The Girls Take Over Read Online Free PDF Page A

kitchen to get a snack. Jake grabbed Josh and Wally by the arms and rushed them upstairs where their mother couldn't hear.
    “If we go back to the river, I'll bet we'll see those bottles come by, and we can grab the girls' bottles and pull them out.”
    “That's cheating!” said Wally. “I thought this was going to be a real race.”
    “ I thought you just wanted to bring Eddie down a peg or two. I don't know why you want to punish Beth,” said Josh, who rather liked the middle Malloy girl.
    “Well, if I knew which bottle was Eddie's, I wouldn't have to take them all. Tell you what—if I pull out either Caroline's or Beth's, I'll toss it back in.”
    “How are you going to know which is which withoutopening them up? And if you open one up, it won't be waterproof anymore,” said Wally.
    “Tough luck,” said Jake.
    “But how are you going to get them out of the river?” Wally could see it now. They'd make him put on Dad's hip-high fishing boots, take the fishnet, and wade out into the water. No! This time he would not do it! He simply wouldn't!
    “I'm not going to wade out in the river with Dad's hip boots and fishnet,” he said boldly and firmly. “If you want Eddie's bottle, you have to get it yourself.”
    Jake studied him for a moment. “Okay, okay. Don't have a spaz,” he said.
    “We'd be nuts to try to fish them out on this side of Island Avenue anyway. The girls could see us from their house,” said Josh. “If we wait till the bottles go around the bend, the river's shallower on the other side of the island.”
    “Yeah, but we'd still need Dad's boots,” said Jake.
    “And fishnet,” said Josh. “Where are they?”
    They both looked at Wally. Now was his chance to say nothing. Was it possible only he knew that they were in the attic? Why were they looking at him like that?
    “Wal-ly?” said Jake, slowly advancing toward him. “Where does Dad keep his hip boots and net?”
    Wally's lips were dry and stuck together as the words came out. “The attic. But I'm not going to wade out there and get Eddie's bottle! ”
    “Okay. Just crawl up in the attic for us and findthem,” said Josh. “We'll cover for you in case Mom wants to know where you are. But hurry!”
    This always happened! Wally always got in trouble because of the twins. The only way to stay out of trouble in the Hatford house was to separate himself from Jake and Josh entirely. He wondered if a fourth-grade boy could just walk into the county courthouse and ask for a divorce from his older brothers. A legal paper he could carry around in his pocket that said they weren't related.
    Jake and Josh went out in the hall and listened at the top of the stairs to be sure no one was coming, then motioned to Wally to open the small door to the attic and climb the narrow stairs.
    It was dark and cobwebby in the attic. Above Wally's head was a trapdoor leading out to the widow's walk on top of the house—a kind of balcony where the wife of a sea captain would stand, searching the horizon for her husband's ship, hoping he wasn't lost at sea. Why anyone would build a widow's walk on top of a house in Buckman, West Virginia, Wally didn't know, because the closest a ship had ever come to their town was the Ohio River, and that was a long way off.
    Wally rummaged along the wall, sorting through old hammocks, inner tubes, trunks, and garment bags, but he couldn't see any of his father's fishing gear. Maybe it was in the basement. Maybe it wasn't in the attic at all.
    He went to the little window, where the light wasbetter. Maybe the boots were in the bags and boxes piled there. He caught sight of Eddie and Beth coming across the swinging bridge, their bodies stuck strangely together at the shoulders as though they were glued. But stranger yet, something stuck out behind them that looked as though Eddie had a tail!
    Wally hurried back down the narrow stairs.
    “Hey!” he said. “Eddie's got a tail.”
    “What?” said Jake. “Where are the