Fabulous Five 019 - The Boys-Only Club (4 page)

"
Spend Saturday evening with a bunch of girls?
You've
got
to be kidding!" Melanie had a look of panic on her face.

"I'm just talking about doing it long enough to teach
the boys a lesson," said Katie. The Fabulous Five had gathered at her house
after school at her request. They were sprawled around her bedroom.

"I'm sort of mad at Randy, too," said Jana,
looking at Katie. "I never thought he'd make plans to do something on
Friday nights without talking to me about it first."

"Me, too, with Keith," said Beth. "And I
really let him have it."

"I heard that Richie Corrierro, Curtis Trowbridge, and
D. J. Doyle have joined the computer club," said Christie.

"D.J? He's a ninth-grader," said Jana.

"All the boys are joining," said Beth.

"Laura McCall said The Fantastic Foursome would talk to
the girls from Riverfield who are going with boys in the computer club, if we
talk to the girls from Mark Twain," Katie said.

"That's the part that worries me the most," said
Jana. "I don't trust Laura McCall any more than I'd trust Freddie from
Nightmare
on Elm Street.
How do we know she'll do what she says?"

"We could check with some of the kids from Riverfield
to see if she's really talking to them about joining," suggested Christie.

"And Jana, you could talk to Funny Hawthorne,"
added Beth. "She wouldn't lie to you."

"I don't want Laura to pull something on us any more
than you guys do," Katie said. "We'll just have to watch her real
close."

Jana picked up Gwyneth Plum's notebook and flipped through
the pages. "Okay, we all agree that we should try to get girls to join a
girls-only club. What are we supposed to do at the meetings? Do we give the
club a name?"

Katie cleared her throat, and the others looked at her. "What
about calling it GRIT?"

"GRIT?" echoed Christie. "What does that
stand for?"

"Girls' Rights are Important Too," answered Katie.
"That's what Gwyneth Plum named her club."

Beth shook her head. "I think if we get too heavy into
feminism we'll scare people off. Most of the girls we know just want to have a
good time. They really don't feel discriminated against at Wakeman."

"I agree," said Jana. "They might think it's
fun to shake the boys up, but they won't want to take a chance on making them
permanently mad. Would you want to do that with Tony?"

Katie hesitated. "I guess not," she said quietly.

"What about the petition?" asked Christie. "How
many names do we have?"

"I've got three," said Jana. "And one's mine."

"Eight," said Katie. "It would only have been
four if Laura and her friends hadn't signed."

"I got five," volunteered Beth.

"Three for me," said Melanie.

"And five girls signed mine. That makes a total of
twenty-four," said Christie. "That's not enough to interest Mr. Bell
in starting a class for girls." She gave Katie a weak smile of sympathy. "We
tried."

"I can't understand it," said Katie. "Why don't
the girls care?"

"As I said," Beth injected, "they don't feel
discriminated against at Wacko. Hey, Katie, I just remembered. Can we see the
time capsule?"

"It's in my closet," said Katie, getting up to get
it. "Jana's got Gwyneth's notebook."

She put the metal box on the floor and the others gathered
in a circle around it.

"I always thought time capsules were shiny,
bullet-shaped things," said Melanie.

"They can be any shape," said Christie. "All
they are is something that will protect what you put in it for a long time."

"Hey, look at this picture of a boy with a monkey,"
cried Melanie. "That's cute."

"That's Tommy and Cho Cho," said Katie.

She went through the different items in the box and explained
what she had read about them to the others, including the pictures of Gwyneth
and her family.

"She's cute," said Jana. "Do you ever wonder
where she is now?"

"Probably dead," said Beth.

"She'd be, let's see . . . in her eighties now,"
said Christie. "My grandmother is seventy-nine. Gwyneth could still be
alive."

"I guess that's true," admitted Beth. "My
grandma Barry is around seventy-seven, and she takes all those tours to other
countries."

