Fabulous Five 004 - Her Honor, Katie Shannon

by Betsy Haynes

  Mr. Zaretki had started yelling about how his daughter wasn't going to be lynched by a bunch of juveniles, so Mr. Bell asked him to step down the hall to his office to continue the discussion. Mrs. Brenner had hurriedly called for a postponement of the case against the girls and declared the court session over for the day.

  It was a scary time, and Katie was trembling when it was all over and she finally got away from the school and had time to think.

  Not only that, she was exhausted. She should have known that things were going too well when they solved the fighting case so easily. Now all of a sudden she was heading a committee to try to change a school rule, Mr. Zaretki was probably going to take his daughter's case to court and she'd be a defendant, and everyone would think she had played favorites again.

  On top of it all, the school probably wouldn't change the rule about boys' wearing earrings anyway, and Tony would be right back before the Teen Court. With her luck it would be her turn to be senior judge again when he came back, and it would be like being caught in a revolving door—going around in circles and never getting out. She could cry if it would do any good.

  "Hi, babe. How are things going?" Willie asked as Katie came into the kitchen.

  "Don't ask."

  Willie dusted off the top of a can of tomato sauce and opened it. "Spaghetti tonight," she said brightly in an obvious attempt to be cheerful. Her face clouded when Katie didn't respond. "Bad day, huh?"

  "Kind of rotten."

  "Care to talk about it?" Willie pushed Libber off the counter where she had been watching a slow drip stretch out of the faucet and plop into the drain.

  "I guess." Katie repeated her story for Willie, emphasizing the part about the petitions to change the school policy against earrings and how she was to be the chairperson.

  "That does sound like a bad day, honey. What are you going to do?"

  "Just what I'm doing, I guess," Katie answered. "I haven't done anything wrong, except maybe convince the entire student body of Wacko Junior High that I play favorites."

  "Don't you think most kids will understand how fair you're trying to be if you talk to them?"

  "Believe me, I've tried."

  Willie was silent as she filled a pot with water and set it on the stove. As she took sticks of spaghetti out of a tall glass jar, she said, "You know, it sounds to me as if you hit it on the head, kiddo. Just keep doing what you're doing, and things will turn out okay."

  "You make it sound so easy, Mom," said Katie.

  Her mother looked up from stirring the spaghetti sauce and waved the wooden spoon at Katie. "You know, when I was in high school in the late sixties, we tried to change rules by protest and rebellion, and we often ended up alienating the very people who could make those changes. You kids are using the system to make changes, and I have a feeling it's going to be different for you."

  "But it's so hard," protested Katie.

  Her mom laughed and then winked. "Do you think our way was easy? We suffered for our principles. We—"

  A grin broke out over Katie's face. "Okay, Mom. You're getting as melodramatic as Beth. Besides, I get the picture."

  Willie gave her a big hug. "I just think you should try to keep talking to the kids at school who don't understand. You might be surprised at how fast they'll come around."

  All evening Katie thought over her mother's words. She thought about Tony, too. Maybe she had been misjudging him all this time. Maybe all that macho stuff was just a cover-up. Hadn't he stood up for her when Clarence Marshall and Richie Corrierro were picking on her about her detention? And what about the trouble with Mr. Naset? Maybe he didn't stand up and fight for his rights then because Mr. Naset was discriminating against him for being in trouble so many other times, and he didn't think he could win. Perhaps that was the real reason he always acted as if being in trouble was no big deal.

  But now he was in trouble for something he cared a lot about, and he had decided to take a stand. She had to admire him for that, and she had to be true to herself and stand with him.

  CHAPTER 14

  When Katie got to the media center right after lunch on Monday for the meeting of the committee to work on changing the dress code, Shane, Kyle, and Daphne were already there. They were talking quietly among themselves.

  "Have you heard anything more about what Mr. Zaretki is going to do?" Daphne asked her before she even sat down.

