"Babysitters Club 021 Mallory And The Trouble With Twins" - читать интересную книгу автора (Babysitters Club)

"Ut's-whay is-thay? Ore-may in-tway alk-tay?"
"Are you going to talk like that all afternoon?" asked one of the girls angrily.
"Nope," I replied. "Only as long as you and your sister talk in your language. When you stop, I'll stop."
"Maybe we don't want to stop," said Marilyn-or-Carolyn.
"Aybe-may I-hay on't-day either-hay," I answered.
"Okay, okay, okay. We'll stop."
"Good," I said. "But now you know how it feels when you leave someone out of a conversation. Or when you're rude to her."
The twins scowled but didn't apologize. Finally one said, "What language were you talking in?"
"Pig Latin," I told her.
"Pig Latin?" The girls couldn't help smiling.
I nodded. "I could teach it to you. Anyone can learn it. My brothers taught it to me. They talk in it sometimes when they need a private language. Of course," I went on, "you've got a language of your own, so you probably don't need pig Latin."
"Oh, yes! Yes, we do!" cried one twin.
And that was when I decided that Claudia was probably right: twin talk wasn't much of a language at all, except for a few words the girls had made up. If it was, they wouldn't be so eager to learn pig Latin.
"I'll teach you pig Latin on two conditions," I said to the twins.
"What?" they replied. Instantly, they were on their guard.
"One, that you put your bracelets on - and on right. I'll just have to trust that you do it right. But I really want to be able to tell you apart. And two, that after I teach you pig Latin, you stop using your own language around me, because I don't like it. Is that a deal?"
The twins whispered to each other. Then one said, "If you ask for two things, then we
want two things, too. We want to learn pig Latin, and we want the ice-cream sandwiches."
"Fair enough," I replied. "Put your bracelets on and follow me into the kitchen."
The girls did so. They sat at the table while I took three ice-cream sandwiches out of the freezer. Then I joined them. I passed out the sandwiches. As we were unwrapping them, I said, "Thank you for putting the bracelets back on. I appreciate that."
"Do you really want to be able to tell us apart?" asked . . . Marilyn. (Bracelet check.) "We are so tired of looking alike."
"Yes. I really do. There must be some difference between you. Something besides the bracelets."
"We-ell," said Carolyn slowly, "there is one thing."
"Are you going to tell her?" spoke up Marilyn, sounding worried.
Carolyn nodded. "It's all right. She said she really wants to know. . . . Okay?"
Marilyn nodded.
"Look very, very closely at our faces," said Carolyn.
"Look at our cheeks," Marilyn added.
I stared and stared. At last I saw a tiny mole on Carolyn's left cheek, under her eye. Marilyn
had a mole, too, under her right eye. "The moles?" I asked.
The girls nodded. "It's the only difference between us that's really easy to see," Carolyn told me.
"Thank you," I replied. "Now I'll keep my part of the bargain and teach you pig Latin. It's really simple. All you do is take the sound at the beginning of a word, drop it, say the rest of the word, and follow it up with that sound plus 'ay.' Like, 'Marilyn' would be 'Arilyn-may'. Or 'Carolyn' would be 'Arolyn-cay.' Or 'table' would be - "
"Able-tay!" cried Marilyn.
"Right!" I said. "Good. Now here's a harder one. What would 'twin' be?"
The girls frowned. "Win-tay?" guessed Carolyn.
I shook my head. "For a word like 'twin,' you take the whole sound at the beginning of the word - not just the first letter - and move it around. So 'twin' would be 'in-tway.' "
"What if a word begins with a vowel?" asked Marilyn. "With 'a' or 'e' or T or V or 'u.' Then what? What would 'apple' be? 'Apple-ay'?"
"Nope. That's the only other rule you have to learn. When a word begins with a vowel,
you stick an 'h' in there. 'Apple' would be 'apple-hay.' Or 'island would be 'island-hay.' "
"Oh! Cool!" exclaimed Marilyn.
"Easy!" said Carolyn.
And the rest of the afternoon was a dream. The girls didn't use any twin talk, and they didn't switch their bracelets.
Then Mrs. Arnold came home and asked me the last question I would have expected to hear.
"The twins' eighth birthday is coming up," she began. "They're going to have a big party. I was wondering if you and two of your friends would want to help at the party. You know, organize games, keep an eye on the kids. Do the girls in your club ever do that kind of thing?"
"Well, yes," I replied. "Not very often, but we have helped at parties."
I couldn't believe she would hire other club members after what had happened with Claudia. But Saturday seemed forgotten. "When will the party be?" I asked.
Mrs. Arnold told me, and I took down all the information - how long the party was supposed to last, how many kids had been invited, etc.
"I'll tell the girls about it at our club meeting
tomorrow, and then I'll call to let you know if we can do it, okay?"
Mrs. Arnold nodded. She seemed pleased.