"I wasn't! I really, really wasn't. I was just playing with her, my dad and I do it to each other all the time. It really was just a joke! I didn't mean to scare her so bad or to ruin your book. It was just to be funny. Please don't get mad at me! I'll pay for it! I have $35 with me and I'll do some volunteer work, but please don't lock me out of the library! I need to be able to get books for school and study." I gazed imploringly into Galinda Good's blue eyes and practically made "the puppy pout". For the love of mustard I might as well have said "pretty please with a cherry on top". But fear of what my father would do to me if I got suspended from the library for making trouble, far outweighed any fear of embarassment.
Galinda's soft smile got softer. "Do you realize how many people you frightened?"
I gulped and nodded slightly. Most of them had stuck around to watch my humiliation and punishment.
Then her smile changed into a proud, happy, believing smile and I started to breath again. "I don't think you meant to cause any trouble."
"VAT?!" Seragent Helga wailed.
"Do you promise you won't do it again?" I nodded an enthusiastic affirmative. "Then you pay for the book and we'll call it even, alright?" The last was more directed at Maddie then me but we both agreed; following Galinda to the front while Helga stood howling about the whole arrangement and cursing all youth.
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