“Sit down, everyone! It’s time to call the meeting to order.” Trixie scowled as more than half of her friends ignored her. “Hey! I said, sit down!”

At her raised voice, the excited conversations came to an abrupt halt and the rest of the Bob-Whites started gathering around the table.

“Was that completely necessary?” Mart grumbled, rubbing his ear in an exaggerated manner. “I may not hear anything on that side for days.”

“Yes. It totally was.” She gestured to a seat and waited for him to take the hint. When all were listening, she addressed the group. “Does everyone have their preferred dates ready? Can you hand them to… oh, thanks, Hon. How does it look? Will we be able to all go together?”

Honey shot her friend a bemused look. “Maybe if you gave me enough time to read them, I might find out.”

The college-aged Bob-Whites had agreed to meet in Sleepyside over spring break to plan a summer trip. The day before, Matthew Wheeler had announced that he had rented a house on Cobbett’s Island for the season and that they were all welcome to spend some time there. The meeting in the clubhouse was to set dates and make other decisions.

Honey looked up from her task with a smile and pushed the calendar she had been using into the middle of the table. “I think it’s going to work. If we arrive on this day,” she explained, pointing with her pencil, “we can have nine days of all of us being there together. I guess some of us could stay longer if we wanted – we’ll need two cars anyway – but nine days is probably better than I thought we’d get, considering.”

“So, from a Saturday to the Sunday a week later?” Di clarified, frowning as she looked at it upside down. “Yes, that does sound good.”

“All in favour?” Trixie asked. “That’s unanimously carried. Great. Now, we just need–”

“Wait!” Honey interrupted. “I’m sorry to get everyone’s hopes up, but I’ve just realised that for those first few days there won’t be any of the staff at the house, because that’s the same weekend as the dinner party that Mother is holding at Manor House, and Mother specifically told me that she would need everyone here for it, so maybe we won’t be able to have nine days, but only six or seven.”

Trixie’s face showed her dismay. “Everyone needs to be at the dinner? Including you?”

“Well, no.” Honey shook her head. “I meant the staff. It’s some business thing of my father’s, and I’m specifically not invited, but if we go then, we’ll have to do all the cooking and cleaning, but if we don’t mind that, then I don’t see any other reason we shouldn’t go then, but I thought we should actually decide, rather than just assume that we’re all okay with that.”

“I think we could fend for ourselves for a few days,” Brian suggested with a smile.

“What does everyone else think?” Trixie asked, looking around the group.

“Sounds fine by me,” Jim answered, and Di nodded her agreement.

Dan shrugged. “We’ll probably have to keep running to the store after Mart ate all the food again, but I’m good with that.”

“Hey!” Mart thumped his friend’s arm. “That’s not fair.”

“I thought you were deaf in that ear, Mart,” Trixie teased. “How did you even hear him say it?”

“That was my other ear.” Her brother scowled. “One time! One time I eat something I’m not supposed to and do I ever hear the end of it?”

“I could yell in both your ears so you can’t hear at all,” Trixie offered. “And I think it was actually more than just once. It’s just that your eating every last skerrick of food in your apartment that time – whether it belonged to you or Dan or the other guy – was the most memorable.”

“Whatever.” His expression shifted as an idea occurred to him. “But to prove that I am more than just an endless appetite, I propose a challenge.”

His sister narrowed her eyes. “What sort of challenge?”

Mart took a moment to consider his words. “Let’s call it a logistical challenge. We could, perhaps, divide into two teams–”

“Boys against girls?” Di wondered.

Mart affected a dignified pose. “We are men.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Trixie suggested. “But, two teams? What do they do?”

Dan snorted. “The team with six people on it does all the cooking, and Mart’s team steals all their food.”

“I bet you ten dollars we can go those few days without buying in any extra supplies.” Mart’s face reddened as he spoke. “How is this for a plan? Each team buys enough supplies for half the meals. When we get there, the teams swap ingredients and have to serve up everything the other team bought.”

“But what if one team buys really strange combinations of stuff?” Di wanted to know. “I don’t want to eat banana-chilli-liver casserole!”

