Fabulous Five 001 - Seventh-Grade Rumors

by Betsy Haynes

  She had barely stepped inside the cafeteria when she heard a familiar voice call her name.

  "Jana! Jana! Over here," Funny gushed. She was sitting at a table not three feet from the door and she was waving like mad. "Hurry. I've had a terrible time holding your seat."

  Jana's heart sank. There was no way she could ignore Funny without insulting her. Scanning the cafeteria, she saw her friends sitting at a table on the opposite side of the room. How could she ever get over there to talk to them?

  Just then a brilliant idea struck. "Milk," she called back to Funny. "I've got to get in line for milk. I'll come back as soon as I can."

  "I got your milk," cried Funny. "See!" She was holding up two cartons, one in each hand, and grinning like mad. "Sit down."

  Jana sighed and joined Funny at the table. She tried to smile and mumble thanks, but her heart felt as if it were made of lead and her appetite was totally gone. She couldn't talk to her friends with Funny around. She had to get to them alone. But how?

  "What's wrong?" Funny asked around a bite of apple. "Bad morning?"

  Jana nodded, glad to have an excuse for her behavior. She didn't want to hurt Funny After all, it wasn't Funny's fault that she had gotten herself into such a mess.

  "Me, too," Funny confessed. "Talk about freeze out. Of course, Laura's the worst, but whatever she does, Tammy and Melissa do also."

  "I've heard some things about Laura," said Jana.

  "Like what?"

  "That she's in control of your group, and if she tells you to do something and you won't do it, you're out. Is that true?"

  Funny shrugged. "I've heard some things about The Fabulous Five, too," she said, and Jana had the distinct feeling that she was changing the subject to keep from talking about Laura. "For instance, is it true that your club used to be against Taffy Sinclair?"

  Jana frowned. It hurt to hear The Fabulous Five being criticized. "Taffy's not so bad now," she said. "But she used to be the snottiest person alive. You just don't know her."

  "You don't know Laura, either," countered Funny. Then her face brightened. "Hey, let's not get into an argument. If we lose each other, we're doomed!" Then she put one hand around her neck, stuck out her tongue, and made a strangling sound, which sent Jana into convulsions of laughter in spite of herself.

  Jana didn't get a chance to talk to her friends anytime during lunch period. Funny Hawthorne stuck to her like frost, giggling and chattering as if things could not be better. To make matters worse, Jana saw Katie and Christie on the way to history class, but when she waved to them and tried to motion with her hands for them to wait for her, they wheeled around and stomped off in the opposite direction.

  "What am I going to do?" she said half aloud as she opened her history book. "I've got to talk to them, but how?"

  After school, she thought. After school I'll call an emergency meeting of The Fabulous Five. Why didn't I think of it before? While her history teacher droned on about the winning of the American West, Jana was busy writing notes. She wrote one to Christie. One to Katie. One to Melanie. And one to Beth. Maybe Beth wouldn't come, but she had to try.

  Emergency meeting of The Fabulous Five at my house after school. This is urgent. BE THERE!!!

  Jana

  Between classes Jana raced to the hall where the seventh-grade lockers were and slipped a rolled-up note into the U-shaped shank of the combination lock on each door. They can't open their lockers without finding them, she thought happily. And they'll come. I know they will. And when I explain to them about how I feel, everything will be all right again.

  Still, she couldn't resist crossing and uncrossing her fingers three times for luck.

  CHAPTER 12

  Jana couldn't remember when she had been so nervous. She hadn't even stopped by her locker after school. Partly it was because she didn't want to come face-to-face with her friends when they found her notes, but mostly it was because she was in a hurry to get home and get ready for the meeting.

  She tore around the apartment straightening up, plumping pillows on the sofa, checking the refrigerator for soda, and doing a million and one things that she didn't ordinarily bother to do when her friends were coming over. But this meeting was important, she told herself, and special.

  When the doorbell rang, she almost jumped out of her skin. Putting her hand on the knob, she took a deep breath to steady herself and opened the door. It was Melanie.

