by Betsy Haynes
Boys have clubs like the Scouts and ball teams. Why can't we have a club where girls can learn more about themselves? I heard that somebody has started Girl Scouts, but there's nothing like that around here, yet. I guess they would be happy if I wanted to start a quilting club for girls. I can just hear it now: 'Oh, those adorable little girls. Isn't it nice the way they make quilts like their mothers?' I hope you don't have to make quilts, whoever you are. It's so boring it makes my eyes cross.
Some of the boys started talking about how dumb our club is and saying we hate boys. That's not true. I like boys, especially Tommy.
Then they started calling me a troublemaker and saying they were going to tell Mr. Willard. I think Tommy must believe them. He hasn't spoken to me for two weeks. That makes me really sad. I thought he liked me.
Katie stopped reading and reached for the picture sitting under the lamp on the night table. In it, she was standing in front of Tony, and he had his arms wrapped tightly around her. They were both laughing hard. Garrett Boldt, the eighth-grade photographer for the yearbook, had taken the picture on Saturday after a football game.
Tears came to her eyes, and she held the picture against her chest. At that moment, she knew exactly how the girl who might have lived in this very room had felt seventy years ago. Had she cried in her bed over her Tommy? Katie's tears trickled down her cheeks.
Katie dug a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes. Then she continued reading.
Sometimes I feel as if I'm the only one who cares. Am I so wrong to believe that girls aren't really different from boys? I need to feel that I'm important and that I can do things besides take care of a house and have babies, although I want to do that, too. Is it possible that other girls don't feel that way? When I talk about it at our GRIT meetings, sometimes Margaret's and Mildred's eyes tell me I'm right. It's a hard thing to know.
Well, things are probably a lot different for you, whoever you are. You know what? Telling you all this makes me feel as if I know you. You're a good listener. Ha! Ha!
I only wish I could tell you how it all ends. Will Gwyneth and Tommy live happily ever after as the men and women in Mama's magazines do? Will Gwyneth get people to listen to her about girls' needing to do more than just be housewives? And especially, will my father come home safely from the war?
The reason I can't tell you is I've got to put this letter in my time capsule now. We're moving, and I want to leave it here where I've grown up. I've got so many things to remember about this house.
One more thing. As I've been writing this, I've been wondering about you. Are you young or old? Are you male or female? I suppose I'll never know, but if you've taken the time to read this far, I know you must be a nice person. Thank you for being my friend for a little while.
Love,
Gwyneth
Katie drew in a deep breath and fought down the lump in her throat. The letter's ending was like saying good-bye to a good friend. As she closed the notebook, Katie thought of all the questions that would go unanswered: Had Gwyneth gotten Mr. Willard and the other girls to listen to her, and had she ever made up with Tommy? And since Katie's own father had passed away when she was three, she desperately wanted to know what had happened to Mr. Plum.
There were so many things in Gwyneth's life that felt similar to Katie's own experience. Katie couldn't help but think if she'd had the chance to find out how things had turned out for Gwyneth, she would know how they would turn out for herself.
CHAPTER 8
"Look, Alexis"—Jana touched Alexis Duvall's arm to emphasize how serious she was—"I agree with Katie. The boys have gotten used to us and are starting to take us for granted. If we start our own club and aren't available whenever they feel like being with us, they'll be more considerate. Even Randy, who's usually the nicest guy in the world, didn't say anything to me when he decided to play computer games on Friday evenings."
The Fabulous Five had Alexis, Gloria Drexler, and Mona Vaughn cornered by the school fence the following morning. All three girls had gone to Mark Twain Elementary with them.
Katie noticed Laura McCall and The Fantastic Foursome had surrounded Heather Clark and Elizabeth Harvey nearby and were talking to them about the girls' club and the petition.
"Hey, you know how much I like boys," added Melanie. "I think it's a great idea, too. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that stuff."
Alexis squirmed as if she were under a hot light being grilled by the police. "Gee, I don't know. I'm just getting Bill Soliday interested in me. I might blow it with him if I can't go out on Saturday night because I joined a girls' club."
