Fabulous Five 012 - Katie's Dating Tips (6 page)

"What am I going to do?" Katie wailed. After going
to her locker she had found the rest of The Fabulous Five clustered at the
mirror in the girls' room. She had quickly described to them the scene in the
science lab with her mother and Mr. Dracovitch. "They're definitely
falling for each other. I mean, it's obvious from the way they were gazing into
each other's eyes. She isn't even giving Mr. Newkirk a chance."

"I keep telling you, he has a potbelly and his voice is
too high," said Melanie, giving her shoulder-length brown hair a final
brush.

"So what?" Katie retorted. "He's better than
Mr. Dracovitch any day."

Beth shook her head. "I don't understand, Katie.
Usually you get all hyper when you meet someone who's trying to do something
for the world the way Mr. Dracovitch is. It would seem more normal if you were
encouraging
your mother to go out with him. What's happening to you, anyway? Are you giving
up on all of your causes?"

"Of course not," said Katie, frowning. "It's
just that it's different now. Totally different. It's my
mother
we're
talking about. You know what the kids here at Wacko think of Mr. Dracovitch.
They think he's looney tunes. And I'm not so sure that I don't agree with them.
Having kids see Mom and him together is terminally embarrassing."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," said Christie. "Sometimes
it wasn't easy for me having my mom as the principal of Mark Twain Elementary
either. Has anyone been teasing you?"

"Just a few kids in a couple of my classes," Katie
admitted as the first bell rang and they filed out of the girls' room and
headed for their classrooms. "But that was before the episode in the
science lab this morning. From the looks on their faces, they'll be lucky if
they can stay apart long enough to teach their classes."

"Wow," said Melanie in a dreamy voice. "Love
in the lab. Isn't that romantic?"

Katie felt lucky that she didn't run into her mother and Mr.
Dracovitch in the halls during the morning, but unfortunately, she found out
when she got to the cafeteria that a lot of kids had.

"Hey, Katie," called out Garrett Boldt as she
passed his table carrying her lunch tray. "What's with your mom and Mr.
Dracovitch? I saw them together in the halls twice this morning."

Katie tossed Garrett a weak smile and shrugged. Then she
ducked low and made a beeline for The Fabulous Five's table. She had known that
the teasing would get worse, and she had been right. At least Garrett hadn't
made any remarks about how weird Mr. Dracovitch was, she thought with relief.

But her relief was short-lived. She hadn't even said hello
to her friends when Clarence Marshall came bounding up to the table carrying
his lunch bag in his mouth like a dog. His unruly blond hair hung in his eyes,
and when he dropped the lunch bag into his hand, he had a smirk on his face.

"What's going on with your mom, anyway?" he asked
sarcastically. "I always thought she was pretty cool, but first I see her
with Newkirk the jerk, and now, today, she's walking around with Count Dracula.
Talk about a switch." Suddenly his eyes brightened and he began snapping
his fingers. "Hey, I've got another rhyme. Draco VITCH! Whata SWITCH!
Draco
VITCH!
Whata
SWITCH
!
That's pretty good."

Katie watched with disgust as he strutted away, still
snapping his fingers and laughing his head off. She felt a hand on her arm and
glanced around to see Jana looking at her sympathetically.

"Don't let Clarence get to you," she said. "If
anybody's a jerk, he is."

"Right," said Christie. "Most kids won't
think anything about your mom and Mr. Dracovitch walking through the halls
together. Other teachers do it all the time, and nobody talks about them. Besides,
she's only going to be here for one week, and this is Wednesday already.
Everybody will forget all about it in another couple of days."

"Don't listen to the conversation at the table behind
me then," cautioned Melanie, who was sitting across from Katie.

Katie looked over Melanie's shoulder. Laura McCall and her
three best friends, The Fantastic Foursome, were talking and laughing as if
they knew some big joke. They were always trying to outdo The Fabulous Five,
and Katie frowned as she caught the drift of what they were saying.

Tammy Lucero's eyes got big as she spoke. "Can you
imagine what it would be like if
your
mother was in love with Dracula?"

