Fabulous Five 017 - Celebrity Auction (3 page)

The first person Beth spotted when she got to school the
next morning was Melanie.

"Hi, Mel," she called out. "How do you feel?"

Melanie looked embarrassed. "Fine. I'm sorry I got sick
yesterday. I just have a weak stomach, especially when something scares me."

"It's okay," Beth assured her. "Honest."

As they headed for The Fabulous Five's meeting spot by the
fence, Beth filled her in on what had taken place the day before.

"Yuk!" said Melanie when she heard about Beth's
homeroom's cleaning up the cafeteria. "How could you stand to do a thing
like that?"

Beth laughed. "It was pretty gross."

When they reached the rest of The Fabulous Five at the
fence, a crowd of seventh-graders was beginning to gather. Richie Corrierro,
Tony Calcaterra, and Randy Kirwan were in one small group talking to Jana and
Katie, and Dekeisha Adams and Alexis Duvall were in conversation with Christie.
They moved together when Beth and Melanie walked up, and everyone seemed to
want to talk at once.

"I think it's awful that everybody is blaming
us
for what happened," Dekeisha complained.

"Yeah! Did you read what it said in the paper last
night?" Richie exploded. "Talk about bad-mouthing kids!"

"What did it say?" asked Beth. She had been too
upset over the television coverage to even look at the newspaper.

"Just that today's kids have . . ." Richie
frowned. "What was that word they used?"

"'Deteriorating,'" said Christie. "'Deteriorating
moral standards,' to be exact. Can you believe that? They act as if we're all a
bunch of criminals."

"Here. Read it for yourself," said Alexis,
whipping a folded newspaper page from her notebook and thrusting it toward
Beth. "I just have to keep reading it to believe it myself. Talk about
overreacting," she grumbled.

Beth grabbed the paper, Unfolding it, she did a double take
at the editorial's headline, which blared, "VANDALISM SYMPTOM OF GROWING
MORAL DECAY."

She narrowed her eyes angrily and read on.

Once again, with this weekend's vandalism at Wakeman
Junior High
,
the public is appalled at the deteriorating moral standards
of today's youth
.
It is a sad commentary on the state of our society
when our young people, who have been pampered more than any generation in
history, can find no better way to express themselves than by destroying public
property.

What has happened to old-fashioned decency in this day of
drugs, street gangs, and vandalism? What has happened to responsibility?

Gulping hard, Beth read the editorial a second time and then
a third. "'Drugs, street gangs, and vandalism'?" she whispered
incredulously. "That's
me
they're talking about.
Me and my
friends.
Is that what they really think of us?"

"It's just plain not fair," interjected Katie. "They're
forgetting about all of us well-behaved, law-abiding, innocent students who are
just as upset over what happened as the adults are. Why is everyone so
prejudiced against kids?"

"What makes me angry," said Dekeisha, "is that
Mr. Bell and most of the teachers have to know that only a few kids did it, and
yet they act as if all of us were involved."

"Well, maybe we could do something to prove to the
grown-ups that we aren't all like the ones who vandalized the school,"
offered Beth.

"Like
what!
" challenged Tony.

"Yeah," mumbled most of the others.

"Fat chance," scoffed Dekeisha.

Beth shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "The
idea just came to me this minute. It just seems to me that if we Wakeman
students could find a way to raise enough money to pay for the damage
ourselves, adults would have to change their minds about us." As the idea
blossomed, her excitement grew. "In fact, I say we
have
to do
something for our own good."

"Get real," said Richie. He leaned against the
fence and crossed his arms defiantly. "Adults wouldn't listen, no matter
what we did."

"Right," said Alexis. "Did Marge Whitworth
say anything on TV about how Wacko students spent all day cleaning up the mess?
No!
And her own son goes to this school. Did the newspaper report
anything about how we cleaned up?
No!
Nobody gives us credit for
anything."

"And that means we don't have to prove anything to
anybody," said Tony, sticking out his chest and strutting around looking
tough.

"Well, I personally think it's a pretty good idea,"
said Katie, glaring at Tony.

"Me, too," Jana said quickly. "What about
you, Randy? You haven't said anything yet."

Randy shook his head doubtfully. "I don't know,"
he said. "It might work, but how in the world would we raise that kind of money?
Five thousand dollars is a lot. Remember the trouble we had raising just over
three hundred dollars to get the cats and dogs out of the animal shelter?"

