Lights, Action, Land-Ho!

by Judy Delton

  YOUNG YEARLING BOOKS YOU WILL ENJOY:

  The Pee Wee Scout books by Judy Delton

  COOKIES AND CRUTCHES

  CAMP GHOST-AWAY

  LUCKY DOG DAYS

  BLUE SKIES, FRENCH FRIES

  GRUMPY PUMPKINS

  PEANUT-BUTTER PILGRIMS

  A PEE WEE CHRISTMAS

  THAT MUSHY STUFF

  SPRING SPROUTS

  THE POOPED TROOP

  THE PEE WEE JUBILEE

  BAD, BAD BUNNIES

  ROSY NOSES, FREEZING TOES

  SONNY’S SECRET

  SKY BABIES

  TRASH BASH

  PEE WEES ON PARADE

  YEARLING BOOKS/YOUNG YEARLINGS/YEARLING CLASSICS are designed especially to entertain and enlighten young people. Patricia Reilly Giff, consultant to this series, received her bachelor’s degree from Marymount College and a master’s degree in history from St. John’s University. She holds a Professional Diploma in Reading and a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hofstra University. She was a teacher and reading consultant for many years, and is the author of numerous books for young readers.

  For a complete listing of all Yearling titles, write to Dell Readers Service, P.O. Box 1045, South Holland, IL 60473.

  Published by

  Dell Publishing

  a division of

  Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

  666 Fifth Avenue

  New York, New York 10103

  Text copyright © 1992 by Judy Delton

  Illustrations copyright © 1992 by Alan Tiegreen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

  The trademark Yearling® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  The trademark Dell® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-79998-2

  v3.1

  For Sam Sebesta, my friend,

  and my only fan with a bear rug

  at the ready

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Movie Talk

  2 Star Struck

  3 Push Back Down

  4 Columbus the Pirate

  5 Only Extras!

  6 Best Foot Forward

  7 Molly the Star

  CHAPTER 1

  Movie Talk

  “School’s boring,” moaned Roger White, throwing his math paper in the bushes on the way home.

  “You’re littering,” said Tracy Barnes. “We got badges for not littering in Pee Wee Scouts.”

  “If I tell Mrs. Peters, she’ll take your badge away,” said Rachel Meyers.

  “Will not,” said Roger.

  “Will too,” said Rachel.

  “Will not, will not, will not,” said Roger, giving Rachel a shove off the sidewalk.

  Kevin Moe scrambled into the bushes and picked up the paper.

  It had lots of red check marks on it.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “Roger got a D on this! He got only one right!”

  Now Roger’s face turned as red as the check marks.

  “You’re not bored in school, you’re dumb,” said Rachel, getting back at Roger for the shove.

  “And you’re a litterer besides,” she called as she ran off down the street.

  Molly Duff and Mary Beth Kelly caught up with her. They got to Molly’s front steps, where they were safe, and sat down.

  “Roger’s right though,” said Mary Beth. “School is boring sometimes.”

  “When’s the next day off?” asked Molly.

  The girls thought. It was October.

  “Not till Halloween,” sighed Mary Beth.

  Rachel shook her head. “Columbus Day!” she said. “We have Columbus Day off.”

  “We should have a party for Columbus!” said Molly. “If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have a day off!”

  Rachel snorted. “We wouldn’t even be here,” she said. “I mean, if he hadn’t come to America, we would be living in England right now eating fish and chips.”

  “Or in Germany talking German,” said Molly.

  “And two Indians would be sitting right here on this front porch,” Mary Beth pointed out.

  “They had wigwams or lodges,” said Molly. “There are no front porches on wigwams.”

  “And they really weren’t Indians—they were Native Americans,” she added. Molly had read up on Indians.

  The girls thought about the Native Americans. Molly felt sad to think that her house replaced someone’s wigwam. But she felt glad that she would have a day off from school soon.

  “Columbus doesn’t get much attention,” said Molly.

  “If he hadn’t sailed to America, someone else would have,” said Rachel. “In fact, a lot of other guys wanted to go discover it, but he beat them to it. They didn’t have the money to buy a boat and stuff.”

  Rachel knew a lot, thought Molly.

  “We can’t even be really sure that Columbus did discover America,” Rachel went on. “Historians disagree.”

  “Well, I know he did,” said Mary Beth, standing up to go home. It looked to Molly like she didn’t want to hear anyone bad-mouthing Columbus. After all, he was a national hero to some people. Children all over the country made little boats with puffy sails in kindergarten on his day. Would they do that if he hadn’t really discovered America? And would all the schools close if he was fake? Molly wasn’t sure.

  “I have to go in,” said Molly.

  “We have Pee Wee Scouts tomorrow,” said Mary Beth. “And I haven’t got any good deeds to tell.”

  Rachel was still going on about someone else who was really in America before Columbus, but the girls ignored her.

  “I’ll ask my mom,” said Rachel, “and I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

  Molly went into the house to set the table for supper.

  When her father came home from work, he cooked some corn on the cob. Mrs. Duff made hamburgers. They all sat down to eat.

