Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Competition competition (competition) n. Rivalry in the marketplace. Dinner that night at the Treskis' was quiet. So the explosion that followed seemed especially loud. It was Jessie's turn to clear and scrape the dishes, Evan's turn to wash and stack. Evan looked at the pile of dirty plates on his left. Jessie was ahead. She was always ahead when it was her turn to clear, but tonight it felt like she was taunting him. To Evan, every plate-scraping sounded like "Can't keep up. Can't keep up." Evan was scrubbing the casserole pan when Jessie stacked the last dirty dish by his elbow. Then she stuck her hands under the faucet to rinse without

第五章竞赛竞赛（竞赛） 市场竞争。 那天晚上在特雷斯基家的晚餐很安静。 所以接下来的爆炸似乎特别响。 轮到杰西清理和刮盘子，轮到埃文清洗和堆叠。 埃文看着他左边那堆脏盘子。 杰西在前面。轮到她清场时，她总是领先，但今晚她感觉像是在嘲弄他。 对埃文来说，每次刮盘子听起来都像是“跟不上”。 我跟不上了。”埃文正在擦洗砂锅，杰西把最后一个脏盘子放在他的手肘旁。 然后她把手伸到水龙头下冲洗

even saying excuse me and shook her hands practically right in Evan's face and said, "So how much money did you make?" That was it! He couldn't hold it in any longer! "Why'd you do it, huh? Why'd you have to ruin the one thing I had going?" For a second, Evan wasn't sure if he meant the lemonade stand or Megan Moriarty. In a mixed-up way, he meant both. And there was no way he was going to tell Jessie that after paying back his mother for the four cans of lemonade, one can of grape juice, and one bottle of ginger ale (she'd been pretty irritated when she came down from the office and there wasn't a single cold drink in the house), he had walked away with two dollars and eleven cents. On top of that, he was pretty sure Scott had kept the five-dollar bill they'd earned. Well, what was Evan supposed to do? Ask Scott to turn his pockets inside out? Evan hadn't kept track of the sales, so he couldn't be sure. "Why'd I do it? Why'd you do it? Why'd you invite that jerk over for a lemonade stand?" shouted

甚至说对不起，还当着埃文的面握了握手，问道：“你赚了多少钱？”就是这样！他再也忍不住了！“你为什么要这么做，嗯？” 你为什么要毁了我仅有的一件事？”有那么一会儿，埃文不确定他指的是柠檬水摊还是梅根·莫里亚蒂。 以一种混淆的方式，他是两个意思。 他也不可能告诉杰西，在还了他母亲买的四罐柠檬水、一罐葡萄汁和一瓶姜汁汽水（她从办公室回来的时候很生气，家里连一杯冷饮都没有）之后，他带着两美元十一美分离开了。 最重要的是，他很肯定斯科特还留着他们挣来的5美元钞票。 那埃文该怎么做？ 让斯科特把他的口袋翻过来？ 埃文没有记录销售情况，所以他不能确定。 “我为什么要这么做？”你为什么要这么做？ 你为什么要邀请那个混蛋来买柠檬水？

Jessie. "And how come you wouldn't let me play? You're the one who was mean." "You're such a showoff," said Evan. "You always have to let everyone know that you're the smart one." "I wasn't showing off. I was just trying to have a little fun. Is that against the law? You won't do a lemonade stand with me. Then I won't do a lemonade stand with you. I'll do one with my friend Megan, instead." "You can-not be her friend. You can-not be her friend!" shouted Evan. "Why not?" "Because you're a little kid. You don't even belong in the fourth grade. And because you're just an annoying showoff pest and no one likes you!" The words felt like disgusting spiders running out of his mouth. They were horrible. But it felt so good to get rid of them. Then Evan saw Jessie's lip tremble. Uh-oh. Jessie was a howler. She didn't cry often and she didn't cry long. But when she did, it was loud. Mom would

杰西。“你为什么不让我玩呢？” 你才是那个刻薄的人。” “你真爱炫耀，”埃文说。 “你必须让每个人都知道你是最聪明的那个。” “我不是在炫耀。我只是想找点乐子。 这是违法的吗？你不会和我一起卖柠檬水的。 那我就不跟你卖柠檬水了。 我要和我的朋友梅根一起做。” “你不能做她的朋友。 你不能做她的朋友！”埃文喊道。 “为什么不?”“因为你还是个小孩子。 你根本不属于四年级。 因为你只是一个惹人讨厌的爱炫耀的讨厌鬼，没有人喜欢你！”这句话就像恶心的蜘蛛从他嘴里窜出来。 他们太可怕了。但摆脱他们的感觉真好。 然后埃文看到杰西的嘴唇在颤抖。 哦。杰西是个咆哮者。 她不常哭，也没哭多久。 但当她这么做的时候，声音很大。 妈妈会

come down from her office. Evan would catch the blame. Unfair. But Jessie didn't let loose. Instead, she stood as tall as her runty height would allow and said, "Megan likes me. She invited me over to her house tomorrow. We're going to make another lemonade stand and earn twice what we did today." Oh, that was it! She was going to ruin everything. Show him up right in front of Megan. Even before the school year started! Make Megan think he was just some stupid loser who couldn't even beat out his baby sister at a lemonade stand. Evan boiled over. "I wouldn't count on it, Juicy," he said. Jessie hated that nickname, and Evan only used it when he had to. "I'm going to have a lemonade stand every day until school starts. And I'm going to earn a hundred bucks by the end of the summer. Enough for an iPod." "Oh, please. Like you could if you even wanted to," said Jessie. "Megan and I already made twelve

