Girl Wonder to the Rescue by Malorie Blackman

The Birthday Box
    It was Mum’s birthday two and a half months after Christmas. The twins and I put our money together to buy Mum a present. We had just enough money to buy her a scarf and a card.
    “It doesn’t look like much.” Anthony frowned.
    “Yeah, not much at all,” Edward agreed glumly.
    “It’s all we can afford,” I sighed.
    “It’s not very big,” said Anthony.

    “It’s not very chunky,” complained Edward.
    “It should look like
something
when it’s wrapped up,” Anthony continued. “A scarf is going to look itchy-titchy.”
    They made it sound like it was my fault!
    “So what should I do?” I asked crossly.
    “I don’t know,” Anthony replied. “You’re Girl Wonder . . .”
    “Well, you two are the Terrific Twins,” I replied. “
You
think of something.”
    So we all spun around and around, not feeling very super at all. We sat on the floor cross-legged, staring at the scarf and trying to think of a way to make it seem bigger and better than it was.
    Then I had an extra-giga-brilliant idea.
    “Let’s wrap it in tons and tons of paper,” I said. “Then it’ll look big and chunky and more like
something
.”
    “Good idea,” Anthony agreed.
    “Not bad,” said Edward.
    We ran downstairs. Mum was in the kitchen, taking the vacuum cleaner motor to pieces.
    “Mum, we need a box,” I said.
    “A Ginormous box,” added Anthony.
    “A HUMONGOUS BOX!” Edward said eagerly.
    “Why?” asked Mum.
    “We want to put your birthday present in it,” Anthony told her.
    “Oh, I see . . .” Mum said slowly. “If you tell me what you’ve got me, then I’ll be better able to judge what size box would suit you best.”
    “We got you . . .”
    “EDWARD! Don’t tell her!” I interrupted quickly. “Mum, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it is.”
    Mum mumbled something under her breath. It sounded like “worth a try”. Shelooked in the cupboard under the sink.
    “There’s this box that held my printer paper,” Mum suggested, taking a smallish box out from the cupboard.
    “That’s much too small,” Anthony said immediately.
    “Yeah, far too small,” Edward agreed.
    Then Mum fished out a middling-sized box.

    “How about this box?” Mum asked. “This box held all the bottles of lemonade andcream soda that we bought from the supermarket before Christmas.”
    “Still too small.” I shook my head.
    “Much too small,” Anthony said.
    “Far too small,” Edward agreed.
    Mum looked surprised. She straightened up. “The only other box I’ve got that’s larger is the one the vacuum cleaner came in.”
    “That’ll do,” I replied.
    “Just,” Anthony added.
    “Only just,” said Edward.
    “What did you three buy me? A rhinoceros?” Mum frowned.
    “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out,” I said.
    “Where’s the vacuum cleaner box?” Anthony asked.
    “In the cupboard under the stairs,” Mum replied. “Er . . . would you three like some help wrapping up my present?”
    “No, thanks. We can manage,” I said.
    We got the box out of the cupboard.
    “Now, we’ll need some special paper to wrap the box with and we’ll need some more paper to pad the box,” I said.
    “Oh? Is my present something that might break if you don’t pad the box?” Mum asked.
    I hadn’t realized she was listening behind us.
    “Go away, Mum,” I said crossly, my hands on my hips.
    “I was only trying to help,” Mum muttered, going back into the kitchen.
    More like, she was only trying to be nosy!
    Mum came out of the kitchen and handed us a whole roll of brown paper. “You can use this to stuff the box and to wrap it,” she said.
    Anthony, Edward and I took the boxand the brown paper and went upstairs. Half an hour later, we all sat back to admire our work. The box looked terrific! It was a bit of a shame it had only a scarf in it. We’d filled the box with crumpled, rumpled brown paper and put Mum’s scarf right in the middle.