4 WHAT A SCREAM

WHAT A SCREAM When Bean's older sister, Nancy, wanted her room painted yellow, Bean's mother said that Bean could pick out a new color for her room, too. Bean picked green. Not light, sweet green. Deep, rich green the color of emeralds. Everyone told her she would get tired of it, but she hadn't. Bean loved her room. It was small and cozy: her bed was in one corner, her toy box in another, her dresser in a third, and best of, all, her basket chair was in the fourth. She liked to sit in her chair and pretend that she was an ape-girl living in a jungle tree house. She had made a lot of pictures of jungle animals and stuck them on the wall. The best was the toucan. "We could draw," said Ivy, looking at the pictures. "We could draw dinosaurs."

"I don't want to draw. I want to break a world record," said Bean. "Don't you?" Ivy shrugged. "Not really. Seems like a lot of work for nothing. I don't want spoons all over my face." "But then you'd be famous," said Bean. "But I don't care if I'm famous for spoons on my face. If I'm going to be famous, I want to be famous for something important, like Mary Anning." Bean shook her head. Spoons would be fine with her. But spoons were taken. Bean stared at her green wall and tried to get an idea. Ivy lay down on Bean's bed and tried to imagine finding an ichthyosaur. Quiet minutes went by. "Hey!" said Bean. Ivy looked at her. "I've got a great idea!" said Bean. This was going to be easy. "I'm good at screaming, and I'm good at breaking

things, right?" "I guess so." "I'll break a glass by screaming," said Bean. "I'll be the youngest person ever to do it." "What? You scream and throw a glass?" Ivy looked confused. "You already did that with a plate." "No—the scream breaks the glass. This lady in the book did it. She screamed so loud that a wine glass shattered. But she was old. I could probably scream louder because I'm young. I'll be a record breaker."

"That's a good record," said Ivy. "That'll be fun." She bounced a little on Bean's bed. "Okay," said Bean, "I'll need a wine glass. I'll go get it." She jumped up. And then she sat down again. Her dad was still sweeping up little pieces of plate. He probably wouldn't be very happy to find out that she was planning to break something else. Maybe she could find

something made of glass upstairs where he wouldn't need to know about it. Not a mirror. That was bad luck. But there had to be something she could use. "I've got it!" she yelled. "Got what?" "Nancy's glass animals. I'll shatter one of them. It'll be even better than a wine glass." "Won't Nancy get mad?" Bean pictured Nancy's face and then quickly put it out of her mind. "No. She has gazillions of them, and besides, I'll glue the animal back together when I'm done. She won't even notice." I hope, she added silently.

Ivy went on a spying mission down the hall, past Nancy's room. "The coast is clear," she reported when she came back. "She's not in her room." "Okeydoke," said Bean. She took a deep breath and headed for the door on super- quiet tiptoe. Nancy's room was very organized. All