Rebecca's Rashness (9 page)

"That's okay," Will said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Bravery isn't never being scared. Bravery is doing the thing that needs to be done even when you are scared. And you came through for Rebecca when you needed to, right?"

Petal straightened her spine and suddenly looked very proud of herself, taller even.

Do you see why we loved Will Simms so much?

"And how about you, Rebecca?" Will asked. "We're nearly halfway through July. Have you received your power yet?"

At the mention of Rebecca's power, Petal grew smaller again. We could tell what she was thinking. Before the party we'd discussed that with the guests we had coming, it would be unwise of Rebecca to show off her freakish strength. But who ever knew with Rebecca? She could forget at any moment and begin racing Petal through dry and water obstacles again.

"I think I'll go ride the little pink car for a bit," Petal piped up in a nervously cheerful voice. "Bye!"

And off went Petal to get in her car.

"About my power," Rebecca said. "I think the answer is yes and no."

"How is that possible?" Will asked.

But before anyone could explain, the next guest arrived:

Frank Freud.

It was July and the midday temperature was well over ninety degrees. Why was he wearing a suit and tie? And was that sweat pouring off his egghead?

"I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing here," he said nervously.

"You're here because I invited you," Rebecca said. "I'm keeping my friends close and my enemies closer." Then she linked her arm through his. "How's this? Are you feeling closer now?"

"Very," he said, his head sweating even more. "In fact, I think the word I'm looking for is
too.
"

"Too closer?" Marcia said, puzzled. "But that's not grammatically correct."

"And you call yourself a former educator," Georgia scoffed.

"Look," Zinnia said, pointing to where all the cats were gathered, having their own Bastille Day celebration. "As soon as Frank Freud showed up, all their hairs stood on end, even Old Felix's. I wonder what it means. Perhaps I should ask them?"

"Here," Rebecca said, leading Frank Freud to the wall-walkers. "Your feet are surprisingly small for a grown man's. I think these should fit you."

"But what am I supposed to do with them?" he asked, taking off his shoes and slipping his feet into the wall-walkers.

"They're wall-walkers," Rebecca said, as though the answer should be obvious. "You walk up and down walls with them. You walk across the ceiling if a ceiling is available."

"Oh, I see," he said, gazing up at the side of our big stone house, practically a mansion. "Very well then..."

He began walking up the wall as Petal drove by with a zippy beep of her horn.

"Those wall-walkers look like fun," Mandy said wistfully. "Could I try that next?"

"I'm not sure there'll be a next," Rebecca said. "It's probably best we just keep him busy. Besides, this isn't a carnival with rides."

"I know," Jackie offered, "Mandy could use the bouncy boots!"

"What are those?" Mandy asked, looking skeptical.

Rather than answering, Durinda got the boots and helped Mandy into them.

"Now what do I do?" Mandy asked.

"Why, you bounce," Annie said.

"What else would a person do with bouncy boots?" Georgia added.

Mandy jumped just the tiniest bit off the ground, setting off a series of small bounces.

"You can bounce harder than that," Zinnia encouraged her. "The nice thing about bouncing outdoors is that you never have to worry about hitting your head on the ceiling."

"Just be sure to stay away from tree branches," Marcia warned as Mandy began bouncing ever higher and higher.

"Oh my!" Mandy shouted down to us as her bouncing soared her well above the roof of our house. "This is shockingly enjoyable!"

"I see this party's going pretty much as one would expect a party thrown by the Eights to go."

Wait a second? Who just said that?

We turned to see the McG and the Mr. McG standing there.

They were wearing shorts and T-shirts, and, as they had been when they were spotted thirteen days earlier, they were once again holding hands!

"What are you two," Georgia said with disgust, "on a second honeymoon?"

"Pretty much," the Mr. McG said. "Ever since she became Principal McG. I love a powerful woman who bears my name."

"Blech," Georgia said, which was not exactly good party-hosting manners but we did understand.

"Can I offer you some refreshments?" Durinda offered, no doubt to make up for Georgia's rudeness. Also because she was Durinda.

"What do you have?" the McG asked.

Oops! We'd been so excited to see our friends from school, we'd forgotten to bring out the food and drinks!

Quickly, we all did our best to rectify that problem. Soon, the long party table that Pete had brought out earlier in the day and that Mrs. Pete had put a red-white-and-blue paper tablecloth over was covered with a punch bowl, cups, and serving dishes with various salads: fruit, potato, three-bean, egg. Not all mixed together, of course.

It did seem like an awful lot of salads and not enough other stuff, but we'd heard this was the type of food people served at outdoor parties in the summer. We'd read all about it in a magazine on entertaining.

"We have this lovely mango punch," Durinda offered.

"Did you save me a glass of pulp?" Rebecca asked, cracking her knuckles and scratching her belly.

Oh, Rebecca.

But before Durinda could serve any punch, a cab pulled up. Who could possibly be arriving in a cab?

A moment later, our next-door neighbor the Wicket popped out, and we smelled the increasing aroma of fruitcake as the human toadstool cautiously approached us.

Who takes a cab just to go next door?

Oh, right. We'd forgotten. We were talking about the Wicket.

"Are your parents home for this party?" the Wicket said without greeting. "I would so love to see your dear mother again. Perhaps she's inside?"

The Wicket made for the front door.

