Fabulous Five 019 - The Boys-Only Club

by Betsy Haynes

  THE FABULOUS FIVE #19

  THE BOYS-ONLY CLUB

  BETSY HAYNES

  A BANTAM SKYLARK BOOK®

  NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND

  RL 5, 009-012

  THE BOYS-ONLY CLUB

  A Bantam Skylark Book / July 1990

  Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1990 by Betsy Haynes and James Haynes.

  Cover art copyright © 1990 by Andrew Bacha.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Bantam Books.

  ISBN 0-553-15809-0

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books. 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  CWO 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

  To Margaret Haynes

  for her contributions to this book

  CHAPTER 1

  "Let Brian carry the computer, Katie. He's stronger than you are," said Mr. Waldrop.

  Katie Shannon stopped in her tracks. Her mouth dropped open as Brian Olsen, who was a physical fitness nut and had a brown belt in karate, took the computer out of her hands. Just as she was about to protest, Joel Murphy took her elbow and said, as if he were talking to a little kid, "Here, let me help poor widdle Katie over to her desk." Everyone in the class laughed as he escorted her to her computer work station.

  Katie's faced turned as red as her hair, and she jerked her arm away fom Joel, giving him the meanest look she could muster. She didn't need help from any boy, and she didn't like being laughed at for something so dumb. She could have easily moved the computer herself.

  She fumed for the rest of the period over Mr. Waldrop's sexist attitude and Joel's stupid joke. She was furious at herself, too. Why had she let Brian carry the computer? Katie couldn't stand it when men acted as if women were weak and needed males to take care of them. And if she could do it all over again, she would slug Joel Murphy.

  Katie was still seething as she walked through the cafeteria line and joined the rest of The Fabulous Five—Jana Morgan, Beth Barry, Christie Winchell, and Melanie Edwards—at their regular table. Even her best friends in the whole world couldn't cheer her up today.

  "What's wrong?" asked Beth, looking at Katie over her fork loaded with lasagna.

  "Everything," Katie said in disgust as she set her tray down. "Wakeman Junior High is the most sexist place in the world."

  Jana stopped eating her cream cheese and jelly sandwich and raised her eyebrows. "Why? What happened?"

  Katie told them about what had happened in class.

  Melanie rolled her eyes. "Brian just likes to show off his muscles. What's the big deal?"

  Katie frowned at her. "That's just the kind of attitude that makes females second-class citizens."

  "What does?" asked Melanie, looking confused.

  "The attitude that it's okay for men to help us carry things, even if we don't need their help. If you let them think you can't do things for yourself, they're going to believe it and feel superior."

  "Come on, Katie," responded Jana. "Not all boys think they're better than girls. Randy certainly doesn't." Randy Kirwan had been Jana's boyfriend since the sixth grade.

  "Does he open doors for you?" Katie demanded, pointing a fork for emphasis. "Is he the one who asks you for a date, or do you ask him? Are you supposed to go 'ooh' and 'aah' when he's wearing a football or basketball uniform? Does he go 'ooh' and 'aah' over something you've written for the yearbook? I bet you're the one who's always admiring him, and I know he opens doors for you as if you can't do it yourself. "

  "I kind of like for him to open doors for me," said Jana defensively. "He's just showing me he respects me."

  "He's telling you, you can't do it for yourself," said Katie, stabbing a french fry as if it were an enemy.

  "And what I can't understand," she added, looking around the table at her friends,"is how you can all be so nonchalant about it."

  "Listen who's talking," teased Beth. "You're the one who's dating Mr. Macho, Tony Calcaterra."

  "Tony and I have an understanding," said Katie. "He may look macho, but he understands how I feel about male-and-female relationships. We're equals. He's very sensitive to that."

  "Do you mean to tell us that you're the one who asks Tony Calcaterra for dates instead of him asking you?" asked Melanie skeptically.

  The question stopped Katie. She tried to remember if she had ever asked him for a date. Surely, she must have. "Not all the time," she fudged. "But that's what being equal is all about. Either person can ask. Tony is very aware that women are men's equals, and he always treats them that way. He's a lot more sensitive to women's issues than you think."

  "Oh, yeah, right," said Beth sarcastically. "When was the last time you asked Tony for a date?" The others looked at her with interest.

  "Well . . . now!" Katie managed to say. Tony was headed toward the tray return and would have to pass right by their table. She would show them. The others turned to see where she was looking.

  Katie gulped when she realized what she had just said. She was going to ask Tony for a date and do it right in front of everyone. Well, she would show them. Her and Tony's relationship was the way boy-girl relationships were supposed to be.

  Tony stopped at the end of the table. "Hi, everybody." He looked at Katie, then added, "Hi, Your Honor."

  In spite of Katie's aggravation, his bright smile almost melted her down to her tennis shoes. Before she had gotten to know Tony, she, like everyone else, had thought he was just a show-off. That was before he had been brought before the Teen Court by Mr. Bell, the principal, for wearing an earring. Katie was a judge for the court, and as she listened to Tony argue his case, she found herself believing that the rule in the school dress code that prohibited boys from wearing earrings wasn't fair. She had even gone so far as to start a petition to change the rule. Katie and Tony had been going together ever since.