  "Hi," she said weakly.

  "Hi," said Jana. "Come on in."

  "Can I use your phone to call my mom and tell her where I am?" asked Melanie.

  Jana nodded. She was glad that Melanie wanted to use the phone. Maybe the others would get there before she was forced to make conversation. Things were so awkward now, and she wanted everyone present before she made the speech she had been rehearsing in her head all afternoon.

  The doorbell rang again. It was Christie and Katie. They peered anxiously into the apartment when she answered the door but seemed to relax when they saw that Melanie was already there.

  Jana busied herself in the kitchen fixing drinks while the others got settled. She knew she was stalling as she checked each glass for smudges, counted out exactly four ice cubes per glass, and poured the soda very slowly so that it wouldn't bubble over the top, but she was getting more panicky by the minute. Should she start explaining as soon as she passed out the sodas? But Beth wasn't there. What if she didn't show up? How long should she wait?

  Three pairs of eyes met her as she entered the room, carrying the sodas.

  "So what's the emergency?" asked Katie in a cool voice.

  "Yeah, you said it was urgent," said Christie.

  Even though Beth hadn't arrived, Jana knew she couldn't stall any longer, so she set the glasses on the coffee table where everyone could reach them and began.

  "There is an emergency. A BIG one. Probably the biggest one we've ever had. There's something none of you seem to know, and if you don't find out right now, something awful is going to happen to The Fabulous Five."

  Melanie gasped. "What are you talking about?"

  "I'll bet I know," said Katie. "Rumors! I'll bet Laura McCall is spreading rumors about us again." She shot a warning glance at Jana and added, "It better not be anything you told that Funny Hawthorne."

  Jana bristled. "It has nothing to do with rumors," she insisted. "And I have not told Funny anything about The Fabulous Five. What I'm trying to tell you is, I'm not a traitor. I like Funny Hawthorne. She's nice and we're starting to be friends. But you are my very best friends in the world, and I really, really don't want that to change . . . because if it changes, we won't be The Fabulous Five anymore . . . and I don't think I could stand that."

  Nobody said anything for a moment. Jana could feel all their eyes on her, but she couldn't look at them. Her heart was too full of pain, and tears were brimming in her eyes and threatening to spill down her cheeks. What if they didn't believe her? What if they didn't care?

  Suddenly Melanie sprang off the sofa and threw her arms around Jana. She didn't even notice that she had nudged the coffee table, rocking it so that the glasses teetered and then tumbled over, spraying the room and everyone in it with soda and ice cubes.

  "Oh, Jana," she cried. "We want to stay friends! We really do!"

  They were all crying now, and Christie and Katie rushed over and wrapped their arms around her, too.

  "It was awful without you," said Christie. "We weren't The Fabulous Five."

  "Nothing was the same," insisted Katie. "Honest, but we thought you didn't like us anymore. We thought that when you got to Wakeman and met Funny and started spending all that time with her that suddenly we weren't good enough for you anymore."

  "That's not it at all!" Jana protested. "It is true that I made a new friend, but nobody could ever take your place, and as far as spending more time with her than you, she's in more of my classes than any of you are."

  A moment later everyone was crawling around the floor, blotting wet spots
, picking up ice cubes, and talking at once.

  "We really missed you," said Melanie. "I was so upset that I couldn't even think about Scott or Shane. All I could think about was you."

  "Yeah," added Katie with a grin. "And when Melanie can't think about boys, you know she has problems."

  "Okay, guys," said Jana. "I feel a lot better now that you understand. I also hope you'll give Funny a chance. She's not like Laura. Believe me. She's not a bubblehead, either. She's just got a great sense of humor."

  The others shrugged, and Jana could see that they weren't totally sold on Funny. I'll drop it for now, she thought. At least I've made a little progress. And the best thing of all, The Fabulous Five are back together!

  Jana stopped and looked at her friends. "The Fabulous FIVE," she whispered. "Where's Beth?"

  "Who knows?" muttered Katie. "She hasn't spoken to any of us for a couple of days."

