The Girls Take Over by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Read Free Book Online Page A

Wally.
    “Let's say that … well, that the baseball diamond was once a battlefield in the Civil War, and soldiers died right down there, and if either Eddie or Jake was standing in the exact spot in the exact position at the exact time on the exact day of the year that a soldier was killed, it would be as though Eddie or Jake was right there with him in the war.”
    That was an interesting thought, Wally decided. Of course, the odds of something like that happening would be one in a billion, which was why people didn't see ghosts more often than they did, but maybe it could happen. Maybe Caroline was precocious after all.
    “And if you were that person standing where the soldier was killed,” Caroline continued in a low, whispery voice, “you could feel what he felt when he died.”
    Wally squirmed a little. “You mean … if a bullet entered his brain … ”
    “Exactly. You would feel the white-hot blast in your right temple, and—”
    “Never mind,” said Wally. “I don't want to hear the rest.”
    “But then, when a minute was over, you would be yourself again, but you'd know exactly what it felt like to be a Civil War soldier and to be scared and shot.”
    “Grip the ball with your thumb on the bottom, Eddie,” the coach was shouting, “not the side! Let's see that pitch again.”
    “Wally,” said Caroline, “do you think we could ever be best friends?”
    “Nope,” said Wally.
    “Why not?”
    “It's like apples and oranges. We're too different.”
    “Because you're a boy and I'm a girl?”
    “No, because you're … you're really weird sometimes.”
    “And you're not?”
    “I'm just weird in a different way.”
    “Well, we could be friends even if we're not best friends, couldn't we?”
    “I don't know,” said Wally. “I'll think about it.”

Nine

Letter to Georgia
    “D ear Bill (and Danny and Steve and Tony and Doug):
    Now that we've got e-mail, you can get this letter about as fast as I can type it.
    You want the Malloy girls? You can have the Malloy girls, especially Caroline. You know what she did now? She fell in the river. And you know how we got in trouble? Trying to save her, which we did, that's how!
    It all started with the bottles. We each put a note in a bottle with our name and phone number on it and threw it in the river. Whichever one of us has a bottle that goes the farthest by April 30 gets to be King or Queen for a Day, and all the rest of us have to be servants.
    But Caroline and her sisters were down at the river probably trying to fish our bottles out so they wouldn't go anywhere, and Caroline fell in. She was swept around the end of Island Avenue, so we ran to the other side with Beth and Eddie and made a human chain across the shallow part, and what do we get? Dad chews us out for being down at the river in the first place.
    I think I could be happy without any more excitement. I could be happy to be a little bit bored now and then. I think I am very lucky not to have any sisters at all. What do you think?
    Wally (and Jake and Josh and Peter)

Ten

Letter from Georgia
    “D ear Wally (and Jake and Josh and Peter):
    Yeah, e-mail rules! Except somebody e-mailed a love letter to a girl in my class and signed my name and now she hates my guts.
    I don't want the Malloy girls. You can have them. I don't want any sisters or girlfriends, either. But I would sure like a little more excitement in my life than we've got here in Georgia.
    I don't know if we're coming back or not. Mom and Dad keep saying things like “if we stay.” I don't want to stay. I want to come back to West Virginia. I want to come back even if the Malloys stay and we have to live somewhere else.
    Bill (and Danny and Steve and Tony and Doug)
    P.S. Next time Caroline falls in the river, just wave goodbye.

Eleven

Contests
    C aroline did not know why her father had to be so angry at her. They had all been down at the river, after all. She just happened to be the one who'd fallen in.
    Didn't she get any