by Terry Brown
Just then Tyler shuffled into the room, clutching the nature magazine he’d rolled into a tube. “Here.” It unfolded on the table, the cover showing several seals tangled in fishing nets. “We can use this.” He flipped it open to the main article.
“Seal Conservation Society Fights Marine Rescue Unit.” Morgan frowned at the title. “I’ll try to find out more about this when I’m in New York, and I’ll e-mail it back to you guys.” She yawned so wide her jaws popped, and she pressed on her throbbing forehead. “Um, you work on the reports and charts while I’m gone, and I’ll write up stuff after volunteering there and see about starting a Save the Seals group here at school.”
Jared rolled his eyes and saluted. “Yes, sir! Morgan, sir!”
Ty rubbed a hand over his pockmarked cheek. “Should we meet before you leave town to divide up the work?” he asked quietly. “Like maybe Friday night?”
“Do homework on Friday night? Are you crazy?”
Ty glanced away. “OK, Thursday night.”
Jared shrugged his broad shoulders. “Big track meet out of town. I won’t be back till late.” Jared already held a record in the shot put. “How about tonight?”
“Can’t.” Morgan rubbed the back of her neck. “Blairsburg swim meet.”
Ty rolled back and forth on the balls of his feet, the extra-long tail of his plaid shirt moving with him. “Like I said in the first place, what about Friday night?”
“No choice, I guess.” Morgan stacked their resource books. “What time?”
“Seven o’clock work for you both?” Jared asked. At their nods, he said, “OK, community college library at seven. We can probably use a conference room.”
When the bell rang an hour later, Ty, Jared, and Morgan were still talking as they joined the crowd streaming out the door. However, Morgan stopped in mid-sentence at the sound of a familiar voice near the water fountain.
Maya’s clipped words carried over the noise in the hall. “I said don’t talk to me, Darryl Hume. If it wasn’t important enough for you to call last night, don’t bother talking to me now!” Maya pivoted on her heel and stomped in the direction of the cafeteria.
“But I did call!” Darryl shouted after her.
Morgan’s throat tightened as she stepped behind Jared before Darryl could see her.
“Wow.” Jared crossed his arms across his barrel-shaped chest and looked at Darryl’s departing back. “Now you don’t see that every day. One of the popular guys getting leveled down.”
“Publicly,” added Morgan. “By my sister.”
She wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. She’d caused the whole problem between Maya and Darryl. And if the tightness in her throat and stomach meant anything, she was about to be found out for sure.
chapter. 2
Morgan knew from the minute she slipped into the water . at the swim meet after school that a disaster was on the horizon—and she was powerless to stop its advance.
Her warmup laps alongside Alex felt slow and heavy, and her arms were leaden as they stretched and reached and pulled back in her breaststroke. What was she thinking, staying online till all hours? Seeing Jared in the stands—with his grin and “thumbs-up” sign—did nothing to lift the black cloud she felt sure followed her up and down lane four.
Dragging herself out of the pool, Morgan glanced toward Coach, but he was busy giving Maya some pep talk. Before Morgan had time to worry anymore, the first race was announced. By the end of the fourth race, it was apparent that it would be a neck and neck combat between Edgewood and Blairsburg. Pressure built inside Morgan, while at the same time she felt far removed from the meet. It was as if the yelling and cheering were going on around her, but she saw it through a glass bubble and heard it from under water.
“Hey!”
Morgan jerked as Coach snapped his fingers in front of her nose.
“Earth to Morgan. Earth to Morgan.” His wink softened the wake-up call, and he gazed at her quizzically. “You OK?”
Morgan forced a smile. “You bet! After my 500, I’ll really pour it on for the relay.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Coach twisted his whistle chain. “I’m pulling you from the 500 to save your strength for the end.”
“What!”
He draped his arm over her shoulders. “I hope you’re not coming down with something, but your time was off this morning, and I could see in the warmups that you’re still struggling. Is your neck hurting? You’re holding it funny.”
“Um, some. Not bad,” she lied, fingering the knot at the base of her skull.
“Well, the team needs all your energy for the relay.”
“But won’t we need my points from the 500?”
“I’ll have Brianna take your place just this once. Hopefully she’ll pull a few points down for us. It’s the relay that really counts today. OK?”
Morgan took a deep breath and stared at her brightly painted toenails. “Sure,” she replied, a little hurt. “It’s OK.”
The rest of the meet passed in a blur for Morgan. She sat on the bench, doing her best to cheer Brianna in the race she herself should have won. As the afternoon wore on, the tension in the stands grew, the cheering echoing in Morgan’s head. Usually she loved the frenzy of the crowd, but today it made her head hurt worse. She watched the scoreboard as the first- through sixth-place swimmers’ times were posted. Sometimes Edgewood inched ahead, sometimes Blairsburg.
Finally their relay was called. After tucking her hair up under her cap, Morgan joined her relay team behind the starting blocks in the shallow end of the pool. Amber shot forward first, her backstroke powerful, and she finished a full stroke ahead of the next-fastest team. It gave them a good solid lead, but did little to ease Morgan’s anxiety. She followed Amber, and if she could only keep the lead, she’d be happy.