  Katie shook her head. "I've tried not to think about it," she confessed. "I mean, it's one thing to be a judge or on the jury, but I don't even want to consider being a defendant in a real court."

  "Us, either," said Kyle.

  Katie could see that everybody was as upset as she was over Mr. Zaretki's threat. At this rate they wouldn't get any work done on the petitions unless she got them started.

  "Okay, everybody," she said as she opened her notebook to a clean sheet of paper. "Why don't we write what we want to say first and then type it? After that we can make copies for the signatures."

  "I'll type it," volunteered Daphne, her face brightening.

  "I'll make the copies," said Kyle.

  "What should we say in the application?" asked Katie.

  "I think we ought to say it's a dumb rule," answered Shane.

  "You can't do that," argued Daphne. "They won't even listen to you if you say it that way."

  Katie nodded, thinking about what her mother had said about protest and rebellion in the sixties. "She's right. We've got to use diplomacy. Why don't we list all the reasons we think the rule ought to be changed first? And then we can decide what to say."

  "Earrings are just jewelry like rings and necklaces," said Daphne. "There's no rule against boys' wearing rings and necklaces, and there shouldn't be one against wearing earrings."

  "As long as they're regular earrings and there's nothing obscene or obnoxious about them," added Kyle.

  "A lot of famous men wear them," added Shane. "You see them on TV all the time."

  "Does that include your dad?" asked Daphne. Shane shoved her playfully.

  Katie wrote as fast as she could. She added one of her own. "It's not fair to let girls wear them and not boys." Then, looking up, she asked, "Anything else?"

  "It's a matter of self-expression," said Daphne.

  "It's just plain dumb," said Shane, laughing. Daphne frowned at him.

  "Why don't you guys try to think of more reasons while I write the beginning." Katie tore out the sheet and slid it across the table.

  After they had worked in silence for a few minutes, she asked, "How does this sound?"

  We, the undersigned students, do respectfully petition the administration of Wakeman Junior High to revise the Student Handbook to eliminate the rule against boys' wearing earrings in school for the following reasons:

  "I think we ought to add something that says they can't be wild," suggested Daphne.

  Katie scribbled some more.

  When they had finally agreed on the wording, Daphne typed it on one of the media center typewriters, and Kyle went to the copier and made half a dozen copies for each of them.

  "If you let anyone take a petition to help you get signatures, keep track of who has it," Katie said. "And don't let anybody write funny stuff on them. You know, like Donald Duck . . . or worse."

  Shane added, "Why don't we meet tomorrow at the same time and see how many signatures we have? Maybe we can turn them in then."

  Katie signed her name to the first of her petitions in big bold letters and then stood at the door to her afternoon English class asking people to sign them. To her surprise not everyone did.

  "Get real," said Shawnie Pendergast, a bouncy seventh-grader who had gone to Copper Beach Elementary. "Guys are guys. They don't need to wear earrings."

  Even Alexis Duvall surprised Katie by refusing. "Sorry," she said. "But the next thing you know they'll be wanting to wear miniskirts and panty hose. I just don't think it's masculine."

  To Katie's relief most kids were willing to sign the petitio
ns, including Joel Murphy, who grabbed the ballpoint pen out of Katie's hand, declaring that he would sign anything that would help change a school rule, no matter what it was. She had filled the first sheet and was waiting at the door to her last class of the day when Laura and Melissa McConnell came by.

  "I hear you're trying to help your boyfriend out of trouble again," Laura said in a sickly sweet voice. "It would be nice if you tried half as hard for your friends."

  The back of Katie's neck felt prickly. "It would be nice if you minded your own business."

  "Oh, I want to help, too," Laura insisted. "Shane asked me if I would sign his petition, but when he said you were collecting signatures, I said I wanted to sign yours. I'd do anything to help a friend." Her voice dripped with sugar. "Wouldn't you?"

