by Betsy Haynes
CHAPTER 8
"Thanks for coming, Christie," Mr. Bell, the principal of Wakeman Junior High, said as she settled into a chair in front of his desk. "I hated to ask you to miss your study hall." Mr. Snider, Mrs. Brenner—the guidance counselor—and a man Christie didn't know were also in the room.
Mr. Bell nodded toward the stranger. "This is Assistant Police Chief Markum, Christie. I asked him if he would stop by. He preferred to come in street clothes so that the other students wouldn't get curious. Mr. Snider has been keeping us informed about your mystery caller," the principal continued. "As I understand it, we don't have enough information to tell us who he is or whether he is even doing the things he says. Do you have any idea what he meant when he said the next thing will involve color? Has anything happened that you know of that might be what he meant?"
Christie had looked through the paper that morning to see if there was anything, and there hadn't been. "No, sir, I don't."
"You still don't recognize his voice?" asked Mrs. Brenner.
"No. I think I've heard it before, but I can't be sure. He's doing something to change it."
"Christie has been handling him very well," said Mr. Snider. "I propose that we let her continue until she discovers information that tells us who he is, or he gets tired of this foolishness and quits calling."
"What if we took Christie off the homework team? Do you suppose he'd stop calling?" asked Mr. Bell.
Mrs. Brenner raised her hand for attention. "I think it's better that we keep her on the team. At least we have some contact with him, and if he's disturbed, it might give him an outlet to keep him from doing something worse."
Disturbed! Christie hadn't thought of him that way. The word made it sound as if he might be kind of crazy. Cold fingers played up and down her backbone.
"Hmmm." Mr. Bell pondered the suggestions. Turning to the policeman, he said, "What do you think, Chief Markum?"
The chief straightened in his chair. "I agree with both of the teachers. It's too early for the police to step in. I think we should let things continue as they are for a while and see where it's headed."
Mr. Bell looked at Christie. "Have you said anything to your parents about this yet?"
She shook her head.
"Well, I think you ought to. I'll talk to your mother, too. Not that I think there's any danger to you, but they should know what's going on."
Danger! For a second time a word flashed across Christie's brain like a blinking neon sign. First, Mrs. Brenner said the caller might be disturbed, and now Mr. Bell was saying the caller might be dangerous. What was she getting into?
As they were leaving the principal's office, Mr. Snider stopped Christie. "I think it would be a good idea if you didn't say anything else to your friends about this for now. If too many people know, it might encourage him, and we don't want that."
"Mr. Snider, do you really think the caller's . . . uh . . . disturbed?"
His eyes softened. "'Disturbed' can mean a lot of things, Christie. It can mean as little as just being upset over something that's going on in your life. We don't know that this boy has a serious problem at all, do we? My bet is that he's just immature and playing games. Don't worry about it, but don't forget to tell your parents."
Christie scuffed along the street to her house. She had stopped in at Bumpers after school, as usual, but left early. Jon was there, and it seemed as if everywhere she turned, he was standing next to her. Once, she turned around and was startled to find him just in back of her listening to the conversation she was having. He seemed to be around her constantly. His acting weird was beginning to get on her nerves.
While she was at Bumpers, Jana had asked her if the mysterious caller had called the night before, and she had faked a laugh and answered that they were all mysterious. Jana had looked at her in a funny way, but let it drop.
Christie hated to deceive her friends in The Fabulous Five, but Mr. Snider had told her not to talk about the caller with them. She had thought about what to tell them, and even saying she couldn't talk about it would be saying too much. It would make the whole thing seem even more mysterious and exciting, and they would really want to know more then.
Christie let out a big sigh as she turned in the front walk to her house. Things were sure piling up on her. First the mystery caller and now Jon was acting strange. Where would it end?
Her mother's and her father's normally cheerful faces turned to frowns when Christie told them about the calls at the dinner table. "I'm sure Mr. Bell knows what he's doing," her mother said. "I'll call him in the morning."
