible.

We don't really need the money that much. I get paid now when I help in the restaurant, and Sienna's dad sends checks regularly that she likes to use, um, creatively. We made her swear a solemn vow never to go rogue again. Or buy bugs. At least without asking us first. Frank started a business setting up websites for some of the other clubs so that they could have secret sections, too. He donates some of the money from that when we need supplies. Frank and Bean are working on a project for a contest to win a trip to the International Spy Museum. They won't tell me what it is, but they do seem to know a lot of details about conversations they weren't around for.

After detention ended I had a talk with my mom and dad. They're going to try and ask me to work in the restaurant instead of telling me to, unless they're in a real pinch or something. I have so much free time, I'm thinking about starting another club. Just kidding. Sort of.

Oh yeah, I found out something interesting. Leo Saylor quit junior baseball AND young golfers without telling his dad. He would just go to the library after school until his dad came to pick him up. Sometimes he napped in the big cozy chair in the back, but he read a lot, too. Leo said he never had any time to read before, but since he quit going to baseball and golfing he's read all of the Harry Potter books. Twice.

His dad finally busted him on Wednesday, but the
really
interesting part is that Hector knew about it all along! Leo told him the first day he skipped, and Hector never told anybody. There is definitely hope for that dude.

Frank did a lot of work on the Pickles Forever website, and it's huge. There's a message board where we can answer questions and give prank advice. You know, just in case you need any help.

Word spread pretty quickly that the five of us were behind everything. People said that they couldn't believe that a group of sixth graders did it all. I saw Oliver autographing somebody's missing sense of humor flyer. It's not just Fountain Point anymore. We get messages from all over. A ninth grader in Missouri had a ghost prank where he started a rumor about a ghost haunting a specific locker that nobody was using. He misted the inside with spray bottles of milk so that there would be a “smell of evil” when it started to go bad.

We've even gone international! A kid in Brisbane, Australia, posted last week to thank us for the plastic-wrapped sink instructions, and he shared another idea for fake ghosts. He stacked up books in the library and left some gobs of goop on the table. Just like in that old movie,
Ghostbusters
. He made the goop out of cornstarch and glue. We didn't do it, but we put it on the website and somebody else at our school did it last week. You wouldn't believe how freaked out people can get from some books on the floor. It's really something. Other kids at our school are doing pranks, and I have no idea who it is. It's just fun to sit back and watch. Principal Lebonsky calls us in for questioning sometimes, but we usually have alibis for whatever happened. It's driving her crazy. She's tried talking to my parents about “implementing a successful character-building program” with her goofy cards, but they're not buying it.

A seventh grader from Wisconsin posted about stuffing lockers full of Ping-Pong balls, and it's been happening all over Fountain Point. A ninth grader in Albuquerque shared instructions to get shaving foam into somebody's room with an envelope through a crack in the door. I came home from school on Tuesday to find a mountain of foam where my desk used to be. A couple of cans of “Forest Glen Scented” shaving cream and a yellow envelope were taped to the window on the fire escape that I keep cracked open. I'm not sure what a forest glen smells like, but my room smelled like one of those pine tree air fresheners my grandpa hangs in his car. My mom said the smell was an improvement. Hector's room is right below mine with a window on the fire escape, so I'm pretty sure I know who was behind that little trick.

My mom did not even look grateful when I told her that I would clean it up.

So, now you know the whole story. I've probably said too much, but this is exactly how it all went down. Well, I left out one little thing about what happened to Hector when someone put some popping caps under the toilet seats in the boys' bathroom.

That's what friends are for.

 

Acknowledgments

Making a book takes enough people to fill a small set of bleachers. I have immeasurable gratitude for everyone who has ever supported me as a writer and/or a troublemaker. I remember each of the teachers and librarians who took the time to imprint a love of books, support my writing aspirations, and/or look beyond any trouble I may have caused to nurture the spark of productive-member-of-society potential. I am in your debt.

My family has always been reasonably patient with my shenanigans and supportive of my creative endeavors, and I love them for it.

I appreciate anyone who read drafts of
Pickle
and gave their constructive feedback. I received guidance and support from Peggy King Anderson, Dana Arnim, Martha Brockenbrough, Jordan Brown, Karen Chalupnik, Sara Easterly, Lisa Graff, Grace Lin, Joni Sensel, Jolie Stekly, and Laurie Thompson. And especially Jaime Temairik and Sam Baker. Without their influence,
Pickle
would be profoundly different. And it would stink.

Thank you to the SCBWI tribe for the wisdom, camaraderie, and resources imparted to newbies and pros alike.

Huge hugs and gratitude to my marvelous agent, Sara Crowe. I am so honored to be part of the Crowe's Nest.

Thanks to Tim Probert for making the P.T.A. come to life. And to the whole team at Macmillan and Roaring Brook, especially my editor, Deirdre Langeland—you guys are tops. Thank you for your vision and guidance. And, you know, for making this an actual book.

I am grateful for a dream come true.

 

Text copyright © 2012 by Kim Baker

Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Tim Probert

Published by Roaring Brook Press

Roaring Brook Press is a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

mackids.com

All rights reserved

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Baker, Kim.

PICKLE : the (formerly) anonymous prank club of Fountain Point Middle School / Kim Baker. — 1st ed.

     p. cm.

Summary: Using a bogus name, the League of Pickle makers, sixth-grader Ben and three recruits start a prank-pulling club and receive funding from their middle school's PTA.

ISBN 978-1-59643-765-4 (hardcover)

[1.  Practical jokes—Fiction.   2.  Clubs—Fiction.   3.  Middle schools—Fiction.   4.  Schools—Fiction.]   I.  Title.

PZ7.B174297Pi 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2011045402

eISBN 9781596438583

First hardcover edition, 2012

eBook edition, September 2012