  "Well?" Melanie's question jerked Katie back to reality.

  "Oh, uh, hi . . . Tony." She returned his smile weakly as she fumbled for the right words. "Uh, I was wondering . . ."

  "Wondering what?" he asked. Katie could feel everyone staring at her.

  "I was wondering if you'd like to go to the movies, on Friday. My treat," she added cheerfully. There, that should show her friends.

  "Oh, sorry, I can't. I've already told Randy, Shane, Keith, and some other guys I'd play computer games with them."

  The silence at the table added to Katie's embarrassment.

  "It's not that I wouldn't rather go with you," Tony added hastily, seeing her red cheeks. "It's just that some of us guys started this club. We're going to get together at Kevin Walker-Noles's house every Friday and order out pizza and have Nintendo contests."

  "Hey, that sounds great!" said Christie. "I love computer games. Can I come?"

  "Me, too," said Beth. "I play my brother Brian's games all the time."

  "It's just us guys getting together to play," Tony answered, looking embarras
sed. "You wouldn't really like it."

  Katie snapped to attention. "You mean you're starting a boys-only club? Girls can play computer games."

  "Hey, I know you can," Tony said defensively. "It's just that everyone decided it would just be for boys."

  Katie's face started turning red all over again. "A boys' club! You mean no girls allowed?"

  Tony looked sheepish. "It's just what everyone decided."

  "I can't believe this," Katie said, slapping her forehead. "All-male clubs practically went out with cavemen."

  "Hey, I didn't make the rules," Tony said, backing away from The Fabulous Five's stares.

  "Well, you obviously went along with them," snapped Katie. She had never felt so humiliated in her life. After telling her friends Tony was sensitive to women's issues, he had come up and told them he belonged to a club exclusively for boys. She stood up and fixed a furious stare on Tony. "Don't worry about it. I'll find another date for Friday."

  "But . . ." Tony sputtered.

  Before he could finish, Katie stormed out of the cafeteria.

  CHAPTER 2

  "I'm home!" yelled Katie as she walked into her house after school.

  "Hi, dear!" her mother, Willie, answered. Her voice came from the direction of the room she used as her office.

  Katie went upstairs to her own room and dejectedly dropped her books on the table she used as a desk. The house she and her mother rented was old and her room was small, with an old-fashioned dormer window overlooking the backyard. The tiny house was all they could afford on the money her mother made as a free-lance writer. There was some insurance money from when Katie's father had died, but they were saving it for emergencies and Katie's college education.

  Katie went to the window and raised it to let the light breeze blow into her room. She took a deep breath. It made her feel better. She had been depressed all afternoon and had left Bumpers early rather than watch Tony clowning around with Randy, Kevin, and Shane as if nothing had happened between him and her. He had hardly looked at her, even though she had been sitting in a booth near his at the fast-food restaurant.

  She couldn't understand the attitude of the other girls at Wakeman. Why didn't they care if they were treated like second-class citizens? Even her friends in The Fabulous Five didn't think it was such a big deal for the boys to have a club that girls couldn't join. And Tony. He was usually so fair. She couldn't believe that he would belong to a club that would exclude anyone.

  Tears filled her eyes, and she rubbed them away with the back of her hand. This was the first real fight she and Tony had had, and it felt terrible.

  Willie was sitting in front of her computer screen typing when Katie entered her mother's office a short while later. Willie typed a few more words as Katie picked up Libber, their big yellow cat, who had been lying against the back of the warm machine.

  "How was your day, sweetheart?" her mother asked, swiveling her chair so that she faced Katie.

  "Fine," fibbed Katie. She pointed to a pot of red and yellow tulips sitting on Willie's desk. "Where did the flowers come from?"

  "Mark sent them. They're beautiful. His note says that they reminded him of me. Isn't that sweet?"

  Katie opened her eyes wide in surprise. Mark was Mr. Dracovitch, a biology teacher at Wakeman Junior High whom her mother had dated a few times. He wore a black toupee so he looked like Dracula and kids would want to be in his class. Everybody except her mother thought he was weird. This was the first time Mr. Dracovitch had sent Willie flowers.

  "I guess it's sweet," Katie mumbled.

  "With the weather turning warm, I'd like to plant the tulips outside where I can see them from the kitchen window," said Willie. "I'm behind on this darn project though and don't have time."

  Katie put Libber down. The cat arched its back and stretched each of its rear legs out in turn. "I'll plant them for you," Katie volunteered. She needed something to do to help her forget about her rotten day at school.

  "You will? That would be great." Her mother handed the potted plants to Katie and said, "Choose a nice sunny place to put them. I know they'll have a lot better chance of surviving out there than in here among all my clutter."

  Katie took the flowers and found a trowel in the basement. Next she stood on the back steps and surveyed the yard for a good place to plant them so her mother could see them from the kitchen window.

