Don't Feed the Geckos! Page 8

  They both start up the stairs, and the closer they get to Danielle’s candy, the more thrilled Gavin gets.

  “She’s gonna know we took some,” Richard says.

  “No, I’ve done it before. You just rearrange the pieces in this tin thing they come in. Kind of spread them out to take up the empty space. You just can’t take too much. I do it all the time.” He walks through Danielle’s room to the window and checks the Myerses’ house across the street. All’s clear.

  Richard is still cowering in the doorway as if he’s afraid to enter the room.

  “Come on. What are you afraid of?” Gavin asks.

  “She could come back any minute, and she doesn’t look very friendly.”

  “I can tell you now, Danielle is definitely not friendly.”

  Richard steps into the room but stays near the door. He looks around at the bed with the pink canopy, the pink throw rug, and her collection of tiny ceramic animals on a shelf above the dresser. Three photos depicting ballet dancers are framed in pink.

  “Lotta pink in here,” Richard says.

  “If you had a sister, you’d know they love pink.”

  Richard picks up a tiny ceramic giraffe and squints at it.

  “Put that down—and I mean right where you found it!” Gavin cries.

  Richard places it back on the shelf. Gavin moves to the shelf and squints at the giraffe. “Is that exactly the way it was?” he asks.

  “I—I—I guess,” Richard stammers.

  “’Cause if it isn’t, she’ll know I’ve been in her room! Look at it closely, Richard.”

  Gavin dashes to the window and checks the house across the street again. All’s still quiet. No Danielle stomping back home. “Come on, let’s hurry,” he says over his shoulder. He drops to the floor beside Danielle’s bed, reaches way underneath, and pulls out the tin of candy.

  “Why does she keep it under her bed?” Richard whispers as if there is someone to hear him.

  “To hide it from me.” Gavin laughs his cackle laugh. “Haa, haa, haa.” He’s been practicing. He’s gotten it to sound almost like Mr. Muddlemouth on the Captain Radical cartoon. Laughing makes him feel less nervous.

  Richard looks over at him and smiles with appreciation.

  The pink tin of candy has a snug top that’s kind of hard to pry off when you’re in a big hurry. Gavin tugs and tugs at it. He can feel his heart beating. Suddenly, he stops and listens. “What was that?”

  “What?” Richard asks.

  “Shhh,” Gavin says. Was that the Myerses’ front door? Is Danielle already on her way back home? Gavin jumps up and dashes to the window once more. Across the street, nothing is happening at the Myerses’ house. No Danielle. He looks over at Richard, who’s peering at Danielle’s animal collection.

  “No more touching Danielle’s things, Richard.” Gavin picks up the tin and gets the top off. The gold-foil-covered chocolate nougats inside always look like treasure to him. He picks two, then carefully spreads out what’s left to fill the empty spaces. He replaces the lid and pushes it back in its place under Danielle’s bed. Then, just as he stands up, before he can turn toward Richard, he hears, “Hey, catch!”

  Richard is sailing Danielle’s snow globe—the one she got the previous winter when her middle-school choir traveled to New York City for a festival, the one made of heavy glass and not plastic—right at Gavin. But unfortunately, Gavin is a half second too late getting his hands up, and the heavy glass globe hits the corner of Danielle’s dresser and shatters. Water and suds and the tiny Empire State Building and shards of glass fly everywhere.

  Gavin and Richard stand there for a full five seconds silently staring at the mess that was once Danielle’s precious snow globe, her prized souvenir from New York City. Gavin scoots to the window again to look across the street at the Myerses’ house. They have to work quickly. “First we have to get the glass up!” he says to Richard, who seems to be stuck in place. Gavin dashes to his room and gets his trash can. Carefully, he begins to pick up the biggest pieces of glass first.

  “You should have caught it,” says Richard. “I said, ‘Catch.’ Why didn’t you catch?”

  Gavin is being super careful as he deposits the larger pieces of glass into his trash can. Next he needs to vacuum up the tiny pieces.

  Gavin hurries to the bathroom to get a towel to sop up the water. He throws it at Richard. “Get the water up so I can vacuum!” He runs to the hall closet for the vacuum cleaner.

  Within minutes, the tiny plastic Empire State Building and the big pieces of glass and the plastic base are in Gavin’s trash can hidden under some wadded-up paper towels and the rest of the glass is inside the vacuum cleaner. The only telltale sign that something has happened is the slightly darkened spot on Danielle’s bedroom rug next to the dresser.

  Richard breathes a big sigh of relief. Gavin steps out of the room, then quickly steps back into the room to see what can be noticed at first glance. How fast do his eyes go to the wet spot? he wonders. They go to it pretty fast. Maybe because he already knows it’s there?

  They tiptoe down the stairs. He doesn’t know why they’re tiptoeing. They go out the front door and sit down on the top porch step to wait—for whatever’s going to happen.

  “Maybe I better go home,” Richard says.

