by Tim Shoemaker

Joey opened the front door and grabbed Rip's collar to keep the chocolate lab from bolting. Joey wasn't about to lose the neighbors' dog on his last day of watching their house.

“Easy, Rip.” He tightened his grip. “It's just my big sister—probably checking up on me.”

Elizabeth knelt down and held out her arms. “C'mere, girl. Remember me?”

Tail swinging wildly, Rip tugged free of Joey and nuzzled close to Elizabeth.

“Did Mom send you over?”

Elizabeth kissed Rip on the top of her head and stood. “I sent myself—and, yes, I am checking up on you.”

She stepped inside and looked around.

“I'm just house-sitting,” Joey said. “How can I mess that up?”

Elizabeth gave him her famous you-don't-really-want- me-to-answer-that look and strode down the hall toward the kitchen.

“The TV's so loud, I'm surprised you even heard the doorbell.”

“Toby's here.”

Elizabeth whirled around. “You're supposed to take care of Rip, bring in the mail and make sure the house is OK while the MacKinnons are out of town. Mrs. MacKinnon didn't say anything about having friends over.”

Joey shrugged. “It was assumed.”

“Assumed?”

“Yeah, Mrs. M. told me to treat the house like it was my own.”

He grinned and jerked his thumb toward the family room. “If I had a TV with surround sound, I'd have friends over all the time.”

Home Sweet Home

Toby wandered into the hall and waved with the remote. “Hi, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth didn't seem to notice him.

“The MacKinnon's hired me to house-sit every Easter for the last four years,” she said. “The only reason I recommended they try you this year is because I have a real job now.”

She put her hands on her hips. “They're paying you good money to take care of things. I'm warning you, Joey. Don't mess this up.”

“You worry too much,” Joey said, walking into the kitchen. “This is what I call easy money.”

Elizabeth stopped at the table, her eyes as wide as hard-boiled eggs. “Where did all this come from?”

Joey held up a 2-pound chocolate Easter bunny, peeled back the foil wrapper from its ears and took a bite. “I bought it.”

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he waved his arm across the table. “Beautiful, isn't it?”

Small chocolate bunnies lined up like football players. Dozens of colored jellybeans, chocolate eggs, bags of chips, boxes of marshmallow Peeps and other goodies lay in random piles.

“Do you two have any idea how many calories are on this table?” Elizabeth looked at Toby, then back at Joey.

“A lot,” Joey said. “Which is why I didn't offer you any.”

Elizabeth acted as if she didn't hear his last comment.

“You spent the money they gave you on junk food?” she asked.

Joey picked up a pack of marshmallow chicks. “I'd hardly call this junk food. And I didn't spend it all on snacks.”

He pointed to a plastic bag on the counter. “We biked to Buy Mart and I picked up some CDs, too.”

“You spent it all?”

“Actually, I ran a little short.”

Money Mismanagement

Elizabeth took a step back as if she'd gotten the wind knocked out of her.

“I borrowed some cash from Toby, and Mrs. M. left me an extra $20 to buy more dog chow for Rip,” Joey explained. He pointed to a small bag by Rip's water bowl. “Her note said I could keep the change.”

“We bought the smallest bag they had,” Toby snickered.

“You spent all the money Mrs. MacKinnon gave you, plus you borrowed more?” Elizabeth threw her hands in the air. “You're hopeless. Obviously you haven't listened to anything Dad's tried to teach us about managing money.”

Joey poked a hole in the cellophane wrapper. Wiggling a yellow marshmallow chick free, he scrunched it into a ball and crammed it in his mouth. “I'm a terrific money manager.”

Elizabeth frowned. “How do you figure?”

Joey grinned. “Whenever I get any money, I manage to spend it.”

Toby laughed. Elizabeth didn't.

“Whatever happened to the idea of spending money wisely?” Elizabeth shook her head. “ 'When God gives you money, be careful how you manage it, or it will manage you!' Dad must have told us that a million times.”

“Look,” Joey sauntered over to his sister, put his arm around her shoulder and started walking her back down the hall. “The MacKinnons always paid you a humongous bonus, right?”

“Because I took care of everything so well,” she said. “I even cleaned the house. That doesn't guarantee they'll give you a bonus.”

Joey opened the front door and led Elizabeth onto the porch. Toby followed and closed the door before Rip could get out.

