Fabulous Five 023 - Mall Mania (4 page)

"Ooh, guys," called Beth. She held up a blouse in
a wild jungle print for her friends to see.

"That's really you," said Christie. "At least
before you became a TV co-anchor."

"Right," said Jana. "You keep talking about
more conservative clothes, like the kind you'd see Deborah Norville or Joan
Lunden wearing."

"Oh, I know," admitted Beth. "Right now I'm
interested in professional clothes. But I could just die for this jungle-print
blouse to wear some other time. And maybe those earrings over there," she
added, pointing to a mannequin wearing long earrings that were shaped like
parrots. "They're perfect!"

Katie rolled her eyes. "You're a true shopaholic, Beth.
You just love to buy clothes, period."

Beth laughed. "I can't deny it." She glanced slyly
at her friends. "Let's go to Whitley's."

"Whitley's?"
cried Jana. "I've never
even been
in
that store! It's so expensive."

"We'll just go in for fun," Beth said. "We
won't buy anything."

The others shrugged, and the five of them trooped through
the mall to Whitley's. The salesclerk looked surprised to see them walk in.

"May I help you?" she asked doubtfully.

"We're just looking," Beth replied airily.

"I see," the woman said, but she kept watching
them.

Beth looked all through their smallest sizes. The styles
were gorgeous, but a bit too mature for her.

"I don't see anything here," Beth said to the
others. "Let's go."

They headed for the door.

"Hey, look at this stuff!" Melanie exclaimed.

Beth noticed the salesclerk frown. She probably didn't like
to hear Whitley's merchandise described as "stuff."

Melanie was standing over a small table of discounted
jewelry and accessory items. "What a great scarf!" she said, holding
up the filmy material in shades of blue and purple.

"Wow," Beth said. She took the scarf from Melanie
and hurried to a nearby three-way mirror. Draping it over her shoulder, she
struck a dramatic pose.

"Isn't it
di-vine
?
"

The salesclerk rushed over. "May I
help
you?"

Beth gazed at the woman.
She thinks I'm going to wreck
this scarf,
she thought. She whipped the scarf off and found the price tag.
Even on sale, it was very expensive.

"I'm interested in this scarf," Beth said to the
clerk.

"It's beautiful," Melanie said. "You could
wear it around your neck or shoulders."

"It would look terrific with your blue dress,"
Christie suggested. "You could even wear it on TV."

"That's right," Beth said slowly. "And it
would be a lot cheaper than buying a whole new outfit."

"May I wrap it up, then?" the woman asked curtly.

It was very expensive, but Beth was annoyed at the clerk's
attitude. She had as much right to shop in this store as anyone else!
That
clerk wouldn't treat Connie Chung this way
, Beth thought.
Or Barbara
Walters.
She giggled at the thought.

"I'll take it," she said, handing it to the clerk.

"Very well," the clerk said, taking the scarf. She
turned and headed up to the cash register.

"How are you going to pay for it?" Jana whispered
to Beth.

Beth stared at her friend, and her mouth dropped open.
"Oh,
my gosh!"
she said. "I got carried away! I have less than
half
the price with me, not counting the tax!"

"You really want the scarf, don't you?" Jana
asked.

"Yes," Beth admitted, "but I have to put it
back."

Jana opened her purse. "I have some money."

"I can't take your money," Beth insisted.

"I can contribute some," volunteered Christie.

"Me, too," Katie chimed in.

"Hey, when you're famous," Melanie said, "I
can say I lent you some money for your first TV series."

Beth grinned. "Thanks, you guys. This is my last
purchase for the show. I promise I'll pay you back as soon as I can."

The girls pooled all of their money and came up with just
eleven cents over the price of the scarf plus tax.

"Young ladies,"
the salesclerk said
impatiently from the cash register, "are you ready?"

"Of course," Beth said triumphantly. She strode up
to the cash register and, with a flourish, handed her the money. "It's all
there."

When The Fabulous Five left Whitley's they walked down half
the corridor before any of them spoke.

"That lady was just too much," Beth said.

"What a snob!" agreed Christie.

Melanie chuckled. "Maybe you should have told her to
watch
The Wakeman Bulletin Board
on Saturday and see her precious scarf
on TV."

Beth took out the scarf and unwrapped it from the tissue
paper. She took a corner and let the scarf unfold itself, then draped it over
her arm. "It's really beautiful."

"It sure is," Jana replied.

Beth looked up gratefully at her friends. "Thank you,"
she said softly. "You four are the best friends I could ever have."

