Ivy and Bean One Big Happy Family

by Annie Barrows

  “You never did seem very spoiled to me,” said Bean.

  “Maybe I don’t really need a sister,” said Ivy.

  “Right! Sisters are nothing but trouble.”

  “Especially that Kalia,” said Ivy. “Pew!”

  “All right then! I’m going to play some bannis!” Bean said, swinging an imaginary bamboo stick.

  “I’m going to read,” said Ivy.

  “You’re a big weirdo,” said Bean.

  “No, you’re a big weirdo,” said Ivy. “See you!”

  “See you!”

  Off they ran, in different directions.

  Bean broke two bamboo sticks, playing bannis. She spit in the dirt, too. After that, she went home and did her regular things, like eating dinner and both wanting and not wanting to take a bath, and going to sleep. She forgot all about sisters and twins and spoiledness until the next day at school, during lunch, when Ivy looked in her lunchbox and said, “Oh. Here.” She pulled out the jiggly man and threw him to Bean. “You can have him.”

  Bean looked at his little gummy blue body. “For real? Forever?”

  Ivy nodded.

  “You are not spoiled at all!” Bean said, jumping to her feet. She raced to the nearest wall and threw the jiggly man at it. Splat! He hung there for a moment. Then—bloop, bloop, bloop—down the wall he went.

  Eric popped up next to her. “Ew, is he made out of boogers?”

  “Yep,” said Bean. “Blue boogers.”

  “Let me try!”

  Generously, Bean let Eric throw the jiggly man. Splat! Bloop, bloop, bloop. Then Leo wanted to try. Then Emma. Then Marga-Lee. Bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop. . . . Pretty soon, there was a line of kids waiting to throw him against the wall.

  Bloop, bloop, bloop. “I want one of these guys,” said Dusit, handing the jiggly man back to Bean. “Where’d you get him?”

  “Ivy gave him to me,” said Bean.

  “My turn,” said Vanessa, holding out her hand.

  Bean hesitated. “Pretty nice of Ivy to give him to me, huh?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” said Vanessa, still holding out her hand.

  “Pretty unspoiled, don’t you think?” asked Bean. “I mean, a spoiled kid would never do something like that, right?” She looked at Vanessa.

  Vanessa looked at the jiggly man. “Right,” she said.

  That was good enough for Bean. She handed the gummy blue guy to Vanessa. “Here you go! Give him a good splat!”

  Bloop, bloop, bloop.

  ANNIE BARROWS knew lots of spoiled kids when she was little. She knew a kid who wouldn’t let anyone touch his toy cars. She knew a girl who wore three fancy dress-up skirts at once so no one else could wear any. And once, when Annie got some play lipstick for Christmas, a girl ate it. Really. She did. Annie lives in Berkeley, California.

  SOPHIE BLACKALL once met a very spoiled baby who kicked her parents out of bed each night and made them sleep on the floor. The baby is now a teenager and denies this ever happened. To learn more about Sophie, visit her at sophieblackall.com. Sophie lives in New York.