“The teams could start out with a number of points,” Trixie suggested. “If anyone won’t eat what’s been cooked, the team that bought the ingredients loses points.”

“Unless it’s just been really badly cooked,” Honey added. “The team that did the cooking would lose points then.”

“Then we’re agreed?” Mart looked around the group. “No outside food from the time that we get there until the time the staff arrive?”

Honey nodded. “Unless we get invited somewhere.”

“We’ll put it to a vote.” Trixie glanced around the group. “That’s unanimous. The Bob-White Logistical Challenge is on.”

“The Inaugural Bob-White Logistical Challenge,” Mart corrected.

“And we’re going boys against girls?” Di asked, innocently.

“We’re dividing into random teams,” Jim answered, cutting off Mart’s protest. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

He disappeared into the storage area and returned holding the cover from one of the sleeping bags. Digging around in his pocket, he sorted out some coins.

“I need some help, here.” He held out two dimes and three quarters. “If someone can make it up to three of one and four of the other, we’ll put them in the bag and everyone draws one.”

Brian supplied two more dimes and they all gathered around.

“One at a time, or all at once?” Trixie wondered.

“All at once,” Jim answered. “Three, two, one, go!”

Honey and Di both squealed as seven hands dipped into the bag. Dan bumped shoulders with Di as he tried to snatch a coin out of someone else’s hand. The bag thrashed around for a few more moments, then Trixie pulled her arm clear, holding a coin aloft. Most of the others followed, leaving Mart and Dan to fight it out.

“Mine!” Mart cried in triumph, as he held up a dime.

“Who’s on which team?” Di asked. She held out her quarter.

The others opened their hands and showed their coins.

Trixie looked from one hand to the next. “Okay, so it’s me, Di and Brian against Jim, Mart, Dan and Honey. May the best team win!”

Di turned to Dan. “You two were fighting to get on the same team.”

A slow smile spread across Dan’s face. “I was trying to get both coins.”

“You’ll pay, Mangan,” Mart muttered. “Just wait.”

“This is it,” Honey announced, from the front passenger seat of the car. “Pull up over there, Jim.”

The Moorings, where they had stayed the first time they visited, had since been sold and was no longer available for summers. The place they would stay this time was positioned near the water, but at the other end of the island.

“It’s so good to be here all together.” Di pulled Trixie and Honey into a hug as they all piled out of their vehicles. “I can’t wait to see the house. Do you have the key, Honey?”

Honey pulled it out and they let themselves inside. “Oh, I like this.”

The three made a quick tour of the living and dining areas, admiring the big windows that faced the water, the fireplace and the soft rugs in tones of blue. They peeked into the kitchen, with its huge, old, wooden table and gleaming pots and pans. Then, they raced up the stairs to check out the bedrooms.

“This must be my bed,” Di announced, putting her handbag down on the lavender cover. “You two can share the next room, if you’d like, and we’ll leave the boys the room with the two sets of bunk beds. Or they could have two rooms, too, if they prefer.”

“Let’s not show them this room, or they’ll be jealous of the queen-sized bed,” Trixie suggested. “Mart and Dan are arguing enough as it is without giving them an excuse. Speak of the devil…”

“Where are those girls?” Mart’s voice could be heard from the corridor.

Di ushered the other two out of the room and shut the door behind herself. “We’re just choosing rooms. You boys can have that one, if you want.”

“Men!”

She raised an eyebrow. “And yet I just heard you call us girls.”

“It’s not the same,” he argued.

“This room does look good.” Jim ignored the byplay. “I think it will suit the four of us just fine. Let’s go get our gear.”

Fifteen minutes and a few more petty squabbles later, the seven met in the kitchen for the unveiling of their ingredients. The two teams gathered at either end of the large table with the things they had bought in front of them. The pantry had already been stocked by the Manor House cook, but other than a set list of staples such as salt, sugar, coffee and oil, its contents were not to be used for the challenge.

“Are we ready?” Jim asked, looking down at the other team.

