Zinnia's Zaniness by Lauren Baratz-Logsted Read Free Book Online

Marcia corrected, "so actually it's a month from yesterday."
    "I can't believe it's already August third," Zinnia said. "In just four weeks, it'll be August thirty-first. By then we should know what happened to Mommy and Daddy. Four weeks—it just seems both so long and so short away."
    We ignored Zinnia.
    "Normally," Annie said, "we'd have the whole summer to get the pages done. Mommy let us have the first week of summer vacation off, but then we'd do enough each day to get it done by September."
    "Well," Pete said, "getting five hundred and three pages done in three months is a lot more reasonable than getting it done in one."
    "I do know that," Annie said, looking guilty and then looking angry over being made to feel guilty. "But it's not really my fault. We were so busy in June and July, what with weddings and things getting set on fire and then needing to be put out, that I forgot all about it. But then, right when we decided to come to the Seaside, I remembered. That's why I went out to get the books."
    At the mention of the word Seaside, seven Eights perked up.
    We were at the Seaside ... and the beach was right outside!
    "Let's go swimming!" Zinnia said.
    For once, we were all in agreement with Zinnia. Well, most of us were.
    "We can't go swimming right now!" Annie was outraged. "We need to do Summer Workbook! "
    "Not right this minute, we don't," Rebecca said, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm staging a revolt."
    For once, we were all in agreement with Rebecca too.
    "I revolt!" Durinda said.
    "I revolt!" Georgia said.
    "I revolt!" Jackie said.
    "I revolt!" Marcia said.
    "I revolt!" Petal said. Then she added, "Even though I'm not sure what that means."
    "I revolt!" Zinnia said. "Let's go swimming!"
    "But we have only thirty days to get through five hundred and three pages!" Annie said. "How many pages does that come to a day, Marcia? Quick, do the math."
    "It comes to sixteen point seven six six, and on for as long as you can see sixes, pages," Marcia said. Then she saw fit to observe, "It would have been only five point five eight eight pages per day if you'd remembered to remind us to do Summer Workbook as soon as summer vacation began."
    "Don't you see the urgency of the situation?" Annie said, appealing to Pete.
    Apparently Annie thought she could drag an adult along for the ride in her madness. But Pete refused to be dragged.
    "Sorry, pet," Pete said, "but I'm afraid I have to side with the revolters."
    "But—" Annie started to protest, but Pete held up a hand, cutting her off. Some of us thought she was about to say that revolters wasn't a real word. It was, though. Some of us were very good with the vocabulary sections each summer.
    "No buts," Pete said. "We came here to have a proper vacation, and a proper vacation we shall have. Now then." He clapped his hands. "All of you into your bathing suits."
    Annie hung her head. Even Annie knew that you could appeal to an adult but you couldn't overrule one, not if the adult was Pete.
    "Oh, don't look so glum, Annie," Pete said. "I promise, after we have a day of fun at the beach and a nice dinner and then perhaps some more fun, if you want to make your sisters do sixteen point seven six six and so on pages of Summer Workbook before retiring for the night, you just go for it."

SEVEN
    We were all ready for the beach. We were standing on the deck and we had our bathing suits on, some of us in one-piece suits, some in bikinis. Well, Pete wasn't wearing a one-piece or a bikini. But he did have an inner tube in the shape of a sea serpent wrapped around his waist.
    "I'm not much on swimming as such," Pete said when we looked pointedly at his serpent. "I prefer to just bob in the water."
    We decided not to comment on the fact that Pete was wearing his work boots.
    In addition to our bathing suits, we wore sunscreen, and we were carrying our towels. We also carried five beach umbrellas: Annie and Durinda had one, Georgia and Rebecca another, Jackie and Marcia a