从她办公室下来。 艾凡会背锅的。 不公平的。但杰西没有松口。 相反，她站得尽可能高，说：“梅根喜欢我。 她邀请我明天去她家。 我们要再摆一个柠檬水摊，赚两倍的钱。” 哦，就是这样！她要毁了一切。 让他在梅根面前现身。 甚至在新学年开始之前！让梅根觉得他只是个愚蠢的失败者在柠檬水摊上连自己的小妹妹都打不过。 埃文怒不可遏。“我可不指望，多汁，”他说。 杰西讨厌这个绰号，埃文也只在迫不得已的时候才用。 “我要每天摆一个柠檬水摊，直到开学。 到这个夏天结束的时候，我要赚100美元。 足够买一个iPod了。”“哦,请。 只要你愿意，你就能做到。”杰西说。 “梅金和我已经做了12个了

bucks each today. We could have a hundred dollars like that." Jessie snapped her fingers. "And then what?" said Evan. "You'd lock it up in your lock box and save it 'til you were fifty years old. You're the biggest miser on this planet." Jessie stiffened up. Her mouth made a funny O. But then she put a hand on her hip and smirked at Evan. "For your information, I'm going to make a one-hundred-dollar donation to a charity." Evan snorted. "Yeah, right. What charity?" There was a long pause. And then Jessie said, as smooth as whipped cream, "The Animal Rescue League. Megan and I talked about it today." "You don't even like animals," said Evan. "Everybody likes animals!" shouted Jessie. "And I'm going to give them a hundred dollars. So you can't ever call me a miser again." "I hope I never have to talk to you again," shouted Evan. "Hey!" a sharp voice called from the stairs. Mrs. Treski had a pencil stuck in her hair and a worried

今天每只雄鹿。我们可以有100美元。” 杰西打了个响指。 “然后呢？”埃文说。 “你会把它锁在你的锁箱里，保存到你50岁。 你是这个星球上最大的吝啬鬼。” 杰西挺直了腰板。她的嘴做了一个有趣的O形。 但随后她把手放在臀部，对埃文傻笑。 “告诉你，我要向慈善机构捐赠100美元。” 艾凡哼了一声。“是的,对。 慈善什么?”沉默了很长时间。 然后杰西像鲜奶油一样流畅地说：“动物救援联盟。 梅根和我今天谈过了。” “你甚至不喜欢动物，”埃文说。 “每个人都喜欢动物！”杰西喊道。 “我要给他们100美元。 所以你再也不能叫我守财奴了。” “我希望我再也不用和你说话了。”埃文喊道。 “嘿！”楼梯上传来一个尖利的声音。 特雷斯基太太的头发上插着一支铅笔，满脸忧虑

look on her face. "I could hear you two all the way in the attic. With the air conditioner on high. What's up?" Evan looked at Jessie. Jessie looked at Evan. They had taken a vow. A spit vow. Ever since Dad had gone, they had vowed not to fight in front of Mom. It made her sad. Sadder, even, than when Dad left. "Nothing," said Evan. "Nothing," said Jessie. Mrs. Treski looked at the two of them. "Come on. Out with it. What are you two yelling about?" "It wasn't a fight, Mom," said Evan. "We were just joking around." "Yeah," said Jessie. "We were goofing. Sorry we got you out of your office." Mrs. Treski looked at both of them with her laser eyes. Jessie hung the dishtowel on the oven handle and fiddled with it until it was perfectly straight. Evan bent over the casserole pan and scrubbed as if his life depended on it. He scrubbed so hard, his

看看她的脸。“我在阁楼上都能听到你们俩的声音。 空调开得很高。 有什么事吗?”埃文看着杰西。 杰西看着埃文。他们发过誓。 吐痰的誓言。自从爸爸走了以后，他们发誓不在妈妈面前打架。 这使她很伤心。甚至比爸爸离开时更悲伤。 “没什么，”埃文说。“没什么，”杰西说。 特雷斯基太太看着他们俩。 “来吧。说出来吧。你们两个在嚷嚷什么？”“那不是打架，妈妈，”埃文说。 “我们只是在开玩笑。” “是的，”杰西说。“我们在玩。 抱歉把你从办公室里弄出来了。” 特雷斯基太太用激光眼睛看着他们俩。 杰西把洗碗巾挂在烤箱把手上，摆弄着它，直到它完全伸直为止。 埃文俯身在砂锅上擦洗，好像他的生命就靠它了。 他用力擦洗，他的