by Betsy Haynes
"I . . . I . . ." She fumbled for words. Not finding any, she turned and walked out of Montague's.
CHAPTER 15
"Christie!" called Connie. She heard his footsteps as he ran after her.
"Wait," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. They walked along in silence for a few moments before he spoke again. "You know, I wish I were as lucky as you."
"As lucky as me?" She looked at him incredulously. She had just told off every one of her best friends, and he was calling her lucky.
"Yes, you." Connie took Christie's hand. "You've got so many friends, they're fighting over you. But come to think of it, maybe that's not being lucky. Maybe that's just what happens when you're the wonderful kind of person you are."
Christie smiled and shrugged. "Thanks, but I'm not sure that I have any friends after what I said in there."
"Sure you do," he told her, taking her by the shoulders and turning her so they were facing each other. "They'll get over it. You'll see."
"I'm so confused, Connie," she said. "I don't know what I want anymore. I am excited about going back home . . . to the United States. But I don't want to leave here, either. I like England. I like all my friends here, and I like you a lot." She smiled up at him.
"I like you, too," he said. "But your going home doesn't mean we'll never see each other again. You and your mother can tag along when your father comes to London on business, and who knows—maybe I'll travel to the States with my father on a business trip. I could have done it before, but I didn't have any reason to go. Besides that, if you go to either Oxford or Cambridge, as you've been planning, you'll have to come back, won't you?"
Christie looked up at Connie. His blond hair was swept across his forehead, and his blue eyes seemed so warm. "Thanks," she said softly. "You're a really nice guy, do you know that?"
He bent down and kissed her. "Why don't we go back and see who's left at Montague's. Maybe we can act as referees, if anyone is still standing."
When they walked back into Montague's, Christie was amazed at what she saw. The Fabulous Five and the British girls, instead of standing toe to toe and shouting at each other, as Christie expected, were sitting around the table and talking as if they had been friends forever.
"Christie!" called Jana when she saw her and Connie walk in.
"She's back," Phoebe said. "Come sit down, Christie."
After Christie was seated, Katie said, "First, we want to apologize, Christie. We all knew how important this week was to you, and we ended up acting like total idiots, and we know it."
"I'll say," chimed in Jana. "We got carried away. I think we were jealous of Phoebe, Nicki, and Ellie because we thought we'd never see you again."
"And then I had to drop the fact that you're moving back to the States on them like a bombshell," added Melanie.
"After you left, we remembered how we felt when you moved away," said Jana. "It was as if we had lost a part of ourselves. We thought The Fabulous Five might be broken up forever. I'm sure that's how Phoebe, Nicki, and Eleanore are feeling right now."
"We told them all of this while you were gone," explained Melanie.
"And we had to confess, too," said Phoebe, smiling at The Fab Five. "We were just as jealous as they were. We resented their coming over here and taking up so much of your time."
"We should have remembered how important they were to you," continued Eleanore. "We didn't take time to get to know your chums, the way we should have. None of us was thinking about you."
"All this confessing is liable to make me cry, and then my eye liner will run," said Nicki. "The bottom line is, we've all acted like poops, Christie, and we're sorry."
As Christie looked around at the seven girls, she knew that Connie was right. She was lucky to have such fabulous friends on both sides of the ocean.
The following evening Christie and her parents drove The Fabulous Five to the airport. Phoebe's father had brought the British girls by to see them off, too. They all stood talking as they waited for the gate to the jetway to open.
As Christie stood watching the others, she started thinking about what had happened to her since she had come to London. For one thing, she had changed. For the first time, she had moved away from friends she had known all her life and found that you can't count on things staving the same forever. She had discovered what it was like to move to a foreign country and suddenly be the odd one, not understanding everything that was said or what people meant.
Now a huge part of her would be staying here in England. Some of her would stay with Phoebe, Nicki, and Eleanore, no matter how things turned out. Little bits of her would stay with Mrs. Mansfield, Mr. Dudley, and Miss Woolsey, one of her favorite teachers at St. Meg's. And bigger pieces of her, pieces that could never be replaced, would stay with Connie and Jenny. She quickly brushed away a tear.
Jana's voice suddenly broke through Christie's musing. "When Christie was going away," she was telling Phoebe, Nicki, and Eleanore, "we wanted to give her something special to remember us by. You know the bears that she keeps on her bed that look like us?"
"Well . . ." Katie jumped in. "We were hoping to leave you something nice to remember us by, so that you didn't only have bad memories of us."
"We asked Christie if it would be all right if we took the bears back and gave them to you," said Beth. "They mean a lot to us."
She opened her bag and pulled out the bear dressed in bright colors with hoop earrings hanging from its little brown ears. "This is supposed to be me," she explained, handing it to Nicki. "I want you to have it."
As Nicki reached out to take it, Christie noticed tears in her eyes.
"And this is me," said Melanie, pulling out her bear with the dress covered with hearts.
Eleanore took it.
"And there's no doubt who this is supposed to be." Katie chuckled, taking out her bear with the white wig and judge's robe.
Phoebe took it from Katie.
"Since there are four bears and only three of you, I guess you'll have to share mine," said Jana, pulling hers out.
Nicki wiped her eyes with her hand and fumbled in her bag for a tissue. "Darn you guys, anyway," she muttered, blowing her nose. "You're spoiling my image."
"One of these days you'll be getting another bear to remember me by," said Christie. "The one dressed in a tennis outfit that my father gave me."
Just then a voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing the boarding of The Fabulous Five's flight. Christie hugged each of them in turn. Then Phoebe stepped forward and hugged them, too. Nicki and Eleanore did the same.
Wow, Christie thought as her best friends disappeared down the jetway, pretty soon I'll be flying home, too.
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