"No," Annie said, racing to block the front door with her body.

Six of us, all except Petal, raced to Annie's side. There was no way we'd let the Wicket in our house unsupervised. Who knew what she might do?

"The party's out here," Durinda said.

"En
tire
ly out here," Georgia said.

"So if you have to use the bathroom—" Jackie started.

"—we're afraid you'll have to go use your own," Marcia finished.

"You could take a cab there," Rebecca said.

"Would you like us to call one for you now?" Zinnia offered.

Petal would have said something, but she was still busily driving her car.
Beep-beep!

"Fine," the Wicket said, looking defeated. "I'll stay out here."

She went over to the food table, picked up a blue fork, and began eating her own fruitcake.

"Why don't you start the barbecue, dear?" Mrs. Pete suggested to Pete. "That man who's climbing the walls looks like he might be getting hungry, and that bouncing girl does too."

"Sounds like a plan," Pete said gamely. "What am I barbecuing again?"

"Fish dogs," Mrs. Pete said. "It was Zinnia's idea."

"Ah, right," Pete said, still surprisingly gamely.

He tried to light the grill, but it wouldn't light.

"That's funny," he said. "I'm sure I'm doing it right. The instructions for the matches are right on the bottom. It says clearly 'Close cover and strike match,' and that's what I'm doing here."

"They look like they might be wet," Marcia pointed out.

"That's my fault," Petal said, pulling her car to a stop. "When I saw them on the counter I got scared. Children aren't supposed to play with matches, so I doused them in water. Carl the talking refrigerator helped me; robot Betty too. I hope no one minds too very much. Bye!"

And off Petal went again.

"This
stinks!
" Rebecca said. "Today's supposed to be a celebration of
me
and now we can't properly barbecue the main course?"

It was then, as Frank Freud climbed the walls and the Wicket ate fruitcake and the McG and the Mr. McG made goo-goo eyes at each other and Mandy bounced and Petal beeped and Will Simms stood there being just-in-general wonderful and the rest of us stood around too, that Rebecca raised both hands in frustration and pointed all ten fingers at the grill.

Fire flew from her fingertips.

TEN

Fire flew from her fingertips.

You're not imagining things.

Yes, we really did just say that.

And we said it because it's what happened.

The fire that flew from Rebecca's fingers was so powerful that it not only set aflame the previously cold charcoal briquettes but also shot flames toward the sky, like fireworks. When the great fire settled down a bit, we could see that the fish dogs that had been waiting to be cooked had sizzled right down to mere cinders.

Frank Freud, still wearing the wall-walkers, froze against the wall of our house. The Wicket froze with a piece of fruitcake halfway to her mouth. The Mr. McG squeezed the McG's hand tighter. Mandy Stenko stopped bouncing. Will went on being just-in-general wonderful.

"Oh my," Mrs. Pete said.

"Now that's a power," Will said in hushed respect.

"Isn't anyone going to get the fire extinguisher?" Petal said.

Pete put his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle, and then he clapped his hands together smartly. We suspected he was trying to get our attention.

"Nothing to see here," he said with forced calm. "Party's over, folks."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Frank Freud said, hurrying down the wall in the wall-walkers.

"Can I borrow your phone to call a cab?" the Wicket asked.

Rebecca turned to the Wicket, outraged. "But you can't call a cab. My party's just getting started!"

Seeing the angry look on Rebecca's face and the way Rebecca was raising her finger to point, the Wicket dropped her fruitcake and began running. "Never mind the cab," the Wicket shouted over her shoulder. "I think I can make it home on my own."

"You'll stay, won't you?" Rebecca said, turning to the McG and the Mr. McG.

"We'd like to," the McG said, and we thought she almost sounded sincere.

"But we just remembered another engagement," the Mr. McG said.

"Plus," the McG added with a glance toward Pete, with whom she'd become somewhat friendly since the time Pete helped us evict Crazy Serena from our lives after Crazy Serena had teachernapped the McG and Eightnapped us, "it looks like you have some family matters to attend to. In private."

And then they were gone too.

"Why did you put an end to my party?" Rebecca said, rounding on Pete in anger, all ten fingers raised.

Pete held a steadying hand out toward her.

"Easy, pet," he said. "I only did it for your own good. There are some things that the fewer outsiders who see it, the better."

"Besides," Durinda said, "the fish dogs have been reduced to cinders, so it's not like we had a main course to serve anyone anyway."

"All we have left are these stupid salads," Georgia said.

"Can we stay?" Will said. "Mandy and me?"

"Is that okay, Mr. Pete?" Jackie asked. "Will and Mandy are mostly insiders, not outsiders."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Pete asked Will.

"Of course," Will said. "I'd love to see what happens next."

"And how about you, lamb?" Pete asked, turning to Mandy.

Mandy gulped, and we were sure that she was going to ask to call her mother. But then she surprised us.

"I suppose I would like to stay too," she said. "This is kind of fascinating in an I've-never-seen-anything-quite-like-this-before sort of way."

"Is it better than going to Antarctica?" Annie wanted to know.

"Yes," Mandy said, "a bit. So, what happens next?"

"I know this part!" Will said excitedly. "Next we go to the drawing room to read the note about Rebecca getting her power!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Mandy said.

Wow, we thought. A minute ago Mandy seemed hesitant to stay, and now she was hurrying us to get on with things.