Read The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline for Free Online Page B

pushing back her chair. "Have a good time in London. I'll see you when you get back."
    Gregor Keretsky smiled. "See you later, alligator," he said.
    "After while, crocodile," Caroline responded.
    It was a silly way to say goodbye. But it seemed very meaningful, between vertebrate paleontologists.

6
    On Monday morning Caroline threw some overnight things into her gym bag. Everyone had agreed that it would be easier if she spent the night at Stacy's instead of coming home across New York City after dinner. Stacy's parents didn't mind. They never minded. Into the top of the bag, she thrust something she had bought, on Saturday, for Stacy. She grinned as she wedged it in on top of the pajamas, poking it down between two furry bedroom slippers.
    "Bye, Steg," she said, as she returned her stuffed Stegosaurus to his hiding place on the closet shelf. No way would she take a stuffed animal to Stacy's overnight. Some things you don't tell even your best friend.
    The apartment was quiet. J.P. had already left for school; he refused to be seen riding the bus or walking on a public street with his sister.
    And her mother had left already for work. Most mornings she was still there when Caroline and J.P. ate their breakfast. But this morning she had gotten up at 5:00 A.M . She hadn't intended to. But it had something to do with her clock-radio, which J.P. had returned to her after a weekend of fooling with its insides. Caroline had heard bits and pieces through her closed bedroom door, very early, when it was still dark outside.
    "James Priestly Tate, Jr.!" she had heard her mother roar.
    After a moment she had heard a groggy response from her brother.
    "Would you please explain to me," said Joanna Tate angrily, "why, although I set this alarm for seven A.M. , it is still pitch dark outside? What time is it, anyway?"
    Caroline could hear the click of a lamp being turned on. A crack of light appeared under her door. She pulled the sheet over her head and listened sleepily.
    "It's 5:04," muttered J.P. Caroline could picture him looking at his digital watch with half-open eyes.
    "Wake up and look at this clock, J.P.," demanded her mother. "Just look! It says 11:22. The alarm is set for seven, the clock says 11:22, and you tell me it's actually 5:04. What have you done to my clock?"
    "Lerame see," said J.P. There was a long silence.
    "That's weird," Caroline could hear her brother say.
    "What's weird?" her mother asked.
    "Look at the calendar part," J.P. said. His voice was wide awake now. Caroline could tell that he was becoming interested in the mystery of the clock-radio. She could tell that her mother was not.
    "That calendar is irrelevant," Joanna Tate said, still angry. "I know what
day
it is. It's Monday, April third. What I want to know is why—"
    "But look, Mom," insisted J.P. "Where it says the date? It says February 19, 1997! I must have screwed that up somehow! I've entered a Time Warp!"
    "The only thing you are going to enter is Des Moines, Iowa, by bus, if you don't fix my clock-radio," said his mother icily.
    Caroline hugged Stegosaurus and drifted back to sleep. When she woke up, her mother had left early for work, and Beastly was headed out the door. The clock-radio sat on the coffee table, its back removed. Caroline looked at her own Timex; it was seven forty-five.
    "Why didn't you wake me up, you turkey? I don't even have time to eat breakfast!"
    J.P. smiled pleasantly at her and closed the door noisily behind him, without saying goodbye. Caroline threw one of her bedroom slippers at the closed door. Then she picked it up and hurried to pack her bag.
    Before she left the apartment, she wrote a note to her mother and left it on the kitchen table.
Dear Mom:
    Be sure to eat those
THINGS
for dinner tonight. I don't want to come home if they are still in the house.
    Love,

Caroline
    She couldn't bring herself to write the word "parsnips."

    "I'm so glad you're spending the night tonight," said Stacy happily as they walked