Fabulous Five 024 - The Great TV Turnoff

by Betsy Haynes

  "Well, it is a big deal to beat Branford," said Beth defensively.

  "I also heard that you're trying something really low and sneaky to get kids to cheat on their contracts. You'll never get away with it."

  Laura ignored Katie. Instead she turned to Melanie. "I hear you like to watch Interns and Lovers, Melanie. Did you watch it Friday after school?"

  "Of course not!" said Melanie proudly.

  "Then you probably don't know that Sylvia almost died, do you?" asked Laura.

  "She did?" Laura had Melanie's complete attention.

  "Yes, she did. Cal and the other doctors did everything they could to save her. I can't tell you how dramatic it was. It looks as if she's really going to die this time. She's unconscious again. When the show ended, Cal was sitting next to Sylvia's bed holding her hand, and tears were running down his cheeks."

  "Wow! Poor Cal," whispered Melanie.

  "I know you signed a contract to turn off your TV," Laura said.

  She was looking at Melanie sympathetically, and to Katie's horror, Melanie was looking back at her, misery showing plainly in her eyes.

  "Why don't you let me watch my tape of Interns and Lovers for you this evening?" Laura asked. "I'm going to, anyway. I can't stand to wait another day to find out if she regains consciousness. I'll call you afterward and tell you what happened. It will only cost you fifty cents."

  Melanie glared at Laura. "That's a dirty trick, Laura McCall! No, I will not pay you to watch Interns and Lovers. Nothing you can say will make me cheat."

  "Suit yourself." Laura flashed a sly grin. "But stay tuned. I may give you an update on how Sylvia's doing, anyway. And then again . . . maybe I won't," she said with a confident look. She raised an eyebrow at Katie.

  "You'd better stay tuned, too, Katie Shannon." With a flip of her braid, Laura walked off.

  Katie couldn't get Laura off her mind all evening. No matter how hard she tried to concentrate on her homework, she kept thinking of The Fantastic Foursome and their trick to get people to cheat.

  Midway through the evening Willie knocked on Katie's door. "Can I come in?"

  "Sure, Mom."

  "How's the turnoff going?" asked Willie.

  Katie shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

  "Come on. Tell me what you really think, sweetheart," Willie insisted. "To hear Mr. Bell tell it, it couldn't be more perfect, but I know better than that. What's going on in the trenches?"

  Katie smiled at her mother. "There are some problems," she admitted. "For one thing, Laura McCall is trying to get kids to cheat on their contracts by offering to watch TV for them if they pay her."

  "She is!" said Willie in amazement. "Why?"

  Katie hesitated. "Mostly because I'm for the turnoff, and . . . because you're helping Mr. Bell with it, and you're my mother."

  Willie sat quietly for a moment. Then she reached out and put her arm around Katie. "I'm sorry, honey. I wish I could do something to help. There are always going to be people in the world we can't get along with, I guess. Sometimes there's no explaining why."

  "I know." Katie sounded dejected. "And another thing, Lisa Snow told me that she was having trouble sticking with the turnoff at home because her parents like to watch television. Her father doesn't want to give up his news, and her mother has programs she doesn't want to miss, either. And Lisa's not the only one with that problem. Some of the kids with little brothers and sisters say their parents won't turn off the cartoon shows because it keeps the kids entertained."

  "That's exactly the problem with television!" Willie said angrily. "Parents stick their kids in front of the TV because it's easier than helping them find constructive things to do. Things that will teach them to think. Now that's something I can do something about!"

  Willie marched to the door with her hands on her hips. "I've got another article to write."

  CHAPTER 10

  "You should have tasted the double-fudge chocolate cake I made last night instead of watching TV, Katie," said Melinda Thaler. Katie was standing by the fence with a group of girls the next morning waiting for school to start. "It was absolutely colossal. I think I may become a gourmet cook. Tonight I'm going to dig through all my mother's cookbooks and copy down the best-sounding recipes."

  "Well, I started something I've always wanted to do," said Heather Clark. "I'm writing a book. It's really going to be great. It's about this thirteen-year-old girl whose name is Heidi Clay. She's simply gorgeous, and she goes to this school called Wakefield Junior High. All the boys in her school are madly in love with her."

