Double Dog Dare Read Online Free

under his khakis. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he was definitely
not
going to wear some other kid’s underwear.
    Kansas just had one more thing to find before he was ready to do his dare. But as it turned out, that thing found him.
    “
Kan
-sas! What’re you doing?”
    Kansas whirled around. At the far end of the hallway, by the library, was his little sister, Ginny. Her hair was pulled back into two uneven pigtails, and she still had on her ballerina tutu, the white one with the silver sparkles that she’d insisted on wearing on the early bus that morning. He’d really been hoping she’d take it off when she got to school.
    “I was just looking for you,” he called back, hustling over to meet her halfway. He gestured toward Mr. Benetto’s classroom, where the Art Club met before school. “What’re you doing out here?”
    “I was going to the library,” Ginny said. She was holdinga red notebook and a fat pink pencil with a red cherry eraser. “I need to look up how to spell
asthma.
”
    “There’s a
th
in it.” Kansas paused. “Why do you need to know?”
    “I’m writing a note to my teacher,” Ginny replied, sticking the notebook against the wall. The cherry on top of the pencil wobbled as she wrote. “I just remembered that Mom forgot to give me a note to get out of races in PE, so I’m doing it myself. Is the
th
at the beginning or the end?”
    “She forgot? You sure she didn’t put it in your backpack?” Ginny was always needing a note to get out of something. She had asthma—not serious, but enough that she couldn’t run long distances—and she was deadly allergic to peanuts. One tiny bite, and she’d need to be raced to the hospital.
    “Nuh-uh,” Ginny said. “I checked. And Mom said never to call her at work unless our heads were chopped off.”
    “I think she meant only if it’s serious.”
    “Well, I forgot the number anyway. Do you remember?”
    Kansas frowned. “No.”
    “Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” Ginny said, still scribbling, “’cause I’m gonna give her this one.” She pulled the notebook away from the wall and flicked it into Kansas’s face. “Pretty good, huh?”
    To teacher.
    Ginny has azma azmath thazma. She cant run in pe. This is her note she forgot to give you before.
    Mom
    “Uh, Ginny, no way your teacher is going to believe Mom wrote this.”
    Ginny frowned. “What’s wrong with it?”
    “It looks like you wrote it with your feet.”
    Ginny grabbed the notebook back from Kansas. In one swift movement, she ripped the page out and threw it on the floor. Then she threw herself on the floor too, arms crossed and her sparkly white tutu poofed all around her.
    “Maybe if you just talk to your teacher,” Kansas said carefully. Ginny looked like she was going to cry. He hatedwhen Ginny cried. Her voice got all gulpy and sniffly, and everyone always stopped what they were doing to hug her, and it took hours and was super annoying. “Maybe
I
could talk to her. Tell her that—”
    “I know!” Ginny said. Her eyes were lit up, excited.
    “What?”
    “I’ll call Dad.
He’ll
tell Mrs. Goldblatt.” Ginny jumped to her feet. “I’m going to the office right now.”
    Kansas grabbed Ginny by her tutu and dragged her back.
    “Hey!”
    “Ginny,” he said as she tried to wiggle away from him, “you can’t call Dad.”
    “Why not?” Ginny said, all arms and legs and squirming. She was making a ruckus, and Kansas was starting to get worried that some teacher might discover them and send them back to their rooms, and then he’d
never
get to the flagpole. “Give me one reason I can’t call him.”
    Because
, Kansas thought.
Because you’ve tried to call him almost every single day for the last three weeks, and he hasn’t picked up once. Because last time you tried to call, the voice onthe other end said the number was no longer in service. Because every time you do, you get so upset it takes a two-hour tickle fight to calm you down. Because if