by Betsy Haynes
"Saturday night? The gym is normally locked up on Saturday night. What kind of a girls' club is this?"
After they explained, she was sympathetic. "But it costs twenty-five dollars to have the head custodian, Mr. Bartosik, or one of his people, to be here to let people in and lock up after functions and make sure it's cleaned up. Can you pay that?" She could tell by the looks on their faces they couldn't.
She sighed. "Let me think about it, girls. For a good cause such as this, there just might be a way."
Richie, Joel, and Clarence were true to their word. After The Fabulous Five had gone through the cafeteria line and taken seats at their usual table, the boys picked up their trays and came over to sit down with them.
"Bug off!" said Melanie when Clarence sat down beside her.
"Hey, is that any way to talk to a fellow Fabulous Fiver?" Clarence asked.
"How come Fabulous Five sounds so bad when you say it?" asked Beth.
"I don't know," said Clarence, looking as if he was genuinely wondering himself.
"Want an apple?" Richie asked Jana, offering her one that was half-eaten.
"Eeeyew!" said Jana, shrinking away from him. "Get that thing out of here."
Richie acted hurt. "I was just trying to be friendly to a fellow club member."
"We are not fellow club members," said Katie. "Now, like Melanie said, bug off!" Everyone in the cafeteria was watching them and beginning to laugh at the game the boys were playing with them.
"Since we belong to the same club, I forgive you for talking that way to me," Richie said.
"You don't have to," responded Katie. "I'd just as soon you got mad at me and stayed that way."
Katie had never had such a miserable time at a meal in her life. The Fabulous Five tried to talk but couldn't because of the constant babble of dumb jokes from the boys. Finally, Christie, Melanie, Beth, and Jana quit trying to hold a conversation. Katie saw her friends glaring at her as if the whole thing were her fault. But the only idea she could come up with to make Richie, Joel, and Clarence go away was to hit them with her tray, and she didn't want to end up in front of Teen Court.
The public address system announcement came just as Katie's fifth-period algebra class was ending.
"Katie Shannon, please report to the office."
Katie quickly gathered up her books and headed for the office. Miss Simone was waiting for her there.
"Since you seem to be the organizer, I thought I'd let you know about using the gym on Saturday night," said Miss Simone. "You can tell the others it's available."
"What about the twenty-five dollars, Miss Simone? We don't have that much money."
"It's all right. Instead of Mr. Bartosik's being there to take care of things, I'll do it. It will be up to you girls, however, to see that the place is put back in order."
"You?" asked Katie incredulously.
"Yes. You don't have to pay me," said the secretary, smiling. "I'm cheap labor."
"Gosh, Miss Simone. Thanks!"
"That's quite all right, dear. It's for a good cause. What time do you want me to open up the gym?"
"We thought we'd meet from seven to nine o'clock. Is that all right?"
"Fine. And Katie . . ."
"Yes, Miss Simone."
"I don't have an answer for you on the women's history class, yet. Mr. Bell hasn't, uh . . . how should I say it? He hasn't quite seen the light yet. But I'm working on it."
"Oh, thank you." Katie gave her the biggest smile she could come up with. Miss Simone really did seem to care.
CHAPTER 13
"If Clarence, Richie, and Joel try to sit with us, I'll punch each of them in the nose," said Beth.
"We just won't leave any room for them to sit down," Christie said, moving to the outer edge of the booth. It was Thursday after school and Beth, Christie, Katie, Melanie, and Jana were seated in Bumpers.
"I hate the way those guys have been telling everyone that they belong to The Fabulous Five," said Melanie.
"And following us around," agreed Jana. "Everywhere I turn, Clarence or Joel is there."
"I'm thinking about skipping lunch so I don't have to be around them," said Christie.
The conversation depressed Katie. The three boys had been hanging around The Fabulous Five for the last two days, and she and her friends had had it with them. She had never seen Beth and Melanie look so blue. Christie had gotten quieter, and even Jana seemed to be thinking a lot more lately. It even seemed as if her friends were starting to avoid each other so the boys couldn't home in on them as a group. Katie felt as if it were her fault, even though she believed in what she was doing. Fighting back against the boys was a lot harder, though, when it caused problems between her and her friends.
