Fabulous Five 002 - The Trouble with Flirting

THE FABULOUS FIVE #2

THE TROUBLE WITH
FLIRTING

BETSY HAYNES

A BANTAM SKYLARK
BOOK®

TORONTO • NEW YORK •
LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND

RL 5, 009-012

THE TROUBLE WITH
FLIRTING

A Bantam Skylark
Book
/ October 1988

Skylark Books is a
registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and
elsewhere.

All rights
reserved.

Copyright
©
1988 by Betsy Haynes.

Cover art
copyright
© 1988 by Ralph Amatrudi.

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book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information
address: Bantam Books.

ISBN 0-553-15633-0

Published
simultaneously in the United States and Canada

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published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
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S              0 9 8
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"I am not boy crazy!" Melanie Edwards insisted. A
hurt expression crossed her face as she sank back into the booth at Bumpers,
the fast food restaurant that was the junior high hangout, and scanned her four
best friends' faces for signs of sympathy.

"Hey, look," said Katie Shannon. "Here comes
Scott Daly, and he's with Shane Arrington. What do you suppose they're talking
about?"

Melanie's eyes brightened and she spun around, looking hopefully
toward the front door where kids were streaming in for after-school sodas. Her
shoulders slumped the instant she realized that Katie had only been teasing
her, pretending that the two boys she had mad crushes on were coming into
Bumpers together.

Katie was laughing, and so were Jana Morgan, Beth Barry, and
Christie Winchell, the other members of The Fabulous Five. The five of them had
been best friends for practically forever and had made a pact to stick together
when they left Mark Twain Elementary for Wakeman Junior High, or Wacko Junior
High, as most kids called it. Melanie laughed too, in spite of herself. She
knew her friends loved to tease her about her interest in boys. But how could
she help it? There were so many more cute guys in junior high than there had
been in her old elementary school.

"Listen, you guys," she said. "I just happen
to like boys, that's all. What's so unusual about that?"

Jana leaned toward Melanie, her smile fading. "Speaking
of boys, have you heard any more about Laura McCall's party?"

Melanie frowned. Laura McCall was the leader of The
Fantastic Foursome, a clique of seventh-grade girls who had gone to Riverfield
Elementary School together before coming to Wakeman. They had already
established themselves as major rivals of The Fabulous Five. According to what
Melanie and her friends had heard, Laura lived with her divorced father and
could do absolutely anything she wanted to. What was even worse, there was a
rumor out that she was having a party, and had invited lots of kids from her
old school and ALL the boys from The Fabulous Five's school but NONE OF THE
GIRLS. Melanie and her friends were burned up about that. It was obvious to
them that Laura and her friends were trying to steal their boyfriends.

"No," said Melanie, shaking her head. "All I
know is that Lisa Snow found out from Mark Peters that Laura and The Fantastic
Foursome are passing out invitations in
red envelopes
,
and that
every single seventh-grade boy from Mark Twain Elementary got one—including
Scott Daly. And even worse, according to Mark, they're all planning to go!"

"What a dirty trick," said Christie.

"It just means that Laura's afraid of the competition,"
Katie said smugly.

"Yeah," agreed Beth. "She knows that if The
Fabulous Five were there, she'd never stand a chance."

Melanie didn't answer. She was too worried. Everyone knew
that Laura had a crush on Shane Arrington, the gorgeous guy from her old
school, and that she had had parties before just so she could invite him. Shane
could win a River Phoenix lookalike contest hands down, but there were other
things about him that were special, too. He had parents who were hippies and a
pet iguana named Igor. For Laura to go after Shane was bad enough, now that
Melanie liked him, too, in addition to still liking her old boyfriend, Scott
Daly. But for Laura to invite the Mark Twain boys to this party meant that she
would have the perfect opportunity to go after
both
Shane and Scott at
once without any interference from The Fabulous Five. The idea made Melanie's
reddish-brown hair curl.

"I can't believe that Randy Kirwan will go," Jana
said in a sad voice. "Not after all we've meant to each other."

Beth nodded. "Or Keith Masterson, either."

"Well, if Scott goes, Laura had better keep her hands
off him," Melanie said indignantly.

"So, what are you going to do if she doesn't?"
asked Katie.

"I don't know, but I'll think of something."

Just then Marcie Bee squeezed through the crowd around the
counter and headed for their booth. "Hi, gang," she chirped. "Did
you see who just came in?" She nodded in the direction of a tall,
sandy-haired boy who was making his way among the tables and heading in the
general direction of The Fabulous Five. "
That's
Garrett Boldt,"
said Marcie. "Isn't he cute!"