"We want you to keep us up-to-date on what's going on, though," her father added.
The next morning, Christie's father handed her the newspaper. "I looked through it, but didn't find anything sensational that had to do with color. Maybe the caller was just kidding this time."
Christie searched through the paper herself. There wasn't anything.
Later, as she walked onto the school ground, she saw a crowd of kids gathered in front of the school. They were all talking excitedly. Puzzled, she went to see what the excitement was about. Seeing Jana, she tapped her on the shoulder.
"What's going on?"
Jana turned. "Someone tried to set the gum tree on fire last night. Mr. Bartosik is cleaning up the mess."
Christie pushed her way to the front of the crowd. The head custodian was picking up pieces of burnt trash and putting them back into a partially melted plastic barrel. The gum tree had been a tradition at Wakeman for practically forever. Since Mr. Bell didn't allow gum-chewing during classes, kids stuck their wads of yellow, blue, green, and red gum on the tree before going into the school. But now the tree had been scorched by flame. Black soot from smoke wrapped its way around the trunk, and the gum that had been reached by the flames was burnt brown. Other globs of gum that were too high for the flames to reach were melted and hung in long strings, giving the entire tree a grotesque look.
Christie's stomach churned as if she had eaten something spoiled. The caller had warned that something colorful would be involved next time. This was what he had meant.
CHAPTER 9
The fire at the gum tree was all kids were talking about in the classrooms and hallways that morning. Christie was as much in the dark as everyone else about who set the fire, but she was sure she had talked to him.
As she headed for math class that afternoon, she found herself looking closely at every boy she passed and thinking, could he be the one? She was starting to be suspicious of nearly every seventh-grade boy at Wacko.
It was all one big puzzle. Christie couldn't figure out who was behind all these stupid pranks.
"I agree with you, Christie," Mr. Snider said when she told him she thought the gum-tree fire was what the caller had meant when he said he was going to do something involving color. "I talked to the fire department, and they told me that they received a call around eight-fifteen last night from a boy who told them about the fire. The call must have been made right after it was set because it had barely started by the time they arrived. If it was our caller who did it, it appears he didn't really want the tree to burn.
"I don't want you to get paranoid," Mr. Snider added, looking her firmly in the eyes, "but if you notice someone paying more attention to you than usual, it might be our caller. Just act natural and let me know about it."
The thought shocked her. She had just assumed that the caller would stay as far away from her as possible so she wouldn't recognize his voice. It was eerie to think he might be watching her as she was looking for him.
As Christie left Mr. Snider's office, an idea that had been nagging at the back of her brain began to bother her. Jon had been acting different lately. He was obviously disturbed about her not wanting to date him. Could it be that Jon was trying to get her attention by calling her at the hot-line center and saying all those weird things? Don't be silly, Christie told herself. You would recognize his voice. Or would she? Jon knew a lot about making movie
s, and she knew that sometimes people's voices on television news programs were disguised. Could he be doing something like that? Could he have gotten some piece of equipment from the television studio where his mother and father worked that would let him change his voice? Christie's mind was a whirlpool of thoughts. She shook her head trying to make sense out of them. Not Jon. Jon wouldn't do something so silly.
"Why the big frown?" asked Beth when Christie joined the other members of The Fabulous Five at the cafeteria table.
"Oh, nothing," Christie responded. "I was just thinking."
"It must have been serious, judging from the look on your face," said Katie.
"Is Jon giving you a hard time?" asked Melanie.
Christie almost jumped when she heard his name.
"No. No, it was something else." She flashed a big smile at Melanie, trying to reassure her, and then turned to Beth. "You know a lot about acting. Can people change their voices very easily?"
"Saum pipple can do it priddy guod," answered Beth in a Donald Duck voice. "And some not so good. What's up, Doc?" she said, sounding like Bugs Bunny.
