The Girls Take Over (7 page)

“Like what?” asked Wally.

“Like what if every person who ever lived leaves a sort of ghost behind, and if conditions are absolutely exactly right, you can feel what that person was feeling when he died. For just a minute, maybe, you can sort of
be
that ghost.”

“Like … like what do you mean?” asked Wally.

“Let's say that … well, that the baseball diamond was once a battlefield in the Civil War, and soldiers died right down there, and if either Eddie or Jake was standing in the exact spot in the exact position at the exact time on the exact day of the year that a soldier was killed, it would be as though Eddie or Jake was right there with him in the war.”

That
was
an interesting thought, Wally decided. Of course, the odds of something like that happening would be one in a billion, which was why people didn't see ghosts more often than they did, but maybe it
could
happen. Maybe Caroline
was
precocious after all.

“And if you were that person standing where the soldier was killed,” Caroline continued in a low, whispery voice, “you could feel what he felt when he died.”

Wally squirmed a little. “You mean … if a bullet entered his brain … ”

“Exactly. You would feel the white-hot blast in your right temple, and—”

“Never mind,” said Wally. “I don't want to hear the rest.”

“But then, when a minute was over, you would be yourself again, but you'd know exactly what it felt like to be a Civil War soldier and to be scared and shot.”

“Grip the ball with your thumb on the bottom, Eddie,” the coach was shouting, “not the side! Let's see that pitch again.”

“Wally,” said Caroline, “do you think we could ever be best friends?”

“Nope,” said Wally.

“Why not?”

“It's like apples and oranges. We're too different.”

“Because you're a boy and I'm a girl?”

“No, because you're … you're really weird sometimes.”

“And you're not?”

“I'm just weird in a different way.”

“Well, we could be friends even if we're not best friends, couldn't we?”

“I don't know,” said Wally. “I'll think about it.”

Nine
Letter to Georgia

“D
ear Bill (and Danny and Steve and Tony and Doug):

Now that we've got e-mail, you can get this letter about as fast as I can type it.

You want the Malloy girls? You can have the Malloy girls, especially Caroline. You know what she did now? She fell in the river. And you know how we got in trouble? Trying to save her, which we did, that's how!

It all started with the bottles. We each put a note in a bottle with our name and phone number on it and threw it in the river. Whichever one of us has a bottle that goes the farthest by April 30 gets to be King or Queen for a Day, and all the rest of us have to be servants.

But Caroline and her sisters were down at the river probably trying to fish our bottles out so they wouldn't go anywhere, and Caroline fell in. She was swept around the end of Island Avenue, so we ran to the other side with Beth and Eddie and made a human chain across the
shallow part, and what do we get? Dad chews us out for being down at the river in the first place.

I think I could be happy without any more excitement. I could be happy to be a little bit bored now and then. I think I am very lucky not to have any sisters at all. What do you think?

Wally (and Jake and Josh and Peter)

Ten
Letter from Georgia

“D
ear Wally (and Jake and Josh and Peter):

Yeah, e-mail rules! Except somebody e-mailed a love letter to a girl in my class and signed my name and now she hates my guts.

I don't want the Malloy girls. You can have them. I don't want any sisters or girlfriends, either. But I would sure like a little more excitement in my life than we've got here in Georgia.

I don't know if we're coming back or not. Mom and Dad keep saying things like “if we stay.” I don't want to stay. I want to come back to West Virginia. I want to come back even if the Malloys stay and we have to live somewhere else.

Bill (and Danny and Steve and Tony and Doug)

P.S. Next time Caroline falls in the river, just wave goodbye.

Eleven
Contests

C
aroline did not know why her father had to be so angry at her. They had
all
been down at the river, after all. She just happened to be the one who'd fallen in.

Didn't she get any points for not drowning? Didn't she get any credit for grabbing on to a floating tree limb and using it to hold herself up?

