A Spy Among the Girls by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

pulse! Did someone call an ambulance?”
    “What
happened
?” Beth asked accusingly.
    “I thought… maybe she…well, sort of tried to kill herself,” Jake said, pointing to the knife, and Beth screamed.
    “Wait a minute,” came Eddie's voice.
    Uh-oh,
thought Caroline. Through half-closed eyes she could see Eddie leaning close to her. She heard her sister sniff. Then she saw Eddie reach out with one finger, touch her head, then put the finger in her mouth.
    “Raspberry syrup!” Eddie said, and jerked the knife out of her sister's hand. “Caroline, you creep, sit up!”
    Instantly Caroline rolled over on her back and shrieked with laughter, clutching her chest.
    “Caroline!” Jake said in disgust.
    Eddie started to giggle, then Beth, and then the two older girls collapsed in laughter on the ground beside Caroline, while the boys looked on, embarrassed. All but Peter, who was so happy Caroline was alive that he piled on top of the girls, hooting with merriment.
    “Man, oh man, did she ever trick
you
!” Eddie said, pointing to the guys.
    “Well, she fooled you, too!” Josh said.
    Beth turned on him. “Oh, what do you know about anything?” she snapped, suddenly jumping to her feet. “I don't know how you can stand there and face me, Josh Hatford, after that horrible note you sent.”
    “What?” cried Josh.
    “So you thought I really liked you, didn't you? You thought I was your girlfriend. Well, how do you know I wasn't just using you to spy on you guys? How do you know I wasn't just being nice so you'd tell me what you were planning next?”
    “What
?” yelled Jake. “Josh, you didn't!”
    “All that talk of how you guys were going to trick us this spring. All the things Jake said he'd do to make us miserable come summer. We know all your plans now, and that note you wrote didn't bother me a bit.”
    “
What
note?” asked Josh. “I didn't send you any note.” He stared at Beth. Eddie and Caroline were staring too. “Do you mean the note Jake wrote to Caroline?”
    Beth's mouth fell open. “That was for
Caroline
?”
    “Why was Jake writing a note to
me
?” asked Caroline. “I thought Wally wrote it.”
    There was the sound of running feet below as Wally came tearing across the swinging bridge, and then, in the distance, a siren. Two sirens.
    “Oh, no!” cried Josh, turning to face Wally, who came running back up the hill. “What did you do?”
    “I ran home and called 911,” said Wally, panting.
    All seven of them looked at each other in horror as a patrol car came speeding across the road bridge at the end of Island Avenue and, with lights flashing and siren wailing, turned up the Malloys’ drive.
    Almost before it had stopped, two officers jumped out and came running over to the group.
    “What's the problem here?” the first officer asked. “Where's the girl who was hurt?”
    Caroline glanced around in dismay at the accusatory looks on the faces around her and tried to decide whether to admit it up front or faint for real.
    “Is this the girl?” the officer asked, looking at the raspberry sauce that was drying on Caroline's cheek.
    “That's her, and it was all a big joke!” Peter chortled, trying to be helpful.
    The policeman looked at his partner and then back at Caroline. “Didn't we get a report not too long ago about a missing child who had been lured over here to see an abaguchie?”
    An ambulance pulled up next, and the driver got out.
    “Nobody's hurt,” the policeman called. “Just kids horsing around.”
    The ambulance driver looked disgusted.
    “What
is
it with you kids? You want to get arrested for turning in a false report?” asked the second officer.
    Wally stepped forward. “I did it,” he said, eager to have the whole mess over with. “I really thought she was hurt. I wasn't trying to trick you. I thought she tried to kill herself because of the note Jake wrote to her.”
    “You thought she'd kill herself over
Jak
e
?” Eddie screeched. “Get