Rule of Three Read Online Free PDF Page B

like her. She doesn’t wear a pink dress like that, and her hair is darker.”
    “Joey. It’s just a drawing. Jo looks however you want her to look — in your imagination.”
    “Well, it doesn’t even look long enough. What if they cut something out and I miss a part? I don’t want to miss anything. It says ‘abridged edition.’ What does abridged mean, anyway?”
    Sheesh. I hadn’t counted on Joey being Little Miss Picky. “I think it just means they added notes to help explain stuff,” I said, trying my best to convince her. “Like a bridge, to help you with hard words, you know, stuff like that.” Before Joey could protest any more, I started to read:
“The pleasantest room in the house was set apart for Beth, and in it was gathered everything that she most loved — flowers, pictures, her piano. . . .”
     
    The chapter went quickly, probably because I was nervous and reading so fast. Or maybe it was the abridged thing. Every time I glanced up at Joey, she was hanging on every word of the story, hugging Hedgie to her. Luckily, she seemed to have forgotten all about the other Little Women . The real one, where Beth kicks the bucket. In this one, they skip the part where Beth quietly draws her last breath in the dark hour before dawn and all that.
    When I was finished, Joey sat back quietly, without saying a word.
    Phew. My switcheroo of the Little Women books had actually worked. I hadn’t been sure I could fake Joey out, but she didn’t even seem to suspect that anything was wrong. “Did you like that chapter?” I asked.
    Joey nodded. She did not even beg me for one more chapter, like she always did.

     

 
    I was in the kitchen frosting cupcakes when Mom got home. “Hmm. Looks like another Reel Family Kitchen Cupcake Invasion,” Mom joked.
    “Taste,” I said, handing over a bite.
    “Mmm, good,” she said, licking her fingers. “You should make these for the cake-off.” A good sign. I have to admit making cupcakes was a bit of a bribe, hoping maybe she’d forgotten about me going banshee at her place of work.
    “Where’s Dad?” she asked. I tilted my head toward the next room, where he was watching the news. Mom went into the family room to find Dad.
    I could hear them talking in low voices. I leaned my head out of the kitchen and listened at the doorway. “Alex has to realize . . .” “But Stevie just wants to . . .” They were talking about Alex and me.
    Alex shuffled into the kitchen, wearing her fuzzy Uggs over her flannel pajama pants. “What are they saying?”
    “She speaks!” I said. When Alex is mad, she never talks to me when we’re alone in a room.
    My sister looked at me like I was weird. “What are these?” she asked, leaning in to take a whiff of my cupcakes.
    “Just a batch of I-Hate-My — um, I mean, just cupcakes. Devil’s food.”
    “So, how mad are they?” Alex asked, nodding toward the family room.
    “On a scale of We Didn’t Do Our Homework to We Burned Down the House, I’d say halfway in between.”
    “Are we in trouble?” Alex asked.
    “I don’t know yet. I wish some people would just turn off the TV to make it easier on us eavesdroppers,” I said.
    “I know,” Alex agreed, taking a swipe of frosting right off the top of a perfectly iced cupcake.
    “Hey!” I said, swatting her hand, and for a second it was just like nothing had happened between us.
    “They’re still talking about us, you know,” she reported.
    “I know.”
    “We’re going to have to face the music.”
    “I know.”
    “Any minute they’re going to put on the Hat and start making an announcement or call a family meeting or something.”
    “I know.”
    “Let’s be the ones to go in there first.”
    “Good idea. Maybe we’ll get points for going to them for once, instead of them coming to us.”
    Alex smiled at me to distract me from her taking another swipe of icing. She headed into the family room. I followed her.
    “Kids,” Mom started. “About last night at