Out of Bounds

by Annie Bryant

  “Marty is not a love-at-first-sight kind of dog.”

  “What, you read dog minds now?” Charlotte answered sharply.

  “Maybe she can,” said Isabel in an annoyed tone. “They do have dog psychics, you know.”

  “Stop it, you guys. You don’t even sound like yourself, Charlotte,” an exasperated Katani said.

  “This arguing isn’t going to help anything,” a frustrated Maeve said in between picking at her sore nail.

  That did it. Everyone sat up straight. There was Maeve and her commonsensical advice again.

  They all agreed to stop snapping at each other. They had put so much energy into their acts. The bad news had completely taken the wind out of their sails. But, sitting around moping wasn’t helping either.

  They sat in silence for a few more minutes, watching Marty shake his favorite toy, Happy Lucky Thingy. When even that didn’t lift their spirits, Avery announced, “This is getting really grim and boring. I’m going home. I don’t even want to think about this anymore.” She stood up, grabbed her coat, and walked out, just as Charlotte was about to say…

  “I have an idea.”

  “Do you think she’s really mad?” Isabel asked worriedly.

  “No,” said Katani. “You know Avery, she just gets totally frustrated sometimes when things aren’t happening the way she thinks they should.”

  “Avery never gets really mad, Isabel,” said Maeve. “Now Katani, that’s another story.” Katani laughed and threw a pillow at Maeve’s head. Maeve ducked and the pillow bounced off Marty, who pounced on it like it was a squirrel. The rip-and-shred game was on.

  The timing was perfect. Watching Marty race around the room at warp speed was just what they needed to lift the gloom.

  Suddenly, Charlotte had new inspiration.

  “Why don’t we make a poster for Avery to cheer her up? We can think of what Marty would say if he could talk. Like his rules for life. She’d love it.”

  Maeve thought that sounded hard, but then she came up with the first rule and they were off and running:

  Marty’s Rule #1: Always do your doggone best.

  Then Maeve said she had to leave because she had to go get her brother Sam at his friend’s house. Katani wanted to leave, too, because she was hoping her mother would take her to the fabric store for some material to make another poncho.

  That left Isabel and Charlotte. They worked on the poster all afternoon, in between making popcorn, wondering what Miss Pierce was up to, and discussing the Trentini twins and how goofy they were. Isabel thought that maybe the boys would grow up to be like the two characters in Dumb & Dumber.

  “So how are you doing, with the show being cancelled and everything?” Charlotte asked Isabel as they worked. “Your dad must be really disappointed.”

  Isabel hesitated for just a minute before answering. “Actually, I haven’t told him yet,” she said.

  Charlotte didn’t know what to say. “It’s not like he’s not going to find out.”

  “I keep thinking something is going to happen,” Isabel said.

  Charlotte hoped so, too. Now that they’d come so far, she couldn’t picture not doing the magic show. But she didn’t know what could possibly happen to change things.

  The girls breezed through most of the Marty List, but when they got to the tenth rule, they were stumped.

  MARTY THE DOG’S GUIDE TO LIFE AND HAPPINESS

  Having lived in a garbage can for a while, I have learned self-esteem through life experience. Here are my tips:

  1. Always do your doggone best.

  2. Treat other puppies the way you would like to be treated.

  3. You won’t get the treat if you don’t do the trick.

  4. Act as if you’ve already gotten the treat. See how success feels. Then do the trick!

  5. Every dog is beautiful.

  6. Preparation & opportunity = luck…Luck = treats.

  7. Forgive other dogs when they make messes. Forgive yourself too.

  8. Every time you think about a mess you’ve made, think of three times you got the ball.

  9. Get the ball!

  10. If you come to an obstacle, jump over it. If it’s too high, dig under it. If that still doesn’t work…

  Charlotte stopped. “I’m stuck,” she said to Isabel.

  “Let me see it,” Isabel said.

  Charlotte watched Isabel read the list.

