by Betsy Haynes
"Oh, good," said Beth, jumping to her feet. "Can I wear a mustache and a trench coat when I follow her? I'll even wear my sunglasses so she doesn't recognize me."
Katie slapped the heel of her hand against her forehead. "It would be just like you to do something like that."
"Beth," said Jana, smiling at her dramatic friend, "I think your everyday school clothes will do just fine."
"Remember the notebooks we had when we went to Mark Twain Elementary, and we were keeping notes on Taffy Sinclair because she was so snotty?" asked Christie. "Why don't we each keep a notebook again, and then we can get together and compare notes?"
"Great idea," said Jana.
At dinner that evening, Jana poked at her food while her mother and Pink talked.
"You're not eating your dinner, Jana," her mother said. "Aren't you feeling well?"
Jana looked up and smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
"A deep-dish, pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom pizza for your thoughts," teased Pink. He knew that was her favorite kind of pizza.
"I was just thinking about how some people see other people differently from the way they see themselves."
"Deep thought," said Pink.
"Yes, it is, honey," said her mother. "Do you have a problem?"
Jana looked at the two adults who were the most important people in her life. Even though Pink, which was short for Wallace Pinkerton, had only been her stepfather for a few months, he had dated her mother for a long time before that and had seemed like part of the family. The two of them were always there when she needed them, and they knew her better than anyone else, even better than The Fabulous Five. "Do you think I act as if I'm a big deal?" she asked.
"Oh, no, honey," said her mother, putting her hand on Jana's. "I think you're just about the most levelheaded young lady I know."
It's nice to hear her say it, but she is my mother, thought Jana. But what if she was acting like a big deal the way Geena had said? Was it possible? Wouldn't Randy Kirwan, who was the nicest, most sincere person in the world, notice it if she were? He wouldn't like her anymore if it were true. The thought made Jana shudder.
Why did Geena have to pick on people? And why was she so angry at Jana? Most people didn't act that way. Was it something Jana had done without realizing it, or was it true that bad blood ran through some people as Beth had said? And then there was that terrible confrontation outside Bumpers. Jana had been in a fight, and yet she didn't completely understand why. It was like a bad dream with things happening that didn't make sense. Would she wake up soon and everything would be okay?
CHAPTER 10
The next day in the cafeteria Melanie put her food tray on the table next to Jana's and snapped off a sharp military salute. "Secret agent Mel Edwards reporting, ma'am."
Jana laughed and said, "At ease, Agent Mel," and then she turned serious. "Did you see Geena do anything bad to anyone?"
"No," Melanie said, sliding into her chair. "She hit Clarence Marshall on the back of the head when she ran by him once, but other than that she didn't commit any TC offenses."
"'TC offenses'? What's that?" asked Beth, who was sitting on the other side of the table.
"Teen Court, of course," answered Melanie. "Here comes Christie. Let's see if she has anything to report."
Christie dodged through kids as she made her way to them.
"No," she said in answer to their query. "I followed her from one end of the school to the other between first and second periods. Gosh, her classes are far apart. She didn't have time to stop and pick on anyone if she was going to be on time. Katie was supposed to follow her between her next classes."
The results were the same when Katie reported in. "Only I think she might have seen me following her. She looked over her shoulder a couple of times, and I tried to act as if I had business being where I was. I don't know if I fooled her or not."
"What you need, my dear, is Madam Beth Barry's secret-agent disguise kit. It's only nineteen ninety-five postage paid," said Beth, holding a napkin over the lower part of her face and sounding mysterious. "It's guaranteed to fool your own mother. It's so good, you won't even know who you are."
"Get serious, Beth," Melanie said, laughing. "You're ridiculous."
"Well, we don't have any TC offenses on her yet," said Jana. "And if she knows we're following her, we may not be able to get any."
"What on earth does 'TC' mean?" asked Katie.
"It's Mel's term for Teen Court," Jana answered.
Katie put her hands over her eyes. "I should have known it was something Edwards thought up."
