Pig City by Louis Sachar

one who’s taking a chance trusting you!”
    â€œWhat’s that’s supposed to mean?” Laura demanded.
    Gabriel backed off. “Sorry,” he said. “We’ll just have to trust each other.”
    â€œHow do I know it’s not another one of your tricks?” she asked.
    â€œI said, you can trust me. Look, just because you always lie, that doesn’t mean everybody else does.”
    â€œWhat? I never lie!”
    â€œOh, yeah, right!”
    â€œYou’re unbelievable,” said Laura. She turned herback on him, swishing her hair behind her.
    â€œLaura, look out!” shouted Allison.
    She instinctively covered her hat with her hand and crouched down to her knees.
    Howard charged into and fell over her.
    The members of Pig City rushed to her.
    â€œI’m okay,” she told them, getting up. She looked at Howard still on the ground, then at Gabriel. “Oh, yeah, I can trust you, can’t I?”
    â€œWhat are you, a Girl Scout?” he asked.
    â€œI just missed it, Gabe,” said Howard.
    Laura led Pig City away. Behind them, Monkey Town sang:
    â€œ
Monkey Town, Monkey Town
…”
    â€œMonkeys are mustard!” Aaron turned and shouted.
    Laura covered her ears and hummed until they were far enough away. “We need a song!” she declared.
    They all agreed.
    â€œâ€˜The Pig City National Anthem,’” said Nathan.
    They decided that Kristin should write it, since she was the best writer.
    â€œDo you think you can have it by tomorrow?” Laura asked her.
    â€œI guess so,” said Kristin.
    â€œGood. Tomorrow we all meet in the Dog House,” said Laura. “And I want everybody to bring mustard,”she added. “Lots of it. As much mustard as you can get your hands on.”
    Nathan looked at his hands. “That will be kind of messy, won’t it?”

29
Mustard!
    Laura opened the refrigerator door.
    â€œCan I make you something?” asked her mother.
    Laura pulled out a jar of mustard. “Is this all the mustard we have?” she asked. The large jar was more than half full.
    Her mother laughed. “How much do you need?”
    â€œA bunch of kids are coming over,” Laura explained.
    â€œWell, I think that should be enough,” said her mother. “Now what do you want
with
your mustard? I can put some corn dogs in the microwave.”
    â€œNothing, just mustard,” said Laura. She took it to the back door. “I’ll be in the Dog House.”
    â€œLaura!” said her mother.
    â€œWhat?”
    Her mother stared at her a moment then shook her head. “Nothing.” She shrugged. “When I was a girl I used to eat peanut butter straight from the jar.”
    â€œHow gross!” said Laura. She opened the back door.
    â€œOn your way, if you don’t mind, would you move the sprinkler to over by the rosebushes? Thank you.”
    The lawn sprinkler was in the middle of the yard, spewing water in all directions. Laura set the jar down, then reached behind a shrub and turned off the water. She moved the sprinkler next to the three yellow rosebushes at the side of the yard. She turned the water back on, then took her mustard to the Dog House. There’s a lot more you can do with mustard, she thought, besides put it on a corn dog!
    Within a half hour everyone arrived – with mustard.
    â€œWe had four different kinds,” said Aaron. “This one’s French mustard; this one has brown sugar and horseradish …”
    â€œYuck-ola,” said Allison.
    â€œThis one’s got wine and garlic,” Aaron continued, “and this one has dill.” He passed his unusual mustard around for the others to smell.
    â€œYour mother’s crazy,” said Debbie. “No offense.”
    â€œNow what’d she do?” asked Laura.
    â€œShe told me that next time, I didn’t have to bring my own mustard. She said she had plenty of mustard