Katie also felt frustrated. The boys weren't breaking any rules, but they were making The Fabulous Five look silly in front of everyone. Katie had seen Laura McCall, Melissa McConnell, Tammy Lucero, and Funny Hawthorne watching and grinning from ear to ear when the boys were teasing them.
"Hey, there're our friends." Joel's voice jerked Katie back to the present.
Melanie scrunched down in her seat and put her hand over her eyes. "Oh, no. Not in here, too."
Joel came marching over to their booth followed by Clarence and Richie. "I wish you had gotten a bigger booth," said Joel. "Can I squeeze in with you, fellow Fab Fiver?"
"There's no room," said Katie. She could feel the heat coming up her collar.
"Maybe we can find a bigger table where we can all sit," said Clarence, looking around the room.
"I thought of something I need to ask you guys," said Richie. "Now that there are eight of us in our club, why don't we change our name from The Fabulous Five to something like The Great Eight? Would we have to vote on it?"
"Everyone in favor of changing the name, say aye," said Joel, raising his hand.
"Aye!" the three boys said in unison. The Fabulous Five sat without saying a word.
"You're not voting," whined Richie.
"Do we need a majority to make it official?" asked Joel.
"I don't know," said Richie. "If they're not going to vote, maybe we need to get some more people to join so we can get a majority. That way we'd know it was official."
"But then we wouldn't be able to call ourselves The Great Eight," said Clarence.
Richie shrugged. "That's okay. We'll think up another name."
Katie was just about to get up and walk out when a low voice said, "Leave them alone."
Katie turned. Tony was standing behind Christie's shoulder, and he had his hands on his hips. His face was unsmiling as he looked at Richie, Clarence, and Joel. The three boys shuffled nervously under his stare.
"We were just teasing them about their girls' club," said Richie.
"What's funny about a girls' club? responded Tony.
Richie turned red. "All the guys are laughing about it."
A silence fell over the group until Clarence, probably remembering how Tony had stood up to ninth-grader Max McNatt, said, "I'm gonna get some fries."
"Me, too," said Joel, glancing back at Tony. "I'm hungry." The three boys headed for the service line.
"Thanks, Tony," said Jana. "They were getting on our nerves."
A smile spread over Tony's face. "No problem. You could have handled it. I wanted to ask if you'd seen Randy."
"Not since lunchtime," said Jana. "And I didn't talk to him then." A sheepish look came over her face.
"That's okay. I just had something I needed to ask him. It can wait."
As he turned and left, Katie's heart sank into her stomach. He hadn't even looked at her. He must really be mad. That's not fair, Katie told herself. Tony was the one who had joined the boys' club and made her look like a fool.
For the next two days, Katie was totally absorbed in planning the girls' club night. Everyone was getting really excited about the meeting. Several girls had volunteered to bring aerobics videotapes, and Daphne Alexandrou said her father would help her bring a t
elevision and a VCR to play them on. Everyone was talking about the clothes they were going to model, and Marcie Bee said her mother had lots of makeup for the girls to try on. Katie wished they could think of some things that had more to do with improving their minds or deciding on a career, but Jana and Christie talked her out of it.
"Not now," Jana had said. "When we get everyone coming to the meetings, we can try it."
"We don't want to lose them before we get started," agreed Christie. "Let them find out how much fun it is first." Katie also stopped in the administration office several times during the week. Each time Miss Simone had said that Mr. Bell hadn't agreed to the women's history class, and each time the secretary's mouth looked a little tighter, as if she was upset.
Even though she was busy every minute, Katie couldn't stop thinking about Tony. She had seen him in the halls a few times, but he still hadn't talked to her. And she wasn't about to talk to him.