"Until I started reading Gwyneth's book, I never
thought much about older people being young," said Katie. "But
reading Gwyneth's notebook and seeing her picture is sort of like meeting her
when she was our age."

"It makes me wonder what she looks like now, if she's
still alive," said Christie.

"It makes
me
wonder what I'm going to look like
seventy years from now," said Jana.

"Hanging on to Randy Kirwan for support," said
Melanie. She put her arm over Beth's shoulders and hung on to her as if she
couldn't hold herself up.

"Hey," said Jana, pushing her playfully. "I
was being serious."

"Me, too," said Beth.

Katie held up the picture of the Plum family so she could
see it better. "That's her," she said, pointing to Gwyneth, standing by
her father. "I think my room was Gwyneth's when she made the time capsule.
She might have sat where we're sitting and played with her cat or something."
They all looked at Libber, who was sleeping peacefully in Katie's lap.

"Okay, back to business," Jana ordered. "What
are we going to do in the girls' club? We can't just sit around and talk."

"Well, it's got to be fun," said Melanie, "or
else no one will come."

"Did Laura have any suggestions?" asked Christie.

"We didn't discuss it, but when I talk to her again, I'll
ask her if she and the others have any ideas," said Katie.

"I've got an idea," said Beth. "Why don't we
ask everyone to bring extra clothes, and we'll all try on different things. We
ought to come up with some super new outfits."

"And pizza!" said Melanie. "Tell everyone to
bring money for pizza."

Katie waved her hand. "I've got an aerobics tape we can
use. Remember, this should be a self-improvement club."

"That's great!" said Jana. "We can tell the
girls how beautiful they'll get to be if they belong to the club."

"That's a superficial reason," said Katie. "I'd
rather have lessons in self-defense."

"We've got to get them interested first,"
responded Jana. "Then you can bring in a karate expert."

"Maybe we can get Brian Olsen to teach us when we get
to that," said Melanie. "But where are we going to meet?"

"My house," volunteered Christie. "My mom
will go for anything that has to do with self-improvement."

Everyone cheered, "ALL RIGHT!"

Katie pushed back the covers and crawled into bed. Libber's
purr sounded like a miniature outboard motor as the cat jumped up onto the end
of the bed and marched directly to Katie. Katie reached out and stroked the
yellow cat, and Libber moved closer, rubbing her face against Katie's. "Oh,
Libber, I'm tired. Sometimes I wish I could lie around the house and sleep like
you do." She scratched the cat behind the ears, and it scrunched its face
in pleasure.

Katie took a deep breath. She
was
tired. From all the
excitement and trying to get the Wakeman girls to recognize that the way they
acted and what they thought of themselves had everything to do with the way
other people thought of them. If they wanted to be taken care of all their
lives, acting like little girls and letting boys think they couldn't live
without them was the way to do it. But it also meant that when you grew up,
there was no reason to expect people to treat you any differently. Maybe with
the ideas The Fabulous Five had come up with and what Laura might come up with,
they could get enough girls to sign the petition and join the club. She wasn't
holding out much hope though. Not the way things were going.

Just as Katie was about to turn off the light, she spotted
Gwyneth's notebook on the table next to herbed. She had left off reading just
as Gwyneth was describing her girls' club.

It was really hard to get girls besides Ginny Booth,
Mildred Waxman, and Margaret Glavin to join GRIT, but we started getting a few
others
.
I even talked to Mrs. Goddard about our club, and she said I had
better not let our principal, Mr. Willard, hear about it. He might not like it.
I don't think that's fair. Why would he care if we girls want to have a club?

Katie shook her head in amazement at the world Gwyneth lived
in.

Boys have clubs like the Scouts and ball teams. Why can't
we have a club where girls can learn more about themselves? I heard that
somebody has started Girl Scouts, but there's nothing like that around here,
yet. I guess they would be happy if I wanted to start a quilting club for
girls. I can just hear it now:
'Oh, those adorable little girls. Isn't
it nice the way they make quilts like their mothers?' I hope you don't have to
make quilts, whoever you are. It's so boring it makes my eyes cross.

