Girl Power (12 page)

Amy frowned, but reached over and shook Morgan’s hand. “I figured you’d win. Are you going to make a victory speech?”

“No,” said Morgan. “But thanks, you guys.” Then she reached in her pocket. “I have a little gift for everyone.”

“Bribes?” said Amy with raised brows.

“Yeah, right,” said Morgan. “After the votes were cast.”

“Payoffs?” said Amy.

“Give it a rest, Amy,” said Emily as she closed the notebook.

Morgan laughed. “They’re not bribes or payoffs. They’re just friendship bracelets. Emily helped me make them.”

“Yeah,” said Emily. “But I still don’t know what they mean.”

Morgan handed them out and the girls thanked her and tied them onto their wrists.

“They’re pretty,” said Carlie, “But what do the letters mean?”

“Who’s Lynay?” asked Amy.

“It’s an abbreviation for what I think should be the theme of our club,” said Morgan. “And since I’m president, I’m going to recommend it. Of course, you guys can always refuse …”

“What is it?” said Emily.

“LYNAY,” said Morgan, “Stands for ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“Oh,” said Emily. “That’s cool.”

“I like it,” said Carlie.

“Yeah,” said Amy. “It’s nice.”

“The thing is …” said Morgan seriously. “We need to love each other just like Jesus said to do. But we need to love each other just as well as we love ourselves—meaning
we need to love ourselves too. Does that make sense?”

The girls agreed that it did.

“As your new president, I want to propose that to be the rule for our club,” said Morgan.

“Just one rule?” Amy challenged. “You really think that’s enough.”

“I do,” said Morgan.

“I don’t know …” Amy looked unconvinced.

“Well, let’s see how it works for a while anyway,” said Morgan. “And I was thinking that we should keep it kind of a secret rule. Like a secret code, you know. I mean, we want to live it in our lives, but we don’t have to tell anyone what the letters mean. It could be just between us.”

“Cool,” said Emily.

“Okay,” said Amy.

“Great,” said Carlie, standing up. “And now let’s hit the beach. I’ve got tools and buckets and stuff outside.”

“SpongeBob SquarePants, here we come,” yelled Morgan as the girls poured out of the bus and headed over the dunes.

You guys ready for this?” asked Morgan on Saturday morning as the four girls loaded their tools and stuff into the back of Emily’s mom’s van.

“We had it down pretty well yesterday,” Carlie reminded her.

“Yeah,” said Emily. “If we do it like we worked it out, we should be fine. But we all need to remember not to hurry—that’s when we make mistakes. And everyone has to do their job.”

“And no complaining,” said Morgan.

Emily knew this comment was directed to Amy. Yesterday, she continued to find fault with their sculpture, but it was mostly because things weren’t finished yet. When it was all done, even Amy had liked it.

“If we can just do it as well as yesterday,” said Carlie, “I’ll bet we’ll have a good chance at winning.”

“We’ll do it even better,” said Morgan. “Yesterday was just practice.”

“We’ll win for sure,” said Amy.

Emily didn’t mention what her mom had told her, about how there were some very experienced sculptors
coming today.

“Imagine five-hundred,” continued Amy in a dreamy voice. She nodded to Carlie now. “I hope that our new treasurer is ready to start calculating our winnings and the split and everything.”

Carlie frowned and looked at Morgan. “Do I
really
have to be treasurer?”

“You really don’t want to?”

Carlie firmly shook her head.

“I’ll do it,” Amy offered quickly.

“Do you want to appoint Amy to take your place?” asked Morgan.

“Can I?”

“Why don’t we just vote,” said Morgan. “Whoever wants Amy for treasurer, raise your hand.” They all raised their hands. Morgan slapped Amy on the back. “Congratulations, Amy.”

“But no speeches,” warned Carlie.

“Are the sand sculptors ready to go?” asked Emily’s mom as she and Kyle came out the door.

“You bet,” said Morgan. “Thanks for going to work a little early today, Lisa.”

“No problem,” she said as she started the engine. “You want to be in time for registration … and to make sure you get a choice piece of beach. Just yesterday I heard a couple saying that location is everything in a sand-sculpting
competition.” She laughed. “Although it all looks just like beach to me.”

They were barely on the highway when they heard a loud bang and then a
thunkity-thunk
noise.

“Oh, no,” said Kyle from the front passenger seat. “Sounds like a blowout, Mom.”

Lisa pulled over on the shoulder and she and Kyle got out to see. Emily opened a window and looked out. “Is it flat?” she asked, worried that they were losing precious time now.

Her mom frowned. “Sorry, Em.” She looked at Kyle. “You know how to fix a flat?”

“I guess I’m gonna learn.”

“Tell the girls to get out of the van, Emily,” said Mom. “On the passenger’s side and stay off the road.”

“We’re going to be late,” grumbled Amy as they climbed out of the van and went to the side of the road.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” said Morgan, as she perched on the guardrail to watch.