  Isabel smiled. “This is really cool,” she said.

  “Except for the last one. I can’t seem to get it,” Charlotte said, frowning.

  “Let me see,” Isabel said. She started sketching little Marty dogs jumping and digging. She even drew Marty getting the treat.

  Charlotte chewed her pencil.

  “What’s that song about the ant?” Charlotte asked.

  “What song? The ants go marching one by one? That song?”

  “No, you remember.” Charlotte started to sing. “Once there was a little old ant, thought he could move a rubber tree plant…” They sang the chorus together. “Anyone knows an ant can…move a rubber tree plant.” They sang the chorus. “High hopes…high hopes…”

  “Move the obstacle,” Isabel said, and Charlotte nodded.

  “I got it.” Charlotte started to write:

  10. If you come to an obstacle, jump over it. If it’s too high, dig under it. If that still doesn’t work…MOVE IT!

  Isabel started sketching Marty moving the obstacle. She did two sketches, one with Marty pulling it and the other with him butting his head against it, like the ram did in the next chorus of the same song.

  “That is so cute!” Charlotte laughed. “We have to move it!” she said suddenly.

  “Move what?” Isabel said.

  “We have to move the obstacle! We have to move the talent show.”

  “What? Where?” Isabel was hopeful.

  “We have to move it to the only place it can go—the Movie House!” Charlotte exclaimed.

  Charlotte and Isabel exchanged looks, as they cheered and high-fived each other.

  Charlotte and Isabel called Katani on her cell phone. They were so excited, they could barely explain the plan.

  “I’ll get Avery and meet you in the Tower as soon as I get home from the store,” Katani said.

  Mr. Taylor looked surprised when all the BSG marched into his office. “Is everything all right?” he couldn’t help asking.

  “It’s better than all right, Dad,” Maeve said.

  “It’s great,” Avery said.

  Mr. Taylor listened to the entire plan before he said a word. Finally, he stood up. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before,” Mr. Taylor said.

  “It’s a perfect location for the show, and it really shows off the theater,” Katani said.

  “You girls are something else,” Mr. Taylor said.

  “So we have your permission?” Charlotte asked.

  “If the school approves the plan, it’s fine with me,” Mr. Taylor grinned.

  “They’ll approve it,” Charlotte said.

  “They have to,” Isabel agreed.

  “Don’t get too excited, yet,” Katani said. “We have to convince my grandmother first.”

  “What would convince her?” Avery asked.

  Katani thought about it for a while. She had an idea, but it would take a team effort and a lot of work.

  The girls got special permission to spend the night in the Tower to really figure out a plan. The first thing they did was make signs: The Show Must Go On. Save the Movie House. Save the Seventh-Grade Talent Show.

  Then they started an e-mail campaign to each of the cast members who, in turn, promised to forward it to three friends. The letter explained what they were going to do. At three o’clock on Monday, the group would congregate in the main hall. Carrying the signs they made to show their support for their cause, they would march to the principal’s office.

  1-2-3 MARCH

  By the time they got to school on Monday, everyone was talking abo
ut the plan to move the show.

  “Do you think Mrs. Fields will go for it?” Anna and Joline asked Katani.

  How strange to be working on a common cause with Anna and Joline, Katani thought. Even if they were totally out for themselves, Katani could tell that they would do just about anything to make this show happen.

  By the time they were ready to start the march, even Kiki had shown up. She and several other seventh graders in her homeroom had made their own signs.

  As they began to march, Katani started to get nervous. Maybe they should have just asked her grandmother. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? Oh, well, she hoped her grandmother wouldn’t be too mad, because there was no stopping the Save the Theater movement now. Instead, she hoped her grandmother would be proud that all the kids stood up for something they believed in. When they were young, Mrs. Fields and Miss Pierce had organized a civil rights march down these very same halls. Katani kept her fingers crossed.

  As the group rounded the corner of the corridor on the last lap toward the principal’s office, they were met by the cheerleaders.