  Grudgingly Katie handed Laura the paper and the pen. A signature was a signature, no matter what kind of snake signed it.

  CHAPTER 15

  The next morning, as Katie approached the school grounds, she saw Tony waiting by the gate. He pushed away from the post he was leaning against as she got near. Katie cringed inside when she saw the tiny gold earring in his ear. He was wearing it again.

  "Hi," he said. "I owe you a second thanks, I guess. You're getting to be a real Sheena coming to my rescue all the time."

  "I didn't come to your rescue," she said angrily. "And I see you've decided to flaunt that earring again. Couldn't you just wait until the committee had finished with the petition?"

  "Oops!" he said with what seemed to be honest surprise.

  "I meant to take this thing out before I got to school. Thanks for mentioning it." He removed it from his ear and dropped it into his pocket.

  "There's no rule that says I can't wear it when I'm not at school. That reminds me, how's the big petition drive coming?"

  "We've got a lot of signatures," Katie answered proudly. "We're going to count them after lunch."

  "Did you get any flack about its not being masculine for guys to wear earrings?"

  "Some," she admitted. "But not much. It's not that unusual to see guys wearing them nowadays. That's another reason I think these petitions are important."

  Tony smiled. "I don't suppose it would help if I signed one of them? I could even get some guys to sign."

  She looked closely at him. He seemed serious for a change. She wanted to believe that her new theory about him had been right. That being macho was mostly a cover-up. But she wasn't sure. Maybe she should test him.

  "I thought your wav was to go ahead and do what you wanted to without worrying about the rules," she challenged.

  He chuckled. "It usually is. But since you're trying so hard to change the rule for me, I thought I ought to cool it," he answered smoothly. Too smoothly, thought Katie.

  She shifted her books from one arm to the other to hide the disappointment she was sure was in her eyes. "I want you to understand, I'm not doing this for you. Just as I didn't argue to get you off when Mr. Naset complained about your disturbing class, just because it was vou. The only reason I'm doing any of these things is because I want to be fair. You just happened to be there at the time."

  He looked at her appraisingly. She didn't like his cool attitude. She had been wrong to think he was taking a stand for something he believed in. He was just putting on a show. If he thought he could get her to fall for him that way, he was dead wrong!

  "Is that so?" he said with a smirk. "By the way, are you going out with anyone now?"

  She could feel her face redden. "I never said I didn't go out."

  "Maybe you and I could try it sometime."

  "I, I . . ." She looked around for a way out. She saw her friends waiting by the fence and wanted to go over to them. He took her arm and stopped her.

  "You're too busy fighting crime, huh? Are you going to be a lady lawyer or a judge?"

  "Maybe a lawyer, and don't say lady lawyer. That's sexist," she said, sticking out her chin. "Anyway, I've thought about it."

  "And maybe I'll get you to defend me then, too," he said with a sideways grin. "But I have to admit that I like you better as a judge. I can see the sign on your office window now. It says, 'Katie Shannon, Hanging Judge.'" He burst out laughing.

  "I've got to go. My friends are waiting for me." She pulled her arm loose and darted toward the rest of The Fabulous Five.

  "See you around, Your Honor," he called after her.

  Katie met with the petition committee again after lunch.

  "I filled up all my pages," said Daphne.

  "Me, too," said Kyle. "It was pretty easy."

  "Here are mine," said Shane.

  Katie looked closely at his petitions and smiled. "Igor's name isn't on here, is it?"

  Shane threw back his head and laughed at the mention of his pet iguana. "No. But it's only because he's mad that he doesn't have any ears to wear earrings in."

  Daphne slugged him playfully.

  "Let's count them," said Katie.

  They had two hundred and twenty-eight signatures.

  "That ought to convince Mr. Bell and the administration that the kids really think boys ought to be allowed to wear earrings," said Kyle.

  "That doesn't mean they'll change the rule, though," said Daphne.

  "Why not?" asked Katie.