Some of the boys started talking about how dumb our club
is and saying we hate boys. That's not true. I like boys, especially Tommy.

Then they started calling me a troublemaker and saying
they were going to tell Mr. Willard. I think Tommy must believe them. He hasn't
spoken to me for two weeks. That makes me really sad. I thought he liked me.

Katie stopped reading and reached for the picture sitting
under the lamp on the night table. In it, she was standing in front of Tony,
and he had his arms wrapped tightly around her. They were both laughing hard.
Garrett Boldt, the eighth-grade photographer for the yearbook, had taken the
picture on Saturday after a football game.

Tears came to her eyes, and she held the picture against her
chest. At that moment, she knew exactly how the girl who might have lived in
this very room had felt seventy years ago. Had she cried in her bed over her
Tommy? Katie's tears trickled down her cheeks.

Katie dug a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her eyes.
Then she continued reading.

Sometimes I feel as if I'm the only one who cares. Am I
so wrong to believe that girls aren't really different from boys? I need to
feel that I'm important and that I can do things besides take care of a house
and have babies
,
although I want to do that
,
too. Is it possible
that other girls don't feel that way? When I talk about it at our GRIT meetings
,
sometimes Margaret's and Mildred's eyes tell me I'm right. It's a hard thing
to know.

Well, things are probably a lot different for you, whoever
you are. You know what? Telling you all this makes me feel as if I know you.
You're a good listener. Ha! Ha!

I only wish I could tell you how it all ends. Will Gwyneth
and Tommy live happily ever after as the men and women in Mama's magazines do?
Will Gwyneth get people to listen to her about girls' needing to do more than
just be housewives? And especially, will my father come home safely from the
war?

The reason I can't tell you is I've got to put this
letter in my time capsule now. We're moving, and I want to leave it here where
I've grown up. I've got so many things to remember about this house.

One more thing. As I've been writing this, I've been
wondering about you. Are you young or old? Are you male or female? I suppose
I'll never know, but if you've taken the time to read this far, I know you must
be a nice person. Thank you for being my friend for a little while.

Love,
Gwyneth

Katie drew in a deep breath and fought down the lump in her
throat. The letter's ending was like saying good-bye to a good friend. As she
closed the notebook, Katie thought of all the questions that would go
unanswered: Had Gwyneth gotten Mr. Willard and the other girls to listen to
her, and had she ever made up with Tommy? And since Katie's own father had
passed away when she was three, she desperately wanted to know what had
happened to Mr. Plum.

There were so many things in Gwyneth's life that felt
similar to Katie's own experience. Katie couldn't help but think if she'd had
the chance to find out how things had turned out for Gwyneth, she would know how
they would turn out for herself.

"Look, Alexis"—Jana touched Alexis Duvall's arm to
emphasize how serious she was—"I agree with Katie. The boys have gotten
used to us and are starting to take us for granted. If we start our own club
and aren't available whenever
they
feel like being with
us,
they'll
be more considerate. Even Randy, who's usually the nicest guy in the world, didn't
say anything to me when he decided to play computer games on Friday evenings."

The Fabulous Five had Alexis, Gloria Drexler, and Mona
Vaughn cornered by the school fence the following morning. All three girls had
gone to Mark Twain Elementary with them.

Katie noticed Laura McCall and The Fantastic Foursome had
surrounded Heather Clark and Elizabeth Harvey nearby and were talking to them
about the girls' club and the petition.

"Hey, you know how much I like boys," added
Melanie. "I think it's a great idea, too. Absence makes the heart grow
fonder and all that stuff."

Alexis squirmed as if she were under a hot light being
grilled by the police. "Gee, I don't know. I'm just getting Bill Soliday
interested in me. I might blow it with him if I can't go out on Saturday night
because I joined a girls' club."