"Eee-YEW!" cried Melissa McConnell. "He is so
creepy."

"And can you imagine what it would be like to
kiss
him?"
piped up Funny Hawthorne, who immediately began to giggle.

"Yeah," Laura said slowly. Then she turned around
and gave Katie a superior look as she raised her voice so that everyone nearby
could hear. "He probably takes you in his arms and whispers,
I've come
to bite your neck
!
'"

Scalding heat climbed up Katie's face, and she came up off
her seat like a rocket leaving a launchpad.

"Sit down!" urged Jana, tugging on her sleeve. "Do
you want the whole cafeteria to hear this?"

Katie didn't move. Instead she and Laura remained perfectly
still, glaring at each other like strange cats.

"Jana's right," cautioned Beth. "People are
starting to look this way—just what you don't need."

Katie bristled as she kept on staring at Laura. How could
she just sit down when Laura and her friends were saying such awful things?

Finally Laura broke the spell, looking away and whispering
to her friends. The next instant they all got up, raised their noses into the
air, and hurried out of the cafeteria without so much as a glance back in Katie's
direction.

"Now will you sit down?" asked Beth. "She's
gone. Out of sight. You can relax."

Katie sank slowly back to her seat. Beth is wrong, she
thought. I can't relax. Laura may be gone for now, but the humiliation over my
mother and Mr. Dracovitch is only beginning.

Katie was too upset over the teasing in the cafeteria at
noon to catch a ride home with Willie after school or to go to Bumpers. She had
hoped that the long walk would make her feel better, but it hadn't. When she
got home, her mother's car was already in the driveway.

She could hear her mother talking on the phone the instant
she stepped through the front door.

"That's an absolute riot," Willie was saying in a
high-pitched voice. Then she burst out laughing.

Whom could her mother be talking to at this hour? Katie
wondered. All of Willie's friends were at work this time of day. Katie shook
her head and peeked into the kitchen.

There on the floor, leaning against the cupboard, sat
Willie. She was talking on the phone in the very same position that Katie
always sat in when she gabbed with her friends. Willie never did that. She
always sat at the kitchen table. Not only that, her mother was twirling the
phone cord around a finger and gazing off into space with a look of rapture on
her face.

"Of course, Mark. I
totally
agree,"
squealed Willie.

Katie put her hands on her hips and stared at her mother in
total amazement. She was talking to a man!

At that same instant Willie looked up and spotted Katie. "Um,
I have to hang up now, Mark," she said hastily. "I'll talk to you
tomorrow. Bye."

"So, who's this Mark?" Katie demanded as her
mother scrambled to her feet and replaced the receiver on the hook.

"Why, it's Mark Dracovitch," said Willie.

"Oh," Katie mumbled. She had never thought about
Mr. Dracovitch's having a first name. Especially not something as common and
everyday as Mark. Mark Dracovitch. It certainly sounded better than Count
Dracula, but still . . .

"Mark and I are going out together Friday night,"
said Willie. "I actually called him myself and asked for the date, just
the way you said I should. I had planned to tell you about it at dinner, but I
guess this is as good a time as any."

"But Mom," Katie implored. To herself, she
thought, Oh, no! What have I done?

Before she could say more, Willie intervened. "I know
you don't care a lot for Mr. Dracovitch, but I think he's a very special
person."

Katie let out an exasperated sigh. "But . . . but what
will Mr. Newkirk think?" She was floundering for words.

"Clarence?" asked Willie.

Clarence!
Katie thought. Eeek! Why did he have to
have a dorky name like Clarence? The idea made her eyes cross.

"What difference does it make what he thinks?"
Willie was saying. "Just because we're going to the Egyptian exhibit
together doesn't mean we're dating. We're simply going as friends."

Katie stared silently at her mother. She felt tongue-tied.
How could she explain her feelings? How could she tell Willie about what kids
at school were saying? Kids like Clarence Marshall. And Laura McCall and her
friends. Everyone was acting as if it were Willie Shannon who was weird instead
of Mr. Dracovitch. And what's more, it hurt. A LOT.

But it's no use even trying to talk to her, Katie thought.
She wouldn't understand.