But lack of sleep and the neck cramp from hunching over the computer half the night prevented that. Morgan had a sick feeling the moment she pushed off in her breaststroke. It was like swimming through liquid quicksand. Although her lungs felt ready to burst from the exertion, the girl from Blairsburg in lane three slowly pulled even with her. Then, no matter how Morgan strained, she fell behind, stroke by agonizing stroke. By the time she’d flipped around and started churning back down lane four, she was nearly a full stroke behind. She never caught up.
Blairsburg fans erupted into screams, but Morgan didn’t even look at the clock. She knew without asking that it was her worst time ever. Unless Alex and her sister could make up the lost time, they’d lose the race—and the meet. Head hanging, she stood behind Amber, who screamed for Maya, then Alex. Morgan joined in, praying that they’d win. Maya regained half the ground Morgan had lost, and Alex most of the rest. She was less than a foot behind the Blairsburg girl when they touched the electronic pads.
Morgan glanced up. According to the final score, they’d lost the meet by five measly points.
By the time she congratulated the winners, picked up their wet towels, and ventured a peek at the bench, all Morgan saw were the backs of her teammates as they trudged off to the locker room. She paused, then followed, pushing the door open and padding down the rows of lockers to where the Edgewood team was dressing.
“Well, did you fall asleep out there, Morgan?” Maya snapped.
“Maya, don’t,” Amber cautioned. “She didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I don’t care! Do you know how big this meet was for us to win? She let us down, and it could have been prevented.”
“You don’t know that!” Amber said.
Alex frowned. “Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Huh!” Maya swung around. “No! She was up half the night again with her chat room friends while her real friends and family were counting on her.”
“Is that true?” Amber asked. “Say, is that why you have neck cramps?”
“Yes, it’s true,” Maya snapped. “Maybe we’d get farther with her if we called ourselves the Edgewood Cyber Swimmer
s.”
Morgan grabbed her towel and gym bag and headed toward the showers. Not until she had the water running hot and steamy over her did she allow the tears to come.
Morgan fled to her room when she got home. She intended to avoid Maya at all costs. It was lonely, but loneliness was better than her sarcasm. When she heard her parents come home from work, Morgan hurried down, anxious for some sympathy. However, she overheard something that made her freeze.
A kitchen cupboard door slammed, then a pan was banged down on the stove. “I understand what you’re saying, honey,” her mom said, “but could you really run two restaurants? Seems you have your hands full with the Gnosh Pit alone.”
“Well, what if I hired another manager? It’s the perfect time to do this, what with being in New York next week for the management seminar. We could fly back and forth and keep an eye on both places.” He paused. “Now be honest, don’t you miss the city?”
“Well sure, especially the outlets for my art.” Her mom laughed. “Even with the college, Edgewood is a bit short in the gallery department.”
“With Maya wanting to go to college in New York eventually, it’s a perfect solution.”
Barely breathing, Morgan backed slowly up the stairs. She couldn’t believe it! Her parents were talking about opening another restaurant and moving to New York! Next week’s spring break vacation was no simple trip to the city for her dad’s restaurant management seminar or her mom’s meeting with a gallery owner. Morgan’s eyes opened wide. She bet her mom wanted to talk to that gallery owner about a job there! All because Maya wanted a New York college, they were ready to uproot the whole family without even asking her! Didn’t her feelings count for anything? Why was it always Maya that mattered?
Morgan was so silent during supper that even her brother, Jacob, noticed. “What’s up, squirt?” he asked, tugging on her hair.
“Oh, nothin’.”
Maya waved her forkful of salad in Morgan’s direction. “She’s bummed out after losing the whole swim meet for us today!”
“Maya, stop it this minute.” Their dad’s voice was sharp. “Everyone has an off day, even you. So that’s enough, understand?”
Maya nodded, but shot a look full of daggers at Morgan. Actually Morgan didn’t mind. She was glad her parents thought her silence was due to losing the meet. She couldn’t bring herself to confront them about the real reason for the New York trip.
After picking at her pasta salad for fifteen minutes, she asked to be excused and hurried upstairs. She needed a friend, and she needed one badly. No one on the swim team was happy with her, that was for sure. But luckily she had GlobalBuddies.com.
Upstairs in Maya’s room, she plugged in her laptop and logged on using their teen line. In no time at all, she was in the room. She read their ad as the chatware loaded: “GlobalBuddies is the best online friendship network on the Internet and gets more than 3 million hits every month. You can use Global-Buddies Chat to talk online with GlobalBuddies all over the world. Click here for options.”
She clicked on the Listing by Age & Gender section, then proceeded to the teen girls’ bulletin board. Morgan leaned close to the screen. What new questions had been posted since last night? She much preferred talking about someone else’s problems. That way she didn’t have to think about her own.
A message from ANNA caught her eye, maybe because it was a parent problem:
Can anyone out there help me? I’m getting really torked at my mom. Every meal she watches me and comments on my weight. Like tonight she asked me three times was I sure I wasn’t losing weight? I swear she counted every bite I took! She’s just jealous that she’s fat and I’m not. I try to watch what I eat, but I do NOT have an eating disorder like she thinks. What can I do? HELLLLLLPPPP!!!!