Christie couldn't help but laugh at Beth's silly imitations. "I see what you mean."
The rest of the lunch period was filled with speculation about who might have set the fire by the gum tree and about boys. Christie didn't tell her friends what Mr. Snider had said. It would have raised more questions that she couldn't answer, but she found her thoughts going back to Beth's imitations. If a person could change their voice that much, it wouldn't be too hard for someone to change it just enough to be unrecognizable. Especially someone who was around actors a lot, like on television.
"Okay, Christie Winchell," Jana said, catching her by the shoulder from behind as she headed for her locker after the last class of the day. "I don't want to mess around in your business, but you look as if you've got some heavy stuff on your mind. Do you need somebody to unload on?"
Christie looked into her friend's warm brown eyes. If there was anyone she could trust, it was Jana. She opened her mouth to speak and then hesitated. She had promised Mr. Snider she wouldn't say anything more about the caller, even to her best friends.
"I knew you could tell something was wrong at lunch today, Jana," Christie said finally. "It's something I can't talk about right now, though, and I need for you and the others not to ask about it. Please don't be mad." Christie hoped she would understand.
Jana gave her a big smile and squeezed her hand. "Okay. But you know who to come to when you need to talk, right? We're best friends for always, and if you need help and don't ask, I will get mad. I'll try to let the others know to leave you alone. They've been wondering what's going on, too."
Christie hugged Jana to show her appreciation.
Jon was standing by the Wurlitzer jukebox talking to Richie Corrierro when Christie and Jana walked into Bumpers. Melanie and Beth were saving a booth in the corner, and Katie was on line at the counter with Tony Calcaterra. They were holding hands.
"Over here!" yelled Melanie, waving.
"Don't Katie and Tony make a cute couple?" asked Beth, nodding toward the serving counter.
"You mean old Katie Shannon-Calcaterra?" giggled Melanie. "I think we ought to kid her again about hyphenating names."
"You're bad, Mel," said Christie.
"Well, she's always teasing me about being boy crazy, and I've got to get back at her some way. And she is crazy about Tony, although she hates to admit it. Hey, look, there's Shane. Shane!" she yelled, bouncing up and down and waving both hands. He strolled over to their booth.
"Did you ever get a response to your ad?" Melanie asked.
A big grin spread across Shane's face. "I sure did, and we set up a date for this Saturday."
"You're kidding," said Jana.
"She's a girl iguana that has beautiful green, scaly skin, fabulous yellow eyes, and the cutest tail you've ever seen."
"Shane!" said Christie. "Get real."
"Well, I'll bet Igor will think she's gorgeous," Shane protested.
The girls went into hysterical fits of laughter as Randy Kirwan, Keith Masterson, and Scott Daly joined them to see what was going on.
Shane explained that there had been a message for him on his parents' answering machine when he stopped by his house on the way to Bumpers.
"When I called the lady back, she said her iguana was definitely a girl, and she would be happy to introduce Cecilia to Igor, if I'll bring him over on Saturday."
"Cecilia!" Melanie shrieked. The others howled with laughter.
"Yeah. That's her name."
"I propose a toast," said Randy, raising his cola glass in the air. "To Igor and Cecilia! May they have the romance of the century."
"Yea!" they all yelled, clinking their glasses together.
"I'm supposed to be at her place at ten a.m. Would you guys like to go along and meet her?"
"I would! I would!" squealed Melanie.
Christie smiled. She knew Melanie loved anything that had to do with romance, but she hadn't realized until now that it even included love between two lizards.
"We want to go, too," said Beth and Jana in duet.
"I wouldn't miss seeing Igor on his first date for anything in the world," Christie chimed in. "Especially with an iguana named Cecilia. Count me in."
"Okay. Meet me at the bus stop at the corner of Keller and Roanoke Saturday morning at nine-thirty. Anyone who's late misses out."
"What's up?" asked Katie, who had just come up to the booth with Tony.