Trixie nodded. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

She, Di and Brian walked down one side of the table, while the other four walked up the other. Trixie began pulling foodstuffs out of boxes and a large cooler, higgledy-piggledy. A beef roast, packets of pancake mix and of dried beans landed next to frozen apple pies, bags of bread rolls and a carton of eggs. At the other end of the table, the other team was unloading a similarly motley store of food items.

“What’s this?” Trixie asked in confusion, as she opened the last box.

Di pulled out one of the cans and read the label aloud: “Cherry Pop.”

Brian looked in the box and frowned. “A whole carton of it? And this is the last box. Where are the fruits and vegetables?”

Trixie glared down the table at Mart. “Didn’t you buy any fruits or vegetables for us? And what’s with all the sodas?”

“What sodas?”

Di held up a can. “These sodas. There’s a whole carton of them.”

Honey came closer and took it from her. “Dwengle’s Cherry Pop. What sort of brand is that? I’ve never heard of it!”

“You didn’t buy this?” Trixie asked.

Honey shook her head. “I didn’t buy any of it. I made the shopping list – which didn’t even have soda on it – and Mart and Dan did the shopping. Here: this is what you’re supposed to have.”

The other three sorted through their supplies, and then Brian spoke up. “We have everything on one side of the list, but nothing on the other.”

“Other side?” Mart gulped. “Oh, boy.”

Dan held out a hand, palm upwards. “I’ll have my ten bucks now, thanks.”

Mart shook his head. “I haven’t lost, yet.”

Brian, Di and Trixie conferred for a moment.

“We think we can work with what we’ve got,” he told the others, “if you’ll agree to trade some of your fresh produce for this carton of soda.”

“Half the carton.” Honey sorted through the pile and picked out some things. “We’ll trade you these for half of those.”

The three shared a glance, then Brian nodded. “Done. Thank you, Honey.”

The first of the six meals of the challenge was dinner that evening and it was to be cooked by the team of four. While they worked, Di drew up a chart for tracking the points. In the time since their meeting, a complicated scoring system had been devised, but no one had made time to create the chart.

“What was it called again?” Di asked Trixie, as she prepared to mark out the title. “The Bob-White’s Inaugural what?”

“I believe it was ‘The Inaugural Bob-White Logistical Challenge’,” Brian put in, from where he was reading a book on the sofa.

Trixie laughed. “I think we should rename it ‘The Ill-Considered Bob-White Logistical Challenge’.”

“Or maybe, ‘The Ill-Considered Bob-White Cherry Pop Challenge’,” Di put in, giggling.

Brian put down his book. “I think you’d better rephrase that to Cherry Soda Challenge.”

Di kept a straight face, but her eyes glinted with mischief. “But the product is actually named Cherry Pop. It’s written on all the cans – all thirty of them; I checked when we were counting them out.”

“Still,” he argued, “it’s suggestive of – ahem – another meaning.”

Di looked over at Trixie, who was turning red with the effort not to laugh. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”

Trixie only shook her head and made strange snorting sounds.

“I like my title, I think,” Di mused, putting pencil to paper.

A short time later, she held up the sheet, which was now headed ‘The Inaugural Bob-White Ill-Considered Logistical Cherry Pop Challenge’ in black pen. She had illustrated the corners with shiny red cherries.

“Ill-Considered,” Brian muttered, and turned back to his book. “Understatement.”

“Well, this is an… interesting… meal,” Di murmured, when faced with her dinner plate a little later. “And I see that we’ll be drinking Cherry Pop to go with it. I was thinking it was Cherry Cola, but this pinkish-red doesn’t look like cola at all.”

Trixie picked up her glass and took a sip. “It’s horrible. Do we really have to drink it?”

“The challenge was to serve everything in our supplies,” Mart reminded them. “And don’t you think horrible is too strong a description?”

“Why couldn’t it have been strawberry?” Trixie wondered, gazing at her glass mournfully. “So close and yet so far away.”

Honey’s eyes strayed to the chart. “Since both teams have it, you’d think it would cancel out if we didn’t drink it, only I have a feeling that if most of one team drinks it and the other team doesn’t that the team who drinks would come out ahead. Is that right?”