Beth sighed. She didn't have the faintest idea how a bunch
of junior high students could raise so much money. She didn't know why she had
even suggested it in the first place. Alexis had been right about Marge
Whitworth's being Jon Smith's mother and still saying students were
responsible, making it sound as if
all
students were to blame. Anyone
would think that she would be more sympathetic. And hadn't Beth's own parents
taken one look at her painted hair the day before and started ranting and
raving about today's kids? It was crazy to think that she and her friends could
change anybody's mind, much less raise five thousand dollars to do it. But
still, what other choice did they have?

"I'm almost afraid to go in," Melanie said in a
small voice when the first bell rang and The Fabulous Five were heading for the
building.

"You're not feeling sick again, are you?" asked
Beth, looking at her friend in alarm.

"Oh, no," Melanie assured her, but Beth suspected
that she was trying to assure herself more than anyone else. "I'm
completely over the shock now."

"Uh-oh," said Katie. "I hate to change the subject,
but look who's by the front door."

Beth glanced up and stopped cold when she saw Steve Melchior
and his friends leaning against the building with amused smiles on their faces
as they watched the rest of the students troop in. Tall and thin, Steve wore
his light brown hair cropped so closely that from a distance he almost looked
bald. With him were Tucker Cobler, John Mauhl, and Jay Romberg. Tucker had a
medium build and blond, curly hair. John, short and roly-poly, had straight
brown hair that brushed his shoulders. Jay was athletic looking with dark hair
cut in the latest style. But as different as they looked from each other, they
had one thing in common. All four were troublemakers. They also stuck together.

"You'd think that they'd be afraid to show their faces
around here," said Christie.

"Ha!" scoffed Katie. "They probably came to
school today just to see if anyone had the nerve to say anything to them. They're
always ready for a fight. Almost every week at least one of them shows up in
Teen Court."

"Let's go in through the gym," suggested Melanie. "I
don't want to walk past them."

"They aren't going to say anything to us,"
insisted Katie. "Come on. Don't let them intimidate you."

"I agree with Melanie," said Jana. "I know
they won't say anything to us, but I still don't want to get close to them.
They give me the creeps."

"They more than give me the creeps," exploded
Beth. "They make me furious! It's because of them that the school is
wrecked and everybody thinks all teenagers are hoodlums. I'd like to tell them
what I think of them."

"Whoa!" said Katie, grabbing Beth by the arm and
steering her toward the gym. "On second thought, maybe we'd better find
another entrance. All we need is for Beth to get decked for telling off Steve
Melchior in her
usual
dramatic manner."

"Right," said Christie, taking Beth's other arm. "They
don't give Academy Awards for black eyes." Beth forgot about Steve and his
friends again as soon as she stepped inside the school building and gazed
around. Although it looked 100 percent better than it had the morning before,
it was still a shock. Glass and papers had been swept from the halls, but
graffiti still decorated the walls. The trophies were standing up again in the
trophy case by the office, and the broken glass had been removed, but new glass
hadn't been put in yet. Everywhere they looked there were reminders of the
disaster that had struck Wakeman Junior High.

"They must have been in here for hours," marveled
Christie, shaking her head. "Otherwise, how could they have done so much
damage?"

Everyone shrugged and headed off in different directions to
their homerooms. Beth was deep in thought as she marched toward room 109. There
had to be a way to turn this whole situation around. Surely she and her friends
could think of something to do if they put all five of their heads together.
But so far at least, they weren't very interested, so it was up to her.

She opened her notebook to a clean page and doodled around
the edges while Miss Dickinson took attendance and read the announcements.
Finally Beth put a number one on the first line and racked her brain for ways
to raise money.

1. Bake sale

Immediately she scratched out the words. Everybody and his
brother had bake sales, and nobody ever made much money. There had to be something
else. She tried again.

2. Car wash

She scratched out that one, too. For one thing, it was the
wrong time of the year to wash cars unless you were an Eskimo. And for another,
car washes were as common as bake sales. She had to think of something else.

"Instead of a car wash, maybe we could have a dog wash,"
she said when The Fabulous Five had gathered in the cafeteria at lunchtime.

