Thirteen Plus One by Lauren Myracle Read Free Book Online Page B

happened when they got older?
    “Holy pickles,” I muttered.
    Ty dropped to his knees and scooched in beside me. “Isn’t he cute?”
    “What did you do, Ty? Did you steal him and stuff him in your backpack?”
    “No ! ”
    “Then what? Buy him at the gift shop? I’m pretty sure—make that entirely sure—that baby penguins aren’t for sale at the aquarium gift shop.”
    “Heheheh,” Ty said. “Did I tell you his name is Pingy?”
    I looked at Ty, then back at the penguin, whose eyes were dark and as bright as buttons. It— he? —did his funny side step pitter-patter and flapped his wings.
    Mom clearly didn’t know about Pingy, or there would have been yelling going on. Lots. And rightfully so, because Pingy was probably hungry and scared, and anyway, Ty couldn’t go around stealing penguins from the Georgia Aquarium. It just wasn’t done!
    “Holy pickle crap, Ty,” I said. I went into lecture mode, informing him he wasn’t allowed to steal penguins from the Georgia Aquarium. That he wasn’t allowed to steal, period.
    He told me he knew, he knew, he knew. He told me other stuff, too, like how he’d seen Pingy at the aquarium and worried he was lonely, and, oh, that Pingy loved peanut butter, and wasn’t that funny? But the stealing part wasn’t funny, and now he felt really scared.
    He shifted from foot to foot and said, “What are we going to do?”
    “We?” I said incredulously.
    His face fell, and I felt terrible. Because who was going to help him if I didn’t?
    I sighed. “Oh, Ty,” I said. “We’ll figure something out. I promise.”
    I thought hard. At last I told Ty to get Pingy out of the tub, and to get himself into the tub, because if Mom didn’t hear bath-taking sounds soon, the game would be up. Then I went and found Sandra in her room.
    “I’m busy,” she said. “Go away.”
    “I need you to come with me to the bathroom,” I said. “Oh, and bring your secret stash of peanut butter.”
    “I don’t have a secret stash of peanut butter,” she lied. She glanced at me from under a swoop of blond hair, which she was braiding as she watched an episode of Chuck on her laptop. “And Winnie, you are way too old to need company while you do your private lady business.”
    “For real, Sandra. Your presence—and your peanut butter—are needed in the bathroom, pronto. Get in there and I’ll tell you my plan.”
     
    “Hey, Mom, Sandra’s taking me to Barnes and Noble,” I said ten minutes later as Sandra and I made a beeline through the kitchen. “‘Kay? ’Kay.”
    “Is Ty in the tub?” Mom said. She had Maggie strapped to her chest, and she was swaying and stirring spaghetti sauce. She didn’t notice that I was holding Ty’s backpack in front of me like a sack of groceries, or that every so often, it wiggled.
    “Yep. Shampoo in his hair and everything.”
    “Really?”
    “What can I say?” I tossed off. “I’m just that good.” And I had excellent blackmail material. It wasn’t often a girl could hold penguin-napping over her little brother’s dirty head.
    Sandra opened the back door. “Bye!” she called. “We’ll be back in an hour!”
    But at the Georgia Aquarium, things got complicated. The heavy doors of the main entrance were locked, and there was a freaky red light blinking from a nearby keypad. It was a keypad like the keypad on Cinnamon’s home alarm system, only more heavy-duty looking.
    “Do you think they have spy cameras?” I whispered, holding Ty’s backpack in front of me. “Do you think we’re getting our pictures taken?”
    “Oh, great, that’s just what I need,” Sandra whispered back, jerking me into the shadows. “‘Westminster Senior Expelled for Busting into Aquarium. Hopes for Future Thoroughly Dashed.”’
    “Well, we’ve got to get in somehow,” I said. “We can’t leave Pingy out here—he’d waddle into the street and get hit by a car.”
    “This is insane,” Sandra said.
    I cradled Ty’s backpack with one