Read Online Blue Ribbon Blues by Jerry Spinelli - Free Book Online

1
911
    The policeman got into his car and drove off. Mrs. Pepperday waved from the porch. “Thank you, Officer! Have a nice day.”
    When the police car was out of sight, Mrs. Pepperday stopped smiling. She went into the house and stood at the foot of the stairway. “Tooter!” she called. She waited a moment. In her hand was a paintbrush, tipped with blue paint. She waved the brush in the air. “Tooter!” she shouted again, louder this time.
    Chuckie came running. “Is Tooter in trouble again, Mom?”
    “One guess,” said Mrs. Pepperday.
    Mrs. Pepperday stormed up the stairs. Chuckie followed close behind. They found Mr. Pepperday in his office. He was sitting at his computer, writing.
    “Have you seen Tooter?” asked Mrs. Pepperday.
    Mr. Pepperday turned around. “No. What’s she done now?”
    “She called 911, that’s what. A policeman was here.”
    Just then a voice came from above. “You dumb chicken!”
    “She’s in the attic!” Chuckie cried.
    Mrs. Pepperday and Chuckie climbed the stairs to the attic. They were joined by Harvey, their rusty, shaggy dog.
    In the attic they found Tooter and Eggbert. Eggbert was two months old. Eggbert had been hatched from an egg. Eggbert was a chicken.
    Tooter made a stern face. She pointed at Eggbert and said, “Sit!”
    Eggbert ran off to the corner. Harvey sat.
    Tooter growled at Harvey. “Not you, dog.” She threw up her hands. “See, Mom? This dumb chicken won’t do anything I say.”
    Mrs. Pepperday made a stern face of her own. “Is that why you called 911?”
    “Of course,” said Tooter, surprised that her mother would ask.
    “911 is for emergencies.”
    Tooter sighed. “Mom, you think I don’t know that? Look—” She pointed to Eggbert, who was toddling across the bare wood floor. “That chicken is two months old and
still
won’t obey its mother. He hid under the old bed and wouldn’t come out. If that’s not an emergency, what is?”
    Mrs. Pepperday held up a finger. “One, you are
not
that chicken’s mother. You weresimply there when it was hatched.” She held up another finger. “Two, a chicken is not a dog. You can’t teach it tricks. And three, hiding under a bed is
not
a police emergency.”
    She poked a finger in Tooter’s face. “
Don’t
do it again.”
    Chuckie pointed and grinned. “Yeah,
don’t
do it again.”
    Tooter grabbed Chuckie’s finger. She put it in her mouth. Mrs. Pepperday warned, “Tooter, don’t you dare bite.”
    Tooter rolled her eyes.
    Harvey arfed.
    At last Tooter released the finger. “I wasn’t going to bite it anyway,” she said. Chuckie and Harvey ran down the stairs.
    Mrs. Pepperday went down a step, then turned back to Tooter. “Would you like some advice from your mother?”
    Tooter nodded.
    “Don’t holler at Eggbert. And especially don’t call him names. Mothers don’t do things like that.”
    “But you said I’m not his mother.”
    Mrs. Pepperday smiled. “I didn’t say you couldn’t pretend.”

2
Mama Tooter
    Tooter sat down on her father’s desk.
    “What are you writing today, Dad?” she asked.
    Mr. Pepperday wrote books for children.
    “A new story,” he said. He rested his fingers on the keyboard. “Just started it.”
    “What’s it about?”
    “Oh,” he said, “it’s about a girl.”
    “What’s her name?”
    “Haven’t decided yet.”
    “What’s the story about?”
    Mr. Pepperday folded his hands over hisstomach. “Well, I haven’t figured it all out yet. I think I’ll start with the girl moving from her home in the suburbs to a farm in the country.”
    Tooter’s eyes opened wide. “Dad, that’s me!”
    Mr. Pepperday laughed. “Not really. Remember, it’s just a story. It’s made up. It’s not real life.”
    Tooter’s smile drooped. “I wish you could make up my real life for me.”
    Mr. Pepperday squeezed her knee. “What’s the matter, Toot?”
    Tooter slumped. “Eggbert doesn’t like me.”
    “How do you know what Eggbert is