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in that box?
    We didn't have to wonder much longer, because just then Pete returned, lugging the item in question.
    "Where do you want it?" Pete asked Annie.
    "Anywhere is fine," Annie said.
    As soon as Pete set it down, Annie yanked open the top.
    "There!" she said happily, pulling out a very large book—the size of a coloring book, only about five hundred pages long—and placing it beside her, giving it a happy pat as though greeting an old friend. Then she pulled out a second copy of the exact same book and handed it to Durinda.
    Durinda turned pale when she saw what she had been given.
    The same thing happened with Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Rebecca, and Zinnia.
    The same thing also happened with Petal, except Petal added the bloodcurdling shriek "Oh no! Not Summer Workbook! "
    And then she fainted.

SIX
    "Could someone please tell me what Summer Workbook is," Pete said, as Durinda and Jackie and Mrs. Pete fanned Petal back to consciousness, "and why its appearance here has managed to knock out Petal?"
    " Summer Workbook is something our mother has us do," Marcia informed him.
    "It's a workbook," Georgia said. "She has us do it every summer. That's why it's called Summer Workbook. "
    "She started this when we were very young," Zinnia said. "Sometimes I tell myself that Summer Workbook is like getting a present."
    "Well, I don't tell myself that," Rebecca said. "In fact, I've told myself that the only good thing about this whole mess we've been in since New Year's Eve is that at least there won't be anyone around to make us do Summer Workbook. " Rebecca made a disgusted face and added, "There's that dream out the window."

    At all those repeated mentions of Summer Workbook, Petal fainted again.
    More fanning on the parts of Durinda, Jackie, and Mrs. Pete. We hoped their arms weren't getting tired.
    "I still don't understand," Pete said. Pete indicated the book next to Annie's side. "Can I see that, please?"
    With reluctance, Annie handed it over.
    " Summer Workbook.. "Pete read the title slowly, then he opened the cover and began paging through the book, reading out chapter headings along the way: "'Language Arts,' 'Spelling and Punctuation,' 'Reading Comprehension,' 'Vocabulary,' 'Mathematics,' 'Sample Tests.'" He flipped the book shut and studied the cover. "Hang on," he said. "It says here 'Grade Four.' "He looked up at us. "Isn't that the grade you're entering?"
    "Yes," Annie said.
    "I don't get it, then," Pete said. "Why would you spend the summer before fourth grade studying everything you're going to learn in fourth grade?"
    "Don't you see?" Annie said. "That's the beauty of Mommy. Why do you think we're all so smart?" Annie cast a glance at Petal before adding, "Well, most of us. It's because each summer we go through the complete workbook for the grade we're about to enter. That's why we can keep up with our classmates so easily, even though they're all a year older than we are."
    They're all —we had to silently chuckle at that. All constituted exactly two people, Will Simms and Mandy Stenko.
    We sighed. We missed Will Simms. It would be nice to see him again before school started.
    "Mommy always said," Jackie said, "that the smarter we became, the better our chances of taking over the world."
    "And Daddy always said," Marcia added, "that it's important to have superior math skills so that if you get a modeling contract, you'll be able to know right away if someone is cheating you."
    "Plus it's fun being smart," Annie said. "Both Mommy and Daddy said that."
    "That all sounds like eminently sensible advice," Pete said, "but how long is this Summer Workbook? It looks like it's at least five hundred pages."
    "It's actually five hundred and three," Annie said, "if you include the index."
    "And you expect," Pete said, "yourself and your sisters to get through five hundred and three pages of Summer Workbook by the time you go back to school in—what—one month from now?"
    "We go back to school on September second,"