Boys in Control by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page A

the only two people who were talking to each other were Jake and Eddie. They talked about the Clarksburg team—what they had heard about the pitcher and who was most likely to strike out.
    Behind them on the sidewalk, Caroline and Wally glared at each other, and Josh glared at Beth, while Peter strolled along at the rear, humming a little song and running his hand along a row of azalea bushes.
    Wally didn't think he could ever be friends with the Malloy girls again. If Caroline ever
—ever—
brought that picture of him in his bunny pajamas to school, with
whiskers
at the sides of his face, even, he would be laughed right out of fourth grade.
    He didn't know if he was angrier at the girls for not giving the pictures back or at the Bensons for leaving them behind in the first place. How could they haveforgotten
those
? You don't just take the most humiliating pictures of each other you can possibly imagine and then go off and leave them on top of a heating duct in your basement! You especially don't go off and leave them when a family of
girls
is going to rent your home for a year, especially girls like the Malloy sisters, who had caused Wally more trouble in the ten months they had been living there than the Bensons had caused Wally his whole life!
    And yet… had
he
thought to remind the Bensons to take those pictures with them? Had he even remembered where the pictures were hidden? Had his brothers thought to remind them either?
    When he was in his seat, leaning forward so that Caroline couldn't tickle him with her ruler, he tried to concentrate on the next week's assignments, which Miss Applebaum was explaining to the class. But when her back was turned and she began writing the new spelling words on the board, Wally heard a soft voice behind him saying, “Hippity-hop, little bunny, hippityhop,” and he felt his ears beginning to turn red. He didn't know which he disliked more at that moment— Caroline Lenore Malloy or his ears.
    At recess, Eddie and Jake went over by the fence to practice pitching and catching. Wally stood glumly off to one side with Josh, but their minds were on other things. Finally Josh spoke:
    “There's only one thing left to do: get embarrassing pictures of the girls. Then we'll say that if they don'tgive those pictures back, we'll put their pictures in that glass case by the auditorium, and by the time the principal sees them, everyone in the whole school will have seen them first.”
    “Yeah? How are we going to get embarrassing pictures of the girls? Hide in their bathroom? We
posed
for those pictures, remember?” said Wally.
    “Yeah, that's the problem,” said Josh. “I can't think of a way to do it either.”
    It was the day of the second baseball game, and cars full of excited players and their parents and friends were on their way to Clarksburg. It seemed to Wally that in every other car they passed was someone they knew. Horns honked. People waved to each other, and by the time they got to Clarksburg High School, the bleachers were beginning to fill up. Mr. Hatford, who had taken the day off work from the post office, and Mrs. Hatford, who had taken a day off from the hardware store, gave Jake a final pat on the back and a squeeze of the shoulder.
    “Good luck, Jake. Just play your best,” his mother said.
    “Get out there and show 'em what you've got, son,” said his father.
    It seemed to Wally that Eddie was in better form than she'd been for the first game. She seemed excited but not too nervous. Buckman was to bat first, and Eddie was first in line. She swung the bat, the ball sailedright over the head of the center fielder, and Eddie made it home. Clarksburg was beginning to look nervous, and the Buckman fans, especially the Malloys, clapped and cheered.
    But Clarksburg didn't have anything to be ashamed of, because they had just as good a batter on their team. Wally didn't study the clouds this time. He didn't hang over the edge of the bleachers looking for ants or think