Just then the telephone rang. Katie shot a wary look at her
mother and said, "I'll get it."

Willie nodded and stepped aside. For an instant Katie
remembered that sometimes they joked about how Katie liked to answer the phone,
and Willie would tease Katie by flattening herself against the wall to get out
of Katie's path. But now she merely stood there, waiting to see whom the call
was for.

Katie picked up the receiver and took a deep breath. "Hello?"

"Yo, there, Your Honor. I thought you'd be at Bumpers
after school."

"Oh, hi, Tony," said Katie, breathing a huge sigh
of relief and sliding down the side of the cupboard to sit on the floor. She
wasn't sure what she would have done if it had been Mr. Dracovitch calling
back. She motioned to her mother that the call was for her and waited until Willie
left the kitchen before going on. "I had to come on home. What did I miss?"

"Nothing, really. It's just that today was when
everyone who wrote letters about the food in the cafeteria was supposed to turn
them in to me. I want to put them in the mail so that the newspaper will get
them tomorrow."

"Right," said Katie. "How could I have
forgotten?"

"You couldn't have if you'd eaten hot lunch today. It
tasted like the stuff smells that Dracula cooks up before school in the
morning." Then he chuckled and added, "Whoops! Bad choice. Changing
the subject, could I stop by your house and pick up your letter? I was going to
ride my bike to the post office in a while, and I could swing by on my way."

"Great," said Katie, purposely ignoring his
reference to Mr. Dracovitch. "I'll see you in a little while."

She hung up the phone and hurried upstairs to her room to
check herself in the mirror. Little tingles danced up her back at the thought
of Tony's coming over. It really bugged her sometimes that no one else could
see how special he was. Most people thought of him as a troublemaker, but here
he was single-handedly leading a campaign to improve the food in the school
cafeteria. Naturally, no one else had even dreamed of doing such a thing. A
feeling of pride for him welled up in her chest.

Katie was listening for the doorbell when it rang a while
later, and she flew down the stairs calling out, "I'LL GET IT!"

When her hand touched the doorknob, she paused a second to
get her breath. Then she opened the door and smiled broadly at Tony. "Hi.
Come on in for a minute."

"Look at all the letters I've collected," he said,
sitting down on the sofa and holding a large manila envelope open for her to
look inside.

"Wow," Katie said appreciatively. "How many
are in there?"

Tony beamed at her. "Twenty-seven, and when I get yours,
it will be twenty-eight. That ought to make somebody sit up and take notice."

Katie pulled her own letter out of the back pocket of her
jeans and handed it to him.

"Thanks," he said. "I knew I could count on
you." Opening the letter, he read it quickly. "Hey, this is pretty
good. I'll put it on top so that they'll read it first."

Katie murmured thanks. She was glad that she had completely
redone the letter after he'd called. She had mainly wanted to make the
handwriting neater, but she had changed some of the wording, too.

"Your mom really gives some interesting assignments,"
said Tony. "What did you think of the one she gave us today?"

Katie frowned. They were supposed to write an essay
finishing the following sentence: "My parents would be perfect if . . ."
She had nearly come unglued in class when Willie had announced it. Right now
there was only one thing that would make her mother perfect, and that was
forgetting about Mr. Dracovitch.

"Wrong time to ask, huh?" Tony said softly.

"You've got it," grumbled Katie. "I guess I
might as well tell you. Things are getting worse. You can say 'I told you so'
if you want to."

"Why?"

Katie gave him a hopeless look. "Mom has a date with
Dracula for Friday night."

Tony shook his head sadly and gave her hand a sympathetic
squeeze. Fortunately, he didn't say "I told you so," but he didn't
have any good advice to offer, either. And when Katie watched him get on his
bike and ride away a few minutes later, she desperately wished that she had
listened to his earlier warning. Now it was too late.

Suppertime was quiet. For the millionth time Katie wished
that there were some way to talk to her mother, to explain how important it was
for her not to start dating Mr. Dracovitch. But she couldn't find the right
words. Willie was no help, either. She picked at her food self-consciously and
scarcely looked up during the entire meal.