  “Do you know what I heard today?” said Molly’s father. “I heard that a big company is coming here to our little town to make a movie.”

  “Really?” said Mrs. Duff. “I wonder why.”

  “I guess it’s cheaper to make a movie outside of Hollywood,” said Mr. Duff. “Maybe I’ll go down and hang around. Maybe they’ll put me in as an extra. What would you think of your old dad as a movie star, Molly?”

  Mr. Duff posed like a movie star. Molly and her mother laughed.

  “What’s the name of the movie?” asked Molly.

  “What’s it about?” said Mrs. Duff.

  Mr. Duff shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he said. “But we’ll be finding out soon.” He helped himself to another ear of corn.

  “I’ll bet Mrs. Peters knows,” said Molly. “She knows everything that goes on around here.”

  Mrs. Peters was the Pee Wees’ troop leader. They all met at her house every Tuesday. Five boys and six girls.

  The next afternoon after school, the Pee Wees raced to the meeting. They tumbled down the basement steps of Mrs. Peters’s home and into their chairs around a big table. Nick, Mrs. Peters’s baby, was sitting in a booster chair, banging on the table with a spoon. “Goo!” he said.

  “Goo goo yourself,” said Lisa Ronning.

  Mrs. Peters came down the steps with chocolate cupcakes on a plate. Mrs. Stone, who was Sonny’s mother, came down behind her with some milk. Mrs. Ston
e was married to the fire chief, who was Sonny’s stepfather. She was also the assistant troop leader.

  “Let’s all take our seats!” said Mrs. Peters.

  Roger picked up his chair and walked around the room with it.

  “I’m taking my seat, Mrs. Peters,” he said. “Where should I take it?”

  Everyone laughed.

  “He’s a smart aleck,” said Kenny Baker.

  “But he’s funny,” said Patty Baker, Kenny’s twin. Patty liked Roger, thought Molly. She had made Roger a big red heart on Valentine’s Day. Bigger than anyone else’s.

  Mrs. Peters ignored Roger. Molly was glad. Roger got too much attention.

  “Let’s sing our Pee Wee Scout song,” she said. “And say our pledge. Then we will hear our good deeds. And then,” she said with a smile, “I have a surprise.”

  The Pee Wees cheered. They loved surprises. Most of the time the surprise was fun. Once in a while it wasn’t. Sometimes it was a lot of work.

  “What do you think it is?” asked Tracy. No one had any idea.

  “Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,” sang the Pee Wees to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”

  “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!”

  After the song, the Pee Wees said their 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.”

  “Now!” said Mrs. Peters, passing around the cupcakes.

  Mrs. Stone poured the milk.

  “Let’s hear all the good deeds my Scouts have done.”

  Not many hands waved.

  “I baby-sat my twins,” shouted Sonny.

  “He did not,” whispered Mary Beth to Molly. “He can’t take care of babies. I wouldn’t trust him with my goldfish!”

  Sonny was a baby all right, thought Molly.

  “He probably means he sat with them while his mom was home,” said Molly. She felt a little sorry for Sonny. Everyone laughed at him, and it was no fun to be laughed at.

  “I dried dishes,” said Tim Noon.

  “Wonderful, Tim,” said Mrs. Peters. “And Sonny,” she added.

  “Let’s get on with the surprise,” shouted Roger.

  “That will keep,” said their leader. “First things first. And good deeds are first,”

  Molly didn’t want to think about good deeds. She wanted to think about the surprise. So did everyone else. But Mrs. Peters was not going to talk about the surprise till she got lots of good deeds.

  Molly waved her hand.

  “I took the smallest piece of cake on the plate when we had company,” she said.

  “That’s good manners,” whispered Rachel, “not a good deed.”

  But Mrs. Peters looked as if she thought it was a good deed.

  “I watered the lawn and washed my dad’s car,” said Kevin. “At the same time!”

  Mrs. Peters frowned as she thought about that. Then she smiled when she was sure it was a real good deed.

  “I filled my bike tires,” boasted Sonny.

  “What’s a good deed about that?” asked Roger.

  “I did it for my dad,” said Sonny.

  “Hey, it’s your bike, dummy,” said Roger.

  The good deeds were going downhill, thought Molly. Some of the Pee Wees were inventing good deeds. Making them up. Mrs. Peters must have noticed, because she said, “Let’s see if we can work harder on helping others next week. And now it’s time for the surprise!”

  Everyone sat up to listen.

  “A movie is going to be filmed in our town,” said Mrs. Peters. “And the director has asked for some of you to be in it!”

  CHAPTER 2

  Star Struck

  The Pee Wees were speechless. They stared at Mrs. Peters. Then they got their voices back.

  “A real movie?” asked Patty.

  “Can I be in it, Mrs. Peters?” asked Rachel.

  “What’s the movie about?” asked Kevin.

  “What’s the name of it?” asked Mary Beth.

  “I’m going to be a movie star!” breathed Molly ecstatically.