"I'll try to follow her after lunch," said Jana. "Geena's in my social studies class, and it will seem natural to her if I'm headed in the same direction as she is."
"Try following in front of her," said Melanie. "That's what they do in the private-eye shows on television."
"How can I watch what she's doing if I'm in front of her?" asked Jana.
"Look in your mirror while you're walking," Melanie suggested.
"And run into every kid in the hallway?" Jana responded.
"It wouldn't be bad if they were boys," Melanie shot back.
"I think Melanie's just found a new way to spend her afternoons," said Katie. "Walking through the halls at ram speed running into boys."
Melanie stuck her tongue out at Katie, and the others laughed.
When the first bell rang for class, Jana stood on her toes and peeked through the bobbing heads of the people walking in front of her. She could see Geena's reddish-brown head not too far away. She was sure Geena hadn't seen her yet, and if Jana stayed far enough behind, maybe she could keep it that way. The social studies classroom was down the hallway they had just passed, so Geena must be going to her locker first to get her books.
Abruptly Geena stopped and looked back.
Jana quickly bent her knees and dropped down into what must have looked like a duck walk so she wouldn't be seen. Two eighth-grade girls were staring at Jana as if she had totally flipped. Jana pasted a goofy smile on her face and acted as if she were flicking ashes from a cigar, saying, "Just practicing my Groucho Marx routine."
She raised her head cautiously and saw that Geena had started walking again. When Geena stopped at her locker and started working the combination lock, Jana hurried past and crossed the hall to stand at the end of a row of lockers where she could watch Geena and duck out of sight if she had to. Also, she would be behind Geena again when she headed back to the social studies class.
Geena opened her locker and reached into the bottom to pick up a book, giving Jana a clear view of the shelf at the top. Jana's eyes opened wide at what she saw there, and she slumped against the wall behind her, nodding her head in satisfaction. There it was—the evidence she needed to take Geena before the Teen Court where she could be punished for at least some of the mean things she had been doing. Jana smiled to herself. She had an idea about how to get the evidence out of Geena's locker, too.
CHAPTER 11
"Jana!"
Jana waited for Funny Hawthorne to catch up with her as she watched Geena go into the social studies classroom.
"Jana, have I got news for you," said Funny. She was all smiles, as usual.
Jana loved Funny's bubbly personality. It was what made her want to be friends with Funny in spite of the fact they belonged to rival cliques.
Funny looked over her shoulder as if to see who might hear and then said, "Laura isn't going to run against you in the Miss Seventh Grade contest. With everyone talking about you and Randy and no one else running, she won't say it, but I know she thinks she doesn't have a chance of beating you if no one else enters."
Jana knew that Funny liked Laura a lot, but she must really be Jana's friend, too, for her to tell her about Laura. "I'm glad. I really didn't want the contest to be a battle between The Fabulous Five and The Fantastic Foursome. You know who's the real cause of my being in the contest in the first place."
Funny giggled and covered her mouth. "Me!" she said merrily. "Not that I don't think Laura's super. She's a good friend. I just think that you and Randy will be the perfect Mr. and Miss Seventh Grade."
"We haven't won yet."
"The deadline for registering is tomorrow," responded Funny. "I'll bet no one else in the seventh grade runs. Wouldn't that be great? Got to get to my next class. See you." She waved with her fingers and hurried off.
During class, Jana kept an eye on Geena. She looked as though she was concentrating on what Mr. Broderick was saying and taking notes, except for one instance when she turned and smiled at Jana.
Jana was stunned. Why had Geena smiled at her? Did she want to be friends all of a sudden? It didn't seem like that kind of smile.
After social studies, Jana hurried toward the yearbook office. At that moment, it was more important for her to try to catch Garrett Boldt than to follow Geena. Jana knew that Garrett stopped in The Wigwam office in the afternoon to deliver pictures he had taken or to get another assignment, and she had to see him before school was out for the day. She was in luck. When she entered the room filled with worktables and a large bulletin board with notes and schedules pinned to it, she found him sorting through some papers.