  "Well, there are a lot of things the kids might vote for that the school wouldn't allow."

  "But Daph, this makes so much sense," Katie argued.

  "To me, too. But we're not the ones running the school," Daphne said.

  "I'm with you, Katie," agreed Shane. "I can't see how they can refuse."

  "What will Tony do if it doesn't pass?" asked Kyle.

  "More than likely get into trouble over it again," said Shane. "Nothing has changed to make him act differently, has it?"

  "No, I guess not," Kyle replied.

  Katie had to agree with them.

  The four of them marched to the office together with their stack of petitions.

  "May I help you?" asked Miss Simone, the office secretary.

  Katie stepped forward and laid the pile of petitions on her desk.

  "We'd like to file this petition for a change in the dress code in the student rule book." she said proudly.

  "My, you have a lot of signatures here."

  "Two hundred and twenty-eight," Katie said, grinning at the others.

  "Well, I'll give this to Mr. Bell right away. He has a staff meeting on Friday morning, and I'm sure he'll bring it up then."

  Katie looked at the others and held up crossed fingers for good luck. The decision on the dress code rule would probably be made by the next session of Teen Court.

  CHAPTER 16

  Friday morning Katie was so nervous she felt like a balloon that wanted to take off and zip around the sky. This morning Mr. Bell and his staff were going to decide whether or not to go along with the petition. If they decided against it, what would Tony do? If they didn't change the rule and he wouldn't quit wearing the earring, he might even be suspended from school. That would mean he would have to come before the Teen Court again this afternoon. He might even think that Katie hadn't tried hard enough to get the rule changed.

  She shook her head. It's silly to worry about that. He doesn't like me. I'm just another girl for him to flex his muscles at and dazzle with his smile.

  The morning dragged on for what felt like a month. Her mind kept wandering to Mr. Bell's staff meeting.

  They ought to be meeting now, she thought. Who would be arguing to change the rule? Would Mr. Bell be for it or against it?

  The meeting must be over now, she thought later. She had looked at her watch every two minutes all morning. What had they decided? Katie had a feeling of finality. It had to be finished. Whatever the decision was, it had been made, and it might affect her life forever.

  At lunch Jana, Beth, Christie, and Melanie all tried to be cheerful, but Katie knew they were watching her out of the corners of their eyes.

  Finally Jana spoke. "No matter what happens with t
he petitions, Katie, you really did a great thing. Not very many kids would have had the nerve to start a petition drive to legalize earrings at school."

  "And we know that you did it because you believe it's fair," Christie assured her, "not because you were playing favorites with Tony Calcaterra."

  "We're with you one hundred percent," said Melanie.

  Katie's eyes got misty. Even though she knew they were behind her, hearing them say it was exactly what she needed at that moment. "One more time: The Fabulous Five stick together!" she said, raising her milk carton.

  The five best friends tapped their milk cartons together.

  "Right on!" said Beth.

  The public address system interrupted their celebration.

  "Will the members of the Teen Court please report to Mr. Bell's office?"

  "Uh-oh," said Katie. "Wish me luck, gang. This is it."

  She tried not to panic as she made her way to the office. The other eight members of the court crowded into the small room where the principal and Mrs. Brenner and Miss Dickinson were already waiting.

  When everyone was inside, Mr. Bell rose from behind his desk, cleared his throat, and said, "I want to thank you for your attempt to change a rule that you felt was unfair in the same democratic way our country amends its laws. The staff members read your petition, noted the large number of signatures in support of it, and discussed it at great length. The vote was a close one"—he paused—"but I'm afraid it was against your petition. Earrings will not be permitted on males in Wakeman Junior High."

  Katie sank back in her seat, the earlier feeling of being a sky-bound balloon slowly passing away as if all the air had just leaked out.

  Tears blinded Katie's eves so that she couldn't look at her fellow Teen Court members. After all their hard work, the teachers had voted against them.