"He's not just cute," said Melanie. She grabbed
the table for support as her eyes lit up. "He's absolutely gorgeous!"

Just then Marcie shouted, "Hey, Garrett!"

Melanie's eyes widened. How could Marcie make such an idiot
of herself? Melanie thought for an instant that she would die if she couldn't
crawl away somewhere and hide. Maybe she could slip under the table before it
was too late.

Garrett stopped and looked slowly in the direction of the
booth where Marcie had slid in next to The Fabulous Five. Then a smile broke
across his face. It wasn't an ordinary smile, though, Melanie thought. In fact,
it was such an extraordinary smile that her heart began to pound like crazy.
His blue eyes sparkled and his mouth tilted higher on the left side than the
right, emphasizing a deep dimple in his left cheek that appeared the instant he
smiled.

"Hi, Marcie. How's it going?" he called back in a
husky voice. Then, before Melanie had time to recover from the sight of his
great smile and the sound of his romantic voice, he started toward the booth.

"Garrett's an eighth-grader and he's in my French
class," Marcie whispered, trying to say the words without moving her lips
so that Garrett wouldn't know she was talking about him. "He borrowed a
pencil from me—
twice
.
" Beaming with pride and looking
straight at him, she said out loud, "Wow! That's a neat camera."

For the first time Melanie pulled her eyes away from his
face and noticed the camera hanging from a wide strap on his shoulder. It
looked a lot like her father's expensive 35 mm.

"You probably won't see much of me without this baby,"
Garrett said, patting the camera. "I'm the sports photographer for the
yearbook this year, and my job is to get pictures of all the jocks—in and out
of the games."

Even though Garrett was answering Marcie's question, he was
smiling and glancing around at all of the girls sitting in the booth as if each
one of them was part of the conversation. "That reminds me, the soap game
is Saturday afternoon. You girls are going, aren't you?"

Melanie felt limp. From the way he had asked, he made it
sound as if he really wanted all of them at the game.

"What in the world is a soap game?" asked Katie,
and Melanie realized that she had never heard of it either. "Is there some
kind of new sport called soap?"

Garrett chuckled and then turned his gorgeous blue eyes on
Katie. "It's a Wakeman tradition, and it's the first football game of the
year except it doesn't count as part of the season. Actually, it's a preseason
scrimmage between the first- and second-string players, and the price of
admission is a bar of soap."

"A bar of soap!" shrieked Beth. "You've got
to be kidding."

Garrett shook his head. "Honest," he said, and
then raised his right hand as if he were swearing an oath. "The soap
collected at the gate will be enough for the team's showers for the entire
season. It's a terrific idea. So, are you going?"

"Of course we're going," said Melanie. "We
wouldn't miss it for the world."

Garrett gave the girls a friendly wave as he turned and
moved among the booths and tables, stopping here and there to speak to friends.
Marcie drifted to another table, too, and for a moment The Fabulous Five just
sat there, watching him walk away without uttering a word. They couldn't. They
were speechless.

"Wow!" said Melanie after a minute. "Did you
hear that? He wants us to go to the game."

Katie frowned at Melanie. "But why did you tell him we
were going? We haven't even talked about it yet."

"Are you kidding?" said Melanie. "I'd
kill
to get to that game! I'd walk barefoot over burning coals! I'd dig my way
through an avalanche! I'd bring a case of soap! I'd—"

"We get it! We get it!" shouted Christie. Then in
a softer voice she added, "But I'll have to admit, it would take a lot to
keep me away."

"Me, too," admitted Beth.

Katie was shaking her head in disbelief. "I don't know
about you, Melanie," she said. "First it was Shane Arrington, and now
it's Garrett Boldt. What about Scott Daly? In sixth grade, he was all you ever
talked about. You haven't totally forgotten about him already, have you?"

"Of course not," Melanie insisted, but deep
inside, underneath her excitement at going to the soap game on Saturday and
seeing Garrett Boldt again, was a tiny stab of guilt over Scott.

Melanie was ecstatic.
Everyone
was going to the soap
game. From the moment it was first announced the next day during homeroom,
right up until time to go to the stadium on Saturday afternoon, the game was
the hot topic of conversation at school.

"I'm so
nervous
,
" Melanie confessed
the minute she and the rest of The Fabulous Five met on the corner two blocks
from the stadium to walk together to the game. "Scott and Shane are both
on the team, and Garrett will be there taking pictures."

"I'm nervous, too," said Jana. "Randy is
going to be playing, and I keep remembering the game last year when he got
hurt."

"It was only a bloody nose," said Christie.