Later, in her room, Katie finished all of her other homework
before starting the essay Willie had assigned for English. She had left it
until last on purpose because she dreaded it so much, but as she turned to a
clean page in her notebook, it occurred to her that this might be the
opportunity she had been looking for. Maybe by writing the words down and
rearranging them over and over until she got them right, she could
finally
express her feelings to her mother.

Uncapping her ballpoint pen, she wrote the subject of the
essay across the top of the page:

My parents would be
perfect if . . .

Katie frowned. "Parents" wasn't right. Her father
had been killed in an automobile accident when she was a baby. Pulling that
sheet of paper out of her notebook, she crumpled it up and started again on a
clean one.

My mother would be
perfect if . . .

She tapped the pen point, making tiny black freckles on the
page, while she tried to decide how to begin. She and Willie got along pretty
well most of the time. In fact, she would have to admit that she admired her
mother a whole lot. Willie was definitely her role model because she cared
about a lot of things and always stood up for them. Her courage gave Katie the
nerve to stand up for what she believed in, too.

But dating Mr. Dracovitch was different, she thought with a
sigh. It was . . . embarrassing. Katie stared at the page for a moment. There
is a way to say it, she thought, and then, at last, she knew how to begin.

My mother would be
perfect if she could remember how it felt to be my age.

Katie's brain was suddenly a jumble of words that were
coming so quickly she could barely scribble them down on the paper. Faster and
faster they flooded her mind, and when she punched the final period at the
bottom of the page, she was limp with exhaustion.

"I did it," she whispered.

Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was almost midnight.
She turned off her light, climbed into bed, and fell immediately into a deep
sleep.

"Boy, did I have a field day with my essay," said
Beth the next morning when The Fabulous Five met at the fence before school.

"What did you say?" asked Jana.

Beth struck a dramatic pose. "'My parents would be
perfect
if
they discovered that I'm alive!' You guys don't realize what
it's like to be the middle child of five. I'm not little and cute like the two
youngest. I'm not making my parents pull out their hair with all the teenage
stuff like the older ones. And I don't run around barking and knocking over the
furniture like Agatha. Nobody even notices me."

"Lucky you," said Melanie in a pouty voice. "I
get sick of being the oldest. I either have to baby-sit Jeffy or be a good
example. It's the pits."

Katie hoped no one would ask her the subject of her essay.
She could hardly wait for Willie to read it, but she didn't want to talk about
it to anyone else, not even her best friends.

"Hey, Katie. What's going on between your mom and Mr.
Dracovitch? Is it what I think it is?"

Katie spun around to see Alexis Duvall hurrying toward them.
Lisa Snow and Sara Sawyer were with her.

"How can you stand having your mother like Dracula?"
asked Sara.

"Yeah," said Lisa. "Is he just as weird away
from school as he is here?"

"Come on, guys," grumbled Katie. "I thought
you were my friends. Besides, there's nothing going on between Mom and Mr.
Dracovitch. They're just friends."

"Maybe that stuff he boils up in his lab every morning
is
perfume!
" shrieked Lisa. "And he's making it for the new
love of his life."

The three girls broke into peals of laughter as they turned
and headed away from The Fabulous Five. Katie watched them go, seething with
anger. They were too far away to shout back to without attracting the entire
student body.

"Gosh, Katie," said Christie. "I feel awful
when kids tease you. Have you talked to your mom and told her what's going on?
I'll bet if she understood, she'd be more careful about being seen with Mr.
Dracovitch."

"I can't talk to her," Katie muttered. "She
won't listen. But that's not the worst of it. She thinks he's the greatest, and
they have a date. She's going out with him on Friday night."

"Oh, no," said Melanie. "You poor kid."

"Friday night is when everybody from Wacko goes to the
movies," said Jana. "They aren't going to show up there, are they?"

Katie shrugged. She hadn't even thought about that
possibility. "Who knows," she said. "But even if they don't,
someone is bound to see them somewhere. I'm probably still going to be the
laughingstock of Wakeman Junior High by Monday." Unless, she thought, Mom
pays attention to my essay.