7 Jo Meets Her Match

CHAPTER 7 Jo Meets Her Match Meg and Jo were getting ready for an evening out. Their bedroom was strewn with gloves, scarves, and hairpins. Amy came in and asked, "Where are you going?" Jo snapped, "Never mind. Little girls shouldn't ask questions." Amy still wanted to know, so she turned to

the more easy going Meg. "Please tell me. Beth is playing with her dolls. I don't have anything to do. Let me come, too!" Meg replied, "I can't take you because you weren't invited." Jo added, "Stop whining! You simply can't come." "You're going somewhere with Laurie, aren't you?" Meg nodded. "Yes. Now, please stop bothering us." Amy sat quietly for a minute. Then, she saw Meg slip a fan into her pocket and gasped, "I know! You're going to the theater!" Jo became very angry and annoyed. Amy didn't care. "I'll go, too. I've got my pocket money, and Mother said I could see the play in town." She took a deep breath. "It was very mean not to tell me." Meg explained softly, for she had a special

bond with Amy, "Mother doesn't want you to go tonight because you're not well. You'll see it next week with Beth and Hannah." Amy cried, "But that's not as much fun as going with you and Jo and Laurie. I've been sick with this cold for so long. I'm dying to have some fun." Meg turned to Jo. "Well, what if she does come? We can bundle her up." Jo stood firm. "I'm not going if she goes! And if I don't go, Laurie won't like it. He invited only us two, not Amy. I would hope she'd think twice about poking in where she isn't wanted." Jo's anger made Amy even more determined to get her way. She began to pull on her boots. "I am going. Meg just said I could!" "And where will you sit?" Jo retorted. "We've got reserved seats!"

Amy began to cry. Meg tried to comfort her. Laurie called from outside and said it was time to go. Amy wailed on and on. She forgot all of her grown-up airs and acted like a spoiled baby. As Meg and Jo were stepping out the front door, Amy called over the banister, "You'll be sorry for this, Jo March!" "Fiddlesticks!" Jo yelled back, slamming the door. Once again, Jo's fiery spirit was at odds with Amy's stubborn will. When they got back home after the play, Amy was reading in the parlor and refused to speak to them. Jo checked to make sure everything was all right in her room. The last time she and Amy fought, the younger sister had thrown Jo's dresser drawers upside down on the floor. Now, everything seemed normal. Jo decided that Amy had forgiven and forgotten. But Jo was mistaken. The next day, the

young author burst into the living room yelling, "Has anyone taken my book of stories?" Both Meg and Beth immediately answered, "No." Jo turned to her youngest sister, who was poking the fire. "Amy—you have it! You must." "No, I don't." "You know where it is then." "No, I don't." Jo cried, "You're lying!" She grabbed her sister by the shoulders. "No! I'm not. I don't know where it is and I don't care." Jo shook her sister a little. "You'd better tell me the truth!" "Get as mad as you like. You'll never see your old stories again." Jo looked extremely upset. "Why not?"

"I've burned them in the fire." "You did what?" Jo turned very pale and clamped her hands even harder on Amy's shoulders. "My book that I've worked on for years? The one I intended to finish before Father gets home? Have you really burned it?" "Yes, I did! I told you I would make you pay for—" Jo's temper exploded. She shook her sister so hard that Amy's teeth chattered. "You wicked, wicked girl! I can never write it again. It's lost forever. I will never forgive you as long as I live. Never!" Meg flew to rescue Amy from Jo's grip. Beth tried to pacify Jo, but she was too upset. She gave Amy a final punch on the ear and ran upstairs to the attic to be alone in her misery. Jo's book of fairy-tale stories was her pride