Читать книгу Magic In A Jelly Jar - Sally Hayes Tyler - Страница 9

“Aw, c’mon, Jenny. It won’t hurt. Promise.”

The girl knew he was lying. After all, he was a boy, and at seven, Jenny knew all about boys. He’d say anything to get what he wanted. And once he did, he’d be off to charm some other girl. Jenny’s mother had told her older sister all about boys one night when she didn’t know Jenny was listening.

“Please. I neeeed it,” he whined pitifully.

She’d heard about that before, too. “I told you—no.”

“Give you a quarter.”

“I heard you offered Betsy fifty cents!”

“’Kay. Fifty cents.”

That made her stop and think. Fifty cents would buy her a soda after school. Or a candy bar. Curiosity made her ask, “But what d’you want with a dumb old tooth, anyway?”

“Shh,” Luke said. “It’s a secret.”

Jenny tried her perfect-princess smile on him. “You can tell me. I’m your best friend.”

“But you’re a girl,” he said, as if it was the ultimate insult.

“I’m still your friend.” Her bottom lip started to tremble.

“’Kay, you’re my friend. Now, do we have a deal?”

“Quarters first,” she insisted, because she’d done business with boys before.

Luke fished them out of his pocket and handed them over.

“Promise it won’t hurt?”

“’Course not. Mine didn’t hurt a bit.” He showed her a gap-toothed grin. “B’sides, it’s already loose, right?”

Jenny nodded, just starting to get scared. She’d never lost a tooth before, and she knew she was being a sucker to give this one to Luke for fifty cents. After all, the tooth fairy would probably give her at least two dollars. Some of the kids in the class who’d already lost a tooth had gotten three dollars.

But Luke was up to something, and he always had the best ideas. He must want this tooth for something really important, especially to give up fifty cents.

“Open up,” Luke said, coming toward her with one of the laces from his shoe dangling from his hand.

Next thing she knew, Luke had nearly his whole hand in her mouth trying to tie that lace around her tooth. Jenny tried to yell, but that didn’t work. She was gagging, instead. She tried to tell Luke she’d changed her mind, but he kept struggling with the shoelace and her loose tooth.

Finally she got so mad she bit him.

Luke screamed and jerked his hand out of her mouth.

Jenny looked down and saw her tooth stuck in the side of Luke’s thumb, and then she screamed, too.