Fabulous Five 001 - Seventh-Grade Rumors (3 page)

The two girls parted company with more smiles and with
promises to get together soon, but Jana knew that the look on her face must
have given away her surprise. Now Jana remembered where she had seen Funny
before. At the fence—with Laura McCall. So this was Funny Hawthorne? she mused.
Member of The Fantastic Foursome?
Bubblehead?
If those things were true,
then why did she seem so nice?

As Jana hurried outside to find her friends, she considered
telling them about her encounter with Funny. But she was confused about Funny
and wasn't ready to talk about her to anyone yet. Funny was friendly and nice
and seemed to be the kind of person Jana would like to know better, but she was
a member of The Fantastic Foursome. That could spell trouble.

Glancing around, she saw a group of girls from Mark Twain
Elementary gathered near the gum tree. Her four best friends were among them,
and so were Alexis Duvall, Sara Sawyer, Lisa Snow, and even Taffy Sinclair.
Jana joined them just in time to hear Taffy saying, "Isn't this gross? I
mean all that chewing gum. I wouldn't touch it for anything. Just think of how
many mouths all of it has been in."

"I think it looks sort of neat," said Sara Sawyer.
"If you don't have to touch it, that is."

Jana looked at the tree. Since it was just the first day of
school, there were only twenty or so pieces of gum stuck to the bark, but the
globs of pink, green, orange, blue, and yellow gave the tree a festive look.
Most pieces were just stuck there, as if the chewer had been in a hurry to get
inside before the last bell rang. But one piece caught Jana's eye. It had been
attached to the main trunk and then stretched out in a long string that had
been wound into an artistic design and draped on the tree to look something
like a modern art painting.

"I wonder who cleaned off all the old gum from last
year?" asked Sara.

"Probably the custodian," said Alexis.

"No!" said Lisa, shaking her head earnestly. "I
heard that the seventh-graders have to do it. That's what a girl in my history
class says, and she ought to know. She was in seventh grade last year."

"Gross!" said Sara.

"Don't be silly," said Taffy. "She was just
putting you on. And even if she wasn't, there's no way
anyone
is going
to make me clean somebody else's germy old chewing gum off of this tree!"

Jana shook her head, laughing softly, and glanced up to see
Beth sitting alone on the front steps, looking as if she had just lost her last
friend. She was holding a small string of beads that was about the size of a
child's bracelet in one hand and was rapidly fingering the beads with the
other.

Most of the other girls were drifting off in small groups or
had disappeared completely as Jana approached Beth. "Hi," she said
softly.

"Hi," Beth mumbled without looking up.

"What's wrong?" asked Jana as she sank down to sit
on the step beside her friend. "Did you have another fight with Laura
McCall?"

Beth didn't answer. Instead she closed the hand that held
the beads and slid her left foot forward, concentrating on a spot on the toe of
her sneaker.

"You know you can tell me," Jana insisted,
scooting closer to Beth. "What is it? Did I do something? Are you mad at
me?"

Beth sighed deeply. For a moment Jana thought that she was
going to answer. Then without warning Beth jumped to her feet and raced into
the building, leaving Jana staring after her feeling both hurt and surprised.

What was wrong with her? Jana thought back over the past few
days. She had seemed her old self on Saturday when they had their meeting of
The Fabulous Five in her bedroom. It had been Beth who had contributed all the
rumors about Laura McCall and her club. Beth had even been the one to suggest
that they find a spot by the Wakeman fence just like the one at Mark Twain.
What had happened between then and now? Something. Something BIG.

But try as she might, Jana couldn't make a connection
between anything she had said or done that could have upset Beth and put her
into this black mood. They had talked on the phone a couple of times over the
holiday weekend, mostly about what to wear the first day of school, but no
cross words had been spoken then. It was as if an invisible curtain had fallen
between them.

Jana thought of all the times she had confided in Beth. She
had told Beth about her crush on Randy Kirwan before he even noticed her and
then about their first kiss. Then there were the times she had told Beth about
how she had tried to make contact with her father since her parents' divorce.
About her uncertainties regarding her mother's plans to remarry. She had talked
to Beth about everything, everything that was important to her, and now Beth
had a problem and was shutting her out.