"I know," said Jana, "but it makes me
nervous, anyway. Besides that, I want to look over the varsity cheerleaders.
Seventh-graders get to try out next week for the junior varsity squad. I've got
my fingers crossed that they won't have a lot of acrobatics in their routines.
Otherwise, I'm
doomed
.
"

"Look," said Katie as they approached the entrance
to the stadium. "Over there." Her voice had an ominous sound to it,
and they looked quickly in the direction she was pointing.

"The Fantastic Foursome," muttered Christie. "Wouldn't
you know they'd be here."

Melanie gave them a suspicious glance, but if Laura McCall
and her three best friends noticed The Fabulous Five, they didn't let on. They
were standing near the gate talking among themselves. Laura was obviously in
control. She was taller than the rest and wore her hair in a long blond braid
that fell from the top of her head to her waist. Standing in a semicircle
around her were tiny, dark-haired Tammy Lucero, Melissa McConnell, who looked
very serious, and bouncy, smily Funny Hawthorne.

"I'll bet Laura is gMng them instructions," said
Beth.

"I wonder what she makes them do to stay in her group,"
said Melanie. There was a big rumor around school that Laura gave her followers
orders and that they obeyed them or else they were
out
,
but so far
nobody could find out what those orders were.

"She's probably telling them to scout the soap game for
more cute boys to ask to her party," Katie said sarcastically.

"Oh, no!" cried Melanie. "What if she asks
Garrett, too? Then she'll have Scott and Shane and Garrett—
all three
—in
her clutches. I'll absolutely die!"

"Come on," urged Jana. "Let's go on in and
find a seat before it gets too crowded."

The girls handed bars of soap to the ticket takers, who
dropped them into large cardboard boxes. Then they entered the crowded stadium
grounds.

"Want to go to the refreshment stand before we sit
down?" shouted Melanie over the noise of the crowd. "I'm starved."

"No way!" said Beth. "Look at the stands.
They're packed. If we don't find a seat right now, we may have to stand up
through the whole game."

"Do you see anybody we know?" asked Jana, scanning
the bleachers.

"That looks like Alexis Duvall and Lisa Snow and Kim
Baxter over there," said Christie. She was pointing to the far section of
the bleachers where most of the parents sat.

"Look this way," shouted Melanie. "Marcie Bee
is over here with Gloria Drexler, and there are some empty seats behind them.
If we hurry, we can get them."

Marcie and Gloria were sitting in the middle of the cheering
section directly behind the team bench, and they saw The Fabulous Five, too,
and began waving. It wasn't until they were already racing up the steps toward
the empty seats that Melanie realized they weren't the only ones heading toward
them. Climbing the steps on the opposite side of the section was The Fabulous
Five's old enemy, Taffy Sinclair, followed by Stacy Holgrem and Sara Sawyer.
Taffy was moving fast, and even though she was acting prissy and taking dainty
little steps, Melanie could see that she was going to get there ahead of them.

"Come on, Edwards. Go for it!" urged Beth.

Melanie nodded and started taking the steps two at a time.
When she and Taffy both reached the row, Melanie went crashing in from her
side, crunching the toes of the people already seated and practically falling
into the first empty space. Then she scooted toward the center, determined
either to beat Taffy or squeeze her out.

"Oh, no, you don't, Melanie Edwards!" Taffy
shouted. She made an unladylike dive for the space next to Melanie and came up with
her nose practically touching Melanie's.

"I got here first," Melanie growled. "Go find
someplace else to sit."

"Make me!" Taffy challenged. "Come on, kids,"
she said, motioning to Stacy and Sara. "These are our seats."

At the same time, Melanie motioned to her friends, who were
stomping into the row and crowding themselves into the remaining space beside
her. Beth wiggled in and Christie pressed herself in beside them. On the other
side of Taffy, Stacy and Sara were struggling to wedge themselves into a space
hardly big enough for one.

"Shove Taffy over," ordered Katie as she tried to
cram herself into the shrinking space. "We need more room."

Glaring at Taffy, Melanie planted her bottom firmly on the
hard bench of the bleachers and tried to inch her over. Taffy had planted her
bottom on the bench, also, and was trying to do the same thing to Melanie while
she gave her a terrible poison-dart look.

"I said move, and I meant it," snarled Melanie. "These
seats belong to us. We got here first."

"It's a free country," Taffy said in a voice loud
enough to be heard all around them. "We can sit here if we want to.
Besides," she said, "isn't that Scott Daly over on the sidelines
motioning to you?"

"What!" Melanie shrieked, jumping to her feet. The
instant Melanie was off the bench, Taffy scooted over into her place.

