Not Fair! Read online

  “But it has lace at the wrists.”

  “And at the throat, too. It’s a pirate captain’s shirt,” said Jessica. “Put it on.”

  Hank put the big shirt on over his own. He tightened the lace at the wrists to keep the sleeves from covering his hands. Neatened up like that, the shirt did carry a sense of authority. He puffed out his chest.

  “That looks nice, Hank.” Jessica put the three-cornered hat on his head. “We’re a scary pair. Oh, look.” Jessica ran over to an open treasure box, full of costume jewelry. She held up a string of pearls. “Wouldn’t this look great on me?”

  Hank fingered the coins in his pocket. They had already chosen a big black pirate flag and the parrot on Jessica’s shoulder. Now he wanted both the shirt and the hat. There would never be enough money for pearls, too. “I thought you said girl pirates dressed like boys.”

  Jessica looked at Hank and blinked. Then she put the pearls back in the box. “We’d better pay and go.”

  “Don’t act like that,” said Hank.

  “Like what?” said Jessica.

  “All nice like that. Whine and cry, so I don’t feel bad about not buying you the pearls.”

  “You don’t have to feel bad,” said Jessica.

  “That’s exactly what I mean,” said Hank. “Don’t act like that.”

  Jessica grinned. “Okay, then, buy me these pearls or I’ll tell on you to another pirate captain.”

  “What are you talking about?” asked Hank.

  “When pirates took over a big ship, any kind of ship, they’d ask the crew if the captain had been fair to them, and if the crew complained about their treatment, the pirates would torture the captain to death.”

  “That’s more like it,” said Hank. “Say nasty things like that.”

  “But I’d never really tell on you,” said Jessica. “Because I love you. You’re my brother.”

  “That’s it,” said Hank. “Give me the stupid pearls.”

  Jessica triumphantly swooped the pearls out of the treasure chest and handed them to Hank.

  Hank put his doubloons on the checkout counter.

  The clerk looked at the gold coins. He picked one up. Then he bit it.

  “What are you doing?” asked Hank.

  The clerk looked hard at Hank. “Where’d you get these?”

  “From home,” said Hank, which was true. He’d been at home when he’d eaten his cereal.

  The clerk blinked. “I’m going to have to ask the manager about this.” He took all four coins, went to the back of the store, and knocked on a door. Then he disappeared inside it for a minute. He came back quickly. “Did your parents say this was okay?”

  Hank thought about that. His mom always allowed him to spend his own money any way he wanted. And these coins were his. “Yes.”

  “All right, then, it’s a deal. Is there anything else you want? It looks like you’re planning to be pirates in the parade, huh? You’ve got enough money here to get a toy pirate pistol, too, if you want.” The clerk took a plastic pistol off the shelf behind him. “The black plastic looks pretty real, don’t you think?”

  Hank took the pistol and tucked it in his waistband. “Thanks.”

  “Is there enough money for me to get an earring?” Jessica asked, picking up a big gold hoop from the treasure chest.

  “That earring costs a lot,” said the clerk. Then he looked at the doubloons again. “But I guess you’ve got enough here.”

  Angel Talk

  They’re all decked out now,” said the archangel. “They can spend the afternoon playing pirates.”

  “Except the parade starts soon.”

  “That’s right. Hank will be in it on his bike, and Jessica will be left standing on the side.”

  The Little Angel of Fairness shook her head. “That would be terrible.” She peeled the foil off a chocolate Kiss and put it in her mouth absentmindedly. “Somehow I’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “How?”

  “Well, the first thing is to make sure Hank realizes it shouldn’t happen.”

  “Good start.” The Archangel of Fairness smiled. “Can I have one of those Kisses?”

  The little angel handed the archangel a Kiss.

  They both stood sucking slowly, thinking.

  The Parade

  “You heard what the clerk said, Hank. You heard him.” Jessica stood beside Hank and watched as he rubbed his bike with a cloth. “We should both be in the parade. As pirates. We can go in our schooner.”

  “That’s what you’ve been planning all along, isn’t it?” said Hank. “That’s why you got out books about pirates.”

  Jessica smiled. “I wasn’t exactly planning. I was just hoping.”

  Hank rubbed his handlebars. “Is that why you messed up my spaceship decals?”

  “What? No,” said Jessica. “I wouldn’t hurt your bike.”

  “Then how do you explain that?” Hank pointed.

  The decals were ragged at the edges, as if someone had been trying to peel them off.

  “Maybe the box rubbed against them,” said Jessica doubtfully. “But they do look awful, Hank. You won’t look good in the parade at all. It would be much better if we went together.”

  Hank looked at Jessica. It was true. Even if he put new spaceship decals on, his bike would look junky compared to how great they both would look in the schooner. “You’d have to put your hair under the bandanna so no one would know you’re a girl. And you’d have to not tell anyone.”

  “Dead men tell no tales,” said Jessica.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jessica. “But pirates said it all the time.”

  “Pirates were weird,” said Hank.

  “Not all of them. Some were just ordinary fishermen or sailors who got ambushed by pirates and joined them. President Fillmore’s great-grandfather was a pirate like that,” said Jessica.

  “Who was President Fillmore?” asked Hank.

  “I don’t know. Some president or other. The point is,” said Jessica, “I won’t tell anyone. I swear, Hank.”

  “Okay.”

  “Yay!” Jessica threw her arms around Hank.

  “Don’t kiss me. Just help me get this schooner back together and let’s go.”

  Angel Talk

  You scraped his decals,” said the archangel.

