The Copycat Caper by John V. Madormo

Author:John V. Madormo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Pitcher Frame Caper

What followed was the familiar and painful sound of grinding gears. The overhead garage door was opening.

“It’s my parents,” I yelled. “What are they doing here?”

Scarlett froze. Henry immediately began folding up lawn chairs.

“We’ll never make it,” I said. I had to think quickly. I somehow had to convince my parents that we were in the garage for anything but a client meeting. But what? What would the three of us possibly be doing here? And then just as I caught a glimpse of the headlights, I had it. I discretely tore off some pages from my notepad and handed one to each of the others.

“What’s this for?” Henry said.

“We’re rehearsing.”

“For what?” he said.

“The play, dummy,” Scarlett snapped.

As soon as my dad spotted us, he hit the brakes. Through the windshield, I could see the looks on their faces. It was somewhere between surprise and disgust. I needed to douse this fire as quickly as possible. I jogged over to the passenger side of the van just as my mom’s window was sliding down.

She shook her head. “Charlie, please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

“What do you mean?”

My dad leaned over. “Your little agency? I thought I made myself very clear that—”

“No, no, no,” I said. “That’s not what we’re doing.” I turned to the others. “Scarlett, please inform my parents what’s going on here.”

She strolled over to the open window. “I hope it’s okay, Mrs. Collier. We were just practicing for the school play. Charlie said it wouldn’t be a problem.”

My mom sighed. “It’s no problem at all, sweetie.” She glanced at my dad and smiled, then turned to us. “How come you kids are out here? Wouldn’t you be more comfortable in the house?”

“Well,” I said, “you see, Gram’s watching TV . . . and she tends to crank the volume if you haven’t noticed.”

“Tell me about it,” my dad said.

My mom grabbed his arm. “Why don’t we park on the street so the kids can continue practicing.”

Henry scooted over. “Oh, that’s okay. We were just finishing up. Weren’t we, guys?”

We then proceeded to break down the lawn chairs and card table and waved as we exited via the side door.

“That was close,” Henry said.

“Yeah, I know,” I said. “We’d better break this thing up. I’ll talk to you at school on Monday.”

By the time Henry and Scarlett had left the backyard, my parents had emerged from the garage.

“How come you guys are back so early?” I said.

“I learned tonight that sushi and I do not agree,” my mom said. “I wasn’t feeling well, and so I asked your dad to bring me home.”

“How do you feel now?” I asked.

“Better, thanks.” My mom put her arm around me. “I didn’t realize that Henry and Scarlett were in the play too.”

I nodded.

“That’s nice.” She grinned. “And to think that I share a last name with a handsome leading man.” She hugged me.

It was right at that moment, when I saw how proud she was of me, that I thought I had better come clean.

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