A Spy Among the Girls Read Free Page A

to Oldakers’ Bookstore and looked over the rack of valentines. There were funny cards, serious cards, valentines for mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. But it wasn't until Caroline looked in the sweethearts’ section that she found just the right valentine for Wally, just the kind to get him to fall in love with her.
    It was the largest card on the rack, with a big red satin heart in the middle, surrounded by a ruffle of white lace.
    To the man of my dreams,
it said on the card. And a verse on the inside read:
    My sun, my moon; my stars, my air; The music I hear everywhere. My summer, fall; my winter, spring; Darling, you're my everything.

Four

Tracks
    W ally decided to stay as far away from Caroline as possible because she was acting positively weird. Her walk was crazy, her talk was crazy, and her smile was craziest of all. She followed him around the playground at recess and tried to sit at his table at lunch. He simply surrounded himself with friends and didn't go anywhere if his buddies weren't with him.
    It was a relief each day to get home and away from her. A relief that it was February, and cold. He didn't have to go outside much, so he didn't risk running into her that way. The only cloud on the horizon was Valentine's Day. Valentine's parties always made him a little nervous, but he wasn't going to give valentines to anyone this year, not even the boys, so he told himself to quit worrying about it. All he had to do at the party was eat candy and cookies and watch the other kids goaround dropping cards into homemade valentine boxes. Big deal.
    He was sitting on the couch with Peter one evening, eating a bag of corn chips, when Josh walked by and said, “Hey, Wally, I want to use your room for a while. Okay?”
    Wally popped another corn chip in his mouth, thought for a moment, and asked, “What for?”
    “Just something private. Okay?”
    “Okay,” said Wally, but he couldn't imagine what. Josh and Jake had their own room, after all, and Josh had never asked to use Wally's room before. Wally and Peter went on watching TV and sharing the corn chips, and then Wally said what he was thinking: “I wonder what he wants it for?”
    “Probably to spy,” said Peter, thrusting one hand into the corn chips sack.
    Wally looked at Peter. “Why do you think that?”
    “It's what he said he was going to do, isn't it? Spy on the girls?”
    Wally frowned. It might make sense if Wally's bedroom were at the front of the house, where possibly, if you used binoculars, you could get a good view of the house across the river where the Malloys were staying. But Wally's bedroom faced the backyard, so that made no sense at all.
    A few minutes later Jake came by. “Have you seen Josh?” he asked.
    Wally couldn't think of what to say. If Josh had wanted Jake to know what he was doing, he would bedoing whatever he was doing in their bedroom, not Wally's.
    “He's spying,” said Peter.
    “What?” said Jake.
    “Yeah, that's probably what he's doing—spying on the girls,” said Wally.
    “Well, heck! Why didn't he tell me?” Jake muttered, and went on out to the dining room.
    A half hour later, after Peter had gone out to the kitchen for ice cream, Wally went upstairs and tried to open the door to his room. The door wouldn't budge, even though there was no lock on it. It felt as though someone had his feet braced against it.
    “Who is it?” came Josh's voice softly.
    “It's me,” Wally whispered back.
    “What do you
want
?”
    Wally thought about it. To get into his room, of course. “To … to get my socks,” he blurted out.
    “What do you mean? You've already got your socks. Go away. I'll be through after a while,” Josh told him.
    Wally went back downstairs and wished he hadn't done that. He liked it when Josh confided in him. Usually Josh and Jake did everything together and had their own secrets. He wanted his brother to know he could trust him.
    He wandered through the