“I’m sorry,” said Emily as she sat next to Morgan.

“It’s not your fault,” said Carlie. “Besides, it doesn’t take long to fix a flat. I was with my dad once and he had it changed within minutes.”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case today. It took Kyle and Emily’s mom a long time to even figure out where the spare tire was. And then they had to figure out how
to detach the spare and put the jack together. By the time they were done and everyone was back in the van, it was getting close to nine o’clock.

“The competition will be starting in ten minutes,” announced Amy.

“We know,” said Morgan.

“Do you think we’ll be disqualified?” Emily asked her mom.

“I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re not,” said Mom as she drove down the highway. “But there’s probably nothing we can do about the lost time.”

It was a few minutes past nine when they arrived. Lisa hurried the girls to the registration area and they quickly got a number and an assigned spot on the beach.

“It’s clear down at the south end of the competition,” the man told them. “If you have a car, you might want to drive to save time.”

“I’ll drive you,” said Lisa. “Kyle, go ahead and clock in. Tell Shelly that I’ll be a few minutes late.”

Then Lisa quickly drove the girls to the south end of the resort and pointed out where their spot should be. “Good luck,” she called as they filed out of the van. “You sure you’re okay for a ride home?”

“My sister An is picking us up,” yelled Amy as they grabbed up their stuff and ran across the parking lot toward the beach.

“Look,” said Morgan, breathlessly pointing to a sign just ahead. “There’s number fifty-seven right there. We’re number fifty-eight so this must be right.”

“It’s 9:13,” announced Amy.

“We’ve only lost thirteen minutes,” said Morgan brightly as she went for a big shovel. “No big deal.”

“Just remember,” said Emily as she took a flat shovel, “don’t get too rushed. That’s when we make mistakes. Just work consistently and listen to Morgan.”

So the girls got to work. And it seemed that Morgan was right: Things were going better today than they had yesterday. And by 10:30 they all started to relax a little.

“It’s not so bad down here,” observed Emily as she neatly squared one of SpongeBob’s corners. “We don’t have a lot of foot traffic to distract us.”

“Hopefully they’ll come down eventually,” said Amy as she worked on the crab. “I’d hate to do all this work for nothing.”

“As long as the judges come,” said Morgan, “that’s what matters.”

Carlie poured another bucket of sea water in their wet-sand area. Her job was to make sure they had just the right consistency to make the sculpture hold together. “I heard a guy talking when I was getting water,” she told them. “He said there’s this totally awesome sculpture of an elephant down by the restaurant.”

“A standing elephant?” asked Morgan.

“Yeah. And he said there’s going to be a monkey on top.”

“Oh, dear,” said Amy. “That doesn’t sound good for us.”

“It’ll be fun to see it,” said Morgan.

“Yeah,” agreed Emily. “I can’t wait to see what the others have done.”

“You won’t have to wait too long,” warned Amy. “We have exactly seventeen minutes left.”

Emily stepped back to look and smiled. Their sculpture might not beat an elephant with a monkey on top, but it was definitely good.

“Hey, that’s pretty cool,” called a guy’s voice from behind her. She turned to see Jeff Sanders and Enrico Valdez from Derrick Smith’s bunch of bullies walking up.

“Don’t look now,” Emily told Morgan and the others, “but trouble’s heading this way.”

Morgan looked up from where she was working on the snail and frowned. “Just what we need.”

“You keep working,” said Emily. “We’ll handle this.” She grabbed Carlie and walked over to stand between the guys and their sculpture.

“What do you guys want?” Emily asked the two boys.

“Hey, we’re not here to make trouble,” said Jeff, holding his hands up in the air as if to prove his innocence. He turned to his friend. “Right, Enrico?”

Enrico nodded innocently.

“So what are you here for then?” asked Carlie.

“We’re just looking around,” said Enrico.

“Yeah,” said Jeff. “And it looks like you guys are making an awesome sculpture. Can we get a closer look?”

“I don’t know,” said Emily. “I’m not sure we can trust you guys.”

“Yeah,” admitted Jeff. “We can’t really blame you for that.”

“Really?” Emily studied the boys.

“We’re done with Derrick,” said Enrico. “He’s definitely bad news.”

“It’s true,” said Jeff. “Derrick’s a moron.”

“Why should we believe you?” asked Emily.

“Yeah,” echoed Carlie. “How do we know you’re not trying to trick us?” She glanced over her shoulder. “And right now you’re wasting our precious time since we only have a few minutes to finish.”

“Hey, sorry,” said Jeff. “Don’t let us keep you from finishing. It looks like you guys might actually have a chance to win something.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and to prove it, we’ll get out of here. No hard feelings, okay?”

“Okay,” said Emily tentatively.

The boys turned and headed back up the beach, and Emily and Carlie raced back to what they’d been doing
before.

“That was weird,” said Morgan. She looked up from applying some finishing touches to SpongeBob’s face.

