Hold the Pickles by Vicki Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

commotion and turned around. She probably didn’t know what hit her. I yanked her big red purse off her shoulder and picked up speed. She screamed, “Help! Help! Thief!”
    Ironic, don’t you think?
    It was only when I was running through the crowd toward the exit that it dawned on me. I had no idea what I was going to do with the purse. Give it to the security guard? Give it to Hammy to pay him back for the mess I’d made of things? Give it to my mother for Christmas?
    I never had a chance to figure it out. I turned around and saw Shane with his big arms around both girls. He even gets to be the hero, I thought. It seemed so unfair.
    The next thing I knew, someone screamed, “I got him!”
    I recognized the voice, but I couldn’t place it until my feet were knocked out from under me and I was flying through the air.
    Cupcake Katie.

Chapter Seventeen
    I immediately became a YouTube sensation. Three million hits and climbing. You gotta love cell phones.
    It could have been worse. I did get the purse and, after a short tussle, managed to convince the police that it contained all the evidence they needed to convict the girls.
    Yes, girls with an s . Brooke—not her real name—was in on it too. In fact, she was the so-called mastermind. When she realized the security guard was onto her, she needed to find a place to hide. And I, moron that I was, happily gave it to her. The Frank Lee Better costume was perfect. No one would recognize her while she and Kelsey kept on pickpocketing.
    The security guy was able to arrest them right there, thanks to the quick thinking of Shane Coolen. (There’s a phrase you don’t hear very often.) It turns out he didn’t have his big arms around Brooke and Kelsey to comfort them. He was “detaining” them, as they say in police shows.
    â€œHow did you know to do that?” I asked him later.
    He rolled his eyes as if the answer were totally obvious. “Dan,” he said, picking wax out of his ear with his baby finger. “You look too pathetic half-naked to do something like that in public—unless, of course, it’s absolutely necessary. You clearly needed my help.”
    I thanked him—although I wasn’t sure I should have.
    Hammy even forgave me. He was disappointed in me at first, but then all the publicity hit. Everyone wanted to try one of his Hogg’s Doggs. Luckily, Shane and I were able to talk him into ditching the fiber and adding a bit of flavor by then. Before long, he was making so much money he didn’t care about the ripped cape anymore.
    But the best news was that Shane had been right about another thing too. She wasn’t a meatball or a chicken nugget, but I did run into a girl that day. And when I say “run into,” I mean “run into.”
    Sushi Sue just might turn out to be the girl for me. I really did knock her off her feet. We’re going to spend some of the money we earned at the Food Fantasia Fun Fair to go out for pizza next week.

Vicki Grant is the bestselling author of numerous books for juveniles and young adults, including Pigboy , another Dan Hogg story in the Orca Currents series. Vicki lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Titles in the Series
    orca currents
    121 Express
    Monique Polak
    Agent Angus
    K.L. Denman
    Bear Market
    Michele Martin Bossley
    Benched
    Cristy Watson
    Beyond Repair
    Lois Peterson
    The Big Dip
    Melanie Jackson
    Bio-pirate
    Michele Martin Bossley
    Blob
    Frieda Wishinsky
    Branded
    Eric Walters
    Camp Wild
    Pam Withers
    Chat Room
    Kristin Butcher
    Cheat
    Kristin Butcher
    Cracked
    Michele Martin Bossley
    Crossbow
    Dayle Campbell Gaetz
    Daredevil Club
    Pam Withers
    Dog Walker
    Karen Spafford-Fitz
    Explore
    Christy Goerzen
    Farmed Out
    Christy Goerzen
    Fast Slide
    Melanie Jackson
    Finding Elmo
    Monique Polak
    Flower Power
    Ann Walsh
    Fraud Squad
    Michele Martin Bossley
    Hold the Pickles
    Vicki Grant
    Horse Power
    Ann Walsh
    Hypnotized
    Don Trembath
    In a