Fabulous Five 021 - Jana to the Rescue (7 page)

"YOU HAVE TO LEAVE!" little Angela roared as
loudly as she could. "I'm evicting you!"

"No! No!" cried the "mommy." She
pretended to cry,
"Wahh! Wahh! I don't want to lose my home!"

"I'm not leaving my house
!"
Josh-Daddy shouted.

"You leave peacefully, or I'll throw you out!"
Angela yelled. The words seemed even more preposterous coming from such a cute
little girl.

Jana stared speechless as she watched the children play
their
eviction
game. The very idea that three-to-six-year-olds would
even know what the word meant was incredible. But they all obviously understood
very well what getting evicted was all about, as they went about playing their
roles. They've actually seen people get thrown out of their homes, Jana thought
in amazement.

Red-faced and angry, Liz looked at Jana and stood up
abruptly. "Come on, you guys. That's not a good game to be playing. Let's
do something else."

"What? What?" the kids shouted as they jumped up
and down, ready for a new game.

"How about a story?" Liz suggested.

"Yea! I love Lizzie's stories!" Angela cried.

"Tell the one about the three bears," cried Josh. "That's
a good one."

"Yeah! The three bears!" shouted Anna.

"Okay, you guys," said Liz, sliding to the floor. "Gather
around me."

The children quickly settled cross-legged in a circle around
Liz and looked up at her with wide eyes as she started the story.

"Once upon a time there were three bears. The papa
bear, the mama bear, and the little baby bear . . ."

Jana took a deep breath and leaned back to watch Liz tell
her story. Liz's face lit up, her body became animated, and her eyes sparkled
as she led the children into the fairy tale. The kids sat silent, hanging on
every word that she said.

Jana was astonished at how great Liz was with the kids. She
had said she loved them, and it was obvious that she did, and they loved her,
too. Maybe Liz could become a teacher someday and use her talent with young
children.

Jana thought about the last couple of weeks with Liz at
school: Liz's not wanting to be friends with anyone, not getting her homework
done, not wanting to get involved at Wakeman. Now, sitting here watching Liz
entertain kids in the shelter so they wouldn't play the eviction game,
everything seemed to really make sense for the first time.

Liz was a very proud and capable girl. She and her family
had simply had bad luck. Now Liz had to live in a place where she had to watch
her things all the time to keep them from being stolen, she didn't have a place
to study, she had to live in a big room with a lot of other people, and there
was even the danger that some violent husband might come barging into the
shelter looking for his family.

Jana shivered. She really had to admire Liz for being able
to handle so many tough things. When you looked at it that way, Jana wondered
if she could do as well if she, her mother, and Pink were in the same
situation. She guessed probably not.

As Liz finished telling her story, Jana slid down onto the
floor next to her. "Have you guys heard the one about Snow White and the
seven dwarfs?" Jana asked.

"Yeah! But tell it anyway," said Anna.

As Jana started her story, the kids turned their attention
to her. Out of the corner of her eye, Jana noticed Liz looking at her
curiously.

Later, after the kids had all been put to bed and Jana and
Liz had finished studying, the two girls made their way back upstairs.

"You were really super with those kids, Liz," Jana
said.

"You weren't too bad with them yourself," Liz
replied. "It's after ten o'clock, which is when they make us turn out the
lights in the sleeping rooms. You'll have to get dressed in the dark."

"I hope I don't get my pajama tops and bottoms mixed
up," Jana said, giggling.

Liz glanced at her and actually had a small smile on her
face. "It's a good thing we made our beds before we came down or we might
have had to sleep on a bare mattress."

"What time can you get back into the shelter during the
day?" Jana asked as they stopped outside the dormitory door.

"Four-thirty in the afternoon," said Liz.

"But school's out between three-fifteen and three-thirty,"
Jana protested. "What do you do between then and four-thirty?"

Liz shrugged. "Sometimes I meet my mother at the
library or I go to the YWCA and help take care of the little kids in the
day-care center."

"Really?" said Jana. "I didn't know that. Is
your mother having any luck finding a job?"

Liz's face brightened. "She had an interview today that
she thought went real well, and she heard that the factory where she used to
work may be calling people back."

"I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for her," Jana
said, showing both her hands with fingers crossed. "I'd do my toes, too,
if I could."

Liz's face softened. "Thanks."

Later, Jana lay on her cot trying to sleep. Along the row of
beds, several people were snoring in different keys, and it was distracting. At
the other end of the room someone was coughing. She was used to her own room,
which was totally silent when everyone went to bed. Every time she rolled over
trying to find a more comfortable way of lying on the bumpy mattress the
springs would squeak so loudly she was afraid it would waken Liz, who was in
the bed next to her.