Jim nodded. “Yes. We designed it that way to stop either team cheating by refusing to eat the other’s food.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with eating.” Di smiled at the other team. “It may look, erm, unusual, but it’s delicious. What do you call it?”

“I would name this dish ‘Mart Can’t Follow Directions’,” Dan quipped. On receiving a kick under the table that inconvenienced several others, he amended, “Or it might be called ‘Chicken Surprise’; your choice.”

Mart scowled. “You are going to pay, Mangan.”

“What are the plans for the morning?” Jim asked, in an attempt to defuse the situation. “Any ideas?”

“Swimming!” Di’s voice rose above that of anyone else. “I have a new suit I want to try out.”

“We should look up Peter Kimball,” Brian added. “I don’t think any of us managed to contact him, did we?”

Several others shook their heads.

“I tried to call a couple of times, but kept missing him,” Trixie mentioned. “And he didn’t answer my email.”

“We should check out the new library sometime, but I don’t know if it will be open on a Sunday.” Honey shrugged. “It would be nice to drive around and see what’s changed since we were last here.”

“If we pack a picnic lunch, we could spend the day exploring,” Trixie suggested. “Our team will be making breakfast; will your team be able to handle that?”

“Of course,” Honey answered. “That would be great. I can’t wait to see Peter again, and find out how the fund-raising turned out, and go for that swim, and wouldn’t it be great if Peter and his friends take us out on their boats? Though, maybe there’s not too many of them left on the island, now. I hope we can find some local people to make friends with, if Peter isn’t here.”

“So, we’re all agreed, then?” Jim asked. “Breakfast, then a swim, then the lunch team packs a picnic and we go out exploring for the day.”

This suggestion met with general agreement.

“We can’t stay out too late, though,” Trixie added. “Our team needs to get back and cook. I have kind of an idea of what we should do and it might take a little time.”

Jim nodded. “Sounds interesting.”

“Sounds ominous,” Mart corrected. “I hope you’re not going to lose me my bet, sister dear.”

“You’ll have to wait and see. And maybe next time you’ll think before you make a bet!”

Early the next morning, Trixie, Brian and Di met in the kitchen to prepare breakfast and decide on their strategy to win the challenge. While most of their menu seemed fairly obvious, there were one or two things that needed some thought.

“Bacon, eggs and pancakes for breakfast,” Brian listed. “Roast beef and vegetables for tonight’s dinner, with those frozen apple pies and cream for dessert. Then everything that’s left for lunch tomorrow. And we just have to use up all this soda somehow.”

“I was thinking…” Trixie began.

“Can we start cooking first?” Brian interrupted. “We are on a schedule here.”

“Oops! Leave it to me and we’ll be having breakfast in time for lunch.” Trixie went to look for some large pans.

“So, what’s this idea that you had, Trixie?” Di asked, while getting out the bacon and eggs. “Does it involve cherry pop?”

“Definitely. The less of it I have to drink, the better! I was thinking that if we cooked the beef in it – you know, like ham in cola – we could use some up, and that the other seasonings would drown out the flavour.”

“Are you sure about that?” Brian asked, his brow creased. “If we ruin the whole roast…”

Trixie waved that objection away. “The worst it would do is turn the outside a funny colour.”

“I don’t think I want to risk it.” Di gave Trixie an apologetic look. “It sounds like almost a good idea, but we don’t have as much food as we should have as it is. Getting this wrong would be disastrous.”

“But I found this recipe – and it’s got good reviews from lots of people.” Trixie held out a sheet of notepaper on which she had scrawled the directions. “I’m sure we could adapt it for cherry pop.”

Brian took it from her, as Di sorted through their section of the pantry looking for the packets of pancake mix that were part of their supplies.

“It could work.” He picked up a can. “Let’s think about it while we work and decide later. In the meantime, how about if we try making a sauce out of it to go with the pancakes?”

Trixie screwed up her nose. “Do I have to have that with my pancakes?”

Her brother gave her a look. “Yes.”

“So, how many cherries do we need to pop for this sauce?” Di asked, seeing that a distraction was needed.

Brian let out a strangled sound.

“What did I say?” Di’s face was the picture of innocence.