"Has he joined the boys' club?" asked Christie.
"Yes," answered Alexis, looking at her shoes.
Christie nodded knowingly. "Well, the girls' club just might be what you need to get him really interested in you," said Christie. "The more I tell Jon I don't want to go steady, the more he wants to."
"I know, but I'm afraid to. And what if you guys are wrong and Bill gets interested in someone else while I'm doing aerobics? I'd get skinny but I'd lose him. I'd rather be fat with him."
Katie moved in next. "Where's your pride, Alexis? You don't want to just follow him around, do you?"
Alexis sighed. "Okay, I'll sign your petition, but I won't join your club." She took the pen and paper from Katie and wrote her name on it.
"Me, too," said Gloria, signing below Alexis's name.
Mona signed, too, then hung back for a second as the other two girls left. "Gee, I'm sorry. You guys are super, and I hate not joining your club, but Matt and I . . . you understand."
"I understand perfectly," Katie muttered angrily as she watched Mona walking away. Even Mona, who had been one of her good friends at Mark Twain Elementary, wasn't about to give up a night out with her boyfriend.
"Well, how many names do we have now?" asked Beth.
"Twenty-seven," answered Christie glumly.
"How many signatures did Laura and the others get?" asked Melanie.
"I'll ask her in social studies," said Katie.
"Unless they did a lot better than we have, it's not going to impress Mr. Bell very much," said Jana. "But I guess we'll have to take what we've got to him."
"Let's do it right after fourth period," suggested Christie. "That will give us a little more time." They all agreed to meet at the principal's office.
"I guess the girls' club idea is a loser," said Beth. "I was getting to like the idea, too. It would have been fun to have a night when just girls got together without the boys."
"Maybe Laura talked Heather Clark and some of the other Riverfield girls into doing it," Christie said hopefully. "We can't give up yet."
"Yeah, but it won't be much fun if we can't get some of the Mark Twain girls to join, too," complained Katie.
"This is it," said Laura, handing her pile of petitions back to Katie. "We were only able to collect twelve more names. We did get Daphne Alexandrou and Shelly Bramlett from eighth grade and Holly Davis from ninth grade to join. You ought to give us credit for our four names, too."
"You won't win a free trip to Hawaii even if I did," responded Katie.
Laura gave her a sarcastic smile. "Well, adding a women's history class was your idea."
"And the girls' club was your idea," shot back Katie. The two girls glared at one another for a few seconds. Then Katie's expression softened. "Actually, your idea for the girls' club was fantastic. We were thinking that we could get some aerobics tapes for Saturday night, and everyone could bring clothes for other kids to try on. Do you have any other ideas?"
"Marcie Bee's mother gives instructions on how to apply makeup," said Laura. "I talked to Marcie and she said her mother would come and demonstrate on us on Saturday. I've got an aerobics tape we can use, too. I don't think we'll need much more."
"Great," said Katie. "Thanks a lot for all you've done, Laura." Despite Katie's initial mistrust of Laura McCall, it looked as if Laura was really interested in making the
girls' club work.
When Katie stepped into the principal's office after fourth period, the rest of The Fabulous Five were standing at the counter talking to Mr. Bell's secretary, Miss Simone, about the petitions.
"Here are the others," Katie said, handing them to Miss Simone.
The secretary counted the names as The Fabulous Five anxiously watched her face. "Thirty-nine signatures. Hmmm. Generally, there has to be a pretty strong and clear need to change or add to the curriculum. I'm not sure this is enough to get Mr. Bell to go to all that touble, but I'll give them to him and we'll see what he says." She looked up and gave them all a warm smile.
"Personally, I think it's a good idea. I'll put in a good word for you."
Gloom hung over The Fabulous Five as they filed out of the office.
CHAPTER 9
"This is boring! Pass it on."
"Boring."
"Boring."