  "She acts as if she's far off somewhere," said Christie.

  "So far off that she even has her own zip code," Melanie said wryly.

  Frowning, Jana said, "I thought it was just me she was mad at. I mean, really mad, and I don't know what I've done." She explained to them about the scene at the fence and Beth's angry insistence that she be left alone. "I've never seen her like that," said Jana. "It was unreal."

  "One thing's certain," said Christie. "It isn't just you she's mad at. And have you been noticing that bracelet she carries all the time?"

  "It looks like a child's bracelet," added Melanie.

  "Yes," said Jana. "She had it on the school steps and again at the fence. I'd never seen it before that. Have you?"

  No one had.

  "I'm really worried," said Jana. "Maybe she isn't mad. Maybe she's in some sort of trouble."

  "And needs us," whispered Melanie, her eyes growing wide.

  Jana raced to the phone and punched in Beth's number. "She always goes straight home after school unless she's coming over here," she reasoned.

  She held the receiver away from her ear so that all four of them could count the rings. Finally, after fifteen, she hung up the phone. Before everyone left, they tried again—this time they let it ring twenty times—and Jana tried twice before she went to bed, but still, there was no answer.

  CHAPTER 13

  Beth was not at school the next day. Jana met Christie, Melanie, and Katie at their spot by the fence before classes, and although they waited until the very last minute to go into the building, she didn't show up.

  "I tried to call her again before I went to bed last night," said Jana as they turned into the corridor where the seventh-graders had their lockers.

  "So did I," said Christie. "Nobody answered. What's going on, anyway?"

  "At first I thought she might have a cold or the flu or something like that," said Katie. "But then she would be at home to answer the phone."

  "Or at least one of her parents would answer," added Melanie. "Did anyone call her this morning?"

  No one had, and Jana was sorry that she hadn't thought of it herself. "Let's meet at noon and call her from the phone in the office," she suggested. "There's probably some simple explanation, and we'll all feel a lot better when we find out what it is."

  Everyone agreed and went off to their homerooms. Jana scarcely heard what was going on in hers. All she could think about was Beth and the strange way she had been acting ever since the first day of school. Even her looks were different. Instead of the bright, kooky outfits she usually wore, she had dressed in dark colors and wore no jewelry for almost the whole week. No chunky necklaces. No long dangling earrings. No jewelry at all except for the bead bracelet she carried in her hand and played with all the time. Did it have something to do with her problem? A child's bead bracelet? But what? It didn't make any sense.

  When she got to English class, Funny was her usual bubbly self. "Can you believe it? It's Friday. TGIF. Isn't that great?"

  Jana nodded. She couldn't help smiling at Funny, and Funny went right on talking before Jana could get a word in edgewise.

  "Tonight's movie night, too. Isn't it exciting? We'll really feel like we're in junior high instead of grade school after the movie and Bumpers. Are you going with Randy?"

  "No. I'll see him there, though. He called me the night before last and said he'll be there with Scott and Mark and some of the other guys."

  "How about Keith?" asked Funny. "Do you think he's going?"

  "He wouldn't miss it." Then Jana laughed and added, "Hey, why all the questions about those guys? I thought you weren't going to get interested in Keith OR Scott OR Randy? Remember? You promised since they're taken."

  "I know they're taken," said Funny, sounding a little miffed by Jana's insinuation. "But they're still cute, and just because I asked if they're going to the movie tonight doesn't mean I'm going to do anything."

  "Sorry. I guess I'm a little touchy right now." Jana went on to tell Funny about Beth and how worried she and her friends were. "It's really weird that someone in her family isn't answering her phone."

  "Maybe they had to go out of town for something," offered Funny.

  "Maybe. But if it was something like that, surely she would have told someone."

  By lunchtime Jana was more worried than ever. She had exhausted every possible excuse she could think of, and nothing sounded reasonable.

  The four girls went straight to the office when the lunch bell rang. No one was interested in eating until they had tried once more to reach Beth. This time Melanie punched in the number, but it didn't change anything. The phone rang and rang without anyone's picking up on the other end.