A streak of moonlight came through the space between the
edge of the blind and the window frame and fell across Liz's face. She was
sleeping, but every once in a while Jana saw her frown and move. What kind of
dreams must she be having? Jana wondered. Her whole world is turned upside
down. As she lay looking at Liz, a tear rolled out of Jana's eye and down her
cheek.

Children's voices in the hall woke Jana the next morning.
She was still groggy from not being able to sleep because of the noise in the
night, and she pulled the cover up over her head.

"Better get up," she heard Liz say.

Jana peeked out. Liz was already dressed and making her bed.
Mrs. Flagg was not in the room.

"Sleep well?" Liz asked, smiling at Jana. Jana
wasn't sure whether she was being sarcastic or not. She decided she wasn't.

"Well, not exactly," Jana answered, struggling to
sit up and scratching her itchy head. "I've got to hand it to you, Liz.
Sleeping in a place like this is heroic."

"It's pretty noisy, isn't it?"

"To say the least." Jana looked Liz in the eyes. "I
want you to know I'm sorry about the way things went studying for the history
test. I didn't understand how practically impossible it is for you to study in
this place."

Liz nodded. "That's okay. This place isn't easy to
imagine." She drew in a deep breath. "I guess I was pretty hard on
you, too. But you had
better
get in gear if you're going to get cleaned
up at all. There's probably a line a mile long at the john right now."

"Oh, my gosh!" said Jana, jumping up. "I
forgot." Quickly she dug through her bag and pulled out her toothbrush,
toothpaste, hairbrush, and hair dryer.

"What's that?" Liz asked, smiling and pointing to
the hair dryer.

"My hair dryer," responded Jana.

"I know. I'm just teasing, but you won't be able to use
it in the bathroom. They don't allow electric appliances in there."

"They don't?" asked Jana. "Well, how am I
going to wash my hair? It's all oily and I can't go to school with it looking
this way."

"You won't have time to wash it anyway. There's a
ten-minute limit on the bathroom, and that's for
everything,
including
cleaning the tub for the next person. I usually wash mine when I get here after
school. There's no one waiting in line then, and nobody cares if you take more
time."

Jana started to protest that if she had to wash her hair the
night before, it would be greasy again by the next morning, and she would look
like a mess at school. But then she remembered how many times she had silently
criticized Liz for her greasy hair. Criticized her before she understood. Jana
kept quiet and wondered quickly if she could wrap something around her hair and
wear it to school. She hated to let people see her this way. What if
Randy
saw
her with her hair dirty or stringy?

"Do you have soap or a towel?" Liz asked.

"No! Should I?"

"This isn't the Marriott," Liz answered,
chuckling. "They don't supply all those good things."

Jana frantically looked in her bag for something to dry with
as Mrs. Flagg came back into the room.

"Mom, Jana doesn't have soap or a towel," said
Liz. "Do we have an extra?"

"Sure we do," said her mother. She dug a towel and
washcloth out of the shopping bag and handed them to Jana. They had been worn
so thin by use, Jana wondered if the towel would sop up any water at all.

"Here, you can use my soap," said Liz. "You'll
have to hurry, but if the line's not too long you should be okay. I'm going
downstairs to get something to eat. When you're finished, come to the kitchen."

Armed with Liz's wet soap, the thin towel, her toothbrush
and toothpaste, Jana went out into the hall. Her heart sank when she saw the
line in front of the bathroom door. Three women stood or leaned against the
wall in their robes waiting patiently. Jana fell in at the rear of the line.

The line moved slowly, and by the time Jana was next to use
the bathroom she was hopping up and down and hoping Liz wouldn't leave for
school before she was ready.

When she was finally in the bathroom, Jana opted to wash
herself off with the washcloth rather than trying to take a tub bath. When she
had finished, she looked at her hair. It was a stringy mess from the oil that
had come out in it. Ugh! Should she run water over it and try to blow it dry in
the dormitory? Her shoulders dropped in dismay. There wasn't enough time to dry
it if she did. Maybe she should just go home and play sick? What would Liz
think if she did? Jana knew what she would think. She would think that Jana
couldn't take it. She gritted her teeth and brushed her hair up as well as she
could. It didn't improve much.

Jana sighed and opened the bathroom door. A family of three
was waiting their turn. She smiled and hurried back into the dormitory to put
stuff away and join Liz downstairs in the kitchen.

"Did you have everything you needed?" asked Mrs.
Flagg.

"Pretty much," Jana answered. What else was she
going to say?

