Maggie Malone Makes a Splash

by Jenna McCarthy

  Coach blows his whistle just as I hit the deck. “Okay, we’ve got to get you guys ranked today for the meet,” he says. “Brianna, Elizabeth, Ellie, and Amanda, on your blocks.”

  Everyone goes over to their hook, takes their goggles, and pulls them down across their eyes. Everyone except Elizabeth. I’m not sure how to break the news that I’ve got them.

  “Coach?” Elizabeth says, confused. “My goggles are gone. I put them on the hook and now they’re gone.”

  “Well, Elizabeth, if you put them on the hook, don’t you think they’d still be on the hook?” Coach asks, squinting his eyes.

  “I know they were there, Coach. I—” Elizabeth starts, but Coach interrupts her.

  “Go home and read your rule book, Elizabeth,” he says sharply. “You either show up with all of your gear, ready to practice, or you sit out the next meet. Jennifer, you’re up!”

  “But I promise, I…” Elizabeth says and looks like she’s definitely going to cry.

  “Save it!” Coach says, holding up his huge hand like a stop sign.

  “Wait, aren’t these your goggles, Elizabeth?” I call out, holding hers up.

  “Yes! Yes, they are!” Elizabeth cries. She rushes over to me, looking relieved and also more than a little bit confused.

  Brianna narrows her eyes at me. “Wait,” she screams. “Those aren’t Elizabeth’s goggles! Maggie is just trying to cover for her!”

  “Actually Brianna, these are my goggles,” Elizabeth says, holding them up for Brianna to see. “See, EO? My initials. My mom makes me put them on everything. But how did you get them, Maggie?”

  Every eye on that pool deck is on me and I can feel my face turning purple.

  “I found them in the locker room,” I say.

  “She’s lying, Dad!” Brianna yells. “She took them!”

  “Really?” Coach asks. “Why would the second alternate bother to steal anybody’s goggles? And more importantly, why would she give them back?” He sounds more than a little impatient.

  “I don’t know,” Brianna says, pouting. “But I know she took them.” She points at me when she says this.

  “Well, it looks like you know wrong and you’re wasting everyone’s time here,” he says, turning away dismissively. “As I was saying, swimmers, on your marks!”

  Brianna gives me a seriously scary stink eye. I pretend not to see her.

  “Tell me the truth, Maggie,” Elizabeth says after practice as we’re packing up our stuff. “How did you get my goggles?”

  “You think I took them, don’t you?” I ask Elizabeth, my heart sinking. I can hear Stella’s words ringing in my ears: If she’s not smart enough to trust you, you’re better off without her.

  “No, actually I know you wouldn’t do that,” Elizabeth says. “But I also know that I put them on my hook. So something’s up. Just tell me.”

  “Brianna took them and hid them in the towel bin,” I tell her. “I was in the bathroom stall and I saw her do it.”

  “I had a feeling she had something to do with it,” Elizabeth says, shaking her head. “But why didn’t you call her out? She’d have been automatically disqualified for that!”

  I shrug. “I guess I was getting tired of people not believing me,” I tell her. ”Besides, won’t it be way more fun to beat her fair and square?”

  Elizabeth nods and smiles at me, and I want to explode with happiness. She forgives me! We’re friends again! I can’t wait to tell Frank that I actually did it. I saved myself by being myself.

  Chapter 24

  When the Whole Truth Comes Out

  “I’m a horrible, smelly turd,” Elizabeth says as we’re unlocking our bikes. “I feel awful for not believing you about Brianna. And even worse than awful that I didn’t stand up for you when she lied about the practice laps. And not just because you saved my butt, but also because you’re a great friend. I told everyone you were a liar and you didn’t deserve that. I’m the liar.”

  Elizabeth looks as miserable as I feel.

  “Well, actually,” I say, pretending to be very busy working my bike lock. “I might not have been totally honest…”

  “What do you mean?” Elizabeth asks.

