"I have to be with two girls?" asked Nicky. "Ew!" Nicky's eight, and like most eight-year-olds, he pretends that girls are poison. In reality, he loves his sisters and likes the attention he gets from them. Vanessa is nine, and she's kind of dreamy. She wants to be a poet when she grows up. Margo, who's seven, is much more practical than Vanessa. In fact, at times she likes to try to run the Pike household. She's been in a bossy phase lately.

"And the triplets will be the last team," Mal went on. She would have liked to separate the triplets and put them on different teams, but she knew they wouldn't stand for it. Jordan, Adam, and Byron, who are ten, stick together like glue. They're identical in looks only, though. Adam and Jordan are both crazy about sports, while Byron is more quiet and sensitive. Jordan takes piano lessons. Adam wants to learn how to scuba dive someday. The triplets can be a handful, but that day they were no match for Becca.

"I don't wanna go on a scabenger hunt," said Becca as soon as Mal had finished making up the teams.

"It's scavenger hunt," said Mal. "And I bet

you don't even know what one is. It'll be fun, I promise. See, what we have to do is find the things on these lists. The first team to find all their items wins." Mal had made up three lists, with pretty simple things on them. This was going to be a short scavenger hunt.

She passed out the lists. "Oh, no," said Margo, looking at her team's list. "Where are we going to find a feather duster?"

"I know!" said Nicky. He put his head next to Margo's and started to whisper excitedly. The scavenger hunt was on.

Mal said Becca followed her around the way a puppy follows its mother. She showed no interest in the scavenger hunt; all she wanted was for Mal to pay attention to her. Mal tried to involve her in the game. "Becca," she said, "where to you think we might find a red sock?"