Fabulous Five 010 - Playing the Part

by Betsy Haynes

  "Chet, would your mom and dad mind dropping me off at home, instead of Bumpers?" asked Beth. "I'm not feeling too well." Even though Beth's plan had gone off without a hitch, she didn't want to take any more chances. If she went to Bumpers, someone was bound to say something about their being on a date in front of Chet and ruin everything.

  "No, my parents won't mind," Chet said, looking at her closely. "Are you all right?"

  He was nice. If she didn't like Keith so much, it would be super to go on a real date with him sometime. That is if he ever really would consider dating a seventh-grade girl.

  She smiled at him and nodded. Even though he didn't know it, he had done all he could for her.

  CHAPTER 17

  "How in the world did you get a date with Chet Miller?" asked Dekeisha Adams the next afternoon as the cheerleaders gathered in front of the stands before the game.

  "He's in ninth grade and everything," Mandy McDermott said with admiration in her voice. "Are you going together now?"

  "Oh, no," Beth answered, trying to sound casual. "Just because I went to the movies with him once doesn't mean we're going steady. Who knows if we'll ever go out again?" She thought it was better to eliminate any impressions that they were dating regularly. Her luck had taken her just about as far as it could. She did enjoy the poison-dart looks Laura McCall was giving her over all the attention she was getting from the other cheerleaders.

  The stadium was filled, and the Wakeman and Jefferson teams were lined up for the kickoff. Keith was playing back to receive the ball, and Beth couldn't help thinking how much like a Roman warrior he looked with his uniform and helmet.

  Today was his last chance to take the lead in rushing. She gave a little silent cheer that he would. He wanted it so badly and had worked so hard for it. He deserved it.

  The game was even until the second quarter when Randy Kirwan handed the ball off to Keith, and he burst through the Jefferson line. Two tacklers piled on him, but someway he shook them loose and broke into the open field, running for the first touchdown of the game. The half ended with Wakeman ahead seven to nothing.

  During halftime, an announcement came over the speaker. "Keith Masterson gained thirty-eight yards in the first half. That puts him forty-five yards behind Mike Saharis of Georgetown for the league rushing title."

  "YEA!" yelled all the cheerleaders.

  "Let's do He's Our Man," yelled Kaci Davis.

  Beth lined up with the others.

  "Keith Masterson

  He's our man.

  He can do it,

  if anyone can.

  Yeah, Keith!"

  Beth felt a swelling of pride as the Wakeman kids cheered for Keith. He would do it. She just knew he would.

  In the second half, the Wakeman Warriors pulled further ahead. Keith ground out yards to the left and to the right, and then he would crash into the middle of the line and come out on the other side with players hanging all over him. Once or twice when he got up, she thought he looked in her direction.

  "The unofficial count for Keith Masterson is seventy-three yards," came the announcement over the public address system at the end of the third quarter. "He needs ten more for the rushing title."

  Beth jumped up and down. "Only ten more yards and he's got it," she yelled at Melanie, and pounded on her.

  The fourth quarter started. Randy threw a pass to Shane Arrington, and Shane was tackled right in front of the cheerleaders. He got up smiling.

  "That one was for Igor," he yelled at the girls. Beth smiled. Shane was always talking about his pet iguana.

  On the next play, Keith came through the line and headed right at the cheerleaders, trying to escape four Jefferson players. They trapped him along the sideline and he rammed into them headfirst. Beth gasped as his legs churned and he tried to drive them back, and then she heard a sickening SNAP, and he went down.

  Beth stood stunned as she watched the agony on Keith's face as he lay writhing and clutching his right leg on the ground in front of her.

  "NO!" she screamed, and ran to him.

  She fell to her knees with tears streaming down her face.

  "Keith! Don't move!" She tried to hold his leg so he couldn't move it. Her stomach lurched, and she felt sick at the sight of it bent at a crazy angle.

  "Don't move him! Don't move him!" Coach Bledsoe yelled as he came running up. Others joined them and someone got a doctor who straightened Keith's leg and put him on a stretcher.

  Keith looked up at Beth and smiled as they started to carry him away. She took his hand and held it tightly and walked along beside him as they took him off the field. Tears were streaming down her face, but she didn't care at all.

  As they passed through the crowd on the way to the parking lot, kids yelled, "Hang in there, Keith!" and "Tough it out, guy!" She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back.

  Then she saw The Fabulous Five. They all had tears in their eyes. Jana and Katie were looking at Keith, but Christie was watching Beth, and she was crying the most.

  CHAPTER 18

  Beth sat in the hospital hallway with Mr. and Mrs. Masterson waiting for news about Keith. The paramedics had let her ride in the ambulance, and she had held his hand all the way. His mother and father had been at the game and were only minutes behind in their own car.