  “I pinkie-promise you that Brianna said she was going to make your life miserable,” I say, crossing my heart and holding up my pinkie when I do. “Mine too. She even poked me in the chest really hard when she said it.”

  “Okay, then… What is it?” Elizabeth wants to know.

  “I might have made up the head shaving and Ex-Lax stories,” I say, nearly tripping over my words. “But I was desperate! I needed you to believe me, and I couldn’t think of any other way to get you to quit the team. I’m sorry I lied to you. I feel awful.”

  Elizabeth looks at me for what feels like a million years. I’m actually holding my breath.

  “Well, you wouldn’t have had to if I had listened to you in the first place,” she finally says, and I want to cry happy tears. “I should have known better. I just got so crazy about making the team that I wanted to believe you were a liar so I didn’t have to quit. I guess I never really thought I could measure up to my dad and my brother, and when I found out I might actually be good at swimming, I started to want it so badly that I couldn’t think straight.”

  “I get that,” I tell her. “So, are we friends again?”

  “Do you really want to be friends with somebody who told everyone you’re a big, fat liar?” Elizabeth asks, looking at the ground. “That was an awful thing to do. I’ll do anything to make it up to you.” She looks like she’s about to lose it, and since I know exactly how she feels, I want to cheer her up.

  “Would you clean out Carl Lumberton’s smelly locker?” I ask.

  “Yes!” she says, laughing.

  “Would you wear your hair in seven braids for seven days?” I ask her.

  “Yes! Anything!” Elizabeth says. “That would not be a good look for me, but yes, if you’ll forgive me for being such a humongous jerk, I’ll tie rainbow-colored ribbons on the end of every braid!”

  “Okay,” I say, slinging my leg over my bike and hopping on. “Maybe you could just tell Alicia and Winnie and Lucy that I’m not a big, fat liar.”

  “Done,” Elizabeth says, giving me a sheepish smile. “And Maggie, I am really, really—”

  “I know,” I tell her, hooking my helmet. “Me too. It’s all good. Race you to the light!” I take off before she can even answer me, which isn’t exactly fair, but since she just crushed me like a bug in the pool, I figure she’ll let me have this. And she does. We’re both laughing and panting when we reach the light.

  “Thanks for being so…so Maggie,” she calls over her shoulder as we break to go to our separate houses.

  For some reason, as I’m riding home, I think about the letter Auntie Fi sent with the MMBs. “You get to decide how big you want your life to be,” it said. I guess if we all started scratching people off our friend list because they made a mistake, our lives would get pretty small pretty fast. I’m really glad that didn’t happen. I think Auntie Fi would be proud of us, and this makes me smile as I’m rounding the corner into my driveway.

  Alicia calls me that night to apologize, which feels really good. “I should have known that you’d never try to hurt Elizabeth—or any of us,” she says, and that makes me feel even better. “And you know what Monday is, right?” she adds. “The big pep rally to kick off Spirit Week! You and Elizabeth get to sit with the swim team. Sweeeeeet!”

  I’d forgotten about the pep rally. Normally the weekends fly by and all of a sudden it’s Monday morning again and I’m not even sure where the time went, but this weekend seems to drag on and on. Funny how that happens when you’re excited about something.

  When Monday morning finally rolls around, I put on cute jean shorts and the “Just Keep Swimming” T-shirt my mom bought me when
I made the team (I’m assuming we don’t wear our swimsuits under our cover-ups, right?), and then I tie my Pinkerton Minnows bathrobe over it. It isn’t technically a bathrobe, but that’s pretty much what it looks like. I feel a little silly riding my bike in this getup at first with my terry-cloth belt flapping in the breeze—especially when Stella sees me and shouts, “Hey Maggie, you forgot to get dressed!”—but after we pass a girl in a feather cap and a boy in a suit and bow tie, I realize it really doesn’t matter. Besides, I would put on an alien costume with tentacles sticking out of the ears if it meant I didn’t have to sit in Siberia with Mrs. Shankshaw and Mrs. Grossbottom at the pep rally.