  “You don’t know that you are in it,” scoffed Roger. “She said some of us.”

  “Which some of us?” asked Tim.

  “Me, me!” begged Lisa. “Can I be in it, Mrs. Peters?”

  Mrs. Peters held her hand up for silence.

  “I don’t know much about it yet,” she said. “I don’t know the name of it or what it’s to be about.”

  Rat’s knees. Molly was disappointed in their leader. She usually knew everything. She could find out things Molly’s own father couldn’t find out.

  “The director has just requested some Pee Wee Scouts for some of the scenes, but we won’t know for a few weeks what the details are. The movie won’t come out until next year. Then we will see it in movie theaters.”

  The Pee Wees shivered with excitement thinking about appearing in movie theaters all over the country.

  “Is it for sure, Mrs. Peters?” asked Rachel. “I mean, should we be rehearsing or anything?”

  Mrs. Peters laughed. “I guess you can just think about putting your best foot forward,” she said.

  The rest of the meeting was boring to the Pee Wees. Nothing they could do and nothing their leader could say would top this news!

  When Mrs. Peters talked about the park cleanup day, no one cared.

  When she said, “Next week we are going to collect autumn leaves and label them,” no one heard her. Molly was imagining herself in the movies with Kevin as the leading man. Would it be a love story? Would it be a song-and-dance musical? Maybe it would be a western! Molly could ride a horse. She even had a badge for staying on a horse in the rodeo parade.

  Roger and Tim were pretending to fight a duel with swords.

  Rachel was tapping a tune under the table with her foot.

  “To be or not to be!” said Kevin. “That’s Shakespeare,” he said. “I could say that stuff in the movie.”

  Mrs. Peters tapped on the table.

  “Let’s say our pledge and go home,” she said, laughing. “I can see we won’t get anything else done today.”

  On the way home, Mary Beth said, “I’m going to get my Halloween costumes out. Maybe I can be a fairy princess in the movie.”

  “You can’t wear a Halloween costume in a movie, dummy,” said Roger. “They have real expensive stuff in the movies. Stuff with sparkling jewels sewn on.”

  “My costume sparkles,” said Mary Beth.

  “You don’t know you’ll be chosen,” said Rachel with a toss of her head.

  “Mrs. Peters said to put our best foot forward,” said Molly.

  “That means dancing,” said Rachel. “You put your best foot forward when you tap-dance. And I’ve had four years of tap-dancing lessons. If we put our best foot forward, I’ll be the one to get in the movie.”

  “Mrs. Peters didn’t say whose best foot it would be,” said Lisa. “We don’t know it’s you.”

  “I think putting your best foot forward means all of us,” said Kevin. “I think it means we all have to get ready to show our talents off.”

  Kevin was smart. Probably the smartest boy in the Pee Wees. Molly decided she would listen to him. If she started now, she could learn to dance as well as Rachel!

  When Molly got home, she ran to find her mother.

  “Can I take tap-dancing lessons?” she asked.

  Her mother frowned.

  “You said you didn’t want to take lessons last spring when the class began,” her mother reminded her. “The new clas
s doesn’t start till November.”

  Molly stamped her foot. November was too late. She had to learn now. And learn fast. She decided she would teach herself!

  “I’m going to the library,” she said, dashing out the door.

  Molly didn’t want to ask the librarian for help. Miss Brady might ask her why she wanted a dance book. And Molly did not want to explain. She didn’t want anyone to know she was going to dance in the movie. Yet.

  She wandered up and down the rows of books. She came to a sign that said HOW-TO. She read the titles of the books on the shelf.

  How to Lose Ten Pounds.

  Molly did not want to lose ten pounds.

  How to Remodel a Kitchen.

  Molly did not want to remodel her kitchen.

  How to Be Your Own Best Friend.

  Molly did not want to be her own best friend. She had a best friend. She just wanted to learn to tap-dance better than Rachel.

  Finally she came to a book called So You Want to Dance.

  She grabbed it. There were chapters on how to fox-trot. And how to waltz. The pictures showed ladies and men hanging on to each other and smiling. The ladies had long dresses on. The men had suits. She did not want a dance she had to do with a man. She did not want to waltz or fox-trot.

  She put the book back and looked some more. She found a book about ballet. And right next to it was a book called Tap-Dance Your Way to Fame. Small letters underneath said Be the Life of the Party. Learn to Tap-Dance. Here was Molly’s book! She hadn’t thought about being the life of the party. But fame in the movies was definitely speaking to her. And if she happened to be the life of the party, too, it would be all right.

  Molly took the book and checked it out on her library card.

  “This is a two-week book, Molly,” the librarian reminded her.

  Molly nodded. That did not give her much time. She would have to spend every extra moment practicing! Could she be as good as Rachel in two weeks? She had to be.

  When she got home, Molly went to her room and closed the door. She opened the book to the first lesson. There was a picture of someone in leotards with tap shoes on. Molly did not have leotards. She did not have tap shoes. She stamped her foot. How could she tap-dance with plain shoes?