“I don’t know.” Trixie was having trouble smothering her laughter. “Give me a can and I’ll be first to pop the cherry. Have you got a pan to pour it into?”

Di selected one, while Brian covered his eyes with both hands.

“We’re not doing anything here that you don’t need to see,” his sister told him. “You can look, you know.”

He dropped his hands and gave her a long-suffering look. “I think I need a breath of fresh air.”

As soon as he was gone, the two young women burst into uncontrollable giggles.

“Did you see his face?” Trixie managed, at last. “I thought he was going to pass out.”

“I feel bad for teasing him,” Di answered, “but I just can’t seem to help myself.”

She turned to the stove and set the pan on the heat.

“I can’t believe that Brian is the only one who objects to our reinterpretation of the challenge.” Trixie shook her head. “I mean, I know he’s the most conservative of the group, but still.”

Di smirked. “He’s not the only one. I heard the four of them talking last night. I was going to tell you and Honey, only we got talking about other things and it slipped my mind.”

“And?”

“And Dan thinks it’s funny, but he’s the only one.”

Trixie stirred the liquid, simply to see the carbonated bubbles rise. “They’re probably all thinking about which of us… and which of them… and who, together…”

“Uh-huh. And there was at least one accusation.”

She put the spoon down and turned to Di, all merriment gone. “Maybe we should stop it. When you put it that way, it’s not funny at all.”

Di shook her head. “They need to deal with this in their own way. It’s not like there isn’t a problem anyway.”

“I guess.” She swished the spoon in the pan. “I don’t think this is doing anything. Doesn’t it look just the same?”

“It’s going to take a while, I think.” Di screwed up her nose. “I hope it tastes okay when we’re done. We have to serve it up regardless.”

“I don’t suppose it can taste worse.”

Some time later, she revised that opinion. “I think it actually does taste worse. And we’ve only used one can – fourteen more to go, and just two meals after this one. We are going to be drinking it.”

Brian, who had returned some time earlier, tasted the sample she had dripped onto a plate and frowned. “It is a little… strong. Let’s try mixing some cream in it and see if that makes it better.”

Di went to the refrigerator and brought over the cream. She poured a small amount into the pan and stirred it through. The three then sampled the result, which was now neon pink.

“I suppose it’s marginally better,” Trixie decided. “But what are we going to do with the rest? The other team probably only has eight cans left and we’ve still got fourteen.”

“They’ve already done a dinner and they served it to drink,” Di pointed out. “They’ll probably give us a can each today at lunch.”

Trixie shuddered. “Then, if they want to use up everything they’re going to serve up their last can at breakfast tomorrow, and if we can’t think of something better to do with it, we’re going to have to serve a can per person both tonight and tomorrow at lunch – plus that can there at breakfast.”

Brian picked up the recipe. “Well, I think we might give this a try. But it will take some time, so we’ll need to get back early this afternoon. Are we all willing to do that?”

Trixie nodded. “Anything to get out of drinking this stuff!”

Mid-afternoon on Sunday, the group returned to the house after their sightseeing. They had followed the plans they had made the night before, enjoying a morning swim and a simple lunch of sandwiches, fruit and, inevitably, cherry pop. They had toured the island on foot and by car, finding a few things that had changed, most notably that the local library building had indeed been replaced. As it did not open on Sundays, they had decided to visit the next day. In their travels, they had also dropped by the Kimball residence, where they had discovered that Peter was away and would not return until Wednesday.

While the group who had prepared lunch headed back to the beach, Trixie, Brian and Di got back in the kitchen to start on their cooking. Trixie, in particular, found it satisfying to pour can after can of soda into the pot.

“Do you think it will fit all of them?” she wondered, as the reddish liquid splashed in.

“No,” Brian answered, looking at her askance. “Definitely not.”

“Pity.” She shrugged and opened another can. “So, what are we going to do with the rest?”

“Serve it tomorrow for lunch.” Di counted the cans. “Make that the last one you pour in and we’ll have one each.”

“Or, maybe we could freeze it,” Brian suggested. “I don’t know whether it would be ready in time for tonight, even if we can find enough shallow trays, but if not we could serve it tomorrow at lunch. It’d be kind of like sorbet.”