  She carried the pot to several spots and set it down and then backed away to check on how well the tulips could be seen from the house. Finally, she noticed a sunny spot between two roots that extended out from the big oak tree near the back fence. Someone had built a planter using the roots for two side sand stones in the front. She hadn't paid much attention to it before, but it would be the ideal place.

  Katie started digging with the trowel, giggling as she remembered her mother's instructions to plant Mr. Dracovitch's flowers in a sunny place. Since it had been Mr. Dracovitch, the vampire instructor, who had sent the flowers, would they live in the sunlight? she wondered.

  She had cleared away several inches of dirt when her trowel struck something hard. She frowned and scraped around it. It was probably a large rock that she would have to dig out with her hands. Instead, she exposed a flat, metal surface.

  Katie searched for the edges of whatever it was with the point of the trowel and gradually revealed a square shape. She quickly dug down around it, and then grabbed it by its sides and pulled it out. She plunked it down on the grass and brushed the dirt away. What in the world was a metal box doing buried in their backyard?

  CHAPTER 3

  The latch on the box was badly rusted, but Katie was able to stick the point of the trowel in behind it and pry it off. The lid squeaked in protest as she opened it.

  Reaching inside, Katie pulled out two packets wrapped in waxed paper and tied with faded ribbon. She laid these in her lap and reached in again. She found a small porcelain doll, a lace handkerchief that had yellowed with age, a rubber ring, and a large blue-green marble.

  The porcelain doll had a beautiful face and was wearing an old-fashioned dress. The handkerchief was fancy and looked handmade. Katie couldn't figure out what the rubber ring was for.

  She pulled the bow loose on the smaller packet and opened the paper carefully. It crackled and split as if it was very old. Inside the paper Katie found several photographs, which she separated gingerly. On top was a family portrait of a man and a woman sitting side by side with three children. The woman was holding a baby, and an older child, a girl, stood next to the father with her hand on his shoulder. A boy, who looked older than the girl, stood in the back.

  They're all so serious-looking, thought Katie. She flipped the picture over, but nothing was written on the back.

  The next picture was of a man in a military uniform. He was wearing a hat like the ones she had seen in pictures of the Royal Canadian Mounties. Katie compared the picture with the one of the family. It was the father.

  The next picture made Katie smile. A monkey sat on a boy's shoulder, its tail wrapped around the boy's neck. Katie turned the picture over. Tommy and Cho Cho was written on the back. She giggled. I wonder if Cho Cho is the monkey or the boy, she mused.

  She laid the pictures on their wrapping and picked up the larger package. Inside was a notebook that was bound at the top. It looked like one kids might have used in school a long time ago. On the front was written in pencil: Hello, whoever you are. She stared at the message. It was as if she had just bumped into someone she didn't know and that person had said hello.

  Sitting back on her heels, Katie held the notebook in both hands. It seemed like a personal thing, and she wondered at first if she should open it, but the message made her think someone wanted the notebook found. She turned the cover back.

  Hi, I'm Gwyneth Plum.

  The handwriting looked like a kid's attempt to be formal. It had all kinds of curlicues and the bottom of the y was a fancy swirl.

  I'm thirteen years old and in the seventh grad
e at Misener Junior High. Everyone calls it Miserable Junior High, but we don't let the teachers hear us say it. Isn't that funny?

  Katie chuckled to herself. It was just like everyone at Wakeman Junior High calling their school Wacko.

  The year is 1918 and this is my first time capsule. We just learned in school that many people made time capsules in 1876 when our country was one hundred years old, so I thought I would make one for myself.

  A time capsule? So that was what this box was all about. Katie made a quick calculation. Wow! She was the first one to read the words written by a girl her age over eighty years before. She read on.

  Our teacher told us that when you make a time capsule, you should put things in it that will tell whoever finds it all about you, and that's what I'm doing. I'm the girl in the picture.

  That was easy enough to figure out, Katie said to herself.

  The boy in the picture is my older brother, Robert, and the baby is my brother, John.

  My father, whom I love very much, sent me the little doll from England. He's in the army there and is going to fight that terrible man they call the Kaiser, in Germany. Mama and I worry about him. They are calling this the first world war, ever, and it's really terrible.

  The kerchief belongs to my mother, the marble is my brother Robert's, and of course the teething ring is John's.

  Let me see, what do I need to tell you about me? Well, I live or lived in a white house with a black roof by this tree. It was two stories tall. Is it still there?

  Katie looked over her shoulder at the two-story house where she and her mother lived. Before the owners had it covered with aluminum siding three or four years ago, it had been wood, but the boards were starting to rot and split. The roof was brown shingle and had been as long as Katie could remember. She couldn't tell if it was the same house Gwyneth had written about.

  My room was on the second floor in the back, and I could look out the window and see my favorite tree. You'll know which tree it is I'm talking about because you found this box under it. The tree has a swing that I used to play in when I was little, and when Tommy comes over, he pushes me in it sometimes.