  I cruise up to Pinkerton and Elizabeth is by the bike rack waiting for me.

  “I brought you something,” she says shyly, pulling a Dippin’ Donuts bag out of her backpack.

  “Wow, thanks!” I tell her, sliding a giant, sticky glazed doughnut from the bag. “You must have gotten up early today to get this.”

  “That’s what friends are for, right?” She smiles and we head to the Pit Bull Arena together. Mr. Mooney is waiting outside, and he’s dressed up—wait for it—like a giant pit bull. He’s wearing a full-body suit that looks like it’s made out of brown shag carpet, with paws for his hands and feet and everything.

  “May I please have your attention?” he calls out, and when he does, he reaches back and flips the carpeted suit’s hoodie up onto his head. It’s got two little pointy ears sticking straight up on top. He totally looks like a pit bull! Just when I think this can’t possibly get any better, he turns around so that his back is facing everyone and shakes his stubby little tail, just like a puppy would. The crowd goes wild.

  “You’ve got to give it to him,” I tell Elizabeth with a laugh. “The guy’s got school spirit!”

  “He’s not the only one,” says Alicia, sliding into place next to me. She’s wearing her soccer uniform, of course, and she has the words “pit” and “bulls” painted in bright red lipstick on her cheeks.

  She pulls two neon-pink swim caps out of her bag and hands one to me and the other to Elizabeth. She’d written “Don’t Mess with the Minnows” on the sides of each.

  “I’m game if you are,” I tell Elizabeth, tugging that thing down onto my head. I didn’t squish my crazy curls up into it first, so I’m sure I look like that clown in the bald-head cap who came to Stella’s eighth birthday party and couldn’t even make a decent balloon wiener dog, but do you know what? I honestly don’t care. Elizabeth pulls her cap on too. Her straight blond hair sticks tightly to her neck, and her round face looks even rounder.

  “Am I cute?” she asks with a laugh.

  “Adorable,” I insist. Because she is.

  Chapter 25

  When I Have to Bite My Tongue. Again.

  When I get home from school, Stella is sitting on my front porch.

  “I couldn’t find the hide-a-key!” she says, standing up. “Did your mom hide it from me again?”

  “Well, you do keep taking the keys home in your pocket…” I say, one eyebrow raised, while unlocking the door.

  “Oh yeah, there is that.” Stella chuckles. “I could make a pretty good wind chime with that pile of Malone hide-a-keys I have at my house!”

  Stella called last night to see if I could help her with her math this afternoon, because, well, I am pretty good at math and her new math teacher at Sacred Heart teaches class using Marty the Math Wiz MeTube videos. I can tell you for sure that once the higher-ups at Sacred Heart catch wind of that, she’ll be tossed out like last week’s lasagna.

  We fix a fancy afternoon snack of cheese and crackers on a tray with a side of purple grapes—ooh-la-la!—and use the tall, blue plastic wineglasses for our milk.

  “Oh Mags!” Stella says, plopping down on my bed and chomping on a cracker. “Did you hear about the huge scandal on Marina Tide’s boat last week?”

  I’m distracted by the cracker crumbs falling from Stella’s mouth and collecting on my comforter. I really love Stella, but she eats a cracker like the Cookie Monster eats a cookie, and I can already feel those crumbs on the back of my legs when I get into bed tonight. Wait, did she say scandal? Marina Tide?

  “No!” I lie, brushing the crumbs off my bed. “What happened?”

  “Well, hand me your computer,” Stella says, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “I saw it on the Daily Scoop.”

  As she’s pulling up the web page, Stella summarizes the story for me. “So basically, Marina and her dad are in big trouble ’cause they were planning to blow up this coral reef to get some buried treasure and…”

  “No, that’s not how it—” I stop myself. “I mean, are you sure that’s what happened? They’re conservationists…maybe it was somebody else, like somebody on their boat and not Marina and her dad?”

