The Big Date Read online

  Ronnie looked over his shoulder at Grizzington Mansion, where Mr. and Mrs. Grizzington could be seen peeking out from behind the drapes of an upstairs room. “I thought it would be best not to push my parents too far too fast,” he admitted. “It took some quick talking to persuade them to let me put up a volleyball net and invite all of you. But I assure you that Too-Tall and his gang will be on my party list next time.”

  Suddenly a deep voice bellowed, “In that case, we accept!” And out stepped Too-Tall from behind a tree, with a big grin on his face. A moment later, Skuzz, Smirk, and Vinnie popped out from various bushes.

  Ronnie looked at them in wonderment. “I’m glad to see you fellows,” he said. “But how did you get past the guard?”

  With a wink, Too-Tall answered, “Don’t forget: the guard we can’t get past doesn’t exist!”

  “Yeah, boss,” said Vinnie. “And if he doesn’t exist—”

  “Chill out, birdbrain!” said Too-Tall. “It’s a party, not a philosophy class!”

  And the cubs all laughed as the maid hurried out with another tray of lemonade for the gang.

  Chapter 1

  Mr. Smock

  Year after year, cubs’ most common complaint about Bear Country School was that nothing ever changed. “How was school today?” a parent would ask. And the cub would shrug and say, “Same as usual.” For the most part, it was true. Same school building, same playground, same classrooms, same blackboards. Same teachers, same staff, same coaches, same principal. Even the same complaints. Yes, that’s right. Believe it or not, Bear Country School’s cubs even complained that their own complaints never changed.

  But change something—change just one little thing at school—and what happened? More complaints! “Why did they move the bulletin board down the hall?” a cub would say. “Yeah,” another would add. “What was wrong with it where it was?” That’s because, down deep, most cubs really didn’t want anything to change. Whether they realized it or not, they found it sort of comforting that the bulletin boards and the bike racks were always in the same place. (Almost always, that is.) And it was also comforting to think that Mr. Honeycomb would always be sitting behind his big wooden desk in the principal’s office and that Mr. Grizzmeyer’s bullhorn voice would always be heard yelling at players out on the football field.

  It was especially comforting that the teachers rarely changed. It was hard to imagine Bear Country School without Teacher Bob or Teacher Jane, or even without Miss Glitch. As much as the cubs complained about having the same old teachers year in and year out, nothing upset them more than a teacher retiring or moving away. And that’s exactly what happened when Mrs. Palette retired.

  Mrs. Palette had been the art teacher at Bear Country School for as long as anyone could remember. And that’s no exaggeration. For it wasn’t only the current generation of cubs that had been taught art by Mrs. Palette. Earlier generations had, too. Papa and Mama Bear had been taught art at Bear Country School by Mrs. Palette, and so had Two-Ton and Too-Too Grizzly. Farmer and Mrs. Ben had been taught by Mrs. Palette, and they were pretty old. Even Dr. Gert Grizzly had, and she was even older. It seemed that everyone in Beartown, at one time or another, had done an art project under the watchful eye of Mrs. Palette or viewed her slide lecture on “Great Works of Art in the History of Bear-kind.”

  So it came as quite a shock when, at the close of a school year, Mrs. Palette announced her retirement. Over the summer months that followed, cubs occasionally wondered out loud who the new art teacher would be. What would she be like? Would she be young or old? Tall or short? Strict or easygoing?

  When at last the cubs filed into the school auditorium for the first assembly of the new school year, most of their questions were answered. Seated beside Mr. Honeycomb on the stage was a bear wearing a purple beret and a brown smock-jacket over a purple turtleneck. It was obvious that this was the new art teacher, for the smock-jacket was covered with paint smears. That was something different. Mrs. Palette’s clothes had always been spotless. But there was something else different about the new art teacher that everyone noticed right away. Especially the girl cubs. “It’s a he!” Babs Bruno whispered to Queenie McBear. “The new art teacher is a he!”

