A Spy Among the Girls Read Online Free PDF

together. Then he wouldn't have to do all the talking.
    As soon as he got into the house, Jake quizzed him. “Where have you guys been? Where's Josh?”
    “Just snooping around the Malloys’,” Wally said.
    “Why didn't you tell
me
?”
    Wally shrugged. “Somebody had to stay with Peter. Josh went inside their house, so I came on home.”
    “You hear anything? Like an animal trapped somewhere?”
    “Nope. I think Caroline the Crazie thought this whole thing up herself. She's been really, really weird lately.”
    “Weird how? Weird mean or weird nice?”
    “Weird weird,” said Wally.
    “Does she still poke you in the back?”
    “No.”
    “Lean against you? Grab hold of your arm?”
    “No! Of course not!” said Wally. “I can't explain it. She just acts goofy.”
    Jake sighed and sprawled out on the couch, one foot dangling over the end. “How did we get mixed up with these goofballs anyway?” he asked no one in particular. “You know, if we hadn't spied on the girls when they were first moving in, we could have totally ignored them and we wouldn't be having a thing to do with them now. We wouldn't have had any snowball fights, wouldn't have locked Caroline in the cellar at Oldakers’. We wouldn't have howled outside their window or got them lost in the woods or…”
    “Or had any fun at all,” put in Wally.
    Jake looked over at him. “You don't want the Ben-sons to come back, do you?”
    “What?” said Wally. “I never said that!”
    “But you don't, do you?”
    “Sure I do! Of course I do! I just…I'm not sure I want the Malloys to leave, that's all.”
    “I'm not sure either,” said Jake. It was the very first time he'd admitted it.

Seven

A Visit Before Dinner
    B eth had just put her books on the dining room table when there was a knock at the door.
    “Oh, that's probably Josh,” called her mother. “He phoned and said he'd be over.”
    “Over
here
?” Beth cried, her cheeks growing pink, and she ducked into the downstairs bathroom to brush her hair.
    “He's coming to see
you,
not your hair,” Caroline said. “Josh already knows you have hair.”
    The knock came again, and Beth answered. There stood Josh in his black-and-silver jacket, his dark hair windblown.
    “Well… hi,” Beth said. “Come on in.”
    “Were you busy or anything?” Josh asked. “You aren't having dinner or something?”
    “No, we don't eat till Dad gets home,” she told him,and led him through the hall into the living room. Then, because Eddie was sprawled on the couch reading the comics and Caroline was watching TV, Beth took him into the dining room and they sat somewhat awkwardly at the big table.
    Caroline turned the sound down on the TV so that she could hear what they were saying.
    “So what are you doing tomorrow?” Josh was asking Beth, and she seemed flustered.
    Was he asking her out the next day? Caroline wondered. Was that any way to ask a girl to go somewhere with you? How was Beth going to tell him that, actually, she and her sisters had invited every kid from second to sixth grade over at three o'clock to see an abaguchie? That Josh wasn't the only one who had received the “secret” message?
    “Well…I…um…I'm going to be busy all afternoon, I think,” Beth said.
    “All afternoon?” Josh said teasingly. “It won't take
that
long to show me the abaguchie, will it?”
    Uh-oh,
thought Caroline, and glanced over at Eddie on the couch. What was this, a spy among them? Eddie put down the comics and listened too.
    “So what's the deal?” Josh insisted. He just wouldn't quit. If Beth told him they wanted to see who was gullible enough to show up on Saturday, Josh certainly wouldn't come.
    “Well, it's…it's sort of a project with my sisters,” Beth said hesitantly. “It's going to take most of the afternoon.”
    “Homework? Something for school? Anything I can do to help?” Josh asked.
    Eddie suddenly rose from the couch and went to the doorway. “As a matter of fact, Josh,