2 Un-Magic Tree House

UN-MAGIC TREE HOUSE Bean did have important plans. Okay, one important plan. It was about a board. She had found a good board, a really good one. It was wide and strong and smooth. It had probably been a bookshelf once, but when Bean saw it, she knew that it was meant to be a tree house. It would be the floor of Bean's tree house, her secret hideaway, her fort, her almost-apartment up in the leaves, where no one could come unless Bean gave her permission. Except Ivy, because Ivy was going to help her build it. They were going to be tree housemates.

There was one problem with Bean's plan. Trees. Bean's backyard had trees, but not trees with nice, low, friendly branches. It had trees with high, unfriendly branches. Bean had tried putting her board in a bush, but that didn't

work. The bush had sort of fallen over. Bean had gritted her teeth and lugged the board to her front yard, where there was a plum tree with some sturdy branches. A front-yard tree house was not as good as a backyard tree house, but Bean was trying to be open-minded. Another problem was nails. Bean was not supposed to use them. Or hammers. Her dad had promised to nail the board into the plum tree, but he kept forgetting. Now, as Bean thought about Nancy and

Girl Power 4-Ever Camp, she decided she couldn't wait for her dad. She had to make her tree house today. No hammer and nails? Fine. She would find another way, a better way. Nancy would come home from camp and wish she had a tree house like Bean's. Bean might let her sit inside it for one minute. Bean looked over at Ivy's house, on the other side of Pancake Court. The curtains were closed. But that was okay. Bean could do it on her own. "Girls are strong, girls are great," she sang softly. "Girls have the power to cre-ate." Feeling determined, Bean set to work. The first question was how to stick things together without nails. Easy-peasy! Duct tape! Bean raced inside and came out with a thick roll of tape. She was getting more determined by the moment. Probably kids would cluster around the bottom of the plum tree, hoping to be allowed in her tree house. She shoved the board up into the tree's branches, looked at it for a second, and then went inside to get a chair. She banged her knee dragging the chair over the

lawn, and it wasn't very good for the lawn, but at last she was ready. She stood on the seat, wrapping tape around the board and the branch. Tape, tape, tape. Okay! Done! She got down and moved the chair to the other end of the board. Tape, tape, tape— "Hi." "Yikes!" Bean grabbed the tree to keep from falling off her chair.

"Did I scare you?" Ivy looked pleased. "I'm trying to walk without making any sound." "Why do you want to do that?" asked Bean. "So I can creep up on people and cast spells on them," Ivy said. Ivy was going to be a witch