The Girls Get Even (11 page)

Silently, glumly, Jake and Josh and Wally turned toward home, with barely enough candy to carry in their jackets. Mother always said that Halloween candy should last all year, and they’d hardly picked up enough to last through December.

“You know what I’m thinking?” Jake said as they turned up their street. “Maybe it’s time we called a truce. I mean, just give up bugging the
girls.
Forget
about them. Find other guys at school to hang around with. Whether the Malloys stay here or not probably doesn’t have anything to do with what the Bensons decide. Those girls have ruined enough things for us. This Halloween was really the pits.”

“I’ve been trying to
tell
you that,” said Wally. “I’m getting a little tired of ‘The Malloys this …’ and ‘The Malloys that….’ Everything we do, practically, is connected to the Malloys.”

“Okay,” said Jake. “As of right now, we just forget about them. They can go, they can stay, it doesn’t make any difference to us.”

“I feel better already,” said Wally, with a sigh.

“So do I,” said Josh.

They went up the steps to the house.

“We should have done this long ago,” said Jake. “We’re free¡ Back to boy-stuff again.” He smiled. Josh smiled. Wally smiled. They opened the door.

There in the living room sat Eddie, Beth, and Caroline in their costumes, as well as Peter in his pajamas, a ring of chocolate around his mouth.

Mrs. Hatford hurried toward the boys. “Where in the world have you been?” she asked, and for a minute Wally thought she was going to sail right past them and on out the door. “Why did you invite these girls to a party and then not even have the
decency to show up? You didn’t even
mention
it to me.”

“A party?
“
cried Jake and Josh and Wally together.

But before they could say another word, the girls all chanted together:

“Little witch has come to say,
Ghosts and goblins like to play.
Wont you come and join the fun?
There’ll be treats for everyone.”

“Jake, I want you to take your money and run to the store for some Cokes or something. Josh, you’re in charge of games/’ Mrs. Hatford said.

And as Wally watched helplessly, his mother took all the candy they had collected, dumped it in a bowl, and passed it around the room for starters.

The Boys Start the War

Just when the Hatford brothers are expecting three boys to move into the house across the river where their best friends used to live, the Malloy girls arrive instead. Wally and his brothers decide to make Caroline and her sisters so miserable that they’ll want to go back to Ohio, but they haven’t counted on the ingenuity of the girls. From dead fish to dead bodies, floating cakes to floating heads, the pranks continue—first by the boys, then by the girls—until someone is taken prisoner¡

The Girls Get Even

Still smarting from the boys’ latest trick, the girls are determined to get even. Caroline is thrilled to play the part of Goblin Queen in the school play, especially since Wally Hatford has to be her footman. The boys, however, have a creepy plan for Halloween night. They’re certain the girls will walk right into their trap. Little do the boys know what the Malloy sisters have in store.

Boys Against Girls

Abaguchie mania¡ Caroline Malloy shivers happily when her on-again, off-again enemy Wally Hatford tells her that the remains of a strange animal known as the abaguchie have been spotted in their area. Wally swears Caroline to secrecy and warns her not to search by herself. But Caroline will do anything to find the secret of the bones and finds out the hard way that she should have listened.

The Girls’ Revenge

Christmas is coming, but Caroline Malloy and Wally Hatford aren’t singing carols around the tree. Instead, these sworn enemies must interview each other for the dreaded December class project. Caroline, as usual, has a trick up her sleeve that’s sure to shock Wally. In the meantime, Wally and his brothers find a way to spy on the Malloy girls at home. The girls vow to get revenge on those sneaky Hatfords with a trap the boys won’t soon forget.

A Traitor Among the Boys

The Hatford boys make a New Year’s resolution to treat the Malloy girls like sisters. But who says you can’t play tricks on sisters? The girls will need to stay one step ahead of the boys and are willing to pay big-time for advance information. Homemade cookies should be all it takes to make a traitor spill the beans. In the meantime, Caroline is delighted with her role in the town play. Don’t ask how Beth, Josh, and Wally get roped into it—just wait until showtime, when Caroline pulls her wildest stunt yet¡

A Spy Among the Girls

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and love is in the air for Beth Malloy and Josh Hatford. When they’re spotted holding hands, Josh tells his teasing brothers that he’s simply spying on the girls to see what they’re plotting next. At the same time, Caroline Malloy, the family actress, decides she must know what it’s like to fall in love. Poor Wally Hatford is in for it when she chooses him as the object of her affection¡

The Boys Return

It’s spring break, and the only assignment Wally Hatford and Caroline Malloy have is to do something they’ve never done before. Wally’s sure that will be a cinch, because the mighty Benson brothers are coming. It will be nonstop action all the way. For starters, the nine Benson and Hatford boys plan to scare the three Malloy sisters silly by convincing them that their house is haunted. Meanwhile, everyone in town has heard that there’s a hungry cougar on the prowl. When the kids decide to take a break from their tricks and join forces to catch the cougar, guess who gets stuck with the scariest job?

The Girls Take Over

The Hatford boys and the Malloy girls are ready to outdo each other again. Eddie is the first girl ever to try out for the school baseball team. Now she and Jake are vying for the same position, while Caroline and Wally compete to become class spelling champ. As if that’s not enough, the kids decide to race bottles down the rising Buckman River to see whose will travel farthest by the end of the month. Of course, neither team trusts the other, and when the girls go down to the river to capture the boys’ bottles, well … it looks as if those Malloy girls may be in over their heads this time¡

Boys in Control

Wally Hatford always seems to get a raw deal. The rest of the family goes to the ball game, and he has to stay home to watch over a yard sale. Caroline Malloy writes a silly play for a school project, and he gets roped into costarring in it with her¡ Things are looking down, especially when the Malloy girls stumble across an embarrassing item from the boys’ past. But Wally finally gets his chance to turn the table on the girls’ scheme and prove who’s really in control. Boys rule¡

Girls Rule¡

The rivalry between the Malloy sisters and the Hatford boys is heating up¡ The kids have two weeks to earn money for a fund-raising contest. All those who collect twenty dollars or more for the new children’s wing at the hospital can be in the annual Strawberry Festival Parade or get lots of strawberry treats. The only place Caroline wants to be is on the Strawberry Queen’s float. How will she earn the money in time? Do the Hatfords have moneymaking secrets they’re not telling the girls?

Boys Rock¡

Wally Hatford dreams of long lazy days far away from school and Caroline Malloy. But Wally, the best speller among the Hatford brothers, gets roped into helping them with a summer newspaper project that will earn the twins school credit. What does that get Wally? When he hears scratching noises coming from Oldakers’ bookstore cellar, Mr. Oldaker trusts him to keep a secret that could turn into a scoop for their newspaper. Wally worries that the secret may be too scary to keep to himself. What’s worse, the Malloy girls have horned in on the newspaper. If there’s one person Wally won’t spill his secret to, it’s nutty Caroline Malloy. No matter what it is¡

About the Author

Phyllis Reynolds Niylor
enjoys writing about the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls because the books take place in her husband s home state, West Virginia. The town of Buckman in the stories is really Buckhannon, where her husband spent most of his growing-up years. Mrs. Naylor plans to write one book for each month that the girls are in Buckman, though who knows whether or not they will move back to Ohio at the end?

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is the author of more than a hundred books, a number of which are set in West Virginia, including the Newbery Award-winning
Shiloh
and the other two books in the Shiloh triology,
Shibh Season
and
Saving Shiloh.
She and her husband live in Bethesda, Maryland.

Published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc., New York

Copyright © 1993 by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Delacorte Press.

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eISBN: 978-0-307-52803-2

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