The Penderwicks on Gardam Street Read Online Free PDF

story.”
    But by the time Rosalind returned with the wagon and parked it beside the bureau, her little sister was as fast asleep as Hound. “Sleep well, Battikins,” she whispered, then watched over her for a long time, just in case she woke up again, still wanting a story.

CHAPTER FOUR
    Tempers Lost
    T HE NEXT DAY , while the rest of the family was eating lunch, Skye was alone in her room. She and Jane had a soccer game in an hour, and while Jane believed that a big meal was essential for victory, Skye believed in a glass of milk, a few bananas, and solitary contemplation.
    Their team was Antonio’s Pizza, their uniforms red and yellow, with ANTONIO’S and a slice of pizza on the back. This season Skye had been elected captain, surprising her family and herself, for the year before she’d had a little trouble with her temper. Actually, a lot of trouble. There was the time she called the referee a kumquat and the time she stomped on a water bottle, which exploded, drenching several parents, and the time—well, all that was behind her now, she hoped. So far this season she hadn’t lost her temper even once. The
C
on her jersey stood not just for
Captain
but for
Calm,
she’d decided, and she meant to keep it that way.
    Her routine before each game went like this: ten leg stretches, ten neck rolls, ten push-ups, thirty situps, reciting out loud the prime numbers up to 811—this was for concentration—then five minutes of picturing the other team bloody and repentant. After that came the most difficult part of the routine—five minutes of positive thoughts. Her father had suggested that she add this to the rest, particularly on those days when she’d done an extra-good job of picturing blood and repentance. Balance is always good, he’d said. Skye agreed with him about balance, but somehow it always seemed to take her at least fifteen minutes to get in five minutes’ worth of positivity. Maybe today would be different.
    The leg stretches, neck rolls, push-ups, sit-ups, and prime numbers went well. And the five minutes with the other team zipped by, for Antonio’s Pizza was going to be playing their greatest rival, Cameron Hardware. And since the Cameron Hardware captain was the annoying Melissa Patenaude, who was in Skye’s class at school, and always giggling at their teacher, Mr. Geballe, she had all the more motivation to overwhelm them with a glorious victory.
    “Annihilation and humiliation for Cameron Hardware,” she said when she was done, lingering happily on an image of Melissa vanquished.
    Now it was positive-thought time. What should she think about? Before the last game, she’d been able to look forward to Aunt Claire’s visit, and if it had turned out to be a normal visit, she would right now be having positive thoughts about it. But instead, there was all this baloney about dates—and Daddy’s first one that very night!—which, while strange and confusing, shouldn’t make people go wacko, especially if they are the oldest sister and—
    “Stop!” Skye told herself. Positive thoughts!
    She could think about school. Other than having to sit behind Melissa, school was great. Mr. Geballe was letting her spend math class in the library teaching herself geometry, since she already knew all the sixth-grade material so well she could have taught it herself. In English, he was letting them read whatever they wanted, and she’d picked
Swallows and Amazons,
which was all about adventures with boats. Of course, there was that problem with history class, for Mr. Geballe was making them each write a play about the Aztecs. Skye would have been happy to write an essay about the Aztecs’ mathematical systems, or even their crops. But a play! With characters and drama and a plotline! She didn’t have even a glimmer of interest in any of that, and that idiot Melissa was already bragging about how she was almost finished writing her play and how great it was.
    “Stop!” Frustrated, Skye checked the