  "The names sound just a little bit familiar," laughed Marcie Bee. "Heidi Clay and Heather Clark. Wakefield Junior High and Wakeman Junior High. Shouldn't you change them more to protect the guilty?"

  "I couldn't find anything to do," complained Sara Sawyer. "I was bored out of my gourd."

  "Did you try getting your family to play some kind of game?" asked Katie. "Like Pictionary or Monopoly?"

  Sara shook her head. "I tried, but no one was interested. My dad worked on an antique car he's had sitting in the garage for ages, and my mother decided to take up quilting. My brothers played basketball most of the time. Instead of our doing things together, we were doing them separately."

  "There's nothing wrong with that," said Christie. "You just have to find something to do that interests you."

  "But I don't like to cook or write like Melinda and Heather do."

  "What about reading or organizing your room?" asked Jana. "I've got my room in such good shape, my mother didn't recognize it."

  "I don't like to read, and I consider cleaning my room punishment," Sara said, folding her arms across her chest.

  "I'm having trouble finding things to do, too," said Mona Vaughn.

  A warning signal flashed through Katie's brain. More and more of her friends were getting discouraged with the turnoff. Now that Laura was offering to help kids cheat, pretty soon the TV turnoff would be a complete failure. Katie could just imagine Laura and her friends laughing at Katie and her mother.

  She worried about it all day and set aside her homework that evening to make a list of things her classmates could do instead of watching TV.

  1. Talk on the phone with your friends.

  That should interest lots of girls, but their parents will probably throw a fit, she thought, and chuckled.

  2. Tie-dye a T-shirt or anything made of cotton, even a pair of socks.

  3. Decorate a pair of sneakers with paint, glitter glue, or beads.

  4. Get your friends together and make each other friendship bracelets woven with embroidery thread.

  5. Snap pictures of your friends. Take some goofy shots and some serious ones, then make a collage of your favorites to hang on your bedroom wall.

  6. Borrow your parents' camcorder and make a movie starring your friends. Of course you won't be able to watch it until the turnoff is over.

  Katie glanced down at her list, surprised at how fast it was growing. Still, there was something missing. She read the list again and realized that every activity she had thought of so far would appeal mostly to girls. She hadn't thought of a single thing especially for boys to do. Of course there were sports, but there had to be more than that.

  She was still thinking this over when she heard the phone ring.

  "Katie," Willie called from downstairs. "It's Jana."

  Katie hurried downstairs and picked up the phone. "Hi, Jana. What's up?"

  "Trouble," said Jana. "You're not going to believe this, but I just talked to Randy, and he said that Laura McCall is having a party Saturday night. A television party!"

  "What?" exclaimed Katie. "What do you mean, a television party?"

  "According to Randy, Laura is telling everybody that her dad is going to put three or four television sets in their living room and family room, and she's going to have tons of food and soda, plus video games."

  Katie was too stunned to speak for a moment. This was bound to mean the end of the turnoff. Too many kids
were threatening to break their contracts anyway, and a big party at Laura's would be the only excuse they needed.

  "How did Randy find out about it?" asked Katie. "Did Laura invite him?"

  "You bet she did," Jana answered angrily. "She and her friends have been on the phone all evening calling kids and inviting them to her party. Randy told her he wouldn't go."

  "They wouldn't have the nerve to call any of The Fabulous Five," said Katie.

  "No, just our boyfriends," said Jana.

  Katie winced. There was no doubt that Laura would invite Tony. But would he go?

  "We're going to have to talk to all the people we can in the morning," Jana continued, "and try to keep them from going to Laura's party."

  "Right," said Katie, sounding more confident than she felt.

  The next morning Katie hurried into the building the moment she got to school and posted her list on the bulletin board. Outside again she saw Jana talking to Mona just inside the Wakeman fence. Katie stopped a few feet away and waited until they finished their conversation. Then she hurried over to Jana. "What did she say? Did Laura invite her to the party?"

