Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Author:Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Roxie went back a third time. This time, when she lifted a sack, she saw that the box beneath was filled with plastic bottles of water. Quickly, Roxie took five of the bottles. She stuck one down the waistband of her skirt, tucked one under her left arm, one under her right, and with a bottle in each hand, she crept back out of the tent and started off through the sea grass.

Looking toward the sea, however, she saw only one man on the rocks. Her heart leaped, and she stood frozen where she was. But then the second man’s head appeared a little farther on, and their backs were bent over their fishing gear. Roxie moved on, her footsteps in time with her beating heart.

When she was quite sure she could not be seen, she stopped and took the cap off one of the bottles. Slowly, slowly, she drank four long gulps. Then she walked on to where the hooligans were waiting for her. When they saw her coming, they licked their parched lips and grabbed for the bottles, but Roxie held up one hand. “Only four swallows each,” she warned them.

“Yeah? Who says?” said Simon, grabbing one for himself.

“I says!” said Helvetia, whacking him on the head. “Four swallows each, just like she said. When it’s gone, it’s gone.”

One by one, each hooligan took a turn with the bottle, the rest watching and counting the number of swallows.

“Five! You took five, Simon!” Smoky Jo said accusingly.

“So what?” said Simon. He handed the bottle back, however. “I’m hungry, I’m tired, and my clothes are still wet.”

“Mine too,” said Freddy Filch. “I hate this place.”

“How long are we going to be here, anyway?” squeaked Smoky Jo in her not-quite-so-mean little mouse voice.

“Someone should be looking for us by now,” said Roxie. “The teacher will have missed us in class yesterday, and our parents know we didn’t come home from school.”

“My parents won’t miss me!” said Helvetia, putting the cap back on the bottle. “I’ll bet they said, ‘Good riddance.’ ”

“Yeah,” said Freddy. “I wouldn’t be surprised if my dad didn’t even know I was gone.”

“Mine either,” said Smoky Jo.

Roxie sat down at the end of a log. Her clothes were wet too, and she was hungry, just like the rest of them. But she knew for sure that her parents missed her. She knew for sure that someone wanted her back. And that meant she had something the hooligans didn’t: the best reason to go home.

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