When Katie got home after school on Friday, Willie met her at the door. "Have I got a surprise for you," she declared. "I found Gwyneth Plum today."
Katie's heart leapt. "Found Gwyneth? How could you? I thought we had looked everywhere we could for information about her."
"I did, too—the marriage license records, property records, everything I could think of—but there's one thing we didn't count on."
Katie was bouncing up and down. "What? Tell me, tell me."
Her mother looked proud about what she had done. "We didn't think about the fact that she might have gone someplace else to be married and then come back. It turns out she went to Reno, Nevada, and was married there in a little chapel ceremony."
"How did you find that out?" asked Katie.
"I remembered the photograph of the young boy in the time capsule and got it out. There aren't any Thomas, Tom, or Tommy Rawls in the directory, but I started calling all the Rawls anyway. One of them, named Ronald, is the son of Gwyneth Rawls. She did marry Tommy after all."
Katie's eyes grew large and her heart swelled. Gwyneth had survived the argument with Tommy over women's rights, and they had gotten married.
"Here's the telephone number that Gwyneth's son gave me" her mother said. "He told me she was away for the weekend and would be coming back on Sunday. I thought you might want to call her and see if you can meet her."
Katie took the slip of paper from her mother. It was the key to the answers to all the questions that were racing through her mind. Most of all, she wanted to know how Gwyneth and Tommy had managed to get back together. Deep down, Katie didn't want to give up hope that there might be some way for her and Tony to make up. She couldn't wait to talk to Gwyneth Plum, the lady out of the past.
CHAPTER 14
"It's working," said Beth excitedly. "Somehow I really didn't think this many girls would show up." The Wakeman Junior High gymnasium was filling up with girls wearing leotards, shorts, sweatshirts, leg warmers, and all sorts of other exercise clothes. And more cars were dropping kids off at the front door.
Katie was beaming with satisfaction. This was the way she had visualized the girls' club ever since Laura McCall had suggested it. She wasn't sure how much help Laura had been in getting the Riverfield girls out, though, for only a few of them had come so far. Laura and her Fantastic Foursome friends hadn't shown up yet either. They're probably waiting to make a grand entrance, Katie thought. It didn't matter. What mattered was a lot of girls had stopped thinking about the boys and were getting together for self-improvement.
"Where do you want us to put the TV and VCR?" asked Daphne. She was holding the VCR and her father was standing behind her with a large TV. Beads of sweat covered his forehead as he struggled to hold the heavy set.
"Over there," said Katie, pointing to where Marcie Bee's mother had her makeup table set up.
"I'll help," said Jana, taking one end of the VCR and leading Daphne and her father in the direction of the TV stand set up there.
"We need more tables so people can spread out the clothes they brought to model," called Alexis.
"Ask Miss Simone where they keep them," Katie called back.
The secretary was helping direct traffic in the gym and looked as if she was enjoying herself. She had taken off her raincoat and underneath was an exercise outfit. She had a red scarf tied around her waist, and her hair was tied back.
"She looks really neat," Katie said to Heather, who was standing nearby.
"She sure does," Heather agreed. "I think she and Mr. Bell are having some trouble though."
Katie was surprised. "Why do you think that?"
"Well, I had to take some papers to the office for Mrs. Blankenship yesterday, and Miss Simone was in his office with the door closed. They were talking kind of loud, and she sounded angry."
"Do you know what they were talking about?"
Heather shook her head. "I couldn't hear what they were saying very well, and Miss Dickinson was standing next to me so I didn't want it to look like I was eavesdropping. Once, it sounded as if she told him he was narrow-minded." She covered her mouth to hide a giggle. "Can you believe anyone would tell the principal that?"
Maybe, thought Katie. She had been surprised when she checked three times this week on whether Mr. Bell had agreed to start a class on women's history and Miss Simone hadn't just given her a yes or no. Usually, Mr. Bell made up his mind quickly and that was that. Was the secretary arguing with her boss over his decision? That sounded dangerous.
Christie came over to Katie. "Since you're in charge, it's up to you to get things started."