"Wow, you looked great on TV!" Dekeisha Adams
called out to Beth when she walked into the school building Monday morning.

Pam Wolthoff waved to Beth from her locker. "Hey, TV
star! You were terrific!"

Another girl called out, "Beth, you were really cool on
The Wakeman Bulletin Board.
Great job!"

All day, in each of her classes, people came up to Beth to
congratulate her on how well she had done on the cable show. It felt
wonderful
to be recognized for doing a good job, and even for looking good while she was
doing it.

That Monday during school was certainly one of the best days
Beth could ever remember. She felt like a celebrity.

"Hey, Beth," Shawnie said, catching up with her at
her locker after school before the Media Club meeting. "Have you decided
what you're going to wear during Friday's shoot?"

"No," Beth replied, tossing her math book into her
locker. "I haven't."

Just then ninth-grader Andy Trudeau walked past and gave
Shawnie's arm a squeeze. "You guys looked great on TV. Keep up the good
work."

Shawnie beamed at him. "Thanks, Andy. Beth," she
whispered as he walked away, "everybody keeps telling us that we looked
great. We
have
to wear coordinating outfits again. Do you think you
could convince your parents to let you get something new?"

"No way," Beth said. "I couldn't get them to
buy me a new outfit last week."

"Well." Shawnie sighed. "We'll just have to
go to Tanninger's and use my credit card again."

Beth shook her head. "I don't think so. Everything at
Tanninger's is so expensive and I already owe you and my friends in The
Fabulous Five money."

"Look," Shawnie said. "Let's go over there
after the Media Club meeting today and see what's on sale. They always have a
sale rack."

Beth hesitated, thinking about how wonderful it was to hear
how great she looked on TV. "Okay, Shawnie," Beth said finally. "Let's
see what's on sale."

"Great," cried Shawnie. "I'll see you in a
few minutes at the meeting."

As Shawnie hurried down the hall, Beth closed her locker
door and leaned her head against it. "How do I get myself into these
messes?" she murmured to herself.

On Saturday she had told her friends she would wear the new
scarf with her blue dress for the taping. But now after all the compliments she'd
received today, she wasn't so sure the scarf was good enough.

"Face it, Beth Barry. Katie was absolutely right—you're
a hopeless
shopaholic!
"

She turned and trudged down the hall toward the media
center.

Mr. Levine called the meeting of the Media Club to order. "From
the comments I've heard today,
The Wakeman Bulletin Board
program on
Saturday was an unqualified hit."

"Was it ever!" cried Funny. "It's all the
kids were talking about all day."

"Yeah," said Jon, "and mostly they were
talking about how great Beth and Shawnie were."

Mr. Levine nodded. "I'll agree with that. Beth and
Shawnie, you both did an excellent job. You looked like real pros in front of
the camera. But, of course,
all
of you did a terrific job. Our
co-anchors were more visible than any of you others, so I'm not surprised that
they received the lion's share of the compliments. But I'm proud of each and
every one of you."

Everyone in the room seemed to beam in response to Mr.
Levine's praise. Beth watched her fellow club members' faces and felt a warm
glow. Mr. Levine had said she looked like a pro in front of the camera. That
was the biggest compliment he could give her.

"Everyone is expecting us to be really good again,"
said Funny, "so we can't sit back on our laurels. Let's make our next show
even better."

"Right!" exclaimed Paul.

"You will all keep your jobs for the rest of the month,"
Mr. Levine reminded them. "Tim and Shane, we'll need your information by
Wednesday again so Funny can write the script. Paul, your bat presentation was
great, and very interesting. But we'll need something different for the ecology
segment this week. Have any ideas?"

Paul shrugged. "I've been thinking about it," he
said. "How about doing something on recycling?"

"Sounds good so far," Funny spoke up. "What
did you have in mind?"

"Well," said Paul, "we could remind the kids
that it's important to save cans, bottles, newspapers, and stuff like that. And
tell them where the recycling companies and drop-off boxes are located around
town."

Shane made a face. "You see a lot of that kind of
information in the newspapers. Maybe we could do something more original."

"Like what?" asked Paul.

Nobody had any ideas.

"I guess I'll just have to keep thinking," Paul
said. "And if anybody comes up with any good ideas, please
see me
!
"

"Hey, that's what we're here for." Funny grinned. "To
help one another."

Funny was right, Beth thought. That's what had made this
project so much fun and the show so good. Surely someone would come up with an
idea for Paul before the taping on Friday. No one would want to see the ecology
segment turn into a disaster. She gulped and glanced at Shawnie. Without her
help and her plastic card,
I
would have been a disaster.

