“What the heck are you doing to my little brother?” Crummy Matt shouted, grabbing Bean by the shirt.
Up at the top of the driveway, Ivy turned off the water. Suddenly everything was very quiet.
“Um, nothing?” Bean asked.
Crummy Matt didn’t let go of her shirt. He turned to Dino. “What did she do?”
“She made me shut my eyes, and then she sprayed me!” Dino said. He shook his head and water flew in a circle. “I’m all wet!” he yelled.
“We all got wet!” said Sophie W. “She sprayed all of us, just to be mean!”
“I wasn’t being mean,” Bean tried to explain. “I was being bad.”
“But now she’s going to be good—forever,” said Ivy. She had come up behind Crummy Matt, and now she stood next to Bean. “She’ll never do it again.”
Crummy Matt sneered at them, first at Bean and then at Ivy. “Nobody messes with my little brother,” he growled.
“Yeah,” nodded Dino. “Get ’em, Matt.”
Crummy Matt nodded seriously. “Okay, bro.” He bent and whispered into Dino’s ear.
Dino smiled and ran up the driveway.
Crummy Matt held on to Bean’s shirt.
“She’ll never do it again,” Ivy said softly. “She’s going to reform. She’s sorry.”
Really, Bean was only a little sorry. It had been fun seeing Dino’s face right before she blasted him. But she nodded her head up and down.
Crummy Matt didn’t say anything. He just held on to Bean’s shirt, and soon Dino came rushing back down the driveway. In his arms, he carried a rope.
I could run away, thought Bean. I probably wouldn’t even have to rip my shirt very much.
“Bean!” Ivy whispered.
“Zip it,” snapped Crummy Matt. “Grab her, too,” he said to Sophie W.
Sophie W. grabbed one of Ivy’s arms, and Liana grabbed the other.
“Traitors,” said Ivy, but she didn’t say it very loud.
“Hup!” said Crummy Matt. He yanked on Bean’s shirt. “March!”
They stopped in front of a big tree at the side of Crummy Matt’s yard. Crummy Matt pushed Bean against the tree trunk, and Sophie W. did the same to Ivy. “Start with their feet,” Crummy Matt told Dino. Dino kneeled and began wrapping the rope around Ivy’s and Bean’s ankles.
All at once, Ivy started singing, “Join us in the paths of goodness, and the birds and beasts will love you!”
Bean shook her head. She didn’t think this was going to work.
“Reform!” sang Ivy, “and hummingbirds will flutter around your head!”
Crummy Matt didn’t care about birds. “Can it!” he barked.
“I’m thinking good thoughts about you anyway, Matt!” sang Ivy.
“Well, stop it,” said Matt.
“Time to be good,” sang Bean half-heartedly, “La-la-la.”
“Tie them tighter,” ordered Crummy Matt. Dino squeezed the rope around Ivy’s and Bean’s waists and arms. Round and round he went, with the Sophies and Liana helping. Crummy Matt watched.
“I know this great knot,” Dino said. “They’ll never get out.” He worked busily on the other side of Bean. “Done,” he said, standing up.
To heck with wolves and birds, Bean thought. She was tired of being bad. At least before, she had only been bad by mistake. I’ll just be normal, she decided, and she stuck out her tongue at Dino. “This is boring.”
“Oh yeah?” said Dino. He smiled wickedly. And then he picked up the hose.