"Come on, Jana! He's over there! Hurry up!"
Melanie was breathless and she was tugging at Jana's arm, trying to pull her to
her feet. Katie stood beside her. "It's River Phoenix—I mean, Shane Arrington.
Come ON, Jana! I'm going to talk to him before I lose my nerve, but I need you
and Katie for moral support."

Jana let her worries about Beth slip away as she laughingly
got to her feet. "Okay. Okay," she said as she got on one side of
Melanie. From the other side Katie looked over at Jana, crossed her eyes, and
then silently formed the word "wacko" with her lips. Jana giggled
softly and nodded.

Shane Arrington was standing alone by the front door. As
they got near him Melanie clutched Jana's arm so tightly that she almost cut
off the circulation. Melanie stopped to take a last, deep breath and then
started talking.

"You're Shane Arrington, aren't you?" she asked
tentatively.

Shane nodded. "Sure am. Who are you?"

"Melanie Edwards," she said, smiling self-consciously,
"and these are my friends Jana Morgan and Katie Shannon. We're from Mark
Twain. I . . . uh . . . wanted to ask you something."

Shane waited, unblinking, for her to ask her question.

"Is it true that you have a pet iguana named Igor?"

An amused smile crossed his face. "Sure."

"Well, where do you keep him?" asked Melanie. "In
a cage?"

"Naw, he has the run of the house."

Melanie's eyes got big and she looked questioningly at first
Jana and then Katie. When neither of them said a word, she turned back to
Shane.

"But what about when he wants to . . . you know?"

"Go to the bathroom?" Shane asked matter-of-factly.
"That's easy. First, he waddles over to the door, and then he knocks on it
with his tail. I let him out, and when he wants back in, he knocks on the door
with his tail again."

"Oh," said Melanie, and Jana could tell that she
wasn't sure whether to believe him or not. "Well. I was just wondering.
Thanks a lot."

Shane flashed her a gorgeous smile as the three of them
turned and walked away. As soon as they were out of earshot, Melanie stopped.

"Do you think Shane was serious?" she asked. "I
mean, could he really train an iguana to go to the door and knock on it with
his tail when he wants out?"

"Get real," said Katie. "If lizards could be
trained, you'd know it. They'd be performing on Johnny Carson or doing stupid
pet tricks on David Letterman."

Melanie didn't look convinced, and Jana had to pinch herself
to keep from giggling as the bell rang and Shane disappeared in the crowd
pushing in the front door.

"You'd better watch it," Jana warned. "Scott
will get jealous."

"Oh, I know," said Melanie. "I really do
still like Scott. But you saw Shane. I get weak in the knees just looking at
him. Oh, well. I probably don't stand a chance with him anyway."

The girls parted at a juncture in the hallway and headed for
their separate classrooms. Jana didn't see Beth all afternoon, but she was
surprised to find that Funny Hawthorne was in two of her classes—algebra and
history—and that she really did ask her teachers to call her Funny instead of
Karen. The name fits, Jana thought. She wanted to start another conversation
with her new friend. Funny was like a breath of fresh air after Beth's
unexplainable gloom. Instead, she exchanged shy smiles with Funny, putting off
anything more until she had time to think it over.

Whitney Larkin was in her algebra class, also. Jana jumped
in surprise when Mr. Stone, the algebra teacher, called Whitney's name during
roll. Jana looked over at her. Katie had known what she was talking about.
Whitney Larkin looked like a pygmy sitting among the other seventh-graders.
Jana squinted and studied her closer. She even looked like a genius. Glasses.
Serious expression. The works. She would probably show up everybody by raising
her hand all the time.

The day finally ended. Jana headed for her locker with mixed
feelings about her first day at Wacko Junior High. In some ways it had been
awful. Laura and her friends stealing their spot by the fence. Being looked
over by a group of ninth-grade boys and only being rated a
three.
Losing
her schedule card not once, but twice. And of course, Beth's acting so weird.
Still, meeting Funny had made a difference, and so had Randy's 1,000-watt smile
in homeroom. Maybe the day hadn't been a total disaster, after all.

"So how was your first day at Wacko Junior High?"
asked Jana's mother when she got home from work later that afternoon.

Jana looked up in surprise from the kitchen table where she
was having a snack and doing her homework.