Now this is something I know about, Morgan thought. She’d heard the same conversation a million times between her mom and Maya. Morgan wrote back:
Dear ANNA: Don’t worry. Your problem with your mom sounds perfectly normal. My mom constantly says the same thing to my older sister, but my sister doesn’t have an eating disorder either. Moms just worry. Most people watch what they eat. Just rest assured that you’re perfectly normal. Try to ignore your mom. She’s probably just heard too much in the news about anorexia and then overreacts. BTW, if you want to private e-mail, send it to [email protected]. Good luck!
Hopefully she’ll e-mail me, Morgan thought. It’d be nice if someone appreciated me.
“Hey, get off that phone,” Maya snapped.
Morgan jumped. “You scared me! Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“Sneak up on you? This is my room, remember?” Maya reached over with the mouse and closed the window.
“Hey, I wasn’t done!”
“You are now. It’s eight o’clock and I’m getting online with real people. Are you joining us from the kitchen?”
Morgan unplugged her laptop and picked it up. The last thing she needed was to go into TodaysGirls.com and hear a rehashing of the lost swim meet. “Nope. I’m going to bed. I have a ripping headache anyway.”
“Get a clue why, Morgan.”
Morgan left the room and trudged down the hall. She was in bed with the covers up to her eyes within five minutes. She just wanted this awful day to be over.
Between classes on Thursday, Morgan spent her time dodging Darryl. After seeing him in the halls twice, in the cafeteria, and in the library, she realized he was dogging her steps. She knew why. Maya was avoiding him at school and wouldn’t take his calls at home.
Morgan knew he had every right to confront her and make her tell Maya the truth. But she couldn’t handle it yet. One more attack from her big sister this week would be one too many.
chapter. 3
On Friday morning, Ms. Duchovny told them all to report to the library to work on their projects. “I’m leaving for New York tomorrow,” Morgan explained to her teacher. “We’re doing the project online together next week, so can we work in the computer lab? I want to show Jared and Ty some sites I found.”
The teacher agreed, so during first period, Morgan perched in front of a computer while Ty and Jared leaned over her shoulder. “You have to see this cool site I found yesterday.” She logged on, typed in her password, and waited to connect. Then she typed in http://www.tmmc.org. “This is the Marine Mammal Center. Besides all these articles on seals, look at this.” She scrolled down to the bottom of the page where a blinking sign begged them to Adopt-A-Seal!
Jared read over her shoulder. “‘For only $30 you can adopt one of our special patients. Each adoptee is a successfully rehabilitated patient released back into the wild. For your $30 gift, you will receive a beautiful 5x7 portrait of your adoptee, complete with personalized Certificate of Adoption, animal biography, and a recent issue of our newsletter.’”
Morgan grinned. “I thought at the end of our report I’d ask the class to donate to this, and our class could adopt a seal. What do you think?”
“Great idea,” Jared said.
“Half a great idea anyway,” Ty agreed.
Morgan frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, how about if we three chip in and adopt a seal ourselves? Then for the report we could show our portrait and adoption certificate, then ask the class to donate toward this other stuff.” He pointed a dirty fingernail at the screen, where it said that donated money would provide food for malnourished seals, antibiotics for injuries, and x-rays for fractured flippers and surgery.
Jared nodded. “I agree with Ty. If we have that portrait and adoption certificate, and show that we laid down our own money, it will have more impact. They’d be more likely to chip in then.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “I’ve got ten bucks I can donate.” He gave it to Morgan.
Morgan unzipped her tiny shoulder purse. “I can donate ten dollars, too. What about you, Ty?”
Tyler stuck his hands in his pockets, then shrugged. “I left my money at home, but I’ll bring my part tonight.”
“OK, then I’ll mail it in tomorrow before the post office closes.” Morgan took the twenty dollars and stuck it inside her geometry book. “This will be more persuasive.”
“Was that all?” Ty asked.
“No. While we’re here, I want to show you my favorite site.” Morgan typed in GlobalBuddies.com and waited for the site to load. “We have to make it clear that seals are in danger everywhere in the world.”
“I’ve got statistics on that already,” Ty said.
“Yes, but I thought personal stories would make the statistics real.” Morgan glanced over her shoulder at him. “Personal stories will make kids want to donate money.”
“So what’s GlobalBuddies got to do with anything?” Jared asked.
“Here. Look.” Morgan read aloud. “‘GlobalBuddies is the electronic version of the traditional penpal service. Introduce yourself and make friends worldwide. Then enter Global-Buddies Chat to talk online with GlobalBuddies all over the world.’”
Jared whistled. “Three million hits per month? That’s a lot of hits. And they’re from all over.”
“My point exactly.” Morgan clicked over to the Listing by Hobby and Interest section. “You can find interests here that match your own and talk to people, and you can post questions for their bulletin board.” She clicked over to Post-A-Note! to show them.
“So what?” Ty asked. “I don’t get it.”
“I’ll post a note in the science section and ask if anyone lives near a place where seals are endangered. I’ll ask for personal stories.” Morgan typed her question. “Then we’ll use them for our reports.”
