The Girls Take Over (14 page)

“Uh …, ” said Wally.

“I know it!” Caroline cried, suddenly leaping to her feet.

“Caroline!” whispered her mother.

“
H-a-n-d-k-e-r-c-h-i-e-f !
I'm from Buckman Elementary too! I'm in fourth grade too, and I
know
it!” she pleaded while people in front turned to stare at her and her mother frantically lunged across Eddie's lap, trying to grab her arm.

Impulsively Caroline whirled and faced the audience. “But I
know
it!” she cried, sure that
someone
would see the justice of her taking Wally's place. Instead of a sea of smiling faces, however, Caroline saw only disgust and ridicule. She turned slowly around again.

“Will the young lady in the pink shirt please sit down?” said the superintendent, unsmiling.

Caroline tearfully collapsed on her seat, her face beet red with embarrassment. Beth and Eddie had their hands over their faces, Coach Malloy was glaring down the row at her, and up onstage, Wally's face was as pink as Caroline's shirt.

“We'll try you on another word, son,” the superintendent said. He turned to look at Caroline again and said, “I trust there will be no more outbursts.”

Eddie clapped her hands over Caroline's mouth. “There won't,” she promised.

The superintendent turned to Wally again.
“Gymnastics,”
he said.

Wally missed it. He put a
k
after the
c,
but when he walked offstage and the girl behind him was declared the winner, his shoulders were straight and his head erect, and he looked like a man released from prison.

“Caroline, how
could
you?” Mrs. Malloy whispered
angrily across Eddie's lap. “You ruined his chance to go to the state contest!”

And Caroline realized she had done it again— embarrassed her family. She had stood up before the largest audience she had ever faced and blown it. Nobody clapped and cheered. Nobody threw flowers. They hated her, and she deserved it. Her family was not proud of her in the least, and certainly neither were the Hatfords. Even Peter was scowling at her, and when the contest was over at last and both families moved toward the aisle to leave, Peter whispered to Caroline, “You are in deep, deep doo-doo.”

Twenty
Apology

T
he only time Wally could remember being so relieved was the time he thought he'd broken his leg but had only sprained it. He had been all ready to misspell a word on purpose, but he really had not known whether
gymnastics
had a
k
near the end or not.

He could not get off the stage fast enough, but as he took his place in the second row and glanced behind him, he noticed Beth and Eddie with their hands over their faces and knew that Caroline was in trouble.

But he could not have felt better himself. Not only had he kept Caroline from going to the state contest and being so stuck-up they couldn't stand her, but her outburst had made her whole family angry with her.

It wasn't until he looked back over his other shoulder, however, that he saw the disappointment in his parents' faces. And suddenly he discovered that he had blown the one thing he was really good at. Nobody seemed to know he was around until they wanted
something spelled. When Josh or Jake was writing a report and needed to know how a word was spelled, he'd usually call out to Wally instead of using the dictionary.

“Hey, Wally, does
judgment
have an
e
after the
g
?” Josh might say.

Or Jake would call, “Wally, does
Connecticut
have one
t
at the end or two?”

Even his parents asked him to spell a word now and then.

But just because he was a good speller, did that mean he had to worry all the way through Buckman Elementary that he would have to go to the county contest? If he won the county contest, he'd have to worry about going to the state, and if he won that, he'd worry about going to the national! What did his parents expect of him, anyway? To become President of the United States?

When he joined his family later, his mother put her arm around his shoulder and said, “That was such a shame about Caroline, Wally. I think she got you rattled. You
should
have been the winner.”

“No, it's okay,” Wally said. “You know how I feel about contests.”

His dad patted him on the back. “Well, no one else in the family ever got as far as a county spelling bee, son. We're right proud of you.”

“Thanks, Dad,” said Wally. It
was
nice to be noticed for a change. By his family, anyway.

As everyone moved toward the center aisle, Wally
noticed that Caroline seemed to be trying to get out of the auditorium as fast as possible, but Coach Malloy's big hand reached out, grabbed her shoulder, and hauled her backward a few steps until she was face to face with the Hatfords.

“Wally,” said Coach Malloy. “I think my daughter has something to say to you.”

“I—I'm s-s-sorry,” Caroline stammered.

“For what?” her father demanded.

“For—for trying to help Wally,” said Caroline.

“No, that is not what you were trying to do,” Coach Malloy said.

“For—for … ”Caroline's face suddenly looked like a squished tomato as her eyes crinkled up, and Wally
almost
felt sorry for her. “For—for … trying to take his p-place in the contest.”

“Right,” said her father. “You embarrassed us, you embarrassed Wally, and you embarrassed yourself.” He turned to Mr. and Mrs. Hatford. “I hope you can understand how upset we are with our daughter.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Hatford. And then she added, with a little smile, “I never raised a daughter, but I do understand.”