  Fully costumed, pompoms flying, these cheerleaders seemed a little awkward and out of sync.

  Charlotte started to giggle as she recognized Henry Yurt.

  “Go team!” Henry cheered. He was wearing a red wig. His fellow cheerleaders fell into the end of the line.

  It was just what Katani needed to give her confidence. If Henry Yurt could show up in a red wig, and the Red Sox could win the World Series, you had to believe that anything was possible.

  By the time they got to Mrs. Fields’s office, there were at least forty kids, all carrying banners and marching together. They stopped at the door of the office, just as planned.

  Katani went into the office first. “May we speak with Mrs. Fields?” Katani asked.

  “Sure, Katani, you know you can. Go right in,” her grandmother’s assistant said.

  “Do you think we could speak with her in the hallway, please?” Katani opened the door and showed the group behind her.

  Ms. Sahni looked at Katani strangely. “Okay,” she said and went to get Mrs. Fields.

  “I’ll wait outside,” Katani said. She sure hoped she was right and that her grandmother would appreciate the group effort. The look on Ms. Sahni’s face made Katani start to doubt herself again. She was beginning to wonder if she had made a big mistake in approaching things this way and not just going to speak with her grandmother alone.

  It seemed like a long time before Mrs. Fields came to the door.

  “What’s going on here?” Mrs. Fields said as she saw the group. “Katani?”

  But it was Charlotte who stepped forward, just as planned.

  “We want to move the talent show to the Movie House,” Charlotte announced.

  “So it appears,” Mrs. Fields said.

  “So can we?” Avery asked a bit too eagerly.

  “My father loves the idea,” Maeve said. “You know, the Movie House used to be a real theater. It would be a perfect place to have the talent show. Think about all those theater ghosts cheering us on,” enthused Maeve.

  “You’ve got a point, Maeve,” Mrs. Fields said, bemused.

  “Please,” Avery said. She hadn’t meant to say anything more, it just popped out.

  “It’s an interesting idea,” Mrs. Fields admitted.

  As if on cue, the group cheered and raised their signs high.

  “Let me look into it,” Mrs. Fields said.

  It wasn’t exactly a yes. But it wasn’t a no, either.

  Katani didn’t get home until right before dinner. When she did, her family was in the kitchen, even her sister Candice, who was home for a few days from college. They were all working together to make a salad, with everyone doing her part. Kelley was hard at work making garlic bread—her favorite. She didn’t even look up at Katani.

  “Hey Kgirl,” Candice said. “Just in time to chop some lettuce!” Candice threw a head of iceberg lettuce to Patrice, who did a jump shot and threw it to Katani.

  Luckily, Katani caught it before it hit the floor. She didn’t mind helping with dinner, but she wished her older sisters didn’t have to always make everything into an athletic event.

  “Pass the knife,” Katani’s mother said. Patrice smiled and handed it to Katani.

  Grandma Ruby didn’t mention the demonstration they’d held that afternoon at school, or the proposal. Katani’s grandmother had a way of separating work and family, and Katani was relieved. She was particularly glad that her grandmother hadn’t mentioned the whole thing to Kelley. If Kelley had known about the march, she would never have stopped talking about it.

  They ate dinner as usual. Still, her grandmother didn’t say a word. It was starting to get to Katani a little. She realized she needed to talk about what had happened.

  After dinner, when all the dishes were cleaned up, and she couldn’t stand waiting another minute, Katani spoke up. “May I talk to you?” she asked her grandmother.

  “Certainly,” Mrs. Fields said, making no move to leave the group. “Go ahead.”

  “In private?” Katani said weakly. She was starting to understand how her grandmother must have felt when she put her on the spot this afternoon.

  They walked silently to the den. When Grandma Ruby closed the door, Katani spoke. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I put you on the spot.”

  “I assumed that was the idea,” she said.

  “No. That wasn’t the idea. I was trying to show support. You know…the whole solidarity thing. I thought you’d be more likely to agree with our plan if you knew the whole seventh grade was behind the idea.”

