PART FOUR

Out at the bus stop later that morning, Samuel tapped Marta on the shoulder, gesturing for her to follow him some distance from the milling crowd.

"What's up?" she asked with a smile.

"I have a suspicion," Samuel said. "But I have to know for sure. It wasn't Uncle Kurt who played all those pranks, was it. It was you."

"Me?" Marta exclaimed, her green eyes wide with innocence.

"I don't mean you, like you were acting alone," Samuel qualified. "I mean you as in you and Suzie and Edmund. You were all in on it together, weren't you."

Marta tried to keep up her expression of innocence, but her twitching tail gave the game away.

"OK," she said, grabbing her traitor tail and wrapping the spaded tip around her wrist. "I'll tell you the truth. But first I have something to give you."

"What?" asked Samuel, his curiosity growing as Marti kneeled down and started rummaging through her backpack.

"Ah, here it is," she said, rising gracefully back to her fuzzy, dinosaur-like feet and handing her find to Samuel. "It's your literature book. You forgot it in the sitting room last night when you were studying. I had a feeling you'd be needing it today."

"Oh," Samuel said. Obviously he hadn't been expecting her to hand him his own textbook. "Erm, thanks."

Quickly, he shrugged off his own backpack and zipped it open.

Released from the pressure it had been under, the pogo stick spring uncoiled with a BOING, the child-sized boxing glove it had been attached to hitting Samuel smack in the center of his forehead.

"Yow!" he exclaimed more in surprise than pain. He lost his balance and fell backwards, sprawling awkwardly on the grass.

Marti doubled over with gleeful laughter, her tail lashing freely behind her.

"Now you have your answer," she giggled. "April Fools!"

Samuel found he was chuckling despite himself as Marta held out a three-fingered hand and helped him climb back to his feet.

"I've certainly got to hand it to you," he said appreciatively. "You came up with some pretty good pranks."

"What do you mean 'pretty good'?" Marta sniffed, drawing herself up. "Did you see Dr. MacTaggert's face when she performed that amazing spit-take? That was priceless, that was. And what about Uncle Alistaire and the roller skates?"

"That was something. How did you do that?" Samuel asked curiously.

"We put magnets in his shoes," Marta grinned. "It was Edmund's idea, actually."

Samuel shook his head, respect clearly painted on his face.

"Fantastic," he said. "But one thing does trouble me. If you're the ones who came up with all these great pranks, why aren't you taking the credit for them? Why let your father get all the blame?"

Marta shrugged, slightly uncomfortable as she remembered the look on her father's face when he realized even her mother didn't believe he was innocent.

"Well," she said, "that's sort of our April Fools joke on him. You know, for trying to skip out on April Fools Day this year."

"But you are going to tell everyone the truth, aren't you?" Samuel said. "I mean, Auntie Kitty was pretty angry with him. Not to mention my father. And Dr. MacTaggert."

"Of course we're going to tell the truth!" Marti said. "We'll explain the whole gag at supper tonight, when they all get back from that chemical plant tour thing they have to do today."

"And until then?" Samuel asked. "Do you have anything else up your sleeves or was that boxing glove in my backpack the last of it?"

"That was the last of it," Marti said. "We set everything up last night. Why, are you worried?"

"Maybe a little," Samuel admitted, "but not for the reasons you think."

Marti frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," said Samuel, "that Uncle Kurt is smart. He's bound to figure out it was you three who set him up."

"So?" Marta asked. "That still doesn't mean the others will believe him."

"Maybe not," Samuel granted, "but it does mean he'll have the whole rest of the day to plot a suitable revenge. And you've already used up all your ammunition."

To Be Continued...