“Or granita,” Di added. “We have those lemons that we haven’t used yet. Maybe the juice would go well to counter some of the sweetness.”

“Great!” Trixie began searching for something to freeze it in. “Here: will these trays do? And is there space in the freezer?”

Brian crossed the room and took a look. “Plenty. Trixie, how about if you get the meat cooking and Di and I will try to make some kind of frozen dessert. Any cans of soda leftover, we’ll just add to the pot; I guess it could actually do with a little more anyway.”

They followed this plan, working together companionably until the meal was ready.

“Smells good,” Mart remarked, while poking his head into the kitchen.

“Of course it’s good,” his sister returned, shooing him out. “You’ll get it soon enough, if you’ll keep out of the way.”

He disappeared and they continued plating up the main meal. Brian picked up three of the plates and each of the others took two. As they carried them into the dining room, the remaining four made sounds of appreciation.

“Oh, this looks interesting,” Honey remarked. “And it smells delicious!”

“It’s great,” Dan added, a short time later, when they had all tasted it. “But you’ve got me wondering when I’m going to see a glass of cherry pop.”

Di smiled at him. “All the cherries have been popped that are going to be popped for the moment.”

Across the table, Brian began to choke. At last, he spluttered, “I really wish you’d stop that, Di.”

“Sorry.” She reached over and patted his hand. “Next time I’ll wait until no one has a mouthful.”

“Cold comfort,” Brian muttered, looking down at his plate.

“Seriously, though, where’s the soda?” Mart wanted to know. “Are you going to renege on the agreement?”

Trixie shrugged. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“And observe closely.” Di let a secret smile play on her lips. “Who knows where it might be hiding.”

Mart stared at his plate for a moment, then carefully tasted each of the component parts of the meal. “Is it in this gravy?”

Brian glanced at Di and Trixie to get their permission, then explained. “The meat was first cooked in the soda, before being transferred to the oven. Then we used some of the cooking liquid and the pan juices from the roasting trays to make the sauce. It’s brown because of the onions, which we roasted in their skins.”

Mart’s eyebrows rose. “Aha! Then you’ll be throwing out the rest of the cooking liquid, which doesn’t meet the terms of the challenge!”

Trixie shook her head. “Sorry, but no. We have something planned for that, too, but you’ll have to wait until lunchtime tomorrow.”

He pretended to be annoyed, but could not keep it up for long.

“So, shall we have another picnic tomorrow?” Jim wondered, changing the subject.

Brian shook his head. “We’re planning a sit-down lunch.”

“This mysterious lunch, again.” Mart glared at his almost-twin. “You’re doing this on purpose.”

“Well, find a real mystery for me and I’ll stop.” She grinned. “That would be the perfect thing for the rest of our trip. Only two meals left in the challenge, and then we can concentrate on finding and solving mysteries.”

Mart rolled his eyes. “I haven’t seen anything even remotely mysterious in our time here.”

“Which is mysterious, in and of itself,” Trixie countered, with an even wider grin.

They finished eating and Brian cleared the table. Trixie and Di followed him to the kitchen to help carry back the bowls of dessert. They found him poking around in the freezer.

“It’s just frozen on top, not all the way through,” he told them. “What do you think? Do we leave it for tomorrow lunch? Will it be too frozen by then?”

“Let me deal with it,” Di offered. “You serve up the pie.”

While Brian and Trixie did that, Di broke up the ice in the trays and transferred it to a plastic container, before putting the whole lot back in the freezer.

“I think that will work best,” she told them. “I’ll try to remember to do that again a couple of times before bed tonight. That way, it’ll be ready to serve when we want it tomorrow.”

“Good thinking.” Trixie picked up a couple of bowls and handed them to her. “Let’s get this on the table.”

“It’s a pity we couldn’t have ice cream in the challenge.” Honey looked wistfully at her pie, as it was set in front of her. “It would have melted by the time we got here and then gone all crystal-y when it refroze.”

“I’m happy with cream,” Mart answered, digging in. “But ice cream would have been better. Or custard. You didn’t think of making custard?”