"Boring. Pass it on." The word went from girl to girl along the row of theater seats. It was Friday night and most of the girls from Wakeman Junior High were at the movie theater, watching the screen with dull looks on their faces. Katie sank into her seat and tried to concentrate on the movie, which just had to turn out to be a love story. She hated to admit it, but it was boring without Tony, Randy, Shane, and the rest of the guys from school.
Before the show had started, all the girls had been restless, turning to search the theater for boys and talking to each other more than Katie remembered their doing before. It was hard for her to believe that boys had a settling effect on girls, but their not being there definitely caused the opposite to happen. It was depressing to think how boy-oriented thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old girls were, but she had to admit she missed Tony's broad shoulder touching hers as they leaned together to eat popcorn out of the same box.
"It's weird," said Beth as The Fabulous Five sat in a booth at Mama Mia's Pizzeria after the movie. The place had briefly filled with girls, but when no boys showed up, most of them had left. "It's like one of those supernatural stories, Where Have All the Boys Gone?" she said in a quivering, scary-sounding voice. "I wonder what Keith is doing right this very moment."
"It does feel strange," agreed Jana, looking depressed. "I can't remember the last time I went to a movie or came to Mama Mia's and Randy wasn't here."
"It just shows how dependent on boys we've become," said Katie. "It's like having withdrawal symptoms."
"Who wants to withdraw?" asked Melanie.
"Tonight will definitely not help us get more girls interested in adding a women's history class to the curriculum, or in a girls' club," said Christie. "I think we just took one huge step backwards"
"I know," said Katie with a deep sigh.
Jana put her arm around her friend's shoulders. "It was a good try."
Katie shrugged. "I'm going home. I can't stand to look at all the sad faces in this place."
When Katie came into the kitchen the next morning, her mother was reading the paper and having coffee. "Mom . . ." Katie said, scooting into the chair next to her.
"Yes, dear," Willie responded absently.
"How hard is it to find someone who has moved?"
"Oh . . . it depends on where they move. If it's in the same town, it wouldn't be too hard. They might even be in the phone book."
"I looked there but couldn't find her."
Willie looked up from her paper. "Whom are you looking for, Katie?"
"Gwyneth Plum. I'd like to meet her."
"She might not be alive, sweetheart. Let's see . . . she'd be over eighty years old, wouldn't she?"
"Yes, but a lot of people live to be even ninety. I just thought if she was alive, I'd like to try to find her. I want to know what happened to her and how some of the things she was writing about turned out."
Willie thought for a moment. "If her family moved locally, we could probably find out at the office where they register property deeds. And if she married and changed her name while she still lived around here, we could find out at the marriage license bureau. Would you like for me to check it out for you?"
"Would you?" Katie asked, sliding out of her chair and putting her arms around her mother.
"I'll do it Monday, honey," said Willie, hugging Katie back.
After dinner, Katie heard a horn honk out front. "Bye Mom!" she called, grabbing her denim jacket and darting out the door. The Edwardses' family van with the TEEN TAXI sign on the side was parked at the curb. Melanie's mother ran a business driving kids from Wakeman back and forth to school. Now, however, the rest of The Fabulous Five were sitting inside.
"Hi, Katie!" they yelled as she clamored aboard.
As Mrs. Edwards maneuvered the van to the mall entrance, Katie felt a twinge of nervousness. Would Tony and the other guys who hung out with The Fabulous Five be there tonight, or were they off playing computer games again?
The Fabulous Five said good-bye to Mrs. Edwards and piled out of the van. Inside the mall they strolled the long corridors looking in the shop windows and oohing and aahing over clothes. Katie knew her friends were watching out of the corners of their eyes for the boys just as she was.
When the girls got on line for sodas at Taco Plenty, Katie spotted Shane, Keith, Randy, and Tony sitting at a large table with some other kids from Wacko. Tony looked as if he was deep in conversation with Scott Daly, Jon Smith, and Matt Zeboski, who had Mona Vaughn hanging on his arm. But when Katie passed his table with her soda, and Tony didn't look up, she wondered if he was intentionally ignoring her.