  “No,” Gavin insists. “You’re in this with me. Just wait. As soon as my mom gets back, I’ll ask if we can go to the park. Then we can be gone when Danielle gets home.”

  Ignoring that, Richard says, “What will your sister do”—he swallows—“if she finds out we went into her room?”

  “You mean what will she do if she finds out we went into her room, stole her candy, and broke her snow globe from her one-time trip to New York?”

  “Yeah,” Richard agrees in a small voice, after a moment.

  “You don’t even want to know,” Gavin says. Then it’s his turn to swallow with fear.

  The Myerses’ front door opens then, and Danielle steps out.

  “Shoot, shoot, shoot,” Gavin mutters. Apparently Mrs. Myers came back from her supermarket trip sooner than he expected. She stands in the doorway with Luna, her two-year-old, on her hip. She waves Luna’s hand at Danielle. Danielle calls out, “Adieu, ma chérie! Bisous!” The two-year-old waves back. Danielle’s taking French this year, and Gavin has to hear this kind of stuff all the time. Her French is driving him crazy.

  Danielle skips across the street and stops in front of Gavin and Richard. She looks down at them with a tiny smirk. “What are you two up to?”

  “Nothing,” Gavin says, looking past her. “We’re just sitting here.”

  She frowns and then squints. “I’m picking up a funny vibe. What’s going on?” She looks at Richard. Richard looks down.

  Danielle makes a sound of blowing air through her lips. She steps past them, and Gavin hears the door close. He holds his breath to see if he can hear her running up the stairs to her room. Gavin looks over at Richard. “Where was the snow globe before you threw it at me?”

  “It was on her nightstand,” Richard says.

  Gavin’s heart sinks. “Shoot. She’s going to know it’s gone right off.”

  They both sit very quietly, listening.

  As if on cue, Danielle’s voice starts low, then builds up like an ambulance siren. “I don’t believe it! I don’t BELIEVE it!”

  Why does Gavin’s mother have to pull into the driveway just then? Before she can even get out of the car, the boys hear Danielle coming down the stairs. It sounds as if she’s taking them two at a time. She comes barreling out the front door, then leaps off the porch to stand right in front of Richard and Gavin with her hands on her hips.

  “I don’t BELIEVE it!”

  “Believe what?” Gavin asks. He keeps swallowing as he widens his eyes to look as innocent as possible.

  “Yes, believe what?” Gavin’s mom says. She’s gotten out of the car and is coming up the walkway toward the three of them, a shopping bag in her hand.

/>   It’s as if Danielle has not even heard their mother. She doesn’t take her eyes off Gavin. “WHERE’S MY SNOW GLOBE?”

  Gavin’s mouth falls open with dread. “It was an accident,” he finally manages to say.

  “What happened? And you’d better tell me the truth!”

  “Danielle, please keep it down,” their mother says.

  Gavin stays silent and looks to his mother for help.

  “He’s always messing with my stuff, Mom! I tell him to stay out of my room, and he goes in it anyway.” She turns her angry, pinched face back to Gavin. “What were you doing in my room, Bozo? Did you take this clown into my room too?” She tosses her head toward Richard, and Richard leans back. Gavin sees him gulp.

  “No name-calling, Danielle,” their mother says calmly. “Let’s go in the house.” She turns to Richard. “Richard, I think it’s time for you to go home.”

  Danielle immediately protests. “He needs to explain himself first. I know he had something to do with it, and he needs to stay here and explain himself!”

  Gavin looks over at Richard again. He’s lost all his toughness. He looks petrified.

  “Let’s get this straightened out in the house.” Something in their mother’s voice tells them she isn’t going to say it again. She sighs. “Come on in, Richard.”

  Once inside, they all stand in the entry hall while Gavin’s mom taps gently on his dad’s office door. Gavin’s dad steps out and looks from one to the other. “What do we have here?”

  Danielle elbows Gavin hard and scrunches her face at him. “Tell him, Gavmeister!”

  “Let’s go in the dining room,” Gavin’s mother says. She leads the way. When they’ve all taken a seat, Gavin’s dad says, “I can’t wait to hear this.”

  Danielle doesn’t wait for Gavin to explain. “Dad, I’m all the time telling this guy to stay out of my room. And he totally disrespects my space and—”

  Gavin’s dad turns to Richard. “How do you figure into this?”

  “Me?” Richard’s eyes widen. He turns to Gavin.

  Gavin looks down and mumbles, “I told Richard that Danielle keeps some candy under her bed. And I asked him if he wanted a piece. He said, ‘Yeah,’ so we went in there just to get one piece each, and—”

  “Did you ask Danielle?” Gavin’s father asks.

  “I couldn’t, because Danielle was across the street.” Gavin looks to Richard, and Richard nods his head.

  “So you thought it was okay to just go in there and take some candy anyway.”

  Danielle glances from Gavin to Richard and gives them a smile that seems more like a sneer.