"Oh, Jana," said Mrs. Flagg. "Would you take
this book to Lizzie? She forgot it."

"Sure," said Jana, hoisting the strap of her bag
over her shoulder and taking it.

As she took the stair steps two at a time something fell out
of the book Liz's mother had given her. Jana rolled her eyes in exasperation
and reached down to pick it up. She was late enough as it was. Her hand stopped
in midair. It was a photograph. Slowly Jana picked it up. Three faces smiled up
at her from the picture, and one of them was Liz Flagg. Liz was in the middle,
and on either side of her, arms wrapped around one another, was another girl.
Liz and her friends, Jana thought, looking as close and happy as The Fabulous
Five. Were they The Terrific Three? And this must be the picture Liz was
looking at the night she came to Jana's apartment to study. Looking and
remembering.

Jana blinked and glanced at the photo again. Why did it seem
so strange to see Liz looking like a normal kid? Was it because Jana had never
been able to see Liz that way, in spite of how hard she tried? Had she always
thought of her as "homeless" first and as a "real person"
second? Worst of all, had Liz been able to tell?

Jana slipped the picture back into Liz's book and hurried to
the kitchen.

"Have some cereal. Then we've got to go," Liz said
when Jana sat down beside her. Liz shoved a spoon and a single-serving box of
Cheerios at Jana. "Eat it out of the box. We're out of clean dishes. Here's
some milk."

Jana almost choked on her cereal. Her mind was still on the
picture of Liz and her friends. She remembered at the start of the project
thinking that if things had been different, she and her mother might have had
to live like the Flaggs. But never in her wildest imagination had she known
what it would really be like.

Within seven minutes, the girls were out the door and on
their way to school. Jana glanced at Liz walking along beside her and felt a
rush of admiration for her. She was in a terrible situation, but she was
dealing with it extremely well, when you considered everything. Liz was a real
survivor. Jana knew she was going to make it.

"Okay, so here I am," Melanie said, plopping down
in the booth at Bumpers. "Let the good times roll."

"That's the attitude, Mel," Jana said. She yawned.
She'd been yawning all day and could barely keep her eyes open during classes.

Melanie rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. "I was
kidding, Jana," she said. "I mean, I'll have good times with The
Fabulous Five, as always, but boys . . ." Her voice trailed off sadly.

The Fabulous Five had met after school to spend some time
together. They had all been so busy lately, they hadn't had a chance to see one
another as much as they liked. Jana thought it was good to be together as a fivesome
again. Then she was going straight home to take a long bubble bath and wash her
hair.

"Don't bet on having no boys in your life,"
Christie told Melanie. "I heard Shane Arrington telling someone in the
hall that he was coming here today."

"That doesn't mean he'll even look at me," Melanie
said glumly.

"We'll see," said Katie. Then she turned to Jana. "So
your overnight at the shelter went okay?"

"What was it like?" asked Beth. "Was it fun?"

"I wouldn't call it 'fun,'" said Jana. "It
was certainly an eye-opener. I can see now how Liz can't get her homework done.
It's very noisy, and there really isn't any place to study."

"What were the people like?" asked Christie.

"The adults were tired, mostly," Jana said. "The
kids entertained themselves and got pretty loud." She paused. There was a
lot more to it than that, but she wasn't really ready to talk about it yet,
even to her friends. She would, though, very soon, and she knew they'd
understand. "I'm glad I went," she added. "I think Liz was glad,
too."

Suddenly Melanie grabbed Jana's hand. "Don't look now,
but guess who just walked in the door."

"Uhm, don't tell me," Beth murmured, her hand to
her forehead, pretending to think very hard. "Uhm, the name is on the tip
of my tongue—don't tell me—"

Melanie's breathless whisper interrupted her. "It's
Shane
Arrington
."

"Oh, you told me," Beth said, with exaggerated
disappointment. Then she grinned and winked at Jana.

"He's with Randy," Melanie said. "Jana, maybe
you can call Randy over, and Shane will come with him."

"Sure," said Jana. It was good to see Randy. She waved
to him. "Hi, guys," she called.

Randy grinned and poked Shane in the ribs. Then the two boys
sauntered toward The Fabulous Five's table. Jana felt Melanie stiffen next to
her.

"Relax," Jana whispered. "Just relax and be
yourself."

"Hi," said Randy. "Howl's it going?"

Jana gave him her best smile. "Great," she said,
and nudged Melanie under the table.

"Uh, Shane," Melanie started out nervously. "How's
Igor these days? I haven't heard much about him lately."