  "I just don't understand it," said Jana, shaking her head.

  She was deep in thought when they headed for the cafeteria and was surprised when she heard Katie say, "Get a load of who has our guys cornered. Of all the nerve!"

  Jana snapped to attention and focused on a group of boys and girls just ahead in the hall. Randy was there, and Scott and Keith, but that wasn't all. When she saw who the girls were, a small cry of alarm escaped from Jana's lips. "Funny!" she said barely above a whisper. "And Laura!"

  The two members of The Fantastic Foursome had definitely cornered the three boys from Mark Twain Elementary. The five of them seemed to be having a great time talking and laughing.

  Every once in a while Jana could catch a word of their conversation. ". . . movie . . . tonight . . . Bumpers . . ." The more she heard, the more her anger grew.

  "I don't like this," said Melanie. Turning accusingly to Jana she added, "I thought you said Funny Hawthorne was okay. If that's true, what are she and Laura doing flirting with our guys?"

  All Jana could do was shrug. She certainly couldn't defend Funny. What was more, she wasn't sure she wanted to. Especially since Randy was one of the boys she and Laura had been flirting with.

  Between algebra and history classes, Jana stopped Funny in the hall.

  "I just can't believe it," she said angrily. "After promising to leave our boyfriends alone, you and Laura McCall had the nerve to flirt with them in the hall at noon."

  Funny started to speak, but Jana cut her off. "Don't deny it," she charged. "I saw you, and so did my friends. And you did it after I talked you up and told them what a great person you are."

  Funny's large eyes filled with tears. "I know how it looked," she protested, "but it wasn't that way at all. Laura and I just happened to be walking in the hall and the boys came along. Laura said hi and they said hi, and the next thing we knew we were talking to them. That's all there was to it. Honest."

  Jana wanted to believe her, and the look of misery on Funny's face almost convinced her that she had been wrong. But still, something was nagging at her. Something she couldn't quite put a finger on was making her doubt Funny's sincerity.

  "Okay," she conceded. "I believe you." It wasn't quite true, but Jana didn't want to start any more arguments until she had time to think things through.

  Funny's face lit up as if it were the sun just emerging from behind
a dark cloud. "I knew you'd understand," she gushed. "I'll see you tonight at the movie and at Bumpers afterward. Okay? Everybody's going to be there. It's going to be a blast."

  It wasn't until the two had parted that Jana realized what had been bothering her about Funny. It was the rumors about Laura McCall's making her friends do things to prove their loyalty and stay in her club. Could it be possible that Funny had only been pretending to be her friend? Had Laura put her up to it? Had she forced Funny to spy on The Fabulous Five and report everything she found out—including information on their boyfriends—to her? Maybe that was what Funny and Laura had been arguing about at the lockers when Melanie overheard them a couple of days ago. Maybe Funny hadn't wanted to spy, but Laura had forced her.

  The more Jana thought about it, the more convinced she became. Who would suspect a happy, carefree person such as Funny? A bubblehead? Hadn't Funny followed her into the girls' bathroom the day they met and started the conversation herself? Sure, she had Jana's schedule card, but she might have been just waiting for an opportunity like that. And hadn't Funny been terribly anxious to turn her back on her old friends and make friends with Jana?

  It all fit like pieces to a puzzle. Laura and the rest of The Fantastic Foursome were probably laughing their heads off at Jana and The Fabulous Five. And then she remembered the snatches of conversation she had heard when Funny and Laura were talking to the boys in the hall. Movie . . . tonight . . . Bumpers. The rumors were right. Laura McCall was sending Funny to spy on The Fabulous Five, just as she had suspected, but that was only part of her plan.

  CHAPTER 14

  The sidewalk in front of the theater was crowded with kids from Wakeman Junior High when Jana and her three friends arrived half an hour before time for the movie to begin. Jana's spirits rose even though she had still not been able to reach Beth or to resolve her doubts about Funny Hawthorne.

  Some boys she didn't know were horsing around, but most kids were either waiting in line to buy tickets or standing around in small groups talking.