"A dog wash!" shrieked Melanie. "Where did
you get a dumb idea like that?"

"It's not
dumb,
" Beth said indignantly. "Practically
every kid in Wacko has a dog. If we charged five dollars a dog, we'd make a
fortune."

"Don't you realize that my family has Rainbow and eight
puppies?" Melanie argued. "If we got all of them washed, it would
cost"—she paused—"almost fifty dollars! No way! And I certainly can't
see someone with a toy poodle or a Chihuahua shelling out five dollars."

"So," said Beth, her temper flaring, "do you
have a better idea?"

No one did. Glumly Beth took a bite out of her peanut butter
and jelly sandwich and stared at the wall where bright red spaghetti-sauce
stains stood out against the white background. She kept asking herself over and
over again what they could do to raise five thousand dollars.

Suddenly there was a commotion a few tables over. Steve,
Tucker, John, and Jay were gathered beside a table of ninth-grade girls, and
Steve had a pained expression on his face that was obviously fake.

"Awwww," he said, leaning toward one of the girls,
who immediately spun around so that her back was to him. "Did your sweet
little school get all messed up? And here we thought that everyone would love
the new decorations."

"Yeah," said John, nodding in agreement. "I
guess that goes to prove that you just can't please people, no matter how hard
you try."

With that, all four broke up laughing and moved toward the
door, disappearing into the hall.

"Where are the lunchroom teachers?" demanded Beth.
"Those guys practically admitted that they wrecked the school, and there
isn't a single teacher within hearing range. That really burns me up."

"Take it easy," said Christie. "Do you
actually think they would have said that if a teacher had been near enough to
hear? They may be mean, but they're not stupid."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Beth said
defiantly. "I don't think the rest of the kids at Wacko should take the
rap for them. They aren't worth it."

"I agree," said Katie. "You were right when
you said that we should find a way to raise the money to pay for the damage
ourselves. I'll help you come up with an idea."

"Me, too," said Jana and Christie and Melanie in
unison.

"Great!" shouted Beth, triumphantly raising a fist
into the air. "With The Fabulous Five working on it, it should be a cinch!"

"This special meeting of The Fabulous Five will now
come to order," Jana said in an official-sounding voice. The girls had
skipped going to Bumpers after school and were gathered in Jana's bedroom.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, Beth squirmed nervously
and picked at a piece of lint in the carpet as she thought about the big job
they had ahead of them. She had tried all afternoon to think of something Wacko
students could do to raise the money, but she hadn't come up with a single good
idea.

"Beth, since this whole thing was your idea, I think
you should take the floor," said Jana.

Beth smiled weakly and ran her fingers through her short,
dark hair. "We've already eliminated a bake sale, a car wash, and a dog
wash," she began. "Does anybody have any other suggestions?"

"Maybe we could just ask kids for donations the way we
did when we saved all those dogs and cats from being put to sleep at the animal
shelter," offered Melanie.

Katie shook her head. "Forget it. Don't you remember
how long it took us to raise that money? And we only needed three hundred and
fifty dollars. We're talking about
five thousand
this time."

Beth sighed and stretched out on her side, propping up her
head with her hand. "What we need is something to sell," she said.

"Hey, I know," said Christie, sitting up to
attention on the bed so fast that it bounced. "We could have a garage
sale! My mom had one last summer and made a lot of money."

"A
garage
sale?" Katie said. She was making
a face and shaking her head again. "You've got to be kidding. How could we
raise five thousand dollars at a garage sale?"

"That might not be a bad idea," Beth said slowly. "If
every student in Wacko contributed stuff to sell, we could make a lot of money."

"I love garage sales," cried Melanie. "I'm
sure a lot of kids would be interested in helping with one."

"Right," said Jana. "That's a terrific idea."

"Hey, guys," Katie interjected solemnly. "You're
forgetting something. Who has a garage that big?"

"Eeeek!" said Beth. "That could be a
minor
problem."

"Minor?" gasped Katie. "Correct me if I'm
wrong, but not having a place to hold the sale is more than minor."

"We'll find a place," Beth assured her. "Leave
that part to me. First, we've got to get everybody at school excited enough to
get involved."

"We'll just have to talk it up," said Melanie. "We
can start on the school ground before class the morning and then talk to kids
all day long in our classes and the cafeteria. We can ask all of them to talk
to other kids, and by dismissal time tomorrow we should have everybody in Wacko
ready to donate."