Melanie had asked about Shane's favorite subject, his pet
iguana, and his face lit up. "Oh, he's awesome as usual," Shane said
proudly. "He's been showing up when I experiment in the kitchen."
Shane grinned. "Actually he says he's always had a secret desire to be a
chef and go to the Cordon Bleu cooking school in France."

Melanie laughed. "Igor is pretty talented."

"You've got that right," Shane said. He dug into
his jeans pocket. "I think I'll play a song on the jukebox. Want to help
me choose one, Melanie?"

Melanie's eyes grew wide. "Oh, yes, I'd
love
to!"
she said, beaming.

She got up and started across the crowded room with Shane,
then glanced back over her shoulder and mouthed the word
wow!
to her
friends. They all laughed.

Beth pulled Jana toward her and whispered in her ear, "You
didn't say anything to Randy about Mel's love test, did you?"

Jana frowned. "Of course not," she whispered back,
being sure that Randy couldn't hear.

"And you didn't just
suggest
that he talk to
Shane about Melanie, did you?"

"You know me better than that," Jana said
indignantly. "Whatever's happening right now is strictly Shane's idea."

Beth nodded her approval and then pointed toward the door.
Liz was walking into Bumpers and heading straight for the table where the girls
and Randy were sitting.

"Hi, Jana," Liz said. "I thought I might find
you here."

"Liz! I'm glad you came," Jana said, smiling. "Sit
down with us."

"I can't," Liz said. "Mom and I are getting
ready to leave."

"Leave?" asked Jana.

Liz grinned. "We're leaving town, going back home. Mom
got that job she interviewed for, and they want her to start work right away."

"Liz, that's wonderful!" Jana said, clapping her
hands.

"Congratulations!" said Christie.

"Terrific," added Katie.

"Thanks, guys. Uh, Jana, could I see you alone for a sec?"
Liz asked.

Jana slid out of her chair. "Sure."

Liz led Jana to a spot away from the crowd. "I just
wanted to say thank you," Liz said, turning to her.

"For what?" asked Jana.

"For—well, for being a friend when I was hard to like,"
Liz said with a little smile.

"Hey," Jana said, "we had a rocky start, that's
all."

"Well, you're a special person, Jana," Liz said. "That's
why I'd like for you to have these." She pulled a tissue out of her pocket
and unfolded it.

Jana gasped. "Your earrings!" she said. "Your
grandmother's beautiful earrings! You can't give those to me!"

"I want you to have them. Honest," Liz said softly.

Jana started to protest again, but the look on Liz's face
stopped her. She really does want me to have them, Jana thought. It's important
for her to be able to give something to me.

"Thank you, Liz," Jana said, her eyes moistening
as she slipped an earring into each ear. "I'll treasure them. I really
will."

"Hey," Liz said with a grin, "call me Lizzie,
okay?"

Jana grinned back. "Sure, Lizzie."

Lizzie leaned over and gave Jana a tight hug. "I'll
write when we get settled," she said.

"And I'll write back," Jana promised, returning
the hug.

"Take care," Lizzie said. "I hate good-byes,
so I'll just say, 'See you later.'"

"See you," Jana said.

Lizzie held up her hand in a little wave to the rest of The
Fabulous Five and disappeared out the door. Jana watched her go and felt both
happy and sad. It was hard to have a friend leave, but she knew that Lizzie and
her mother had a good chance of making a success of their lives. They were
going home now, and Lizzie would be back with her old friends. Jana sighed and
walked back to the booth.

"Sad to see her go?" Beth asked.

Jana nodded. "But I'm really glad her mother got a job.
Now they can start living normal lives again."

"Uh-oh," Christie said, watching the door. "Shane
just left. I hope Melanie isn't upset."

"From the look on her face," Beth said, "I'd
say that her mood has improved quite a bit."

Melanie skipped up to their table, beaming. "You'll
never guess what!" she said. "Shane asked me out! Can you believe it?"

"Sure," Jana said with a grin. "You're a nice
girl, and Shane likes you."

"Wow!" she said, clasping her hands under her
chin. "I never would have thought it was possible."

"So, now do you believe that the love test was just a
silly game?" asked Jana.

"Well, I suppose so," Melanie said slowly. "On
the other hand, maybe the song Shane and I chose cancelled out the love test
spell."

"What song?" asked Katie.

"'Do You Believe in Magic?'" said Melanie in a
dreamy voice. Then she giggled and added, "I always thought that song had
some mystical qualities—"

The girls all groaned at once and then laughed. It had been
a tough couple of weeks, but it was obvious that things were finally back to
crazy-normal. And that's the way Jana liked life with The Fabulous Five.
Crazy-normal!