  Katani’s grandmother thought about it. “I would have preferred that you ask me alone first. Or even if you’d had the students sign some kind of petition. Not that I don’t think this is a good idea. But what if I have to say no?”

  “Do you?” Katani asked.

  “I’m not certain at this point,” her grandmother said.

  “I’m sorry,” Katani said again. A petition would have been the way to go. She honestly hadn’t thought of it.

  “No,” Grandma Ruby said firmly. “I’m not saying you should be sorry. While I might have preferred a different method of communication, it took a lot of effort to organize those students. It was impressive leadership, Katani. How did you manage it so quickly?”

  “We used the Internet, but if it put you on the spot…” Katani said.

  “It’s all right,” her grandmother said. “Sometimes you have to do what you believe in, even if it puts someone on the spot.” She smiled at Katani.

  “If we do this,” she said, “and that’s still a big IF–but if we are able to change the location of the show to the Movie House, this is going to be a big job. Perhaps Ms. Ciara can help you organize things. Are you sure you kids are ready for such a responsibility?”

  Katani thought about it before she answered. “I think so. We all want to try…”

  “All right, then,” Grandma Ruby said. “First things first. Why don’t you get your friend Maeve to set up a meeting with Mr. Taylor tomorrow afternoon. Tell him I will be bringing along the school attorney and our insurance advisors, as well as the parent sponsors.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” Katani said and headed for the phone. She took a deep breath and crossed her fingers. “Please let this work out,” she said out loud. Then she dialed Mr. Taylor’s number.

  CHAPTER 15

  Moving the Obstacle

  The meeting was scheduled for three o’clock. Maeve had made Chocolate Gag. She’d told Katani that she’d read somewhere that chocolate made people think better, and that it improved their mood. Charlotte had filled a big pitcher of water and added some lemon slices.

  Katani was all dressed up in a skirt and a blazer. She really wanted to look smart for the meeting. She didn’t want the grown-ups to think moving the talent show to the Movie House was just a silly kid idea.

  “I didn’t even know you had a business suit,”
Avery said.

  It was an original Kgirl design. She had taken one of her mother’s blazers, cut the sleeves to three-quarters, and paired it with her plaid skirt. She looked at least five years older and very confident.

  Before the meeting started, Mrs. Fields, the business people, and the parent sponsors walked around the theater. With the exception of Katani and Maeve, the other girls were not allowed to join the tour but hung back behind the screen, trying to listen to the conversation by using an old megaphone they had found backstage.

  “What are they saying?” Avery wanted to know.

  “I can’t tell, there’s too much of an echo,” Charlotte said.

  When the group finished the tour, they went into Mr. Taylor’s office, which the girls had transformed into a makeshift conference room. They had carried down the kitchen table from upstairs, but because the kitchen chairs looked too homey to use, they had replaced them with some sturdy-looking ones from the prop room.

  Mr. Taylor’s office looked like a real conference room complete with little pads of paper and pencils on the table in front of every seat, something Katani had seen in a movie. It really was funny, when she thought about it, how much the girls really had learned from the movies. They hadn’t learned everything, the way Maeve had joked that day with Isabel, but what they had learned was significant. Knowing that just strengthened their resolve. They just had to save the Movie House! The plan had to work.

  The adults and Maeve and Katani were in the conference room for a long time. The door was thick, so no matter how hard the other BSGs pressed their ears against the door, they couldn’t hear a thing. Avery even tried lying on the floor and listening through the crack, but to no avail. Charlotte finally put the megaphone down. “Let’s wait upstairs,” Charlotte said. “I can’t stand the suspense. I have to find something else to do with myself.”

  The girls went upstairs to Maeve’s room to play with Siegfried and Roy. The guinea pigs were running round and round on their wheel when they got there. Isabel opened the cage, and the guineas scampered out. Avery lay down on the floor and let them run over her.