9. Welcome Home!

9 Welcome Home! In the middle of my dream, I thought I heard my door open. I opened my sleepy eyes a teeny bit. "Junie B.?" whispered a voice. It was still dark in my room. I rolled over to see who was talking. Then, all of a sudden, the voice yelled real loud. "AAAH!" it said. I sat straight up! My heart pounded and pounded. Someone was standing next to my bed!

I squinted to see who it was. And guess what? I think it was my daddy! He was standing in the dark! And his hand was over his mouth! And he was looking at my scary clown

face. "Daddy?" I whispered. "Is that you?" "Junie B.? Is that you?" Daddy whispered back. He turned on my light. "Oh my gosh!" he said. "No wonder you startled me. You still have your makeup on!" Just then, Mother came hurrying into my room. "Junie B. Jones, I told you to wash that clown makeup off," she said. "You could have scared your poor daddy to death." Daddy was patting his heart with his hand. "Sorry, Daddy. Sorry I scared you," I said. "Sorry, sorry, sorry." After that, I sat there for a second. Then my mouth did a little grin. "Did I really scare you, Daddy? Huh? Did

I? You're not just saying that, are you? I really, really scared you right?" Mother looked annoyed at me. "My goodness, Junie B. I've never seen anyone who is so thrilled about scaring people. It's not a very nice thing to do, you know." She quick grabbed a tissue and tried to wipe my clown face off. "Great," she said. "All this does is make you smudgy." I giggled at that funny word. Then I peeked around her at Daddy. "Boo! I'm Smudgy!" I said. "I'm Smudgy the Clown!" Daddy raised up his eyebrows. "Oh, you are, are you?" he said. Then he quick plopped on my bed. And we tickled each other very silly.

After we got done, we hugged and hugged very much. 'Cause I missed that guy, I tell you! I showed Daddy all my Halloween stuff. "If it wasn't for those dumb apples and raisins, I'd have a hundred percent candy now," I explained. And so wait till you hear this! Daddy said he would eat my raisins! And Mother said she would eat my apples! And so now my candy is one hundred percent perfect! Finally, Mother put all my candy bars back in my bag. And she washed my face with a washcloth. Then she and Daddy tucked me back into bed. And they closed my door. Only here is the bestest thing of all. 'Cause as soon as Mother was gone, Daddy

quick opened my door again. And he whispered a quiet secret. "Psst," he said real soft. "You scared the pants off me, Junie B. Jones." I giggled at that nice compliment. Then I hugged Philip Johnny Bob real happy. And I smiled myself to sleep.