"Awful, mostly, but how did you know we call it Wacko
instead of Wakeman? I thought only kids knew that."

"Mothers know everything," Mrs. Morgan teased. "We
have eyes in the back of our heads. Ears under our armpits.
Noses between
our toeses!
"

"Mom! Cut it out!" Jana cried, but at the same
time she was doubled over, laughing. She loved it when her mother clowned
around like this. It didn't happen often. Pat Morgan had been divorced from
Jana's father since Jana was three, and she had a tough time supporting them on
what she made as classified ad manager at the local newspaper. Jana's father
was supposed to contribute monthly support checks, but he was an alcoholic, and
the checks rarely arrived.

Her mother reached out and smoothed her hair. Then she said,
"I'm sorry your first day in junior high was awful. Anything you'd care to
talk about?"

Jana shrugged. "It was just the usual stuff. I lost my
schedule card—twice. There were a bunch of obnoxious ninth-grade boys looking
over the new seventh-grade girls and rating them on a scale of one to ten.
Things like that."

Mrs. Morgan looked at her sympathetically. "It will get
better, honey. I promise."

Jana closed her book, set her empty plate and glass in the
sink, and went to her room. She had purposely left out the part about Laura
McCall and The Fantastic Foursome. She didn't want to admit, even to her
mother, that she and her friends had practically had a fight with a club from
another school or that Laura and her friends were watching every move The
Fabulous Five made. But most of all, she had left out two important things:
Beth's strange behavior and her instant liking for Funny Hawthorne. She knew
what her mother would say. Things were always so simple for grown-ups. She
would say that there were only two things to do: call Beth and talk to her, and
invite Funny to be friends. But how could she do either of them? She had too
much pride to call Beth after the way Beth had refused to talk and then run
away, and if she invited Funny Hawthorne to be friends, her other friends,
her
best friends forever and ever,
would think she was a traitor.

A little while later her mother called her to the phone. On
the other end was Melanie, and she was breathless, as usual.

"I just got back from going to the mall with my mom, so
I couldn't call you sooner," she began the instant Jana said hello. "You'll
never guess what I walked in on as I was leaving school. When I passed Laura
McCall's locker, she was talking to that girl named Funny, except, get this,
they weren't talking. They were fighting!"

A mental picture flashed into Jana's mind. She could see
Laura's face screwed up into a terrible scowl. It was easy to picture her
fighting, but try as she might, Jana simply could not see Funny arguing with
anybody.

"Anyway," Melanie went on, "the minute they
saw me they shut up and just sort of watched me until I got past them. I don't
have any idea what they were saying, but you can believe one thing, Laura
McCall was madder than anything. I certainly would hate to have been Funny
Hawthorne."

They talked for a few more minutes, mostly about school and
what they were going to wear the next day, and then hung up. Had Laura seen
Funny and Jana together at noon and figured out that they were getting
friendly? She couldn't have, Jana reasoned. Their whole conversation had taken
place in the girls' bathroom. But maybe Funny had slipped and said something
about Jana, something that set off Laura's temper. Maybe Laura was threatening
to kick Funny out of their club if she ever talked to Jana again. Jana shook
her head. That was ridiculous. She knew that she was just reading things into
what Melanie had said. Probably Laura and Funny were fighting over something
that had nothing whatsoever to do with her. Still, she couldn't get the worry
out of her mind.

The next morning Jana and her friends met in their special
corner of the school ground again. The Fantastic Foursome were nowhere in
sight, but nobody seemed to notice. All anyone wanted to talk about was student
activities.

"I'm still trying to decide about cheerleading,"
said Jana. "I wish one of you would try out with me. I'm dying to do it,
but I don't want to go by myself. What about you, Christie? You said you might."

Christie shrugged. "I probably won't have time. I'm
definitely going out for girls' basketball, and maybe yearbook."

"I wonder what Shane Arrington is going out for?"
asked Melanie. "I mean, that's even better than being in a class with him.
If we're both in the same activity, we can spend
tons
of time together,
and the more he gets to know me, the more he'll see that we're meant for each
other."

"Can't you see it all?" asked Katie. "Shane,
Melanie, and sweet little Igor. A perfect family."

Everybody broke up over that—even Melanie.

"Well, I don't know about cheerleading yet, but I'm
definitely going out for the yearbook," said Jana. "It's called
The
Wigwam,
and I've been dying to be on the staff for ages."