Brian shook his head. “I don’t think we had the ingredients. You didn’t think of buying us any custard?”

“Honey did.” Trixie smiled at her best friend. “It was on side two of the list, which certain persons failed to read.”

“Well, it forced us to think creatively.” Brian cut across his brother’s protest. “And I think we’re going to do just fine without the other things. No one’s gone hungry yet.”

“No. In fact, I think I’ve eaten more than enough.” Jim pushed back from the table. “Let’s get these dishes done, team, and then maybe we can all go for a walk on the beach.”

“We never did decide what we were doing today,” Jim remarked over breakfast the next morning. “Should we go and take a look at the new library?”

Trixie swallowed a mouthful of fried tomato before replying. “Can we do that in the afternoon? I need to hang around here while something is in the oven.”

“I’m very curious to see what this lunch is going to be,” Honey answered, taking a sip of cherry pop. “I have kind of an idea, considering the ingredients you had and what I intended for you to do with them, but I can’t see how you’ll use everything that’s left.”

Mart looked from his plate to the can of pop that Honey and he were sharing. “The same way we did – by just serving it up whether it goes or not. While the sausages and tomatoes seem to belong, the leftover chicken casserole and the sliced apple are a touch incongruous, not to mention this beverage, which I am beginning to despise.”

“I think the meal we have planned is going to be delicious.” Brian glanced at his team-members. “I don’t think there will be anything incongruous about it.”

“We will see,” Mart answered.

After another swim, Trixie returned to the kitchen to tend to the food, while the others went for a walk to work up an appetite. The night before, she had set the dried beans soaking in the refrigerator. Now, she added the rest of the ingredients and put them in the oven. Her work done, she picked up the book she had brought with her to read and settled on a convenient bench outside the kitchen door.

“How’s it going?” Di asked, some time later.

Trixie looked up with a start. “Oh! I lost track of time. I’ve got the beans baking, but that’s it.”

Di shrugged. “It’s not that late. I just thought I’d come and help you with the rest of it. The others probably won’t be back for a while, yet. I told Brian not to worry and that we’d handle it.”

They worked together, buttering rolls and preparing salad. The small amount of leftover beef they shredded. Di sliced the last lemon and added it to the jugs of iced tea they had made earlier. She also checked on the granita. When all was ready, they checked over their part of the pantry and of the refrigerator to make sure they had used everything.

“I think we’re done,” Di announced. “So long as we have enough, but not too much, food for lunch, I think we’ll have successfully completed the challenge.”

Trixie checked in the oven and turned the tray of beans around. “There’s a lot in here; do you think it’s going to be too much?”

Di giggled. “Mart was complaining earlier that he was ravenous, and Dan was agreeing with him, for once.”

“That’s a change. I think sharing has been bad for them. Mart told me he’s not sharing with Dan ever again, after this last year.”

“It’s probably better if they don’t.” Di turned towards the front of the house. “I think that’s everyone arriving back. We’d better start getting everything set up.”

Together they carried out the salad, beef and rolls. Di placed a heat-proof mat on the table and Trixie carried out the tray of beans. Glasses and the iced tea followed. As they added plates, cutlery and serving implements, their friends trooped in.

“A beverage that is not pink!” Mart grasped his sister, who was the closest of her team, and kissed her cheek. “I am delighted.”

“So am I,” she answered.

“Everyone, serve yourselves,” Di told them. “It’s up to you what you put on the rolls.”

“And is this what you did with the leftover liquid?” Mart wondered, while serving a large pile of beans into his roll. “Have you tasted it yet, Trixie? Are they up to the usual standard of your baked beans?”

She waved a hand back and forth. “They’re tasty enough. I think I like Moms’ recipe better. But even if they were the best I’ve ever tasted, I don’t think I’d be buying that stuff again.”

Honey shuddered. “No, I don’t think I would, either. I’m so glad they’re all gone, now.”

“Well, not quite. We still have one more dish to serve after this.” Di glanced at the nearly-empty bean dish. “But first, all this has to go.”

“That will be no hardship,” Mart answered, between mouthfuls.