  The doors at the end of the hall opened, and Jana, Katie, Christie, and Melanie filed in quietly.

  "How is Keith?" asked Jana.

  "It's his leg. I heard it break," Beth said, grimacing. Her eyes filled with tears again as she remembered the terrible sound.

  "The doctor hasn't come out of the operating room yet, so we don't know how bad it is."

  "I know it's not much consolation," said Katie, "but the announcer said over the loudspeaker that Keith got the yards he needed to go ahead of Mike Saharis with that last run."

  "I don't believe he's going to be thinking much about that right now," said Christie, staring at Beth.

  They found seats on a bench and sat down to wait.

  "Beth, can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Christie. She walked down the hall away from the others and stopped. Beth followed her.

  "Can you ever forgive me?" asked Christie, her eyes turning moist. "I didn't know you still liked Keith, honest I didn't. When I saw you holding his hand when he was hurt and walking out with him, I realized how dumb I had been. I thought it was all over between you and him. I wouldn't have gone out with him if I had known." Christie's voice caught, and Beth saw she was about to break out in tears.

  Beth reached out and put her arms around her. "It was my fault. I said those dumb things about not wanting to go with him anymore because I was mad at him, and then I didn't know how to take them back. But what was worse, I played the big actress and kept my real feelings hidden instead of being honest. I'm not mad at you."

  "Not just a little bit for not realizing what was going on?"

  Beth smiled. "Well, maybe I was a little bit, but I'm not anymore. I know it was just all a big misunderstanding. Besides, Keith has terrific taste in girls."

  Christie sniffed and hugged Beth back. "Friends forever?" she asked.

  Beth smiled. "Friends forever."

  The elevator doors opened and a doctor came out with a surgical mask hanging from his neck.

  "Mr. and Mrs. Masterson?" he asked, walking toward them. They all got up quickly.

  "First, let me assure you that Keith's going to be fine. He'll be able to get around okay and should be out of the hospital in a day or two. You might want to make arrangements to get his homework from school, however, since he'll be staying home for a couple of weeks. If you want to go up and see him, you can, but I wouldn't recommend all of you going. He's still pretty groggy from the anesthesia."

  "I think Beth should go with Mr. and Mrs. Masterson," said Christie. The others agreed.

  The room smelled like antiseptic, and Keith's leg was suspended in the air. He smiled weakly when he saw them.

  "Hi, champ," said Mr. Masters
on. "How's it going?" Keith's mother bent over and kissed him.

  "Not too great," answered Keith. "Did I get the yards I needed?"

  "You got them," said Beth.

  His smile grew bigger.

  They had been talking for only a few minutes when a nurse came into the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need some additional insurance information. Could you help me with it, please?"

  "Sure," said Keith's father. His mother went with them into the hall.

  Beth stepped up to Keith's bed.

  "Hi," he said, giving her one of his special smiles. "Hi. I heard that you're going to be out of school for a couple of weeks and will need someone to bring your assignments home. I'll do it. And if you need someone to study with, that's me."

  "I appreciate it, but you'll be too busy."

  "No, I won't," she said softly. "I've decided to drop out of the school play. I'll have lots of time."

  "Drop out of the school play?" Surprise spread across his face. "Why?"

  "Oh . . . it's taking too much time, and it's no big deal."

  He looked at her a moment. "I don't think you should."

  It was her turn to be surprised at him. He had been the one who thought it would take up too much of her time before. Why would he change his mind?

  "You really do like acting, Beth. I know you do. Are you just saying you'll drop out because of me?"

  She lowered her eyes, not knowing how to answer.

  "Hey," he said, frowning at her. "With this leg I'm not going to be playing sports for a while. Now I think I know how you felt when I was hassling you not to try out for the play so you could spend more time with me. I guess I never thought about how badly I wanted to play sports until all of a sudden I couldn't. It wouldn't be fair for you to drop out of the play for me. You want to act as badly as I want to play football or basketball."

  He looked at her closely. "Let me ask you something. Why would you drop out of the play for me anyway? I thought you weren't interested in going with me anymore."

  "I was just mad at you," she said.

  "The way you acted, I thought you didn't want to date me at all."

  "I'm an actress, remember. I can make all kinds of things seem different from what they really are. I just imagine I'm a certain person or I feel a certain way, and it's that way."

  "Well, don't act that well again," he said, reaching his hand out for hers.

  Beth stood in the center of the stage and listened to the applause. It was the first night of the play, and it had been a major success.

  She looked into the wings, and Mr. Levine was smiling broadly at her and pointing to the front row where Mr. Stapleton was standing and clapping enthusiastically.

