Jessica Finch in Pig Trouble (Judy Moody and Friends)

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Jessica Finch in Pig Trouble (Judy Moody and Friends) Page 1

by Megan McDonald




  .

  .

  .

  For Ashley

  M. M.

  For my nieces, Melanie and Mariel

  E. M.

  Adopting a pig

  —

  or any pet

  —

  is a big decision. Make sure you

  understand the time, care, and cost involved before making a final

  commitment and bringing any critters home! If you are interested

  in learning more about owning and caring for potbellied pigs, ask

  your local librarian to recommend an authoritative and reputable

  guide, or search online for more information.

  This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, places,

  and incidents are either products

  of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2014 by Megan McDonald

  Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Peter H. Reynolds

  Judy Moody font copyright © 2003 by Peter H. Reynolds

  Judy Moody®. Judy Moody is a registered trademark of Candlewick Press, Inc.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted,

  or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means,

  graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording,

  without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2014

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2012947726

  ISBN 978-0-7636-5718-5 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-7027-6 (paperback)

  ISBN 978-0-7636-6713-9 (electronic)

  This book was typeset in ITC Stone Informal.

  The illustrations were created digitally.

  Candlewick Press

  99 Dover Street

  Somerville, Massachusetts 02144

  visit us at www.candlewick.com

  CONTENTS

  CHA

  p

  TER

  1

  Just Say

  Oink

  1

  CHA

  p

  TER

  2

  This Little Piggy 19

  CHA

  p

  TER

  3

  The PeeGee WeeGee Club 43

  .

  7

  CHA

  p

  TER

  1

  Just Say

  Oink

  Pigs, pigs, and more pigs! Jessica Finch

  loved pigs.

  Jessica Finch had a dream. A big pig

  dream. She dreamed of having a pet

  pig.

  If she had a pig, they would read

  books together. And ride bikes. And

  have sleepovers.

  .

  Jessica called her friend Judy

  Moody. “Emergency,” she told Judy.

  “Come right away.”

  Judy Moody rode her bike up the

  hill to Jessica’s house.

  “I came as fast as I could,” said

  Judy. “What’s the emergency?”

  “It’s a pig emergency,” said

  Jessica Finch.

  “RARE!” Judy said.

  “Come on,” said Jessica, and Judy

  followed her upstairs to her room.

  .

  Jessica’s room was pink. Pink,

  pinker, pinkest. Pinker than bubble

  gum. Pink as a pig’s tail. And her

  room was full of . . . pigs. Pig books.

  Pig pillows. Pig posters. Piggy banks.

  Even a fuzzy piggy-face rug.

  .

  12

  “Your room is one big pigpen!” said

  Judy.

  “Thanks!” said Jessica. She glanced

  out into the hall. She closed her door.

  She made her voice almost a whisper.

  “Okay. So. You know how it’s

  almost my birthday, right?”

  “Right! Happy almost birthday,”

  said Judy.

  “And you know how there’s only

  one thing I want for my birthday,

  right? More than anything else in the

  whole world.”

  “Umm . . . a piggy cake?” asked

  Judy.

  13

  “No. Not a piggy cake.

  Not a piggy coin purse.

  Not a piggy clock.

  Just one single present. A real-live,

  cute-as-a-button, potbellied pig.”

  .

  14

  Judy’s eyes grew as big as gum balls.

  “Potbellied pigs are super cute and

  super smart and super cuddly,” said

  Jessica. “And I dropped a million and

  one hints, like telling my parents that

  my birthday just happens to be on the

  same day as National Pig Day.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Happy almost Pig Day, too,” said

  Judy. “But I think you have about a million

  in one chance of getting a real live P-I-G.

  You might as well ask for an aardwolf.”

  “A-A-R-D-W-O-L-F,” said Jessica

  Finch, Super Speller.

  “So what’s the emergency anyway?”

  Judy asked.

  “Right. You have to help me snoop

  around. I just have to know if I’m getting

  a P-I-G.”

  “Judy Moody, Super Snoop, at your

  service. Where do we start?”

  .

  16

  Jessica squinted her eyes. Jessica

  pinched up her face, thinking. “I

  know!” she said. “Under my mom and

  dad’s bed.”

  “You think there might be a pig

  under your mom and dad’s bed?” Judy

  asked.

  Jessica Finch snorted. “No, see, we

  snoop for normal presents. If we find

  any, that’s bad. If we don’t find any,

  that’s good.”

  Judy scrunched up her face. “How

  is

  no presents a good thing?”

  “If we don’t find presents, I just know

  I’m getting a real pig. If we find normal

  presents, no pig.”

  Judy just shrugged. She had no pig

  sense at all.

  .

  “Come on. I know all the good

&n
bsp; hiding places,” said Jessica. “You be

  my lookout.”

  “Roger,” said Judy.

  “Who’s Roger?”

  “Never mind,” said Judy.

  “If you hear footsteps, just say oink,”

  Jessica told Judy. “One oink for Mom.

  Two oinks for Dad.”

  “Gotcha,” said Judy.

  Jessica took Judy’s arm and dragged

  her down the hall.

  19

  Jessica looked under the bed.

  Jessica looked in

  the window seat.

  Jessica went to

  look in the closet.

  .

  “Oink! Oink!” Judy was oinking!

  “Who? What? Where?” asked Jessica.

  “I think I heard footsteps,” said Judy.

  Jessica listened at the top of the

  stairs. Quiet. Dead quiet. “I don’t hear

  anything,” she said.

  “Sorry,” said Judy. “False-

  alarm oink.”

  .

