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

Jackie said excitedly, "who's ready to go first?"
    Well, when she put it like that ...
    "Fine," Jackie said when it was clear no one was going to volunteer, "I'll go first. And I'll say that ... let's see ... that Georgia's naturally curly hair is most attractive on her. And further, when Georgia puts her mind to it, she can be quite sweet."
    "Thanks, Jackie," Georgia said, "although it did sound as though you had to reach for that last part. Looks as though we're playing upward, meaning we're supposed to say something nice about the Eight in birth order ahead of us. That should be easy. Durinda makes a mean chocolate chip pancake. Phew, I'm glad that's over. It's not so easy being nice for an extended period of time."
    "I may not always agree with Annie's tactics," Durinda contributed, "but I respect the fact that since New Year's Eve she's run this family pretty much as well as any adult could."
    "Zinnia is sweet," Annie said, "probably the sweetest Eight we've got, but I do worry about this thinking-she-can-talk-to-cats-and-birds thing. That can't be healthy."
    Zinnia was kind enough to ignore that last part, merely saying, "Rebecca is not nearly as nasty as she pretends to be."
    Whenever one of us was called upon to say something nice about Rebecca, this not-nearly-as-nasty-as-she-pretends-to-be thing was pretty much all we could come up with. We didn't say it because we knew it was true; it was more because we hoped it might be.
    "Great," Rebecca said. "That's just great. How am I supposed to follow that high praise?" She turned to Petal in her mummy costume. "I'm sorry!" Rebecca cried at last. "But I just can't do it! How can you expect me to say something positive about that? "
    We looked where she was looking, at Petal. We kind of did understand what Rebecca meant.
    "Fine," Petal said, rising to her feet as best she could in her mummy costume. "If no one can think of anything nice to say about me, I'll take myself off for a bit. I'll ... I'll ... I'll go for a walk."
    And off Petal walked, as best she could.
    "Well, that's just great," Jackie said, looking dejected as Petal trudged away in her bunny slippers through the sand. "We couldn't get through one whole round of the family being nice to one another without one of us saying something insulting, never mind lasting a whole hour. How long did we last, a whole five minutes?"
    "Maybe it was six," Zinnia said optimistically.
    "Actually, I'm fairly certain it was five minutes and twenty-seven seconds," Marcia said, apparently consulting some internal clock that was extremely precise. Then she frowned. "Or was that twenty-eight seconds?"
    "We're sorry, Jackie," Durinda said. "And here, no one even got the chance to say anything nice about you."
    "Or me," Marcia added.
    "I don't care," Jackie said, and we could tell she didn't. Jackie was just like that. "But look at Petal."
    We looked. There went Petal, trudging farther and farther away from us in her bunny slippers. Why, she was so far away, she practically looked like a normal person.
    "Back home," Jackie went on, "Petal sometimes asks for an escort just to go to the bathroom—and it's our bathroom in our house! And now here she is going off by herself without any family protection. Where can she be going?"
    ***
    A half-hour later, or what seemed like a half-hour, Petal trudged back, breathless.
    "Petal," Jackie said, "what's wrong?"
    "Someone was following me," Petal said, still trying to catch her breath.
    "Following you?" seven Eights plus the Petes cried in concern. "But who? Why?"
    "If I knew that," Petal said, "I would tell you. All I know is, every time I took a step, the shadow behind me took a step too." Petal paused and then burst out with "I have a stalker!"
    Oh, Petal.
    "Oh, Petal," even Jackie felt forced to say. "Of course you don't have a stalker. You must be seeing your own shadow. Why, look how low the sun is in the sky."
    Petal looked, stopped, wondered.
    "There's the positive thing I have to say