  Jana nodded. "She asked Mona and Matt both. Mona doesn't want to, but Matt does. He thinks having four television sets going at once would be a ball. Mona said she's sorry, but if she can't talk Matt out of going, she's going, too."

  "Great," Katie muttered.

  The rest of The Fabulous Five were already waiting at their meeting spot, and they had all heard about Laura's party.

  "What are we going to do?" asked Melanie. "We can't let her get away with this."

  "I don't know," confessed Katie. "She's going to be hard to stop this time."

  "Everybody's talking about Laura's party," said Christie, sliding her hot-lunch tray onto the table and sitting down beside Jana in the cafeteria at noon.

  "I know," said Melanie. "Brian Olsen must have told me four times that he's going."

  "Is Shane going?" Beth asked Melanie.

  She shrugged. "I haven't talked to him today."

  "Now's your chance," said Jana. "He's over by the steam tables talking with Keith. Maybe you can find out if Laura has asked him."

  "Good idea," said Melanie, jumping up and heading in his direction.

  She was back in a couple of minutes, smiling broadly. "Shane isn't going to Laura's party. He wants to be one of the people who goes the whole two weeks without watching television. He says he loves the challenge."

  "Did Keith say anything about the party?" asked Beth.

  Melanie shook her head.

  Katie glanced at Tony. He had finished his lunch and was heading out the cafeteria door. She was positive now that Laura would invite him, if she hadn't already. And she was almost as positive that he would go because he was mad at her. Just then a horrible thought occurred to her. Maybe that was what Laura had meant at Bumpers when she had told Katie to "stay tuned." Maybe Tony had already said yes.

  She sighed and turned her attention back to her friends.

  "You look great today, Beth," Jana was saying. "But aren't you a little dressed up for school? That's the outfit you wore for the first Media Club broadcast, isn't it?"

  Beth nodded. "Today is my interview with Jack Albright. Mr. Levine is taking the Media Club down to the television station for the taping right after school. Jon Smith gets to operate the camera, and Tim Riggs is going to be the director. The rest of the club members are going to help out however they can."

  "Lucky you," said Melanie. "I watch Jack Albright on Taking Chances all the time. Whoops!" she said, gulping back a giggle. "I meant I used to watch it all the time. Before the turnoff."

  "I am lucky," agreed Beth, "but it's torture for me not to be able to see the tape of the interview for a week and a half. I don't know about this turnoff," she added, looking dejected.

  Katie nodded sympathetically, trying to give Beth some extra encouragement.

  Jana looked puzzled. "What I don't understand is why the Media Club is going ahead with its Saturday morning cable TV show if nobody's supposed to watch TV? Why doesn't the club just wait to broadcast the show after the turnoff is over?"

  "Don't forget," said Beth. "The turnoff is voluntary. Some kids will watch the show, and how could we ever reschedule an interview with a superstar? Besides, Mr. Levine said that we'd lose our Saturday morning slot with the cable station if we didn't produce shows for two weeks."

  Gloom hung over the table for a few minutes until Jana asked, "How's your diary coming, Melanie? Have you come up with any more episodes for Interns and Lovers?"

  Melanie's face brightened. "Oh, yes! Now that Sylvia has regained consciousness, she has to learn to walk all over again. And guess who's helping her?"

  "Don't tell us. Let us guess," said Christie, winking at the others. "Could it possibly be Cal?"

  Melanie gave Christie a disgusted look. "Of course it's Cal. And when he held her for the first time and guided her down the hospital corridor, he promised her that as soon as she was well again, he'd take her back to the amusement park where they met. It was so romantic that I cried."

  "I don't know why you bother to watch soaps when you can write your own," said Katie.

  "I love doing it," Melanie admitted. "I wonder how close I'll be to what's happening on the show."

  Suddenly Katie sat upright. "I think I may have an idea about how to keep kids from Laura's party," she said. "What do you think about trying to get a bunch of kids to take a bike ride Saturday to the amusement park? Melanie's soap opera story gave me the idea. We could bike out to Adventureland in the afternoon and get everyone to meet later at Mama Mia's for pizza."

