Pee Wee Pool Party

“N
o more pencils, no more books!” cried Roger White. “No more teachers’ dirty looks!”

Running across the school playground, Roger crumpled up his math folder and his report card and threw them over his head.

“He’s littering,” said Mary Beth Kelly to her best friend, Molly Duff.

“And he can’t throw away a report card!” said Molly.

“I just did!” shouted Roger. “School’s out at last. I can throw away anything I want.”

It was June. Summer had arrived and so had vacation time. The Pee Wees were looking forward to summer vacation. Roger most of all.

The other Pee Wees liked school. And they liked their Pee Wee meetings, and earning badges. They met all year long at the home of their leader, Mrs. Peters. There was no vacation from being a Pee Wee, and Molly was glad. She loved being a Pee Wee.

“My mom says Roger is going to grow up to be an airhead,” said Tracy Barnes.

“He is one already,” said Rachel Myers. “He gets bad marks because he never pays attention in school and he never does his homework.”

Roger was making faces at the girls now,
and taking off his sneakers to walk barefoot. “I’m going fishing with my dad every single day,” he boasted.

“He can’t go fishing every day,” corrected Patty Baker. “His dad has to go to work some days.”

“We’re going to California with Ashley for two weeks,” said Kenny Baker, Patty’s twin brother. Ashley was their cousin and a temporary Pee Wee when she was in town. In California she belonged to the Saddle Scouts.

“We’re going to Disneyland while we’re there,” added Patty.

“We went to Disneyland last year,” said Jody George. Jody was in a wheelchair. Molly thought it would be hard to go to Disneyland in a wheelchair, and go on rides and in castles and on boats. But nothing seemed to stop Jody. He did everything the other Pee Wees did.

The Pee Wees stopped in the park and sat down on the benches in the sun.

“Summer feels good on your hair,” said Lisa Ronning, leaning back and closing her eyes.

“Guess what?” said Jody. “We’re getting a big swimming pool put in our backyard.”

“We have one of those,” said Rachel. “It has a little ladder and everything. In winter we take it apart and store it.”

“Ours is in the ground,” said Jody. “It’s going to have a diving board.”

Jody never liked to hurt anyone’s feelings, so he turned to Rachel and added, “But it’s probably just like yours, otherwise.”

“No it isn’t,” said Sonny Stone. “Pools that are down in the ground are a lot better. They’re just like pools on TV.”

“There’s nothing the matter with our pool,” said Rachel, crossing her arms.

“Ho,” said Roger, “yours is just like a big
wading pool compared to the real ones like Jody’s getting.”

Rachel was turning red. She didn’t like to be second best.

The Pee Wees all stared at Jody. Lots of them had wading pools. And there was a lake in town. And a public swimming pool. But no one had a real in-the-ground pool in the backyard!

“What will you do with all the dirt you dig up?” asked Tim Noon.

“They take it away, I guess,” said Jody.

“Everybody’s got pools in California,” said Ashley.

“Well, not many people here do,” said Rachel.

“Can we swim in your pool?” asked Kevin Moe. Kevin and Jody were two of Molly’s favorite Pee Wees. She had wanted to marry Kevin. Then Jody had joined their troop. She liked him too. Since she couldn’t marry both of them, she decided to wait till she grew up to see what would happen.

“Sure,” said Jody. “All my friends can come. After all the pipes are in and it’s finished, I’m going to have a big pool party.”

Jody was very generous. Molly knew he would share his pool with everyone.

“In California we have these big pool parties, with cold drinks and lots of food and stuff,” said Ashley.

“We do that too,” said Rachel.

A party with all her friends sounded wonderful to Molly. And there was a new badge to earn. Molly couldn’t wait! She was glad school was out, and nothing but fun was ahead!

T
he next Tuesday was the Pee Wees’ meeting day, and the weather was so nice that they met in Mrs. Peters’s backyard instead of her basement. Most of them had on shorts and T-shirts. They sat at the picnic table and told all the good deeds they had done since the last meeting. Then they played with baby Nick, Mrs. Peters’s baby. When Lucky, Mrs. Peters’s dog, brought them the Frisbee, they threw it for him. He was the Pee Wees’ mascot.

Mrs. Stone came out of the house with chocolate cupcakes. They had red sprinkles on them. Mrs. Stone was Sonny’s mother and the assistant troop leader of the Pee Wees.

Mrs. Peters said, “While you’re eating your cupcakes, I have some announcements to make. Are you all listening?”

Some of the Pee Wees were listening. Some of them, including Roger, were not. Sometimes announcements were boring, like the ones about planning rummage sales to earn money for trips. Or the ones about keeping a nature journal. That was too much like school, although Molly loved to write and she loved to read too, and to draw pictures. But most of the Pee Wees didn’t like their meetings to feel like school.

As the Pee Wees munched their cupcakes, Mrs. Peters made some boring announcements, and Roger made snoring noises.

But when the announcements were over, Mrs. Peters said, “And now we’re going to talk about our new badge!”

Roger stopped snoring, and the Pee Wees sat up straight and clapped and cheered. Sonny whistled through his teeth. Badges were definitely the best thing about being a Pee Wee.

“As you all know, it’s summer at last,” said their leader. “And so we will be earning a summer badge. A badge for something that we only do in the summer. Or at least, most of the time we do, because it’s an outside activity.”

“A picnic?” shouted Sonny.

“How can you get a badge for a picnic, dummy?” said Roger, giving Sonny a punch. “Hey, then even the ants could get a badge!” Roger began crawling around on the ground like a large ant. He pretended to crawl up Sonny’s leg. Sonny gave him a kick.

Mrs. Peters frowned. She didn’t like it when the Pee Wees were rowdy.

“It’s better than a picnic,” she said. “It’s a swimming badge!”

Now Rachel’s hand was waving. Everyone knew what she was going to say!

“Mrs. Peters, I have a pool of my own. It will be easy for me to get my badge.”

“Well, fine, Rachel, that will be very handy for you.”

“I already know how to swim,” said Rachel. “I took lessons when I was three, and I can do the dog paddle and the breaststroke and I can even do the jellyfish float.”

Now other Pee Wees were waving their hands.

“I can swim too,” said Roger. “I can swim as good as a lifeguard!”

Molly noticed that Jody did not raise his hand. He did not tell Mrs. Peters about his new pool. Jody was not a show-off. But Mrs.
Peters should know about his new pool! Someone else should tell her!

Just then, Kevin did.

“Jody’s getting a new pool,” he said. “A real one.”

“And we’re all invited to swim in it!” said Lisa.

“And he’s having a pool party when it’s done,” said Tracy.

“Wonderful!” said Mrs. Peters. “The timing is very good! It will be just in time for our new badge!”