  “I’m really disappointed in you, Gavin. First, you set out to do something wrong, and then you involved your company.”

  Richard looks down as if he’s an innocent victim of Gavin’s as well.

  “But, Dad . . . it wasn’t like that. Anyway, Richard was the one who messed with Danielle’s snow globe. He’s the one who threw it at me.”

  Richard pipes up with, “But I said, ‘Catch,’ and you should have caught it. Then it wouldn’t have broken.”

  “I think we’ve heard enough, Gavin,” his mother says. She turns to Richard. “Richard, you may go home now.”

  “And I didn’t even throw it hard,” Richard adds as he gets up and starts for the door, looking very relieved. He doesn’t even glance back as he leaves.

  “See, Mom? And Dad? See how he’s always disrespecting my space? I think he needs to be put on punishment. It’s only fair.”

  Gavin looks down at his hands, waiting for the verdict. He listens to the front door close. Now he’s on his own.

  “I’m going to think about this,” his mother says.

  “There will be a punishment,” his father says. “You can count on that.”

  Danielle raises her chin in triumph. She smiles at Gavin. One of her snarly smiles.

  “You can be sure we’ll come up with something,” his father adds. “Something appropriate.”

  “Right now I have things to do,” Gavin’s mom continues. “Your great-aunt Myrtle and uncle Vestor are coming over for dinner tomorrow.”

  Oh, no, Gavin thinks. It can’t get any worse than Aunt Myrtle and Uncle Vestor coming to dinner. He has a feeling his troubles are just beginning.

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  1

  What Did You Do to My Hair?

  Nikki and Deja are best friends. They live next door to each other. On Saturday they sit on Deja’s couch watching cartoons. Soon Nikki grows tired of The Mouse Queen and says, “Let’s walk to the store.”

  “I can’t,” Deja says. “My hair’s not combed.” She plucks at Bear’s fur. Bear is her favorite stuffed animal. Deja’s hair sticks out all over, just like Bear’s fur. “And Auntie Dee can’t comb it ’cause she’s working in the garden right now.”

  Just then, the garage door to the kitchen slams and Auntie Dee passes through the room carrying a tray of seedlings to the backyard. “You’re not spending the whole morning in front of that TV,” she announces.

  After she leaves, Deja says, “See? She’s too busy to comb my hair right now.”

  “Let me comb it,” Nikki says.

  “You don’t know how.”

  “Yes, I do. I know how to comb hair now.”

  Deja looks at Nikki as if she doesn’t believe her.

  “I comb my little cousin’s hair all the time,” Nikki says.

  Deja gets off the couch and runs to the bathroom. Soon she comes back with her comb and brush and ten ball barrettes. She sets them on the coffee table. “I want the pink ones in the front, the blue in the middle, and the purple on the bottom,” she says, scooting down onto the floor.

  Nikki picks up the comb and tries to pull it through Deja’s hair.

  “Ow!” Deja cries.

  “I’ll use the brush first,” Nikki says quickly.

  “Everybody knows you’re supposed to use the brush first, Nikki.”

  Nikki looks at the barrettes and realizes she hasn’t learned how to make them work yet. She brushes until she thinks she can pull the comb through, but it gets stuck again. She gives it a tug.

  “Ow!” Deja cries. “That hurts!”

  Nikki puts the comb down. She won’t comb anymore. She’ll just brush. Then she remembers that she hasn’t learned how to braid. So she decides to put bunches of hair in the barrettes. But she doesn’t really know how to do that, either.

  Deja reaches up and touches her head.

  “This doesn’t feel right!” She jumps up and runs to the bathroom to check it in the mirror. Then she comes running back.

  “Look what you did to my hair!”

  “I like it . . . ,” Nikki says weakly.

  “It doesn’t look like it’s supposed to!”

  “Yes, it does.”

  “It doesn’t.”

  Deja flops down on the couch. She slips her thumb into her mouth and turns back to The Mouse Queen, her favorite cartoon. Deja won’t let anyone except Nikki see her sucking her thumb. She knows Nikki won’t laugh. Nikki slides over next to Deja on the couch. There isn’t anything about Deja that Nikki would laugh at, and there isn’t anything about Nikki that Deja would laugh at.

  After a while, Deja takes her thumb out of her mouth and says, “I’m tired of cartoons. Let’s go outside. I don’t need my hair combed for that.”

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  About the Author

  KAREN ENGLISH is a Gryphon Award–winner, Coretta Scott King Honor recipient, and author of the Nikki and Deja series. Her chapter books have been praised for their accessible writing, authentic characters, and satisfying story lines. She is a former elementary school teacher and lives in Los Angeles, California.

 
About the Illustrator

  LAURA FREEMAN has illustrated several books for children, including nine chapter books about the kids of Carver Elementary. She grew up in New York City and now lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two young sons. Her drawings for this book were inspired by her children, as well as her own childhood.