  Jessica opened the closet door. She

  stood on a box. She pulled down a

  bag. Crunch, crunch, crunch went the

  paper. Jessica’s heart sank.

  “Oh, no!”

  “What’s wrong?” Judy asked.

  “I found presents,” said Jessica.

  23

  She peered into the bag. “A piggy

  flashlight. An I Piggies notebook.

  Even a game called Pig Out. That

  means no potbellied pig.”

  “Oink,” said Judy.

  “Ratday,” said Jessica, slumping

  down on the bed.

  “Huh?”

  “It’s Latin. Pig Latin for drat.”

  .

  25

  CHA

  p

  TER

  2

  This Little Piggy

  Jessica Finch was ummedbay outway.

  B-U-M-M-E-D O-U-T.

  Judy tried to cheer her up. “Let’s

  play the game,” Judy whispered.

  “What game?”

  “The Pig Out game!” said Judy.

  “Now? But it’s for my birthday. My

  mom will get mad.”

  “We’ll just play it once,” said Judy.

  “C’mon. It’ll be upersay unfay.”

  .

  “Super fun! Then we put it back and

  nobody will know?” said Jessica.

  “They don’t call me Super Snoop for

  nothing,” said Judy.

  Jessica perked up. She ran back inside,

  grabbed the game, and then ran back

  to her room.

  In no time, Jessica and Judy sat

  crisscross applesauce on the fuzzy

  pink piggy rug.

  .

  28

  “So, how do you play?” asked Judy.

  Jessica tore the lid off of the box.

  “There’s no board. You just roll the five

  little piggies like dice,” said Jessica Finch,

  Pig Expert. “And you get points for how

  they land.” She showed Judy the score

  chart.

  29

  Judy rolled the pigs. “Snorter! Ten

  points!”

  Jessica rolled the pigs. “Side of

  bacon! Minus ten points!”

  Judy rolled the pigs again.

  .

  30

  One landed on top of another.

  “Pig pyramid!” yelled Jessica.

  “Is that good?”

  “Good? That’s fifty points!” said

  Jessica. “You win.”

  “Play again?” Judy begged.

  31

  “Shh,” said Jessica. “Did you hear

  that?”

  “Hear what?”

  Somebody was coming up the stairs.

  .

  32

  “Quick! Hide the pigs!” Jessica

  whispered.

  Judy shoved the pigs under the rug.

  Jessica hid the box under her bed.

  Mrs. Finch walked past Jessica’s

  room. Mrs. Finch went down the hall

  into the bathroom.

  33

  “Phew. That was close,” said Jessica.

  “I better put this back.”

  “And I better go home,” said Judy.

  “Before we get in pig trouble.”

  Jessica and Judy laughed like hyenas.

  “Are you sure you have to go?”

  “Yep. I have to feed the . . . um . . .

  my Venus flytrap.”

  .

  As soon as Judy was gone, Jessica

  put the game back in the box. “One

  little, two little, three little, four little

  piggies

  —” Uh-oh! Piggy Number Five

  was issingmay! Missing!

  35

  Jessica looked under her leg. She

  looked under the rug.

  She looked under the bed.

  NTBF! Nowhere To Be Found.

  Pig-a-ma-jig!

  .

  Jessica Finch ran out of the house

  and hopped on her super-pink bike.

  She rode super fast to Judy Moody’s

  house. She honked her Super Pig bike

  horn all the way up the driveway to

  the Moody backyard.

  Jessica took off her helmet. She

  heard noises coming from a blue tent

  in the backyard. A tent with a sign

  that said T. P. CLUB.

  .

  “Knock, knock,” called Jessica.

  Judy poked her head out of the tent

  flap.

  “Do you know where my pig is?”

  Jessica asked Judy.

  39

  Judy’s eyes bugged out. “Pig? What

  pig?”

  “One of the little plastic piggies is

  missing. From the Pig Out game.”

  “Oh, that pig,” said Judy.

  Pee! Gee! Wee! Gee!

  Jessica heard a strange sound. She

  looked around. “Hey, what was that

  sound?”

  “What sound? I didn’t hear a

  sound.”

  Pee! Gee! Wee! Gee!

  “There it is again. A squeak. A high-

  pitched squeak.”

  “Maybe it was a mouse,” said Judy.

  “It was louder than a mouse.”

  “I mean, maybe it was Mouse.

  My cat.”

  .

  40

  “Your cat’s in there?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  Jessica shrugged. Then she heard

  the sound again.

  Pee! Gee! Wee! Gee!

  “There. Didn’
t you hear that?”

  “Squeaky door,” said Judy.

  “But your tent doesn’t have a door,”

  said Jessica. Sometimes Judy Moody

  was one oink short of a litter.

  “Then it must be Stink,” said Judy.

  “Squeaky Stink.”

  “Your little brother’s in there, too?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “Well, can I come in?” said Jessica.

  “NO!” said Judy. “I mean, no.”

  Stink popped his head out of the tent,

  too. He pointed to the word CLUB on

  the sign. “Members only,” he said.

  .

  42

  M-E-A-N-I-E!”

  “Yeah, sorry. Those are the rules,”

  said Judy.

  “But I never get to be in your clubs.

  Can’t I be in your club? Just this once?

  For my birthday?”

  Judy shook her head. “Rules are

  rules,” she said.

  “Atray inkfay,” said Jessica.

  “I am not a rat fink,” said Judy.

  Jessica Finch made a pinch face.

  Jessica Finch felt like she might cry.

  “Judy Moody, you are not a friend.

  You are not even a Super Snoop. You

  are just . . . a big . . .

 

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