  “That’s not like pushing a box in front of his bike,” said the little angel.

  “But it is bad. You ruined his property.”

  “He still has a few left. I checked in his drawer,” said the little angel.

  “That doesn’t justify ruining the ones on his bike,” said the archangel. “You know, you can’t just go forcing people to do things your way by not giving them a choice.”

  “Hank needed to be forced.”

  “How do you know? Maybe he would have come around on his own. Or maybe,” said the archangel, “just maybe he would have had a better idea of his own. You never know what people will think of if they’re left to their own resources.”

  The Little Angel of Fairness didn’t like this conversation. It reminded her of her friend, the Little Angel of Friendship, and how he’d said that she always chose the games they played and he was forced to go along. “Hank’s happy about going in the schooner with Jessica,” she said softly. “You can tell. He is making progress.”

  “Yes, I think he is,” said the archangel.

  “But I’ll try not to force him anymore.”

  Hair

  Main Street in front of the library was already crowded with people. There were fire trucks and the high school band and the long line of floats. And in the middle of it all were about fifty boys on bikes, most of them dressed in pirate outfits.

  “We look better than any of them,” said Jessica to Hank.

  “Hush. And keep that patch over your eye so no one recognizes you.” Hank kept his eyes down, hoping none of his friends would ask him who his partner was on the schoon
er.

  “Great-looking costumes,” came a loud voice.

  Hank looked up into the face of a high school kid.

  “You two are almost like a small float. Why don’t you go to the front of the bikes?”

  “Yay!” said Jessica.

  Hank looked around. The boys on the bikes closest to them were all watching. “Be quiet,” he whispered to Jessica. “We can’t go fast,” he said to the high school kid. “We have to walk our bikes.”

  “That’s okay. The parade is slow. Get on up there.” The kid led them to their new spot.

  The drummers gave out a low roll, and the parade started. They went up Main Street to the town hall, then left onto Park Avenue. People lined both sides of the parade path. They waved and pointed. Lots of people pointed at Hank and Jessica.

  Jessica laughed. “Oh, I love this, Hank,” she shouted over the noise of the band. “This is so much fun. Oh, thank you, Hank.”

  “You’re like a real girl pirate,” said Hank. “Like that Anne pirate.”

  “I don’t want to be like Anne. I want to be like Mary. She was a lot nicer. And she was more interesting, too. When they caught Mary, she didn’t apologize. She just talked and talked about what a great life pirates had.”

  “She was nuts,” yelled Hank. “Did they hang her?”

  “No. But they hanged all the men pirates they caught.”

  “That’s not fair,” said Hank.

  “You’re right.”

  Hank looked at Jessica. There she was, a pirate just as good as any boy pirate. He pulled her bandanna off.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Now they know you’re a girl,” said Hank. “And they should. You’re a great pirate, Jessica.”

  “Thanks. So are you.”

  Little Angels at Play

  How’d it go?” asked the Little Angel of Friendship.

  “Good,” said the Little Angel of Fairness.

  “All right, then. Let’s play the game you were talking about. The one with gold coins.”

  “Sure, that’s a great game.” The Little Angel of Fairness reached into her pocket for the coins. Then she stopped. “Didn’t you have a game in mind?”

  “It doesn’t matter. You’re right: Your games are always the best.”

  “Did I say that? What a jerk I was. I want to play your game,” said the Little Angel of Fairness.

  “Really?”

  “Really. We can play the coin game another time.”

  “Okay.” The Little Angel of Friendship gave a shy smile. “It’s not really anything special. I didn’t make it up. It’s just horseshoes.” He opened a cloth bag and took out a post and six horseshoes. He set the post up. “We have to stand back pretty far. Here.” The Little Angel of Friendship handed the Little Angel of Fairness three horseshoes. “You throw first.”

  “Thanks.” The Little Angel of Fairness tossed her horseshoe. It flipped over and over and landed with a sharp ring right against the post.

  “That sounded like a bell to me,” said the Little Angel of Friendship. His eyes sparkled, and he lifted an eyebrow.

  The newest Archangel of Fairness laughed. “And isn’t it the best sound you’ve ever heard?” She spread her newly earned wings and flew around her friend.

  Jessica’s costume

  You can dress like a pirate, too. Use your imagination, and make a pirate costume like Jessica’s. What did Jessica use to put together her costume?

  • an old striped shirt

  • black pants

  • a bandanna or kerchief

  • a piece of black fabric for an eye patch

  What can you find around your house for a pirate costume?

  First Aladdin Paperbacks edition February 2000

  Text copyright © 2000 by Donna Jo Napoli

  Illustrations copyright © 2000 by Lauren Klementz-Harte

  Aladdin Paperbacks

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster

  Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  Designed by Steve Scott

  The text for this book was set in Minister Light and Cheltenham.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Napoli, Donna Jo. 1948–

  No fair! / Donna Jo Napoli ; illustrations by Lauren Klementz-Harte.

  p. cm. — (Aladdin Angelwings ; #6)

  Summary: To earn her wings, the Little Angel of Fairness tries to help Jessica get her brother Hank to allow her to be in the town parade with him, even though she is a girl.

  ISBN 0-689-83206-0 (pbk.)

  ISBN 978-1-4814-6398-0 (eBook.)

  [1. Angels—Fiction. 2. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 3. Sex roles—Fiction.]

  I. Klementz-Harte, Lauren. 1961- ill. II. Title. III. Senes: Napoli.

  Donna Jo, 1948- Aladdin angelwings : #6.

  PZ7.N15No 2000

  99-38627

  CIP