  Queenie was staring at the stage as though she were in the middle of a beautiful daydream. At first, Babs thought she hadn’t heard. But after a moment, Queenie murmured, “Yes, and a young he…a young and handsome he…”

  Mr. Honeycomb rose and strode to the lectern. “Good morning, cubs,” he said into the microphone. “This morning I would like to introduce someone to you. We are honored and privileged to have Mr. Smock as our new art teacher at Bear Country School. ‘Privileged’ because Mr. Smock is a fine teacher of cubs. ‘Honored’ because he is an up-and-coming artist whose name will soon be known throughout Bear Country.”

  “Wow!” said Babs, who liked art almost as much as she liked poetry.

  “Cool!” said Queenie, who liked art a lot more than poetry.

  “Mr. Smock has had many of his paintings on display in galleries in Big Bear City,” Mr. Honeycomb continued. “He is currently hard at work on a large oil painting for the Bear Country Museum of Fine Art. And he has graciously promised our students and faculty the very first look at this masterpiece. I would like Mr. Smock to make the exciting announcement personally.”

  Mr. Smock replaced the principal at the lectern. “My new painting is nearly finished,” he said. “I will unveil it at the end of a special fine arts assembly next week.”

  There were “oohs” and “aahs” from a number of cubs in the audience, including Babs and Queenie. But not everyone was so impressed. Ferdy Factual folded his arms across his tweed jacket and said, “Good heavens. The Ego has landed.”

  Queenie, who was sitting in the row in front of Ferdy, turned on him. “Ego!” she hissed. “Of all the cubs who shouldn’t talk about big egos, you’re first on the list! Besides, I’ll bet Mr. Honeycomb talked him into it.”

  “I can’t imagine why you’re so impressed with this fellow,” said Ferdy. “If he’s such a big shot in the art world, then what is he doing here teaching a bunch of cubs how to make collages?”

  “You heard Mr. Honeycomb,” snapped Queenie. “Up-and-coming big shot.”

  Now Too-Tall Grizzly, sitting two rows behind Queenie, spoke up. “Oh, he’s a big shot, all right. He just shot off his big mouth about his great unveiling!”

  “Hey, boss,” said Skuzz. “He don’t need to unveil his masterpiece.”

  “Why not?” asked Too-Tall.

  “’Cause he’s wearin’ it!” said Skuzz. “Ha ha ha!”

  Smirk and Vinnie joined in laughing, but Too-Tall stopped them. “Cool it, guys,” he said. “Teacher Bob’s givin’ us the evil eye.”

  But Teacher Bob wasn’t the only one giving them the evil eye. So was Queenie. “You bums couldn’t tell a masterpiece from a road sign,” she sneered.

  “Aw, come on, Queenie,” chided Too-Tall. “Ya gotta admit he looks pretty ridiculous in those silly clothes.”

  Queenie tilted her head back and looked down her nose at Too-Tall. “I think he looks kind of cute!” she said, and turned back to the stage.

  At first, Too-Tall felt a pang of jealousy that made him sit straight up and glare at the bear at the lectern. After all, Queenie was his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Naturally, it bothered him whenever she called another guy “cute.” But then he settled back in his seat and relaxed. She got me again, he thought. She just says those things to make me jealous. Besides, Mr. Smock was just a teacher, not another cub….

  About the Authors

  Stan and Jan Berenstain began writing the Berenstain Bears series in 1962, with The Big Honey Hunt. Since then, more than 250 Berenstain Bears books have been published and sales of the series are nearing 300 million. Stan and Jan have left behind a legacy of arguably the best-selling children’s book series ever. Making the books has long been a family affair, with son Mike Berenstain writing and illustr
ating new stories about everyone’s favorite Bear family. You can visit the Berenstains online at www.berenstainbears.com.

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

  Copyright

  THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE BIG DATE

  Copyright © 1998 by Berenstain Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

  EPub Edition © 2012

  ISBN 978-0-06-218883-0

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Originally published in 1998 by Random House, Inc.

  EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062188830

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