"Has he joined the boys' club?" asked Christie.

"Yes," answered Alexis, looking at her shoes.

Christie nodded knowingly. "Well, the girls' club just
might be what you need to get him really interested in you," said
Christie. "The more I tell Jon I don't want to go steady, the more he
wants to."

"I know, but I'm afraid to. And what if you guys are
wrong and Bill gets interested in someone else while I'm doing aerobics? I'd
get skinny but I'd lose him. I'd rather be fat with him."

Katie moved in next. "Where's your pride, Alexis? You
don't want to just follow him around, do you?"

Alexis sighed. "Okay, I'll sign your petition, but I
won't join your club." She took the pen and paper from Katie and wrote her
name on it.

"Me, too," said Gloria, signing below Alexis's
name.

Mona signed, too, then hung back for a second as the other
two girls left. "Gee, I'm sorry. You guys are super, and I hate not
joining your club, but Matt and I . . . you understand."

"I understand perfectly," Katie muttered angrily
as she watched Mona walking away. Even Mona, who had been one of her good
friends at Mark Twain Elementary, wasn't about to give up a night out with her
boyfriend.

"Well, how many names do we have now?" asked Beth.

"Twenty-seven," answered Christie glumly.

"How many signatures did Laura and the others get?"
asked Melanie.

"I'll ask her in social studies," said Katie.

"Unless they did a lot better than we have, it's not
going to impress Mr. Bell very much," said Jana. "But I guess we'll
have to take what we've got to him."

"Let's do it right after fourth period," suggested
Christie. "That will give us a little more time." They all agreed to
meet at the principal's office.

"I guess the girls' club idea is a loser," said
Beth. "I was getting to like the idea, too. It would have been fun to have
a night when just girls got together without the boys."

"Maybe Laura talked Heather Clark and some of the other
Riverfield girls into doing it," Christie said hopefully. "We can't
give up yet."

"Yeah, but it won't be much fun if we can't get some of
the Mark Twain girls to join, too," complained Katie.

"This is it," said Laura, handing her pile of
petitions back to Katie. "We were only able to collect twelve more names.
We did get Daphne Alexandrou and Shelly Bramlett from eighth grade and Holly
Davis from ninth grade to join. You ought to give us credit for our four names,
too."

"You won't win a free trip to Hawaii even if I did,"
responded Katie.

Laura gave her a sarcastic smile. "Well, adding a women's
history class was your idea."

"And the girls' club was your idea," shot back
Katie. The two girls glared at one another for a few seconds. Then Katie's
expression softened. "Actually, your idea for the girls' club was
fantastic. We were thinking that we could get some aerobics tapes for Saturday
night, and everyone could bring clothes for other kids to try on. Do you have
any other ideas?"

"Marcie Bee's mother gives instructions on how to apply
makeup," said Laura. "I talked to Marcie and she said her mother
would come and demonstrate on us on Saturday. I've got an aerobics tape we can
use, too. I don't think we'll need much more."

"Great," said Katie. "Thanks a lot for all
you've done, Laura." Despite Katie's initial mistrust of Laura McCall, it
looked as if Laura was really interested in making the girls' club work.

When Katie stepped into the principal's office after fourth
period, the rest of The Fabulous Five were standing at the counter talking to
Mr. Bell's secretary, Miss Simone, about the petitions.

"Here are the others," Katie said, handing them to
Miss Simone.

The secretary counted the names as The Fabulous Five
anxiously watched her face. "Thirty-nine signatures. Hmmm. Generally,
there has to be a pretty strong and clear need to change or add to the
curriculum. I'm not sure this is enough to get Mr. Bell to go to all that
touble, but I'll give them to him and we'll see what he says." She looked
up and gave them all a warm smile.

"Personally, I think it's a good idea. I'll put in a
good word for you."

Gloom hung over The Fabulous Five as they filed out of the
office.