Then she and Caroline's mother chattered on about other things, and Wally's brothers grinned and elbowed him as they left the auditorium and stepped out into the sweet April air.

Twenty-one
What Caroline Saw

I
t was a quiet and subdued Caroline who came down to breakfast Sunday morning. She kept her eyes on her scrambled eggs all the while she ate and said “Yes, please” and “No, thanks” when offered toast or bacon.

No one said anything more about what had happened at the spelling contest. It was obvious to the entire family that Caroline had been mortified and had suffered enough. For once in her life she had seen herself as others saw her and hadn't liked what she'd seen.

When everyone else had left the kitchen except Caroline and Mrs. Malloy, Caroline squeaked, “I'm— I'm really sorry about last night, Mother.”

“So am I,” said her mother. “But if you learned something from it, Caroline, perhaps it wasn't entirely wasted. To be a great actress you must first be a great human being, and I think you need a little work in that department.”

It was a gray day all around. When the girls noticed the Hatford boys fooling around down by the swinging bridge, they put on their jackets and sauntered down the hill. Caroline was relieved that none of the boys mentioned the spelling bee either. Everyone in town, she decided, must know just how awful she felt inside. A drop of rain hit her on her cheek.

“Hey! Rain!” Jake chortled. “And tonight's the night the principal sleeps on the roof.”

“But he didn't say he'd
stay
up there,” Eddie reminded them, looking out over the river, where tiny droplets were making circles on the water.

“Right!” Jake looked at the others and grinned. “Who's in favor of sneaking over there about midnight to check up on him?”

“I'll be too sleepy,” said Peter.

Everyone looked down at Peter. They had almost forgotten he was along. A look passed among them.

“You're right,” said Josh. “We'll all be too tired to do that. Besides, we don't want to get in any more trouble, do we?”

The rain was coming down a little harder now.

“I'm getting wet!” Peter yelled. “I'll beat you home.” He ran on ahead, and Jake said quickly, “Okay, don't say anything more to Peter about this, but who wants to meet at the swinging bridge at midnight and go over to the school?”

“I do!” said Caroline.

“Yeah, we want to go!” said Eddie. “I'll bet we won't be the only ones there, either.”
“Besides,” said Caroline, “I can't get in any more trouble than I already am.”

“Wrong!” they all said together.

“Okay, midnight it is,” said Josh, and both groups ran for home as the rain pelted down on them.

All afternoon the girls shot glances at each other whenever they heard thunder or when the rain came down even harder for a spell. But at dinner they were surprised to hear their father say, “I suppose you girls are thinking of sneaking out tonight to see if your principal is still on the roof.”

Caroline stopped chewing. She looked across the table at Beth and Eddie, who had stopped chewing also. Their father smiled a little.

“Oh, don't think I don't know what goes on in those heads of yours. Tom Hatford says they're posting an officer at the school tonight, just in case some crazy kids decide to carry off the principal's ladder or climb up on the roof to see if he's there.”

“Well, I'll bet he's not, with all this rain,” said Beth.

“Tell you what,” her father said. “If you
do
go over there, I want you to go as a group and come back as a group. Eddie, I expect you to see to that. Go with the Hatford boys and don't do anything stupid. Got it?”

“Okay,” said Eddie, and looked at her sisters in surprise.

Somehow it didn't seem as much fun, sneaking out at midnight with permission, Caroline thought.
Still, how often did her father allow her to stay up until midnight, much less
go
somewhere at that hour?

All evening the girls watched the clock and listened to the rain, which kept up a steady drumming. Around nine they got a call from the Hatfords.

“Hey, Caroline,” said Josh. “Our dad talked to your dad, right?”

“Yeah,” Caroline said.

“Well, you didn't exactly promise it would be midnight, did you?”

“No,” said Caroline.

“We didn't either. And we figure that any other kids who show up will come at midnight or before. So why don't
we
go at one o'clock?”

Caroline wasn't sure if she could stay awake that long, but she checked with her sisters.

“No problem,” she said, getting back to Josh. “Eddie says we'll met you at the end of the swinging bridge at one.”

“See you,” said Josh, and he hung up.

To stay awake the girls got out some cards and played speed, then crazy eights, then hearts, then spite and malice. Their parents were in bed by eleven. At five minutes to one the girls went outside to check the weather and found that it was not only still raining, but pouring. They put on their boots and hooded raincoats, then left the house with a flashlight and slogged their way down the hill to the bridge and over the
swaying boards to the other side, where the Hatford boys, all but Peter, were waiting.

“Is your dad on duty at the school?” Caroline asked.

“No, they've got a rookie making regular stops at the school to see that everything's okay,” Wally said.