"Jethro! Hey, wait up!" The 10-year-old stopped in the driveway and watched as the redheaded girl came running across the lawn.

"How come you didn't pick me up?"

"You didn't give me a chance!" Jethro protested. "I just got out the door."

"Oh, right." She adjusted the straps of her schoolbag. "It's been so long since you were early that you forgot what to do."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, since you seem to have all the answers, how come you weren't out here first like you usually are?"

"The dog got sick while I was eating breakfast again and Mom wouldn't let me leave until my oatmeal was gone." She made a face. "You try finishing your breakfast when it looks like what the dog just brought up on the rug."

Jethro shrugged. "My dog never gets sick when I'm eating." He grinned. "Maybe yours thinks the oatmeal looks as gross as you do."

He was promptly rewarded with a playful slap on the back of his head, something his friend had seen on TV and picked up just for fun. He attempted to return the gesture, but she easily dodged out of reach.

"You aren't supposed to hit a girl." It was her standard when he tried that. So was his response.

"You're not a girl." He smiled at her. "You're my friend."

That was something Jethro didn't think he'd ever say when he'd first met Shannon McCarthy three months before. He hadn't been real happy to learn that the only kid in his class at his bus stop or even on the same bus route was a girl. He'd been even less thrilled when she consistently beat him in the weekly math quizzes. That wasn't exactly new ― most of the girls and some of the boys usually beat him in math. It was just that Shannon did it by getting 100 pretty much every time. Besides that, she read Nancy Drews. Probably Elsie Dinsmores too. When they'd been picked as Annette and Lucien in Treasures of the Snow for the Christmas play, he hadn't had much trouble pretending to dislike her. It was the scene where they were supposed to become friends that he had trouble with.

Then his parents had invited Shannon's parents over for supper, and naturally they'd brought her. The first hour, where they were supposed to be playing together in the backyard before supper, was a nightmare. Then, during the meal, her mother let it slip that Shannon was grounded. And when he asked her about it after, he'd found out that she'd snuck into the school after hours while sleeping over at a friend's who lived nearby and that they'd spied on the janitor. That sent her up a couple of notches in his estimation. When she told him that she read The Hardy Boys as well as Nancy Drew, that sent her up a little more, especially when she added that she wouldn't dream of touching Elsie Dinsmore. And when he'd shyly showed her how he'd started carving little wooden boats ever since reading about Lucien's carving hobby in the Treasures of the Snow play, and even showed her his most recent effort, and she'd actually been interested and hadn't laughed...well, that was it. They were friends for life.

They two fifth-graders walked towards the bus stop at the end of the street, passing the home of Mrs. Clark on their way past. Despite the cold January weather, the older woman was out in the front yard, cleaning up brush from the snow-covered flowerbeds. Shannon lifted up a hand in greeting.

"Good morning, Mrs. Clark!" she sang out. Jethro followed suit.

"Morning, Mrs. Clark!" The woman didn't turn around. It was the same response they'd gotten every day over the last two weeks, ever since she'd moved in. Jethro and Shannon exchanged glances.

"Nice and friendly, isn't she?" Shannon remarked. Jethro just rolled his eyes.

"You think?"

"Oh, you want to stay away from her."

Both children looked up. Collin Harms, an eighth-grader, was coming towards them from the bus stop.

"Why?" Shannon asked, her voice non-committal. Collin grinned.

"She's a murderer." He looked over their heads and back to where the older woman was still kneeling over the flowerbeds. "She poisons people. Buries them in her root cellar."

Jethro sighed, and Shannon just glared at the older boy. "Oh, give me a break."

"No, it's true. Remember when I was sick last week?"

Shannon snorted. "Of course ― it was the most peaceful bus ride I've ever had."

"Jackie Gunderson from my class stopped by with the homework assignments. On her way out, she stopped to talk to Mrs. Clark, and the old lady invited her inside for some hot chocolate." Collin leaned closer. "Jackie hasn't been back in school since."

"You're insane," Jethro snapped. "Jackie and her family are moving to Denver. Everybody knows that."

Collin shrugged. "They aren't supposed to go till next week."

"Well, maybe they went early," Shannon retorted. Just then the bus pulled up behind them. Collin shrugged again.

"I'm just saying, if I were you, I wouldn't keep trying to say 'Hi' to her. Because sooner or later..." He leaned right in next to their faces. "She's going to say 'Bye' to you." He quickly bounded up the bus steps and headed for the back.

Jethro stepped back to let Shannon get on first, then sat down in the front seat beside her. "You didn't actually believe him, did you?" he asked her.

Shannon gave him an indignant glance. "What? No!" Her eyes focused on his face. "Why? Did you?'

"Of course not," Jethro said quickly. Shannon nodded in satisfaction and turned to look out the window. Jethro glanced back over his shoulder at Collin, who was now laughing loudly with some other kids in the back of the bus. In a softer voice, Jethro repeated, "Of course not."