Katie gulped and looked at the crowd of girls who were standing around talking. Christie was right, someone had to take charge, it was already fifteen minutes after seven. Katie had thought Laura would be there to help her get things organized, but she still hadn't shown up.
Katie cleared her throat and tried to sound confident as she yelled, "Okay, everyone, listen up! This is what we're going to do."
Alexis Duvall and Lisa Snow stopped as they were leaving the gym to thank Katie for starting the girls' club. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time," said Alexis.
"And I feel so trim already," said Lisa. "And Mrs. Bee gave me some super ideas about how to put on makeup. Wait until I show off in front of Richie Corrierro. He'll be sorry he joined that all-boys club and then made fun of us for starting a girls' club."
"Me, too," said Alexis. "I bet I get Bill Soliday to drop out of the club so he can date me. We're all going to Mama Mia's Pizzeria now. Are The Fabulous Five going?"
Katie said they were.
"I think it went super!" said Christie as The Fabulous Five climbed into the Edwardses' van. "Everyone had a ball."
"I think it was, too," agreed Beth. "I got some fantastic ideas on new ways to wear clothes. Jana, can I borrow your red sweater to wear to school Monday? I've got an idea for a great three-layer outfit."
"You'll end up being too warm and scratching all day," said Katie, remembering Gwyneth Plum's experience with the long underwear and stockings.
"I don't care," said Beth. "I'd die to wear something that's different."
"Did you ever see so many girls sweat at one time as during the aerobics?" asked Melanie. "I bet we left at least a zillion pounds lying on the floor at the gym."
"And all the makeup," said Jana. "Marcie's mother was really good, but I know my mother won't let me wear all that eye shadow."
Katie sat back and listened to her friends talk. She agreed that the evening had turned out super. Everyone was talking about doing it again, and there was nothing to keep them from it. Maybe it hadn't been a bad idea to have the clothes modeling and makeup instructions. It certainly seemed to raise the self-esteem of a lot of girls. If Alexis and Lisa were ready to show Bill and Richie they could do without them as well as the boys could without the girls, that was a big step forward.
If only she could feel as good about her chances to get back with Tony as they did with the boys they liked. She wasn't about to parade around in front of him t
o get his attention, though. She sighed. She couldn't change her personality even for Tony, no matter how much she liked him.
Her mother had said her father had wanted Willie to be a separate person. How had he put it? The two of them would add up to more than one that wav. Katie liked that. It made her feel as if a relationship should strengthen a person rather than having to give yourself away. She wished her father had lived longer so she could have gotten to know him better. She knew she would have liked her father.
"Here we are," Mr. Edwards called over his shoulder. "Everybody out for Mama Mia's Pizzeria. I'll be back at ten-thirty to pick you up."
As she climbed out of the van, Katie saw Alexis and Lisa standing in front of the pizzeria with several other girls. It was strange that they weren't inside showing off in front of Bill Soliday and Richie Corrierro, as they had said they were going to do. She found out why very quickly.
"Katie Shannon! Look what you've done to us!" cried Alexis when she saw her.
"What have I done?" asked Katie, baffled.
"You've ruined our lives!" answered Lisa.
"What are you talking about?" asked Christie.
Lisa was angry and perspiring so much her new makeup was beginning to run down her cheeks. "You talked us into going to that dumb girls' club tonight."
"What's wrong with that?" asked Katie. "You told me you had a great time."
"We did until we got here and found Laura McCall and her friends from Riverfield with our boyfriends," said Alexis. "Tammy Lucero was sitting on Bill's lap when we walked in."
"And Richie was holding hands with Elizabeth Harvey," said Lisa. "Katie Shannon, I'll never forgive you!"
"But . . ." Katie groped for words.
"You guys aren't doing so well, either," said Dekeisha Adams. "I just came out of there. Randy Kirwan and Keith Masterson are sitting with Laura and Melissa McConnell."
Jana and Beth turned toward Katie. There were looks of total disbelief on their faces.