Joey leaned against the railing and folded his arms across his chest. “The MacKinnons won't be back until late this afternoon. I'll get everything cleaned up before they get here, just like my big sister always did—so I'll get the bonus.” He smiled. “Then I'll set aside a couple bucks for savings, toss a dollar in the offering plate Sunday and pay back Toby.”

Pooch Problem

Toby took a chocolate egg out of his pocket and picked off the foil. “Really, Elizabeth, you don't need to worry,” he said. “Joey will get the money back to me. I trust my friend.”

Elizabeth paled. “You guys are too much.”

Joey glanced at Toby and rolled his eyes. “See what I have to put up with?”

Walking back to the front door, he grabbed the handle and twisted. “Great. The door is locked.” He jammed his hands in his pockets and pulled them out empty.

Elizabeth stepped up beside him. “Don't you have the key?”

“I left it on the counter.”

Toby pressed his nose to a window nearby. “Uh-oh. Rip's getting into our stash.”

“What?” Joey cupped his hands against the glass and looked inside.

Rip stood with her front paws on the table, wolfing down chocolate bunnies.

“She's even eating the foil wrappers,” Toby whispered.

“No, no, NO!” Joey twisted the knob with both hands. Nothing.

Elizabeth frantically rang the doorbell over and over. “C'mon, Rip. Get away from that table. You're going to make a mess. Too much chocolate is poisonous to dogs!”

Joey banged on the door with his fist. “Get away from my food, you crazy dog!”

In a frenzy, Rip clawed the tabletop to keep her balance and reach more chocolate. Bags of chips fell to the floor, dumping their contents. Chocolate Easter eggs lurched and skittered across the tile.

“Bad dog, Rip,” Joey shouted through the glass. “BAD DOG!”

Rip glanced at him for an instant before lunging for the big bunny in the center of the table. With ears flat against the sides of her head and the 2-pound bunny clamped securely in her drooling jaws, she raced toward the family room.

Toby took off running. “I'll look through the back windows.”

Joey plowed his hands through his hair. “We gotta get inside.”

“Maybe I should get Dad,” Elizabeth said.

Joey shook his head. “We can't wait. We gotta get in now.”

Joey took off running around the house. “I think I left one of the back windows open.”

. Elizabeth followed her brother and watched as he took off his shoe, jammed his fist inside and punched his way through the screen.

“What are you doing?”

“I'm getting into the house,” he said. “We need to get that chocolate away from Rip.”

Joey shoved open the window and jumped inside. Elizabeth and Toby ran to the family room window. “She's on the couch,” Toby yelled to his friend.

Elizabeth looked horrified. “She's eating the chocolate bunny on the white couch.”

“It's not white anymore,” Toby added as they watched the dog heave up the contents of her stomach.

“Oh, NO!” Joey screamed. “Why me? This couldn't get any worse.”

“Don't count on it,” Toby said. “I think I hear the MacKinnon's car pulling up. It sounds like they're home early.”

Home Work

Three hours later, Joey stood scrubbing the grill in his backyard when Toby walked around the side of the house.

“Looks like your parents already have you on a work detail.”

“Exactly.” Joey scraped black encrusted grease from the racks with a wire brush. “The thing that bothers me is that Elizabeth was right about me messing up. She even got the bonus—my bonus—just for helping them clean up.”

Toby grabbed a rag and started wiping the sides of the grill. “That's gotta hurt.”

“And with the damage to the couch, the window screen and maybe a bill from the vet, I'll be working this off for weeks-maybe months.”

Joey tapped the wire brush on the side of the grill. Chunks of the gunky stuff fell to the deck. “I'll pay you back as soon as I can. Sorry, I got you into this.”

Toby shook some crud off the rag. “We'll work it off together.”

Joey stopped scraping and looked at his friend. “If I get that house-sitting job next Easter—”

“Which isn't very likely,” Toby interrupted.

“But if I do, I'm cutting you in for a full 50 percent. And we're not spending the money until the job's done.” He held out his hand.

Toby shook it and smiled. “Deal.”

Joey picked up the scraper. “Easy money sure is hard work.”

	Q: Where do rich cooks live? A: Beverly Grills. Jesse S., 10, California Clubhouse Jr. Click here to subscribe