5 IVY HATCHES A PLAN

IVY HATCHES A PLAN Bean opened her eyes. They were in a corner of Ivy's backyard. There was a big rock on one side and a small tree on the other. Between them was a perfectly round puddle. "This is the secret spot?" asked Bean. She had expected something more secret looking. Like a cave. "Yes. They'll never find you here," said Ivy. "You can stay for as long as you want. I'll bring you food." "But I only need to stay until dinnertime" Bean said., Ivy looked disappointed. "I thought you wanted to run away." "I do. But only till dinner." "Oh." Bean felt bad about not staying.

"Wouldn't you get in trouble if your parents found out I was living here?" she asked. "They don't come out here much," Ivy said. "My mom is afraid of ticks." "You probably don't ever get in trouble anyway," said Bean, feeling glum. "I'm always in trouble."

"I do too get in trouble," said Ivy. "No, you don't," Bean said. "You read books all the time. You can't get in trouble for reading books." Ivy said, "I will get in trouble— really huge trouble—if I do what I want to do. What I plan to do." Bean waited. "Well? What do you plan to do?" Ivy looked all around before she whispered, "Spells. Magic. Potions." "Really? You mean like a witch?" "Yes. Well. Not yet. But I'm going to be a witch," said Ivy. Her eyes were glowing. "I'm learning how."

Bean looked at Ivy's black bathrobe. It was kind of dirty now, and some of the little pieces of paper had fallen off. Bean saw that the papers were cut into star and moon shapes. Bean also saw that Ivy didn't know how to draw stars. Some of them had four points and some only had three. The moons didn't look so good either. "Is that a witch's robe?" she asked. "Yeah," said Ivy. "Did you make it yourself?" asked Bean.

"Yeah." "It's nice," said Bean politely. It didn't look like a witch's robe. It looked goofy. "I didn't know you could learn to be a witch. I thought you just had to be one." "That's what most people think," said Ivy. "But I'm learning. I probably know more than most born witches my age. I just learned this spell that makes you invisible." "Wow." Bean could use that for sure. "Will you teach me? That would be great." "I haven't done it yet," Ivy admitted. "You've got to have a dead frog."

"Oh." "It would be really mean to kill a frog." "Yeah." "That's why I dug this pond." Ivy pointed to the puddle with her gold stick. "I'm hoping a frog will come here and die." Bean didn't mention that it looked like a puddle. "Wow," she said. "What's the stick for?" "That's my wand," said Ivy. Bean couldn't help it. She burst out laughing. "That's not a wand. That's just a stick painted gold!" "It is too a wand!" Now Ivy looked mad. "And you better watch out, or I'll use it on you!" Bean stopped laughing. "Use it how?" "I'll cast the dancing spell on you. You won't be able to stop dancing for the rest of your life. Like this." She started jumping up