“And after I
told
them—I don't know how many times—to stay away from the river when it's high!” Mrs. Malloy had said, over and over again. “All they were going to do, they said, was have a bottle race. Caroline, what
possessed
you to get so close to the water?”

All Caroline could say under Eddie's stern gaze was that she had been trying to fish something out. She didn't say what. How could you tell your parents that you had made a deal with the Hatfords and were trying to cheat before they did?

But all the girls, not just Caroline, were grounded
for a week. Eddie was being punished because, as the oldest, she had not stopped her youngest sister from doing something dangerous, and Beth was being punished for going along with the others.

“School and baseball practice only,” their father said. No bookstore, no playground, no drugstore, no library, and no friends invited to the house.

“At least they didn't say we couldn't talk to each other,” said Caroline. “Now, that would have been unbearable.”

“Oh, I don't know, Caroline,” said Beth. “I think I could enjoy a whole week of reading uninterrupted.”

“Yeah, I could enjoy a Caroline-free week, come to think of it,” said Eddie, grinning at Beth.

Caroline flounced off, knowing in her heart of hearts that if she weren't around, her sisters' lives would not be half as interesting as they were.

The Friday after her scene in the river, however, Caroline found that
school
had become a lot more interesting, for Miss Applebaum announced that the county spelling championship would take place at the end of the month, right there in the auditorium of Buckman Elementary.

“This is why we have been working so hard on our vocabularies,” she said. “This is why I've asked you to look for new words in the dictionary and include at least five new ones in every book report you write. It's why I've asked you to use a new word each night at the dinner table. For the next week I would like you to use
a new word each time you ask a question in class, and if you can't see that word in your head—if you aren't sure how to spell it—then look it up and
make
sure.”

Caroline promptly raised her hand. “Miss Applebaum, I surmise that our esteemed parents will be in close proximity when we congregate in the auditorium for our spelling bee?”

Wally turned and stared at Caroline with a look of disgust on his face, and some of the kids laughed, but Miss Applebaum was smiling. “Very good, Caroline! Yes, the countywide spelling bee will be held on the last Saturday of April, and of course parents are invited. For the very laws of our land are written in sentences, and sentences are composed of words, which
must
be spelled correctly if they are to mean anything at all.”

“Do we
have
to take part in the spelling bee?” asked another girl.

“Let's try to use a new word in that sentence, Kimberly,” Miss Applebaum said. “Can you ask that question another way?”

“Are you going to force us to be in the spelling contest?” Kimberly wanted to know.

“Every class in every school in the county will have its own spelling bee next Monday, and yes, I expect you to take part in that,” Miss Applebaum said. A low moan traveled around the room. “But,” the teacher continued, “only the top student in each class will be the finalist in the
county
wide spelling bee.”

Caroline smiled smugly. She knew who number one would be. Her only possible rival might be Wally Hatford. He wasn't so good in math, and he was pretty horrible at music and art, but he could ace every spelling test that came along. She didn't know how he did it.

At lunchtime, when Wally was putting his books away, Caroline leaned over his shoulder and said, “Isn't this exciting, Wally? Wouldn't it be great if one of us was the finalist for our room?”

“No,” said Wally.

“Why not?” said Caroline.

“Because it wouldn't,” he said.

“Well, how come you're so good at spelling, then?” Caroline persisted.

“I don't know,” said Wally, grabbing his lunch bag and heading for the all-purpose room.

Caroline ran after him and tugged at his sleeve. “Well, then, if you really don't want to do it, why don't you miss a word on purpose and let
me
win the spelling bee for our class?” And then, unable to stop herself, she said, “Let
me
be the reigning spelling-bee queen for Upshur County.”

Wally stopped in his tracks. He turned and stared at Caroline as though he had never seen her before. As though she were a little bug he was examining under a microscope.

“Never!” he said, wheeling around again, and went off to eat at the boys' table.

Caroline sat down on a chair and took out her eggsalad
sandwich. She would be queen of something yet. She just
had
to be!