"Garrett, is your camera difficult to operate?" she asked.
"No. Not really," he said, pulling several large photos out of an envelope. "Why? Do you want to become a photographer? I'll take pictures of you when you get elected Miss Seventh Grade if that's what's worrying you. You won't have to do it yourself."
"Silly. That's not why I'm asking. I wondered if your camera is simple enough for me to take pictures with and if I might borrow it. I wouldn't even take it out of the school building."
"I'll take the pictures for you, if you want," he offered.
"I kind of wanted to take these myself. I only need a couple. But thanks a lot," Jana added quickly.
Garrett put his camera bag on the table and opened it.
"Uh-oh. That's a big lens. Is it hard to use?" Jana asked.
"The zoom? No, it's not. It lets you take close-up pictures from a distance. Do you want to use it?"
"That would be perfect," said Jana. "Would you show me how it works?"
Jana felt like a real spy. She had asked if she could leave her last class of the day early to go to the bathroom, and now she had the camera with the zoom lens tucked under her jacket and was peeking around the corner at Geena's locker. She looked at her watch. There were still three minutes before the last bell of the day.
Jana raised the camera and peered through the viewfinder, which was what Garrett had called the little window at the back that you looked through to see what you were shooting. The long lens was heavy and wavered a little as she tried to hold it still. Slowly she turned the ring on it. Geena's locker door seemed to come magically closer until the louvers at the top filled the viewfinder. Then she turned another ring and the image sharpened until she could see runs in the paint on the door. Amazing! she thought.
RINGGGG!
Jana jumped at the sound of the bell ending the last class. Soon kids started straggling into the hallway in ones and twos and then in groups. Locker doors clanged as they opened and closed them, putting books in and taking sweaters, coats, and books out. Jana covered the camera with her jacket and watched for Geena.
Shortly, Jana saw her coming down the hall. She was loping along and carelessly bumping kids on the way. Geena quickly dialed the combination of the lock on her locker and flung the door open. There it was, still standing in the same place on the upper shelf.
As Geena tossed books into the bottom of the locker, Jana swung the zoom lens up and homed in on the object sitting on the shelf. Perfect, she thought, and pushed the button. The whirring sound of the automatic rewind on the camera startled Jana, and her heart jumped into her throat. She looked around quickly to see if it had attracted anyone's attention. It hadn't.
Next she turned the ring on the lens, just as Garrett had shown her, and the picture in the viewfinder enlarged to show all of Geena and the locker. The object inside was still very clear. Jana smiled to herself as Geena turned to show her profile and Jana snapped another picture. Perfect evidence, she thought, and feeling suddenly professional, she took three more pictures before returning the camera to the inside of her coat.
Jana watched as Geena slipped on an oversized jacket, which probably had belonged to one of her brothers. Then she kicked defiantly at the books lying on the bottom of her locker.
Well, Miss Geena McNatt, thought Jana, we'll see just how much you can get away with now.
CHAPTER 12
After she left Bumpers, Jana dropped off the roll of film at the one-hour photo shop. Katie and the others had agreed that the pictures of the squirt-type catsup bottle sitting on the shelf in Geena's locker, along with the testimony of Mona and Whitney about catsup being squirted into their lockers, was pretty good evidence. Jana was going to call Marcie Bee about testifying that she'd seen the catsup on Jana's jacket, too. All in all, Jana was satisfied that she had covered all the bases. She was feeling so good that she ran the last half block to her apartment.
There was a strange car sitting outside her apartment building when Jana turned into the walk, but she dismissed it. Its driver could be visiting anyone in the building.
As she hung up her coat in the hall closet, she could hear her mother and a man talking in the living room. Curious, she picked up her books from the table and went in to say hello.
But as Jana stepped into the living room, she froze in her tracks. The smile on her face suddenly felt pasted there. Sitting on the couch next to a very burly man was Geena McNatt.
