Who Won The War?

Who Won the War? is the twelfth and final book in the Boy/Girl Battle series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

Plot
It was official: the Malloys were going back. The Malloys decide they are going to go to Smugglers Cove, Knob Hill, and check out the Coal Mine with the Hatfords as their guide. At Smuggler's Cove, the seven kids have a picnic. While Caroline reads a poem, Jake drops a ladybug down her shirt. Caroline went crazy to get rid of it. To get back at him, Eddie puts the ladybug in Jake's sandwich. Jake and Eddie dare each other to go into the coal mine, both confident that the other will back out. At Knob Hill, Beth tells the boys about something she printed off the encyclopedia. If two shadows touch, those two people whom the shadows belong to will die. The boys believe the story, and stay away from each other's shadows. Jake shows the girls an Indian arrowhead he had found. Eddie figures out that the arrowhead wasn't found on the hill, and Jake laughs and says that he had tricked them, since the girls had gotten on their hands and knees to find more. Then Wally read Beth's printout, finding two misspellings and one unlikely fact. Beth reveals that that was actually a short story she was writing to enter into a competition. Later, Caroline goes to the school auditorium to perform one last time on stage. She pulls down the curtain, only for it to fall on top of her. The custodian finds her and she is sent to the hospital in an ambulance. Wally happens to see it, and informs Mrs. Malloy. Caroline is fine, but Mrs. Malloy gets a call from Coach Malloy that there's a heatwave in Ohio, and it's pointless to go back. But the problem is, all their furniture is gone, and the Malloys can no longer live at their house. All hotels or motels near their neighborhood are booked full, so they are forced to stay with the Hatfords. The girls and their mom sleep in the twins' room. Before going to bed, Caroline finds that there are hundreds of ladybugs on their ceiling. Mr. Hatford gets the vacuum to suck them up, and Peter collects some in a jar while Caroline sobs. After, the Malloys are asleep, Jake and Josh realize their underwear are still in their room, and convinces Wally to get them for them. Wally thinks he succeeded, only to find that he had taken the girls' underwear, as the Malloys had tossed Jake and Josh's underwear into the closet. The next morning, Caroline wakes up to find that they're missing, but the boys manage to put them back before anyone else sees. Wally decides that because of the hot weather, he is going to fry an egg on the sidewalk. The carton of eggs is knocked over, and the twins have to scrub the eggs off the road. The seven kids go to the coal mine. Eddie and Jake go through the fence, and into the mine, but a man comes out of nowhere and yells at them, then chasing Jake and Eddie away. Later the kids go swimming in the river, and the man passes by in his truck. Peter waves at him while the others dive underwater. At home, Peter lets it slip that they went into the coal mine, and they are all in trouble. Earlier in the book Wally had found a shopping list with rope, flashlight, and dynamite listed on it. He contemplates whether he should show his dad the list, and he finally does. The coal mine explodes, and authorities scramble to figure out who did it. In the email to Georgia, Wally tells the Bensons how the man who chased Jake and Eddie was the one who blew up the mine. He did it because his dog fell in, and he was mad that no one had bothered to close up the mine. Then he saw two kids inside, and decided he had to take action. Before the Malloys leave for good, the girls go up to the loft to carve their names into the wood. The boys push on the door, not letting them out. So Caroline goes up to the second level and dumps a box of hubcaps on them. The girls leave, but not before stuffing the twins' sleeping bags full of ladybugs. In the car, Caroline opens her backpack for a tissue to wipe her eyes, only to find it full of ladybugs. So who won the war? You have to decide that for yourself.

Chapters
[http://boygirl-battle.wikia.com/wiki/Boys_Rock! See the previous book]
 * 1) The News
 * 2) Suspicion
 * 3) Picnic, Sort Of
 * 4) Mystery
 * 5) Dare
 * 6) Shadows
 * 7) Center Stage
 * 8) Emergency
 * Oh, No!
 * 1) Moving Out
 * 2) Stop Complaning!
 * 3) Undercover Operation
 * 4) The Magic Underwear
 * 5) Eggs-actly!
 * 6) Seen!
 * 7) Old Rusty Truck
 * 8) Once Upon a Midnight Dreary. ..
 * 9) Ka-boom!
 * 10) Tippy
 * 11) E-mail to Georgia
 * 12) E-mail from Georgia
 * 13) Goodbye! Goodbye!