When they explained about Igor's date, Katie said she wanted to be included, also.
"Are you going to dress him up for his date?" asked Tony.
"I was thinking about letting him wear his yellow tie. It's what all gentlemen of distinction are wearing this season," said Shane.
When Shane had left for another table, and things had settled down again, Christie sneaked a look at Jon. Matt Zeboski was with him and Richie. Richie was telling a story and illustrating it with hand motions. Even though Jon appeared to be absorbed in what Richie was saying, every few moments he looked toward her booth.
As Christie turned back to her friends, Mr. Snider's warning echoed in her ears. He had told her to watch for someone who might be paying more attention to her than usual. And now Christie had to face the truth. She did know someone who was disturbed because of something that had happened to him and who had been watching her. It was Jon.
CHAPTER 10
Friday morning, Christie summoned up all her courage and walked up to Jon on the school ground. She wasn't sure what she would say. She couldn't just ask Jon if he was pulling dumb tricks to get her attention, but she had made up her mind to try.
"Hi. I haven't seen much of you lately," she said as she reached him. "What have you been doing?"
He looked pleased that she had come to talk to him. "Not much. I looked for you at the movies Friday. I saw Jana, Katie, Beth, and Melanie, but I didn't see you."
She listened carefully to his voice. Could it be the same as the caller's? She couldn't be sure.
"Oh, uh . . . I was there. I must have been off talking to someone. Have you been doing anything interesting during the week?"
"Not really. I've been working on a new movie. I'll come over to your house and show it to you, if you'd like," he said eagerly.
"Maybe," Christie replied quickly. "But not on Tuesdays. That's when I'm at the homework hot-line center. She paused. "Do you ever call the center for help?"
"No," he replied. His eyes didn't flicker. "I haven't had any trouble with my homework. What about if I came over some other night?"
"I'm really busy. Maybe later. You haven't even had to call for help with algebra?" She laughed. "I used to help you with your algebra all the time."
He grinned. "No. Miss Gilchrist has been easy. She usually just assigns us the first twenty problems, and I've been getting them okay."
Christie didn't know what to do next. If she asked Jon point-blank if he was th
e caller and he said yes, he would be admitting he had just lied to her. If he really wasn't the caller, he would know that she didn't trust him and be hurt. She couldn't do that. Either way she was a loser. Not knowing what else to say, she lied. "I need to talk to Jana. I'll see you later."
A cloud passed over Jon's face. "Let me know when you want to see the film."
As Christie crossed the school grounds to join The Fabulous Five at the fence, her mind was churning with a thousand different thoughts.
Her gut feeling told her that Jon was telling the truth, but maybe it was because she didn't want it to be him. She liked him—liked him very much—and if she accused him of being the caller and he wasn't, it would ruin their friendship forever.
What if she told him she wanted to date him again? If he was the caller and she did, would he stop? Would it be worth trying? The more she thought about it the more confused her emotions became.
For the rest of the day Christie felt distracted. Twice, her teachers told the class to do something, and she hadn't heard what it was. It was embarrassing to have to look over the shoulder of the person in front of her to see what page they were on.
Christie bit her lip and told herself to forget about the caller. Her next turn on the homework hot-line team wasn't until Tuesday, and she didn't really have to think about him until then. She would use the whole weekend to wipe him right out of her mind. Checking out Igor's new girlfriend with Shane and the rest of The Fabulous Five would definitely help her forget about her hot-line troubles.
The next morning, Christie was the first one to arrive at the bus stop. She wasn't going to risk Shane and the others leaving without her. Not when she had a chance to see Igor's first big romance. Katie and Jana showed up together a few minutes later, and Beth and Melanie arrived shortly after that.
"Great outfit, Beth," called Christie. Beth was wearing a denim jacket with bright red patches sewn on it. The collar was up and she had a matching red scarf wrapped around her neck and flipped over her shoulder.