"And speaking of helping one another," Mr. Levine
said, "Shane has some relatives visiting, so he won't have time to make
posters advertising this week's show."

"Hey, are Igor's cousins coming over?" Tim teased.

Everybody laughed, and Mr. Levine held up his hand for
quiet. "Would any of you have time to do, say,
one
poster?"

Jon raised his hand. "Anything for Igor and his
cousins."

"I'll make one, too," offered Beth.

"Thanks, guys," Shane said. "Igor and I owe
you one."

"Good," said Mr. Levine. "With the ones Tim will
make, we should have enough."

When the meeting broke up, Beth left the media center
feeling confident that the show would be really good again. If only she could
get something decent to wear.

Beth and Shawnie spent half an hour in the juniors
department at Tanninger's before Beth found something she loved that was on
sale. She stood in front of the mirror in the small dressing room and turned to
the right and to the left. Instead of the scarf, she would wear this terrific
navy blazer over her blue dress.

"I would have never believed that I
—Beth Barry
—would
ever buy something as conservative as a navy blue blazer," she said,
shaking her head in amazement, "but this one is perfect!" Her smile
faded a little. "Honestly, though, Shawnie, this will be the very
last
thing
I buy. And I'll start paying your parents back right away. I promise!"

Shawnie dismissed the idea with a wave of her hand. "Beth,
the blazer really is gorgeous. And think about it this way—you didn't buy a
whole
new outfit, right? You're going to wear it with a dress you already have, and
it was on sale."

Beth nodded. It all sounded so reasonable when Shawnie put
it that way.

Beth turned again to her reflection and smiled. She was
going to look classy again. She couldn't wait for Friday's taping.

Beth pried off the top of the paint can. The paint was bright
red, perfect for the poster.

She had carefully lettered the sign in hollow block letters.

WATCH THE WAKEMAN
BULLETIN BOARD
ON THE
SPECTRUM CHANNEL, SATURDAY, 10 A.M.
DON'T MISS OUT!
ALL YOUR FRIENDS WILL BE WATCHING!

She picked up the wooden stirring stick lying on the
newspaper, dipped it into the paint, and began to stir. She glanced around at
her father's basement workshop. What an amazing assortment of stuff! Tools hung
on the pegboard over the workbench, Alicia's old high chair stood in the corner
with a plastic sheet covering it, a box of wood scraps was pushed up against
the far wall, and her dad's fishing gear sat at the side of the workbench.

It wasn't exactly tidy. The work area was strewn with odd
screws and bolts, and a short piece of fishing line was lying next to the paint
can.

Beth leaned over and picked up the line to move it away from
her work area, but it slipped from her fingers and dropped into the red paint.
Letting out a disgusted sigh, she dipped her fingers into the paint to retrieve
the line.

"Yuck," she muttered. "It's a good thing this
paint is washable. Painted nails are one thing, but who needs painted fingers?"

She dropped the wet fishing line on the newspaper to take
care of later. Then she wiped the paint off her hands with a rag, took a small
brush, dipped it into the paint, and began filling in the letters on her
poster.

When she finished nearly an hour later, she pushed the lid
back onto the paint can and began to clean up. The red fishing line caught her
eye. It was dry now, and Beth picked it up, dangling it by two fingers. It was
such a pretty bright red. She almost hated to throw it away.

An idea leapt into Beth's mind.
If I cut the string in
two pieces
. . .

She reached for a heavy pair of scissors on the worktable and
snipped the piece of line in two. She took one of the pieces, which was now
about four inches long, and put the two ends together so that the middle looped
down.

If I attached the ends to earring backs, she thought, they'd
make a super pair of new earrings. Then another idea hit her. Maybe she could
string buttons or beads on the line. She was sure she could find some in her
mother's jar of extras.

Beth quickly finished cleaning up and then went back inside
the house, carrying the fishing line. In her mother's sewing basket she found
two red, white, and blue buttons attached to a card that had originally held
eight buttons.

"All right," she said happily as she threaded each
piece of line through the holes in one of the buttons. Next she hurried to the
jewelry box in her room and took out the earring posts and backs she had
stashed there a year ago when she'd bought a tiny package of them to repair
some earrings that she'd broken. Next, she got out the jewelry glue and went to
work.

Stepping up to her mirror a little while later, she held the
new earrings up to her ears. "Fantastic!" she cried. "Jewelry
from junk." She grinned at her reflection. "Beth Barry, you're a
genius. Wait till everyone sees your new earrings tomorrow." Then she
added ruefully, "The best thing about them is that they didn't cost a
cent!"