"Oh, no, you don't," Melanie muttered when she
realized she had been tricked. Then she sat down again as hard as she could,
practically squashing Taffy. Melanie stared her straight in the eye as she shouldered
into her space again. It took ages to wiggle her way back down to the bench,
but she did it without pulling her eyes away from Taffy's for an instant.

Suddenly the horn bleated, signaling the start of the game
and startling Melanie so much that she jumped as if she had hiccups. Had the
cheerleaders already been out on the field? She had wanted to watch them since
she planned to try out for the junior varsity squad, too.

The crowd roared as the center snapped the ball, and the two
facing teams plowed headlong into each other. Melanie couldn't believe that
both teams had gone through their warm-up calisthenics and the game had already
started, and she was just now paying attention. She scanned the players on the
field to see if she could spot either Scott or Shane. She found them
immediately in their uniforms of red and gold, which were the Wakeman school
colors. Scott was number 27 and Shane was number 31, and they were both on the
second-string team, which was made up mostly of seventh-graders.

Suddenly movement on the sidelines directly below caught
Melanie's attention. Her heart almost stopped. It was Garrett Boldt. He had
turned to face the crowd, and there was a smile on his gorgeous face. Best of
all, he had his camera in one hand, and with the other he was waving like crazy
straight in her direction.

Melanie took a deep breath, smiling her most alluring smile
and returning his wave. But suddenly she was aware of something going on beside
her. Turning toward Taffy, Melanie saw that her old enemy was smiling so big
that she could see her one crooked bicuspid, and that Taffy was waving at
Garrett, too.

Self-consciously Melanie lowered her hand. How could she
have ever thought that Garrett was waving to her? she wondered. Not with Taffy
Sinclair around. Taffy not only had long blond hair and big blue eyes, but she
had been the most gorgeous girl in Mark Twain Elementary. There weren't very
many girls in Wakeman who were even close to being as pretty as she was.

But on the other hand, she reminded herself, Garrett had stopped
by the booth at Bumpers where she had been sitting with the rest of The
Fabulous Five, and he had smiled and acted as if he really wanted all of them,
including her, to come to the soap game. But had he actually been flirting as
she had hoped, or did he simply have a great personality and was friendly to
everyone?

Melanie and Taffy glared at each other and continued
elbowing for more room until Melanie suddenly realized that the entire first
half was over and the cheerleaders were on the field. She had missed the whole
thing. She had even missed hearing Christie's asking if anyone wanted anything
from the refreshment stand. Now she noticed her friend struggling to get into
the crowded row without spilling any of the goodies she was carrying.

"Melanie, I've got to talk to you," Christie
called in a loud whisper. Her voice sounded urgent, as if she knew some big
secret.

Melanie glanced over her shoulder at Taffy, knowing she didn't
dare move from her spot. Taffy would be sure to crowd her out permanently if
she got up even for a minute.

"What is it?" Melanie asked. "Can't you come
down here and tell me?"

Christie sighed loudly as if she were totally exasperated,
but a moment later she was leaning across Beth and cupping her hands around Melanie's
ear.

"It's about Garrett Boldt," she whispered. "He
was at the refreshment stand when I was, and guess what?"

"Come on, Christie," Melanie whined impatiently.
"Tell
me!"

"He asked me for your name and phone number!"

Melanie's eyes widened in disbelief and she thought for an
instant that she might pass out from sheer excitement. Garrett had asked for
her name and phone number? Not Taffy Sinclair's? It was too wonderful to be
true.

"You're kidding!" she shrieked. "Oh,
Christie. You're the best friend in the world!"

Melanie settled back and tried to concentrate on the rest of
the game, but she couldn't. She was remembering how she had been overweight for
so long from constantly eating her mother's scrumptious homemade brownies. She
hadn't been
just
overweight, she remembered with a blush. She hadn't
paid much attention to her hair or clothes, telling herself that her appearance
didn't really matter, when, of course, it did. It hurt to remember how no boy
had ever looked at her the way they looked at other girls, especially Taffy
Sinclair. If they noticed her at all, they treated her like a sister.

But in sixth grade something wonderful had happened. She had
started losing weight and wearing nicer clothes and even styling her hair, the
way the other girls did. Finally Scott Daly had asked her to go to a movie with
him and a bunch of other kids. She liked Scott a lot. And yet, there were tons
of other cute boys in Wacko Junior High whom she hadn't even met yet.

So what if Katie Shannon is always calling me boy crazy? she
thought. It didn't matter. Because now, even when she was sitting next to Taffy
Sinclair, someone as special as Garrett Boldt had noticed
her.