  "That's not bad," said Beth, nodding thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, I think it's a very good idea."

  "I'll bet a lot of kids would like to go," Jana agreed.

  "And if they went to Adventureland and then to Mama Mia's, there wouldn't be time to go to Laura's party," Christie said gleefully. "We could ask people like Lisa and Mona and Matt and Brian."

  "And Shelly Bramlett and Geena McNatt," said Jana.

  "And the boys who like to watch baseball," added Katie. "We've got to ask them."

  "What you really mean is we need to ask Tony, don't you, Katie?" Jana asked gently.

  Katie sighed and nodded. She missed Tony a lot.

  "I'll talk to Randy about going to the park," said Jana. "I'll hint to him that it would be nice if he'd ask Tony to come, too."

  "Do you think he'll come?" asked Katie. "You said Tony was really mad at me."

  Jana shrugged. "All we can do is try."

  "I'll talk to Keith," said Beth. "Maybe if all the other guys are going, Tony will want to go, too."

  "And I'll talk to Shane," offered Melanie.

  "Thanks," said Katie. "You guys are super friends."

  "We're The Fabulous Five," said Jana, grabbing her friend's hand and squeezing it.

  CHAPTER 11

  That afternoon Katie talked to Mona Vaughn and Lisa Snow about the bike ride to Adventureland. At first Mona was interested, but Lisa seemed indifferent.

  "It's going to be so much fun," insisted Katie. "And we're asking tons of kids to come, like Bill Soliday and Tony Sanchez."

  Lisa immediately perked up. "You're asking Bill? Did he say he was going?"

  "I'm sure he will," fibbed Katie. She knew Lisa had a crush on Bill. "After all, all his friends will be there."

  "Oh," said Lisa. "Well, if Bill's going, you can count me in."

  "Great," said Katie. "We're going to leave from the school at one-thirty."

  "I don't know if Matt will want to go to Mama Mia's afterward, though," said Mona. "He's awfully interested in going to Laura's party."

  "You can talk him into it, Mona," replied Katie. "I know you can."

  Katie saw Bill and Scott standing next to the Wurlitzer jukebox in Bumpers after school. She hurried over to talk to them.

  "Did you guys hear about the bike trip to Adventureland on Saturday?" she asked.
r />   "Yeah, and it sounds great, Katie," said Bill. "Count us in."

  "Will you go to Mama Mia's for pizza later?"

  Bill and Scott glanced at each other.

  "Well, we, uh . . . we kind of had something else we wanted to do then," said Scott.

  Katie narrowed her eyes. "You're not going to Laura's to watch TV, are you? What about your turnoff contract?"

  Scott looked at Bill, who looked down at his shoes. "Er, we were thinking about going to her party."

  "But what about Branford Junior High?" Katie demanded. "If you watch television, you'll hurt our chances of beating them."

  "It wouldn't be like losing a football or basketball game," insisted Scott.

  "Yeah," agreed Bill. "It's just watching TV."

  "Fine," Katie snapped, turning on her heel. She was furious, but if the boys wanted to break their contracts, there wasn't much she could do about it.

  As Katie spun around, she bumped right into Tony Calcaterra. She was speechless as they stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like ages. Finally she pulled her gaze away from his and stormed back to where Christie, Jana, and Melanie were standing.

  "Wow! That was some article your mother wrote for today's paper," Beth said the next morning as she opened her locker. "She really cut down parents who aren't helping their kids with the TV turnoff."

  Katie groaned. "As if one article wasn't enough, she had to write two.

  "By the way," she asked Beth, "how'd your interview with Jack Albright go?"

  Beth's eyes lit up. "Super. He was really nice, and totally gorgeous. He autographed my purse for me, right on the front, where everyone can see it. I've decided I'll survive not watching the tape until the week after next. Every time I close my eyes, I see his face as clear as TV, anyway!" She sighed dreamily.

  "Are you surviving not watching your soaps, Mel?" asked Katie. "You haven't been cheating, have you?"

  "Who, me, cheat?" Melanie raised her eyebrows in a show of innocence. "I certainly have not."