"Then we'll have to set a date," said Christie,
scribbling in her notebook.

"And somebody will have to take the donations,"
said Katie. "And we'll need a committee to price everything and another
committee to set everything up the day of the sale."

"And don't forget that we'll need volunteers to work at
the sale," added Jana. "Wow!" she added. "This is going to
be a lot of work."

"But it will definitely be worth it," Beth
reminded them. "In fact, I think we should invite Marge Whitworth to bring
a camera crew from the television station to the sale and do a story on how
responsible and hardworking Wakeman kids really are."

"Way to go!" said Katie, thrusting her fist into
the air. "If a garage sale will get Marge Whitworth to do a story like
that, I'm all for it."

"Why wait until the morning?" asked Melanie. "Let's
start calling kids as soon as we get home. I'll call Scott and Shane and
Garrett."

Everyone agreed that Melanie's idea was a good one, and Beth
rushed home, making a list in her mind of whom she would call. First, she would
call Keith. She would never admit that to her friends, though, or else they
would accuse her of being as boy crazy as Melanie. It was just that she hadn't
had much chance to talk to Keith since yesterday afternoon when he apologized
for putting green slime in her hair. Maybe if she asked him to help with the
garage sale, he would realize that she really did like him, in spite of how
immature he acted sometimes.

The kitchen was empty when she reached home, and she put her
books down on the table and picked up the phone.

". . . and when she told me that, I
knew
Jessica
had been lying . . ."

Beth crossed her eyes in exasperation. "Brittany,"
she pleaded. "I really need to use the phone. It's important."

"Bug off, little sister. This is a very private
conversation."

"But, Britt," Beth insisted. "I'm not joking.
I really do have to make some important calls."

"I'm full of sympathy," Brittany said with a bored
sigh. "And you can certainly make them just as soon as I'm off the phone.
Got
it?
"

Beth narrowed her eyes, then held the receiver three inches
above the cradle. It dropped with a loud clatter. "I've got it," she
mumbled to herself as she heard her sister shriek in the upstairs hall. "And
now you've got it, right in the ear."

Beth grabbed a slice of cold pizza out of the refrigerator
and headed for her room to wait for her turn at the phone, thinking about how
awful it was being the middle one of five kids in the Barry household. Nobody
ever paid any attention to what she needed, much less what she wanted. Brittany
was sixteen and Brian was seventeen, and they were always claiming privileges
because they were older. Todd, eleven, and Alicia, five, were the babies of the
family and kept their parents wrapped around their little fingers. She sighed
as she heard the familiar padding of paws up the stairs behind her. Only
Agatha, the family's Old English sheepdog, seemed to really care about her.

"And all you really care about is getting some of my
pizza. Right?" she said good-naturedly, ruffling Agatha's shaggy hair with
her free hand. "Okay. Come on. I'll share it with you."

By the time she finally got the telephone and dialed Keith's
number, it was almost suppertime. Mrs. Masterson answered, and Beth could hear
her yelling for Keith, who took forever to get to the phone.

"Hi," he said, and Beth could hear him panting as
though he had been running.

"Hi, Keith. It's Beth," she said as cheerfully as
she could.

"Yeah?" he said with a trace of impatience in his
voice.

She took a deep breath and tried to get a conversation
started. "So, what were you doing?"

"Shooting baskets with a couple of guys," he said.
"What do you want?"

"Oh, well . . . um," she fumbled. This didn't
sound like the best time in the world to bring up a garage sale, but she was
stuck. She didn't have anything else to talk about. "My friends and I
thought that if all the students at Wakeman got together and had a garage sale,
we could raise the money to pay for the damages the vandals did. What do you
think of the idea?"

"What!" Keith shrieked. "A garage sale! Whose
dumb idea was that? Besides, we don't have to pay for the damages. We didn't do
anything."

Beth gulped hard. She could feel her face turning red and
was thankful that Keith couldn't see her. "It was The Fabulous Five's
dumb
idea.
And for your information, we do, too, need to pay for the damages
ourselves. It's the only way that we'll be able to prove to adults that all
kids aren't like Steve Melchior and his friends—
that's why!
" Then
she slammed down the phone.