Fabulous Five 002 - The Trouble with Flirting (8 page)

Melanie had never been so nervous in her life. Before Jana,
Beth, and she went into the gym for cheerleader tryouts, Christie and Katie
gave them big hugs. Now the three of them were clustered near the doorway,
nervously rehearsing cheers in their minds and watching other seventh-graders
file in.

"This is it!" said Beth, dancing around on
tiptoes.

"I'm really worried," confessed Jana. "I just
can't seem to get some of the routines down.
Plus
,
Mr. Neal is
posting the list of yearbook editors right this minute, and I won't be able to
find out if I made it until after tryouts."

Even though Melanie felt better about Shane and Garrett and
had been congratulated by all of her friends for her honesty, she couldn't help
wishing she had practiced the cheers a little bit harder. "At least I won't
be first," she mumbled.

"E-gad!" shrieked Beth. "I might be. Barry.
That's near the front of the alphabet." Beth scanned the growing crowd in
the gym. "Oh, good. I forgot all about Dekeisha Adams," she said,
pointing to a tall black girl talking to friends on the other side of the room.

Just then Miss Wolfe entered, and everyone got quiet.

"Good afternoon, ladies. Ve vill begin the tryouts in
just one moment." Then she instructed them to line up in alphabetical
order in front of the bleachers and to come forward one at a time, introducing
themselves and then doing their favorite cheer from the sheets she had passed
out. Across the room at a long table sat four judges: Miss Zimmerman, the music
teacher; Mrs. Strizak, the gymnastics coach from the Y; and two varsity
cheerleaders, ninth-grader Kaci Davis and eighth-grader Colby Graham.

After everyone was lined up, Miss Wolfe sat down in the
fifth judge's chair. "Ve are now ready to begin," she said, nodding
to Dekeisha Adams.

The next few minutes were a blur as Melanie waited for her
turn to come. Her heart was pounding so loudly she could barely hear the other
contestants' cheers. But she could see that Dekeisha was fantastic, and so was
Beth. Heather Clark was good, and Alexis, and the next thing she knew it was
her turn.

Melanie sprang to the center of the floor and introduced
herself to the judges. Then she took a deep breath and got into position for
her cheer. She had chosen the same one she had yelled in her dream, that
fantastic dream where she had inspired the team to victory and the crowd had
chanted her name in thanks.

"Got the spirit? Let's
hear it!
" she
screamed. "Give me a W!"

Silence. For an instant she was stunned. Then suddenly she
realized why. This was tryouts. There was no crowd to return her cry. Closing
her eyes quickly, she pictured the crowd and heard them scream "W"
back to her.

"Give me an A!" she yelled. Again, her make-believe
audience responded. By the time she had spelled out W-A-K-E-M-A-N
W-A-R-R-I-O-R-S and finished with a double somersault, her imaginary crowd was
on its feet roaring.

Melanie opened her eyes. The judges were all smiling, and
she raced back to her place in line on legs that were almost crumpling beneath
her from relief.

She tried to watch the rest of the girls go through their
routines. Melinda Thaler tripped going onto the floor, and Jana forgot her
routine halfway through and had to start over, but most of the girls were good.
Taffy Sinclair was prissy, as usual, but Melanie could tell that the judges
liked her. It was obvious that they liked Laura McCall and Tammy Lucero, too.

After everyone had finished, Melanie fidgeted as the judges
marked their score sheets. There were only eight positions on the squad. She
would die if she didn't get one of them.

Finally Miss Wolfe stood, picking up a piece of paper and
holding up her hand for silence. "Here are the names of the seventh-grade
girls who will form the junior varsity cheerleading squad. Dekeisha Adams, Beth
Barry, Alexis Duvall, Melanie Edwards, Tammy Lucero, Laura McCall, Mandy
McDermott, and Taffy Sinclair. Congratulations, girls, and thank you to
everyone else who tried out."

Melanie was so excited that she thought she would burst. She
began jumping up and down and shrieking with the other seven girls who had made
the squad. It wasn't until she and Beth were jumping and giggling together that
a terrible thought hit her. It must have struck Beth at the same instant
because both girls froze and stared at each other.

"Jana," whispered Melanie.

"She didn't make it," said Beth. "Where is
she?"

They looked first among the crowd of sad-faced girls who
were leaving the gym, but Jana wasn't among them. She wasn't in the middle of
the winners and friends who were congratulating them, either.

"Oh, my gosh," said Melanie. "Where could she
be? I feel terrible."

"So do I," said Beth. "I was so excited about
making the squad that I completely forgot about her. I'll bet she's crushed.
She wanted to make cheerleader as much as we did. I hope she didn't think we
deserted her and then went away somewhere to cry." Just then Melanie
noticed someone trying to push her way into the gym through the crowd that was
leaving. "Look!" she cried. "It's Jana. And she's
smiling!
"

"I made it! I made it!" Jana cried as she rushed
toward them, her face aglow. "And so did Funny Hawthorne. We're going to
be seventh-grade coeditors of the yearbook."

"Wow! That's great," said Melanie. "We couldn't
find you, and we were worried."

"Sorry," said Jana. "And congratulations to
you guys for making the squad. When I found out I didn't, I just had to duck
out and check
The Wigwam
staff. You know," she added thoughtfully, "it's
a good thing I'm not going to be a cheerleader. Yearbook is going to take up a
lot of time."

Laughing, Melanie grabbed her two friends' arms and together
they skipped out of the gym.

This was it. Laura McCall's party. Melanie stood in front of
her mirror surveying herself. She had tried on everything in her closet before
choosing her best white jeans and a turquoise sweater that set off her
burnished hair. What would Laura wear? Something terrific, probably. And how
would she treat The Fabulous Five? At least there would be lots of kids there.
Maybe they could just blend in.