“Do you think they meant it?” asked Carlie. “That they’re finished with Derrick?”

“I hope so,” said Emily. She glanced up the beach. The boys were nearly out of sight.

Finally they heard the blow horn going off, their sign that the competition was over.

All four girls stepped away from the sculpture now and looked at their finished product.

“It looks pretty good,” admitted Morgan with a grin.

“Better than pretty good,” said Emily. “It’s awesome.”

“It’s excellent,” said Amy. “Maybe it won’t beat that elephant, but it’s definitely going to place second.” She closed her eyes. “Let’s see, three hundred divided by four would be seventy-five dollars apiece.”

“As my grandma would say,” said Morgan. “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, Amy.”

“I’m going to take some photos of it,” announced Carlie as she pulled her camera out of her beach bag. She proceeded to shoot it from several angles and even took a few shots with the girls hamming it up.

“Anybody hungry?” asked Emily as she opened the cooler and peeked inside. “Morgan’s grandma put together quite a spread here.”

“I’m starving,” said Morgan, and all four girls attacked the cooler.

As they sat near their sculpture eating and resting, more and more spectators came their way, commenting on and praising their work. The girls thanked them, and their hopes began to get higher and higher.

“I want to go see the competition,” said Morgan as she finished her last drink of soda. She stood and brushed sand from her behind. “Anyone else?” She started walking up the beach.

“I’m coming,” yelled Emily.

“Me too,” said Carlie.

“Don’t leave me out,” called Amy as she ran to catch up with them.

So they began what they agreed would be a quick walk up and down the beach to see what the other sculptors had created. And soon they began to see that competition was actually quite fierce.

“Wow,” said Morgan when they were finally standing in front of the life-sized elephant who really did have a monkey on his back. “Not only is it huge, but it’s got personality too.”

“How did they do that?” asked Emily in amazement.

“Look,” said Carlie, pointing off behind it. “They have ladders and everything.”

“They’ll get first place,” said Amy sadly.

“We better get back to our sculpture,” said Emily. “Before the judges do.”

So the girls hurried back, noticing a group of what they were certain were judges only about six sites from theirs. But when they reached their site, they all froze and looked at it in horror.

“Where is SpongeBob SquarePants?” asked Amy in a small voice. They all stood by the sign for site fifty-eight. Their tools were there along with their cooler and beach stuff, but their sculpture had been completely demolished.

“Those boys!” yelled Emily. Carlie began screaming something in Spanish, shaking her fists as she did. Amy looked like she was about to cry. And Morgan collapsed onto her knees on the beach, bending over and pounding into the sand. “All our hard work!” she cried. “All for nothing!”

“What’s going on here?” asked a woman’s voice from behind them.

They all turned to see a group of six adults standing around their site holding clipboards and cameras and looking on with puzzled faces.

“We
had
a sculpture,” began Emily in a shaky voice. “It was really awesome too.” She pointed to Morgan who was still on her knees in the sand. “She designed it.”

“But everyone helped,” said Morgan, slowly standing. Emily could see tracks of tears down her friend’s cheeks and it made Emily feel like she was about to cry too.

“It was really amazing,” said Amy. “We thought it had a chance.”

“But what happened?” asked a man in a Hawaiian shirt.

“We went up the beach to look around,” explained Morgan. “Just for a few minutes … and while we were gone someone totally destroyed it.”

“Really?” the woman in the sundress looked skeptical.

“Really,” said Carlie, running to get her beach bag. “I took photos just before we left.” She pulled out her camera and held it up. “We have proof.”

“Unfortunately, we can’t judge proof,” said a judge.

Morgan nodded. “Yeah. We understand.”

“We’re sorry,” said a short bald man. “Maybe we can see about refunding your application fee.”

The girls didn’t say anything.

“Hey, what happened here?” said a man who was walking toward them with several others. “What happened to SpongeBob SquarePants?”

Morgan quickly explained their misfortune once again.

“Bummer,” said the man, shaking his head. “I just brought my friends here to see it. It was really something.”

“Yeah,” said a woman. “Everyone on the beach is talking about it.”

“You were the team who made SpongeBob SquarePants?” the man in the Hawaiian shirt asked.

“Yeah,” said Emily. “That was us. We got here late and ended up with the last spot on the beach. But even coming from behind, we got it finished.”

Before long about a dozen or more people came and began inquiring about the missing sand sculpture. The girls explained again and again what had happened, even telling about a certain group of bullies—without using names—that had messed with them before. And, while everyone was very sympathetic, it seemed there was nothing anyone could do. Even when Carlie offered to run and get her film developed, the judges explained that they had to see the sculpture for themselves.

“But we saw it,” said a woman. “And it was really good.”

Several others chimed in, but the judges said that it didn’t matter. “Rules are rules,” said the woman in the sundress. And slowly the crowd began to move back up the beach.

“It was nice getting their sympathy,” said Emily.