  “Maybe…” Stella says scrolling down the web page, looking for the story. “All I know is, I saw Sea Goddess—that’s the name of her boat—and ‘plan to destroy coral reef’ and ‘buried treasure.’ I think that pretty much says it all, don’t you think?”

  First of all, it’s the Sea ANGEL! I want to say, but I don’t. I can’t.

  “There it is,” I say, pointing to a headline. Stella clicks on the link and I scan the story quickly, relieved to see that they got the facts straight.

  “It wasn’t Marina and her dad,” I say, pointing to the mug shots of Lexi and Captain Jack looking not at all happy. “These are the guys who were planning to blow up the reef to find the treasure.”

  I scroll down some more and see a picture of Zac standing with Flynn’s arm around his shoulders. Stella perks up.

  “Mother of a mongoose! Who’s the hottie?” Stella clicks on the picture to zoom in.

  Can I tell you I am dying—dying!—to tell her that the hottie’s name is Zac, and as cute as he looks on the computer screen, he’s about a billion times cuter in person—not to mention funny and sweet. And then I think about when he held both of my hands and looked me in the eyes, and I thought I’d melt on the spot and how I never got to say good-bye.

  “Earth to Maggie!” Stella says, waving her hands in front of my face. “Come in, Maggie!”

  I shake my head a little to focus.

  “Seriously, dude. Where do you go when you check out like that?” Stella asks. “You might want to talk to Dr. Stapleton about that, because my uncle Vern? He started staring off into space, and next thing we knew, he got caught streaking down the cereal aisle at the Shop ’n Save. True story.”

  “Okay, first of all, eww!” I tell Stella. “I really, really wish I didn’t just see your uncle Vern naked in my brain. And second of all, I hardly think that a little daydreaming is reason to enough to go sit in that smelly, vomit-covered waiting room at the pediatrician’s office.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re fine,” Stella agrees.

  I sit back on my bed and pull Stella’s heavy backpack into my lap.

  “What do you have in here, Willis Freedman?” I laugh, pulling out her math book.

  “Very funny!” Stella scowls. “I’m so done with him,” she insists.

  “Uh-huh,” I agree, even though I don’t believe it for a second. Because while there are some things you absolutely have to deal with, there are other things that are best left alone.

  Maggie Malone’s Totally Fab Vocab

  Just like I love to try out new lives, I also love to try out new words! Here’s a list of some sort-of-fancy words I used in this book that you might not have known before. I included a synonym for each, but you could probably figure out what they mean from the way I used them in the story. Now that you know these words, don’t be afraid to use them. Being smart is totally cool.

  1. Abandon: to leave

  2. Alternate: substitute

  3. Anchovies: small saltwater fish

  4. Antsy: overly excited

  5. Apparent
ly: clearly

  6. Avalanche: large mass falling suddenly

  7. Bellows: roars

  8. Blares: makes loud noise

  9. Bow: front of a boat

  10. Buoy: a floating marker

  11. Capacity: ability

  12. Civilized: polite

  13. Commotion: disturbance

  14. Complexion: skin tone

  15. Concussion: brain injury due to a blow to the head

  16. Conservation: the act of preserving or protecting

  17. Conversationalist: a person skilled at speaking with another person

  18. Depressing: really sad

  19. Desperate: extreme

  20. Dilemma: problem

  21. Dillydallying: wasting time

  22. Dismissively: indicating lack of interest

  23. Distracted: preoccupied

  24. Earshot: within range to be heard

  25. Effortlessly: easily

  26. Embroidery: weaving with thread

  27. Endangered: in danger of becoming extinct

  28. Exertion: physical effort

  29. Exotic: unusual

  30. Expression: a particular phrase

  31. Extracurricular: additional

  32. Fiasco: disaster

  33. Flitting: fluttering

  34. Fuming: feeling or showing anger

  35. Furious: extremely angry

  36. Ganges: a sacred river in India

  37. Gestures: hand movements

  38. Glide: slide

  39. Hauls: pulls

  40. Humongous: huge