"Come sit down, Jana." Her mother's stiff voice broke the silence that had fallen over the room. "This is Mr. McNatt, and I'm sure you know Geena."
Jana crossed the room cautiously, as if it were a pool filled with piranhas and sat on the edge of the chair next to her mother.
"Mr. McNatt has been telling me about some trouble that you and Geena have been having at school," her mother continued. "I told him I was sure there is a logical explanation for it and that things could be worked out." Everyone's eyes were on Jana.
Mr. McNatt's face was square, like the rest of his body. His hair was light colored with flecks of gray and was cut short like Max's and Joe's. In fact, he looked like Max, only grown up. His eyes pecked out of the puffy flesh around them, but Jana was surprised to see that they didn't look all that unkind.
"Geena says that you've been picking on her, Jana. She says that you started a fight with her outside Bumpers and blamed her for Mona Vaughn's having bubble mix in her purse, which she says she had nothing to do with. She also says that you and your friends have been following her around school."
"My brothers will tell you she started the fight, too!" Geena interrupted.
Her father put his hand on her knee to quiet her as Jana's mother continued, "As I told you, Mr. McNatt, I'm sure my daughter can clear up the whole matter. Do you want to tell us what's happening, Jana?"
Jana felt as if she were sitting in a witness chair and there were a spotlight centered right on top of her head.
"Geena did spill the bubble mix in Mona's purse. Mona told me she did."
"Why did you automatically assume this other girl was telling the truth and that my daughter did it?" Mr. McNatt asked in a gravelly voice.
"I've known Mona for a long time, and she wouldn't do something like that. Besides, I saw Geena knock Mona's books off her desk," Jana said.
"So you've taken the side of a friend against someone you don't know as well." Mr. McNatt stated it as if he were a judge ruling on a criminal offense.
"No. That's not it at all," Jana protested, looking to her mother for support. "Geena has been doing lots of bad things to people. She took Whitney Larkin's homework, and she squirted catsup in my and some other kids' lockers, and—"
"Did you see her do all these things?" Mr. McNatt demanded.
"I
saw her take Whitney's homework."
"Can you prove it?" Geena joined in the cross-examination.
"No! But I saw it." Jana was getting scared. No matter what she said, they didn't seem to believe her.
"My daughter doesn't lie, Mr. McNatt." Jana's mother's voice sounded as crisp and hard as his had.
He raised his hand. "I'm sure she thinks she's telling the truth, Mrs. Pinkerton, but sometimes what we see isn't always what happened. We just need to come to an understanding."
"And she thinks she's such a big deal because she runs around with that group that calls themselves The Fabulous Five, and she is running for Miss Seventh Grade!" snapped Geena. "She thinks she can run over anybody she wants."
"Now, Geena!" Her father silenced her with a frown. "That's not going to help a thing."
Turning to Jana's mother, he said, "I believe that what we have here is a failure to communicate. I'm sure your daughter is a very nice young lady, and I know mine is. Ever since my wife died when Geena was three years old, I've had to be both mother and father to her and her brothers. Believe me, I run a tight ship.
"Now," he said as if he had reached a conclusion that they should all listen to. "I think the two girls should get to know each other better. That's the first thing I do when I go out to one of my construction sites. I get to know the men, and they get to know me, and everything is hunky-dory from then on. If they don't like my rules, I fire 'em," he chuckled. "But they know I'm a fair man. Why don't you girls try spending a little time together. It might do you some good to get to know some other people, Geena. And you, Little Miss," he said to Jana. "It might help you to meet some people outside of this group you call . . . what's their names? The Fabulous Five? It will help broaden your understanding of people. Make you a better person."
Jana sank back into her chair and shivered in her anger. She didn't need to broaden her understanding of people. She knew that The Fabulous Five were the most wonderful friends in the world, and that Geena McNatt was a bully. He didn't understand at all! Tears bubbled up in her eyes, and she fought to keep them from falling.