Mr. Daly dropped off Melanie and Scott at the apartment
building where Laura lived. It was easy to find Laura's apartment. The door to
#7 was wide open and music was coming from inside. Melanie shivered nervously
until she noticed other kids entering the building behind them.

Just as they walked through the door, a tall, handsome man
with blond hair stepped up and stuck out his hand. "Hi, there," he
said. "I'm Laura's father. It looks as if I got home from Atlanta just in
time for a party."

Melanie pretended to cough to hide a giggle while Scott
shook Mr. McCall's hand. So this party is going to be chaperoned after all, she
thought with a smile.

The living room was crowded with kids and more were pouring
in the door all the time. She knew practically everyone there: most of the
cheerleading squad, a few eighth-graders, and even a couple of kids from Copper
Beach in addition to Riverfield and Mark Twain kids.

Laura was standing in one corner with Tammy and Melissa,
looking frustrated and shooting poison-dart looks at the back of her father's
head. It was obvious that she had primped extra hard for this party because she
looked gorgeous in a pale blue jumpsuit. Jana and Randy were nearby, talking to
Funny. Probably about the yearbook, thought Melanie. So far, so good. Maybe
this party would be all right, after all.

She was watching for Shane and Garrett, but neither of them
had arrived yet. Scott brought her a soda just as Beth, Christie, and Katie
popped in the door together and waved in their direction.

As Melanie raised her hand to wave back to her friends,
Taffy Sinclair stepped into the room wearing a pale blue jumpsuit that was
identical to the one Laura wore. She had probably meant to make a grand
entrance, but a few girls gasped, and everyone else got quiet as Taffy and
Laura stared in horror at each other. Neither girl moved a hair as anger
gleamed in their eyes.

"Hey!" shouted Curtis Trowbridge. "Twins!"

That broke the tension for everyone except Taffy and Laura.
Melanie watched as they carefully turned their backs to each other and
pretended the other one did not exist while everyone else started talking again
and a few couples danced. Melanie and Scott danced several times, and she even
danced with Garrett when he arrived a little while later.

"Where's Shane?" she whispered to Jana. "The
party has been going on for an hour, and he's still not here?"

"I haven't heard anything about him not coming,"
said Jana. "Maybe he's sick, or something."

"Not Shane," Melanie assured her. Then her face
brightened and she burst out laughing as Shane came through the door leading an
iguana on a leash.

"Meet Igor," he called out as kids squealed and
pointed toward the lizard. Igor seemed unperturbed by the crowd and as cool as
Shane, looking around and flicking his tongue first to the right and then to
the left.

"Is he going to play the drums for us?" asked
Melanie.

"Naw," said Shane, giving her a wink that made her
heart flutter. "I brought him along so that he could dance with me to all
the good tunes."

The rest of the party was terrific, including the food,
which was a ten-foot-long submarine sandwich cut in sections and served with
chips and brownies. Garrett shot pictures all over the place, getting several
of Melanie. Everyone talked and danced and had a good time, except for Laura
and Taffy, who spent the evening making a big deal of ignoring each other. And
by time to go home, almost everyone had gotten up the nerve to pet Igor at
least once.

"It was a great party, wasn't it?" Melanie asked
Scott as Mr. Daly drove them home.

"Yeah," said Scott. "It sure was."

And then, when he walked her to the door, he pulled her
behind an evergreen bush and kissed her.

Melanie stood watching Scott drive away. She felt so dreamy
she could barely stand it. Just think, she told herself, Scott really likes me,
and I came so close to messing up a good thing.

She said good-night to her parents and went to her room.
Still, she thought as she got ready for bed and Shane's and Garrett's faces
reappeared in her mind. Scott and I aren't going steady, and Shane and Garrett
are awfully cute. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to keep on flirting with them once in
a while.

She sighed, knowing what Katie would say. She'll say I'm boy
crazy, thought Melanie. Then she hugged herself and smiled.

So, let her. Being a
little bit
boy crazy is fun!

On Monday morning Christie got up before anyone else in her
family and tiptoed outside to get the morning newspaper. She couldn't wait
until breakfast to read her horoscope. Not that she believed in such things, of
course, but her horoscope for Saturday had said that a mysterious stranger
would enter her life. That had to have meant Jon Smith. She had thought he was
cute ever since school started, but Saturday night at Laura's party she had
caught him looking at her from across the room three times.

She sighed and smiled to herself as she leafed through the
paper looking for the horoscope page. So what if most kids say he's boring? He's
just quiet, she thought, that's all. I'm quiet, myself. And so what if his
parents are big deals on the local television station? Celebrities, actually.
It's wrong the way some kids butter him up just to get to meet his parents.

In a way, she knew how he felt. Sometimes kids tried to take
advantage of the fact that Mr. Bell, the principal of Wakeman Junior High, was
a friend of her parents. So what? she thought. That had nothing to do with
Saturday night and Jon Smith's looking at her
three whole times!

Finally she found the horoscope and looked down the list of
signs until she found her own:

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Your best qualities push you into
the limelight. Special meeting will bring either conflict or romance. You could
find yourself under pressure. Beware!

Christie read over the message at least a dozen times. The
parts about conflict and pressure made her shiver, but what was the meaning of
the special meeting that could bring romance? Did that mean that she would
actually come face-to-face with Jon? And why would she have to "beware"?
Find out in
The Fabulous Five #3: The Popularity Trap.

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
The Great Boyfriend
Trap.
She lives in Colleyville, Texas, with her children and husband, who
is the author of a young adult novel.