As Katie dropped into the booth The Fabulous Five had grabbed, Randy, Keith, and Shane came over to talk.
"How was the movie last night?" asked Keith.
"Bor—" Melanie began.
Katie bumped her with her elbow. "It was all right," she answered quickly. "Not great, but okay."
"How were the video games?" asked Jana.
"Fantastic! I was the all-around champion," said Keith. He stuck his arms in the air and pranced around like Sylvester Stallone at the top of the steps in the movie Rocky.
"No way," challenged Shane. "I beat you two out of three games in M1 TANK PLATOON."
"But I won more games than anyone else," responded Keith.
Bill Soliday and Richie Corrierro heard them arguing and came over. "Both of you guys are lying," Bill said, laughing. "I beat you both more than you beat me, so I was the champion."
"I was champ of Dungeons and Dragons," chimed in Richie. "No one beat me at that all night long."
Within minutes a crowd of boys had gathered around The Fabulous Five's booth to argue loudly over who had done the best the night before.
"I ate two whole pizzas!" shouted Clarence Marshall above the noise.
"Nobody's gonna disagree that you're a pig, Marshall," said Matt Zeboski.
"Oink! Oink!" squealed Joel Murphy.
"If Igor had been there, he would have whipped everybody," said Shane, referring to his pet iguana. "Did I ever tell you about the time he beat me at Space Ball ten times in a row?"
Everyone laughed.
"It sounds as if you guys had fun," said Laura McCall who had come up with several other girls to listen to the boys talk.
"It was a ball!" said Keith. "We're going to do it again next Friday. Only this time I'm going to wipe out everybody so there won't be any arguments."
"And I'm going to eat three whole pizzas," said Clarence. Everyone ignored him.
"How long are you going to play games on Friday?" asked Mona.
"Hey, it's a blast," answered Kevin Walker-Noles. "My parents said it was okay to do it at our house as long as we don't break anything." The girls who were listening made faces as if they had all tasted something bad.
"What about us?" asked Daphne Alexandrou. "What are we going to do while you guys are all playing games?"
"Whatever you want to do," answered Richie.
"Katie's starting a girls-only club on Saturday nights," Lisa Snow said. "She says, if you can have a boys-on
ly club, we can have a girls-only club."
Katie felt her face turn bright red. Why did Lisa have to say that in front of all these boys? She saw Tony at the edge of the crowd listening. He was looking at her.
"A girls-only club?" asked Joel Murphy. "What are you going to do, your knitting?"
"Yeah," joined in Clarence, "are you planning to make quilts?"
"We're going to do things that are good for girls," Katie said defensively.
Before she could explain further, Richie said, "How can you do that when there won't be any boys?" The other boys went into fits of laughter.
"The only thing girls can do without boys is talk about each other," said Clarence. The boys' laughter grew louder.
"That's not true!" said Daphne. "We can do just as many things as you can."
"I know, they're going to make brownies," said Keith Masterson.
"You guys are terrible," said Lisa Snow. "Richie Corrierro, I never want to speak to you again!"
"Oh, poor Richie," said Joel, hugging himself. "No, more kissy, kissy." Lisa's face turned a flaming red.
Katie wanted to join in the argument, but the look on the other girls' faces told her she shouldn't. They were getting angry at the boys for the first time. They were finally starting to wake up to the fact that the boys thought they couldn't live without them.
"See if I ever speak to you again, Bill Soliday," said Alexis angrily. "Katie, I want to sign up for your club, and I'll sign your petition for a class on women's history, too!"
"A class on women's history?" said Bill. "That's historical!" He doubled over with laughter at his own joke.
"That's not funny, Soliday, snapped Dekeisha. "I'll sign both, too, Katie."
"Me, too!" called Mandy McDermott from the crowd.
"So will I," said Melinda Thaler.
Soon the girls were swarming around The Fabulous Five's table and Katie and the rest of The Fabulous Five were taking names on napkins and pieces of paper as fast as they could write. All the while, the boys were hooting at them and teasing the girls about what they would be doing in the club.
