Judy Moody Declares Independence (9 page)

Star-spangled bananas!

After all the excitement, Judy was feeling much too independent to do homework. She got out her Judy Moody Declaration of Independence. This was going straight into her scrapbook.

Judy climbed up to her top bunk. She spread out all the stuff from her trip to Boston. In her scrapbook, she pasted, taped, glue-sticked, or Band-Aided all her souvenirs from Boston.

Last but not least, she turned the page and pasted sugar packets with Ben Franklin sayings onto the page. And she made up a new one:

The next day, the story of the not-so-midnight ride of Judy Moody was all over Virginia Dare School.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

How Judy Moody rode like Sybil and

   Paul Revere.

Every time Stink told the story, it got a little wilder. Some heard she was chased by wild wolves. Some heard she was kidnapped by a garbage truck. Some heard she fell and broke her leg but kept on riding.

Stink even made Judy a gold medal with a blue ribbon.

After dinner that night, Judy climbed up to the top bunk to paste the ribbon into her scrapbook.

The scrapbook was not there! As in G-O-N-E, gone!

She looked under her reading pillow. She looked under lumps of covers and heaps of stuffed animals. She looked under Mouse.

Judy looked all around her room. The scrapbook was missing. The scrapbook was stolen! By Number One Scrapbook Thief, right here in the Moody house.

“Stink!” Judy ran into his room. “I did not say you could take my scrapbook. Give it!”

“I didn’t take your scrapbook,” said Stink.

“After I saved your life and everything!” said Judy. “Robber! Stealer! Scrapbook-napper!”

“Am not! I swear on Toady’s life I didn’t take it.”

“If you didn’t take it, and I didn’t lose it, that leaves Mouse. And Mouse can’t read!”

“Maybe Mom and Dad took it,” Stink said. “Let’s go ask.”

“Let’s go
spy,
” said Judy.

Judy and Stink tiptoed down the stairs without too many creaks. They slid across the floor without too many squeaks. They slunk past the living room, past the kitchen, to Mom’s office.

“Stink, you hold the flashlight. I’ll look around.” She pawed through the trash. She searched on top of the file cabinet and in the bookshelves.

“Uh-oh!” Stink said. “Check it out!” A message was flashing across Mom’s computer screen. It said:

“How can we read it? It’s in Russian,” Stink said, shining the light on the screen.

“It’s not Russian,” said Judy. “It’s secret code. SPY code. It looks just like Dr. Church’s secret code in Dad’s Freedom Trail book from Boston. Rare!”

“The spy guy? Sweet! We can be code busters, just like him.”

“Yep.” Judy ran and got her book. She looked it up in the back. “The code is A=Z, B=Y, and C=X. All you have to do is use the alphabet backward.”

They looked at the letters again: XLOW UVVG ZIV MLG HDVVG. Judy figured it out. “COLD FEET ARE NOT SWEET. Hmm. It’s some sort of clue. Not sweet . . . not sweet.”

“How about the cookie jar?” Stink asked.

“It says NOT sweet, Stink.”

“How about socks? Socks aren’t sweet. And they help cold feet.”

“Brilliant!” Judy and Stink dashed upstairs, where Judy rummaged through her sock drawer. Sure enough, there was another clue sticking out of her Screamin’ Mimi’s ice-cream socks.

“It’s like a treasure hunt.” She opened the note and it read: QFWB GRNVH GDL, YLGS ZIV BLF. She took out her pencil and figured it out in her notebook. “This one says, JUDY TIMES TWO, BOTH ARE YOU.”

They thought about it for a long time. They were both stumped. Then Judy got a brainstorm! “There’s only one me,” said Judy.

“You can say that again,” said Stink.

“Unless . . . I look in a mirror!” Judy and Stink raced for the bathroom. On the bathroom mirror, a message was written in soap crayons: Z SLFHV ULI NLFHV.

Stink helped Judy work out the code. “A HOUSE FOR MOUSE!” yelled Judy.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Stink.

“Think,” said Judy. “What else could be a house for Mouse?”

“Under your bed?” asked Stink. “Or your top bunk?”

“I looked there,” said Judy. “Wait! I got it! Where is Mouse whenever we can’t find her?”

“The dirty-laundry basket!” said Stink. He ran downstairs after his sister. Judy raced over to the pile of laundry on the washer and dug around. “Found it!” she said, holding up her scrapbook.

They flipped through pages of pictures and pebbles, pressed leaves and pencil rubbings, tea bags and sugar packets and Band-Aids, her Declaration of Independence, the postcard from Tori.

She flipped to the last page. She, Judy Moody, was gobsmacked! Glued to the page was a fancy certificate on old-timey paper that looked like parchment.

Taped to the same page was a shiny new quarter.

“Holy macaroni!” said Judy. “Look! A Maine quarter with a lighthouse! Now I have liberty AND the purse of happiness.”

“And with more allowance, you can pay me back a lot faster!” said Stink.

“Wait till I write to Tori and tell her. My Declaration of Independence really worked!”

“Except for the getting your own bathroom thing.”

Judy Moody hugged her scrapbook, then Stink. She found Mom and Dad and hugged them, too. She even kissed Mouse on her wet pink nose.

“Independence doesn’t end here,” said Mom. “We’re going to expect you to keep being responsible.”

“And, of course, you still always have to do your homework,” Dad told her.

“And be nice to me!” said Stink.

“Maybe I could also stay up a teeny-weeny bit late? Just for tonight?” asked Judy. “On account of how independent I am now and how I’m not going to be treated like a baby anymore and stuff.”

“Fifteen minutes,” said Dad.

“And just for tonight,” said Mom.

Fifteen whole minutes!

“No fair!” said Stink. “Then I’m declaring independence from brushing my teeth! Give me liberty or give me bad breath!”

“One independent kid is enough for now,” said Mom. Dad laughed.