  She could also see her mother and father, Brian, Brittany, Todd, and Alicia about four rows back. Everyone in the family had come to see the show except Agatha.

  Farther back were The Fabulous Five, applauding as hard as they could and making thumbs-up signs. And standing in the aisle with a cast that went from his ankle to above his knee, was Keith. He was applauding loudest of all. Beth thought she could actually hear him above all the rest. She gave him her special smile.

  Keith stood behind the center. "Ready! Set! Hut!" he called the signals, and the ball was snapped.

  He grabbed it and hobbled to the right looking for his receiver.

  "Throw it!" yelled Todd, backing up and falling over Agatha.

  Beth dashed in and caught Keith around the waist, pulling him down. He was easy.

  "You got me," he said, laughing.

  "It's not fair," said Todd. "Agatha tripped me."

  "You have to look out for those free safeties," kidded Keith.

  "Agafa's not free," said Alicia. Beth and Keith both laughed.

  Beth got up and held out her hands for him to hold on to as he struggled with his cast.

  "The stick! The stick!" Keith said with a grimace.

  Beth got the long, thin stick that Keith carried with him everywhere nowadays.

  He grabbed it and slid it down inside the cast and moved it up and down in a scratching motion.

  "Oooh," he said with a silly smile on his face. "That was a bad itch."

  "From the look on your face, I'd think it's almost worth it to have an itch like that so you can scratch it."

  "Not so," he said, pulling the stick out again.

  She put her arm around his waist as they walked to the door. "Can I ask you something?"

  "Sure," he said.

  "When you were dating Christie, I wondered about a few things."

  "Like what?"

  "Do you think Christie is prettier than me?"

  He looked at her, and she could see that he was having a hard time holding back a smile.

  "Does she kiss as good as me?" she continued.

  "Maybe," he answered.

  She punched him in the ribs.

  "Ooof! Hey, you almost knocked the wind out of me. Remember, I'm crippled."

  "Well, you got the answer wrong."

  "I don't think there is a right answer to your last question, if I said she doesn't kiss as good as you, you'll be mad because I kissed her at all. If I said she kisses better than you, I'm dead."

  Beth giggled. "Maybe my question wasn't fair."

  "What did Mr. Stapleton say to you when you talked to him?" Keith asked.

  "Oh, he had some suggestions about ways I could improve, and he told me that when he teaches acting somewhere around here, he'd like to see me in his class."

  She thought for a minute before she asked her next question. "Do you feel really bad about not being able to play sports for a while?"

  "I'm not happy about it," he answered. "But maybe it will help out my grades."

  "You could take up acting," she suggested.

  "Hmm. I think one of us being an actor is enough."

  "Maybe," she said, putting her arms around his neck. "Just maybe."

  CHAPTER 19

  "I'm really glad that you and Keith are back together," Jana said to Beth a few days later as they left school together. "I really felt bad when the two of you were having problems."

  Beth gave her an appreciative smile. "So did I. You know, sometimes I look at you and Randy and wish Keith and I had such a smooth relationship as you two do."

  Jana linked arms with her best friend as they walked along, trying not to grin. What did Beth expect? she wondered. Beth had a wild and crazy personality, and her flair for drama kept her entire life from being anything but smooth. Still, Beth had a point.

  "I know what you mean," Jana mused. "Sometimes I wonder myself just how Randy and I manage to avoid major problems. We almost never fight. It's really sort of weird."

  "Don't knock it," said Beth with a laugh. "The only good part about breaking up is getting back together."

  Jana gave Beth an understanding nod as they went into Bumpers and joined the rest of The Fabulous Five at a table. Jana tried to join in the conversation as her friends chattered loudly to make themselves heard above the noisy crowd, but she couldn't shake off an eerie feeling that had come over her during her conversation with Beth. It was as dark and scary as the shadow made by a cloud passing over the moon. She shivered and tried to make the feeling go away, but it wouldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop herself from thinking that something terrible was going to happen between Randy and her.

  Will Jana's premonition come true? Or is she only letting her imagination get the best of her? Find out in The Fabulous Five #11: Hit and Run.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Betsy Haynes, the daughter of a former newswoman, began scribbling poetry and short stories as soon as she learned to write. A serious writing career, however, had to wait until after her marriage and the arrival of her two children. But that early practice must have paid off, for within three months Mrs. Haynes had sold her first story. In addition to a number of magazine short stories and the Taffy Sinclair series, Mrs. Haynes is also the author of The Great Mom Swap and its sequel, T
he Great Boyfriend Trap. She lives in Collevville, Texas, with her husband, who is also an author.

  Table of Contents

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR