Pedal Power Read online

  “Jody never complains about anything,” said Lisa. “Even though he can’t walk.”

  “I wouldn’t complain either,” said Tracy, “if I had a wheelchair to ride in and a bike with a motor.”

  “That doesn’t make up for not walking,” said Mary Beth.

  “It does too,” said Tracy.

  Molly agreed that Jody had some neat stuff. But it didn’t make up for never being able to walk in your whole entire life. No matter what, Jody was someone everybody liked. He didn’t hurt people’s feelings the way Roger did.

  “I’m tired,” cried Kenny. “It’s hard going up all these hills!”

  “That’s because you don’t have a bike like mine,” said Sonny. “I can just coast up the hills with my feet off the pedals.”

  To show everyone, Sonny put his feet up on the handlebars. His bike went up the curb and hit a bush. Off he tumbled into the hedge.

  Everyone stopped while Mr. Peters and Mr. Barnes picked Sonny up out of the bush and brushed him off.

  Mrs. Stone gave him a talk about stunt riding. “A bike shouldn’t be used for showing off,” she said.

  “His mom always scolds him, but he never changes,” sighed Patty.

  Sonny had torn his pants and there was dirt on his shirt, but he seemed to be okay.

  “I think it’s time for a break,” said Mrs. Noon. “Let’s stop in the park and have our snack and a refreshing cup of water.”

  In the park there was a sandbox for baby Nick and swings for the Pee Wees.

  “I can’t feel my feet!” said Mary Beth when she got off her bike. None of the other Pee Wees could either. They limped and hopped and rubbed their feet until the feeling came back.

  After the snacks and a quick rest, the bike hike continued.

  “One good thing about bikes,” laughed Mr. Peters, “is that we don’t have to stop for gas!”

  The Pee Wees rode up and down more hills. They stopped to talk to some cows that stood behind a fence watching the bikers. The cows chewed and watched, watched and chewed.

  “All they do is eat,” said Lisa.

  “And then we eat them,” said Roger.

  The Pee Wees glared at Roger. “I think it’s awful to eat animals!” said Rachel. “And to wear fur coats.”

  “My dad and I put these great big thick steaks on the grill all summer,” said Roger, rubbing his stomach.

  “Oh, gross!” said Rachel. “Eating cows should be banned!”

  Mr. Peters moved the troop along before the argument could get worse.

  Molly didn’t know what to think. She often got mixed up about what she believed. She wouldn’t want to hurt a cow, or any animal. But she didn’t say no when her dad wanted to get take-out hamburgers. She sighed. Life was so confusing. She wished there were some rules that she could follow that would always be right.

  “There’s the Countryside Eatery!” said Jody, pointing up ahead. “We get to eat lunch!”

  “I’m ready,” said Mary Beth. “All that exercise has made me really hungry.”

  “I’m starving,” said Molly. She was thinking about how good a great big juicy hamburger would taste, with ketchup and mustard and onions and tomato.

  But then she thought of the cows’ faces and knew it would be a hard thing to order.

  CHAPTER 10

  Roger to the Rescue

  There were bike racks in front of the restaurant.

  “They must have known we were coming!” said Mrs. Noon.

  The Pee Wees neatly parked and locked their bikes in the racks. Molly had a hard time getting her lock to snap shut.

  Some of the Pee Wees had hamburgers (Roger had two) and some had pizza. Molly had a veggie burger and french fries.

  “Hey, I want a great big sundae for dessert!” said Roger. “With gallons of hot fudge!”

  “Your teeth are going to fall out,” said Rachel.

  “Then I’ll get false ones like my dad,” said Roger.

  It turned out all the Pee Wees wanted ice cream—but not gallons of hot fudge. As they ate, they looked out the window at the people coming and going in cars and on bikes.

  All of a sudden Roger left his hot fudge, got up, and dashed out the door. As the Pee Wees watched, he ran to the bike rack. A boy was there taking a bike from the rack. Roger stopped him. The Pee Wees couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they could see they were arguing.

  “Now what kind of trouble is Roger in?” sighed Mrs. Stone.

  Roger had grabbed the bike and was pushing the boy away.

  “Roger won’t let that boy take his own bike!” said Kenny. “Look, he’s picking a fight with that kid!”

  “That’s not his own bike!” said Molly suddenly. “That’s my bike!”

  The boy ran off, and Roger put Molly’s bike back in the rack. He carefully clamped the lock shut. When he came in, Roger yelled, “Hey, Duff, how come your bike wasn’t locked up?”

  Molly said, “I couldn’t get the lock closed tight.”

  “I’ll show you how to do it,” said Roger. “You have to turn it a certain way before you snap it. That kid was taking your bike. He said he thought it was his.”

  Molly felt like running up and hugging Roger to thank him for saving her bike! Of all people! Roger actually had done something nice!

  Mrs. Peters patted Roger on the back and congratulated him for his good deed.

  “It was nothing,” said Roger. “Those locks are hard to close. It wasn’t Molly’s fault.”

  Molly thanked Roger—without hugging him—and wondered why someone would try to steal her bike.

  “I think he saw it was the only bike that was unlocked,” said Roger, as if he knew what she had been thinking.

  “Well, all’s well that ends well,” said Mrs. Noon. “We were all lucky today.”

  “We had a good lunch, and now it’s time to start for home!” said their leader.

  Roger showed Molly how to lock and unlock her bike easily. Then everyone set off, going up the hills they’d gone down, and down the hills they’d gone up. They stopped in the park again to rest. By the time they got home, everyone was very, very tired.

  “I want to sleep for a week!” said Molly.

  “You can’t,” said Mrs. Peters. “Tomorrow is badge day!”

  And it was. After a good night’s sleep, every Pee Wee went to Mrs. Peters’s house and got a badge with a bright red bike on it.

  Then they all went to the police station. The bike committee gave out the bikes they had purchased with their cookbook money. The new bike owners seemed happy and excited. They thanked the Pee Wees and their leaders.

  The police registered the new bikes, and the new owners studied the bike rules.

  “We have to hand it to Molly and Mary Beth for starting all this pedal power by calling 911 and getting help for Roger,” said Mrs. Peters. “It was the reason for our bike safety program, and our cookbooks, and our new badges.”

  “And we have to hand it to Roger for saving Molly’s bike,” laughed Mr. Peters.

  “Now we’re even,” said Molly. “Roger repaid us, so he doesn’t have to do anything else nice for us. And he won’t have seven years of bad luck!”

  “Hey!” said Roger. “That’s right! We’re even! I didn’t even realize I was repaying you!”

  “I’ll bet that’s the only real good deed Roger ever did in his life!” laughed Mary Beth. “And there wasn’t even anything in it for him! Or at least, he forgot that there was!”

  The new bike owners joined the Pee Wees in singing the Pee Wee song and saying the Pee Wee pledge. And then it was time to go.

  “Mrs. Peters, what badge are we going to earn next?” asked Ashley.

  Mrs. Peters laughed. “Let’s not talk about that yet,” she said. “Let’s have a good rest first.”

  But the Pee Wees never wanted a rest from new badges.

  Rat’s knees, thought Molly. That’s what Pee Wee Scouts is all about!

  Pee Wee Scout Song

  (to the tu
ne of

  “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”)

  Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  We sing and play when work is done,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  With a good deed here,

  And an errand there,

  Here a hand, there a hand,

  Everywhere a good hand.

  Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  Pee Wee Scout Pledge

  We love our country

  And our home,

  Our school and neighbors too.

  As Pee Wee Scouts

  We pledge our best

  In everything we do.