His prediction proved true. Every last bean was gone, as was everything else. The three carried out the plates, serving dishes and the jugs, which were also empty. As they reached the kitchen, they found that the staff had arrived while they were eating.

“Out you go,” the cook chastised. “This is my kitchen, now.”

“We still have one more thing to do,” Brian explained. He held up the empty bean dish. “Plus the dishes, of course. We don’t expect you to have to clean up this mess.”

She smiled. “You just hand that over and be out of here. You need serving glasses? They’re in that cabinet, dear.”

Trixie went to the spot indicated and pulled down seven of the stemmed parfait glasses, handing them to Brian as she went. Di was holding the plastic container with the granita in it. Brian arranged the glasses in a row on the counter and they spooned the frozen confection into them. They piled it up in dome shapes that rose over the rims of the glasses in order to use it all up.

“I hope it tastes okay,” Trixie fretted. “I’d hate to end the whole experience on a bad note.”

Di squeezed her arm. “I tasted it last night and it’s much better than as a drink.”

“Ready?” Brian picked up two glasses in one hand and one in the other.

“Ready.”

Trixie and Di followed him.

“Oh!” Honey cried when she saw what they were carrying. “I never would have thought of that.”

Mart dug a spoon into his and tasted with a look of intense concentration. “That’s more than acceptable,” he pronounced. “Cool and sweet and refreshing, and do I detect a hint of lemon?”

“You might,” Di answered.

“We should have frozen more of it.” Trixie waved her spoon in an accusatory manner towards Mart. “Your team could have spared us the torture of drinking the stuff.”

“I’m almost sorry it’s all gone.” Jim smiled at the look that sprang onto Trixie’s face at this. “This is just the thing for a hot day. I wasn’t intending that you drink it.”

“I’m not drinking it; not ever again!”

Spoons scraped against the bottoms of the glasses and someone came in to take them away.

“I guess the only thing left is to do the scoring for that round,” Jim reflected. “And then we’ll know who won.”

Di got up and fetched the chart. After a small amount of discussion they settled on scores for all of the various categories.

“Write the numbers in and add them up,” Trixie urged. “I want to know the results.”

“I’ve finished,” Di announced a short time later. “Someone from the other team had better check my addition.”

She handed it to Jim, who scanned down the columns, then nodded and handed it back.

Trixie leaned in and frowned at the numbers for a moment. “But that means we win! How did that happen?”

“It was the creative recipes that did it, I think.” Honey looked to her team members, who agreed. “We were playing it safe with our shopping and our cooking. You were the ones who kept on going out on a limb.”

“I was pretty nervous about last night’s roast,” Di admitted, “but it tasted great and was so tender when it was done.”

“All of your gambles paid off,” Jim added, grinning. “Unlike Dan’s.”

He shrugged and handed ten dollars to Mart. “I thought Mart just needed some encouragement to do the right thing. I don’t mind that he rose to the challenge.”

Mart ignored the slight. “I think I speak for everyone when I declare the Inaugural Bob-White–”

“Ill-Considered,” Di put in.

“– Logistical –”

“Cherry Pop,” Honey added.

“– Challenge a success.”

“It would have been great if you hadn’t bought that awful Cherry Pop,” Dan answered.

Mart’s outrage changed to confusion. “I bought? Man, I thought you bought it.”

The two frowned at each other and then groaned loudly.

Trixie’s mouth dropped open. “You mean to tell us that stuff belonged to your room-mate? That we never had to use it all in the first place? I really wish you’d figured this out on Saturday!”

“Sorry,” Mart muttered, downcast.

Di tapped her lips with one finger. “What I want to know is who brought the carton.”

The whole group turned towards Mart and Dan, who were both deep in thought.

“I think it was me,” Dan admitted, at length. “I guess I owe you all an apology.”

“It’s been an experience,” Jim answered, grinning. “I don’t know that I want to repeat it, but it was interesting while it happened.”

“You mean there’s not going to be a Second Annual Bob-White Ill-Considered Logistical Cherry Pop Challenge?” Di asked, pretending to be disappointed.

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Mart answered. “Once was more than enough!”

The End