"That really is a good idea," said Katie. "I
think we should all join the staff together."

"I wonder what kinds of jobs seventh-graders can get?"
asked Christie. "Probably all the really good ones are grabbed by eighth-
and ninth-graders."

Nobody said anything for a minute until Katie brightened. "Hey,
wait a minute. For one thing, I'll bet there's a seventh-grade editor."

"But that's only one job," Jana reminded her.

"So? If there's one good job, maybe there are more,"
said Katie. "What about reporters and photographers? They must need all
sorts of people. We'll just have to wait and find out when we get to the first
meeting next week."

"Don't anybody breathe a word to
anybody
that we're
signing up for the yearbook," cautioned Christie. "If Laura and her
friends find out, you know they'll sign up, too."

When the bell rang, the girls headed for homeroom. Randy was
already there, and when he saw Jana, he gave her a little wave that made her
heart flip-flop. Jana and Christie kept their eyes on Laura and her friends as
much as they were able to during the short homeroom period. Jana had the
feeling that they were being watched, too.

After homeroom, when Jana got to her English class, she was
surprised to see Funny already seated. She hadn't noticed her in the class the
day before, but that was probably because it hadn't been until lunch period
that they got acquainted.

"Hi, Jana," called Funny. Then she motioned Jana
toward her. "I've saved you a seat."

Funny pointed to the desk next to her own and then removed
the notebook she had left there to save the seat. Funny had a huge smile on her
face, and Jana couldn't help smiling back as she slid into the seat. Whatever
Funny and Laura had been fighting about at the lockers yesterday, Funny didn't
seem to be bothered about it now.

"Thanks," Jana said. "I didn't realize you
were in this class. Maybe it isn't going to be so dull, after all."

Before Funny could reply, Miss Dickinson came sweeping into
the room. Rumor had it that this was Miss Dickinson's first job out of college,
and Jana suspected that if dramatics were taught at Wakeman, she would be
teaching that instead of English. Her long brown hair was swept up in an
old-fashioned pouf with a tiny bun sitting on top like a crown. Her clothes
were old-fashioned, too. Today she was wearing an ankle-length blue skirt and a
lacy cream-colored blouse with a cameo brooch at her throat.

Jana giggled as she remembered how Miss Dickinson had
introduced herself to the class the day before. "My name is Miss Dickinson
and I teach English literature and poetry," she had tittered, "but I'm
no relation to Emily."

Nobody in the class had gotten it, and she had patiently
explained that Emily Dickinson had been a famous poet.

Now as she turned her back on the class and began scribbling
on the board, Funny tossed a note onto Jana's desk.

Isn't she a riot? It's going to be fun to have a nut for
a teacher!!!

Funny

Jana read the note and then nodded to Funny. She glanced up
to see that Miss Dickinson was still writing on the board and scribbled an
answer on the bottom of the note.

Do you think Lucy ever hid out in her bedroom closet?

Jana

Funny covered her mouth with both hands to hide her laughter
when she read Jana's note. Then she hurriedly wrote a third message and tossed
it back to Jana.

No. It was probably the Three Stooges
, instead.

Funny

By this time Miss Dickinson had turned around and instructed
the class to open their books. Jana tried to keep her mind on the lesson, but
her thoughts kept returning to Funny and the crazy series of notes. She really
was a lot of fun. She could even turn a boring old English class into a good
time. If only I could become real friends with her, Jana thought. If only my
other friends would understand.

Glancing down, Jana saw another note on her desk. She looked
questioningly at Funny, who nodded. Jana opened the note, expecting it to be
another silly observation about Miss Dickinson. But she was wrong.

Dear Jana
,

Are you going to sign up for the yearbook staff?

I am. I can't wait. If you sign up
, too, maybe
they would let us be seventh-grade coeditors. Wouldn't that be a ball?

Please say you'll sign up. Please! Please!

Your new friend,

Funny

Oh
, no!
thought Jana, and then she clamped her
hand over her mouth hoping with all her might that she had not said the words
out loud. What would her friends in The Fabulous Five think if she went out for
coeditor of the yearbook with one of The Fantastic Foursome? What would her new
friend think if she turned her down? What was she going to do?