Freaked Out (12 page)

Before she went to sleep, Maeve arranged her hair on her pillow to look lovely in case a prince came to discover her in her dreams.

Upside Down Plans

“I can't believe it, Elena,” Isabel said. She was almost asleep when Elena came in, shook her, and wanted to talk.

She sat up straight and rubbed her eyes.

“I was foolish, Isabel. I admit it. I was loca. I thought Jimmy Riggs really liked me. He kept begging me to go out. Then when I said I would, when I made all sorts of sacrifices to change my schedule, he decided he'd rather go out with Lilli Harbeck. He just dropped me without even trying to hide what he was doing.”

“Papa would say that he was a ‘no good
hombre
.'”

“I don't care. I think the entire school knew what was going to happen way before I did, anyway. How could I have been so stupid?” Elena Maria wailed.

“You aren't stupid, Elena. I think that chico was stupid for not wanting to go out with you. Don't waste your time thinking about him.” Isabel was outraged that someone would treat her sister like that. Even though Elena could be so annoying, she was her sister.

“You are so nice, Izzy!” Elena started to cry.

“Girls, girls,” Aunt Lourdes said, coming into their room.

“What are you fighting about? Why is Elena crying? When I was your age—”

“Elena is crying because I'm too nice,” Isabel said, leaving Aunt Lourdes to stare at them both, then turn around and leave.

Elena giggled. “At least she didn't say at her age she was too nice. Sleep tight.” Elena shut the door quietly behind her.

Isabel punched in Avery's number.

“Hey. Isabel, that you? I'm getting ready for bed.”

“I was falling asleep reading when Elena woke me up. She was having a major meltdown.”

“What happened to Elena?”

“She's just being
muy loca
. The boy she was going out with just dumped her.”

“Nice guy.”

“A rat, I think. Anyway, she is going to baby-sit the Fergusons, but I am still going to help her. Those two little devils require a tag team approach. You can baby-sit with Elena and me if you want. I don't mind at all.”

“Uh, no thanks—I don't really want to hear any more of your sister's tragic romance stories. No offense.”

“But what are you going to do on Saturday?”

“I'll find something.”

“Yeah. I'm sure something will come up. Well, come over to the Fergusons' if you want. We'll need all the help we can get with those little monsters.”

“Maybe.”

“I'll pay you half of my share.”

“You don't have to do that. I'll talk to you later, Izzy.”

“Bye.”

 

Avery shut off her light. What would she do Saturday night? Stay home and stare at Walter shedding his skin? She'd hate to miss that. Suddenly, the tears began rolling down her face and she couldn't stop them. At that moment, her mother opened the door to say goodnight. Avery turned and buried her face into the pillow. Her mother rushed over to her bed and sat down beside her. She put her hands on Avery's head and began to gently stroke her daughter's hair. She didn't say a word. When Avery's sobs finally subsided, her mother simply said, “Tell me about it, sweetheart.”

W
hat to wear? What to wear? For some reason, Maeve just couldn't think of anything, so she tossed on her favorite sweatshirt from Think Pink and a pair of jeans. She slipped on pink flip flops, thrilled her toenail polish with the pineapples was holding up.

A familiar squeak reminded her she had responsibilities in addition to looking fantastic. She found a mound of dried-up bread crusts and approached her guinea pigs. They leaned on the cage and looked at her, noses sniffing, anticipating something. Anything.

“Today I christen you Salt and Pepper, or should you be Coffee and Cream? Yes, that's better.”

Cream jumped on his exercise wheel and did a quick twenty laps before Maeve could get the door open and feed the bread to them.

“Ooh, you are such a little track star. I'm going to sign you up for Abigail Adams cross country,” she cooed to her little buddy.

Suddenly, a funny thought came to her. She shared it aloud to see what Coffee and Cream thought about it.

“If Coffee ran, turning her exercise wheel ten revolutions per minute, and Cream left two days later, turning his exercise wheel fifteen revolutions per minute, which GP would get to eighth grade first?”

Now, which formula should she use to solve the problem? She had no idea. She'd have to ask Matt to help her figure it out sometime.

While Maeve filled the water and pellet bowls, Cream grabbed the biggest crust and took it into an empty toilet paper roll to eat all by himself. He was such a chow hound.

Quickly, she grabbed up all the papers that had fallen off her bed and stuffed them into her backpack along with her books and laptop.

In the kitchen, Sam poured Cheerios into a bowl and drowned them with milk. He kept pushing the tiny brown lifesavers underwater to watch them pop back up.

“Eat that cereal, Sam,” Ms. Kaplan said. “And, Maeve, please be here right after classes to baby-sit Sam.”

Sam grinned at Maeve, jumped up, and froze into a karate chop pose. “And watch out for closet doors.”

Maeve's mother looked at her, then her face softened. “Pretty in pink.” She hugged Maeve. “But look at your feet. You girls and your flip-flops. Your feet are going to freeze. Eat some breakfast. Since I'm already late, I'll give you a ride as soon as you're ready. You and Sam, too.”

Party Buzz

Now that it was almost here, all anyone at Abigail Adams was talking about was Julie Faber's party. Maeve heard the buzz from every small group of girls clumped together around their lockers like schools of bright fish off the beaches of Hawaii.

“What are you wearing? Something Hawaiian or just regular party stuff?” “Hair hanging loose would look better if she gives us leis.” “Maybe she'll hand out orchids. You'd need your hair down for that, too.”

“Cute headband, Maeve,” Katani said when they stopped at their lockers. “What's the occasion?”

“Nothing much, but this sparkly band makes me feel like dancing.” Maeve executed a perfect combination, then took one step back to make room for a spin.

“Ooof! Maeve, look before you twirl.” Maeve crashed into Dillon, who tried to catch her before she went sprawling onto the floor.

All Maeve could do was laugh at herself. A big splat on the floor in the middle of a busy hallway was too obvious to try and cover up. Maeve figured she better just go with it.

Dillon helped her up from the floor and everyone headed toward the cafeteria.

“Important announcement!” the Yurtmeister shouted as he rushed by. “We're having lasagna for lunch!”

As they entered the cafeteria, Julie Faber, surrounded by her attendants, moved ahead of them. Julie tossed out words like
grass skirts, hula girls, mango-pineapple punch,
and
coconut cake
, loud enough for everyone in a ten-mile radius to hear. Lisa Kraft and Yolanda Jones looked over at
Avery to gauge her reaction. Avery stared straight ahead. Wise words from her mother rang in her head: “You are better than this silly smallness of spirit.” She grabbed a sandwich, strawberry yogurt, and a home-baked chocolate chip cookie. Her mother said she should do everything she wanted this week to make herself happy. And a warm, just-baked chocolate chip cookie looked awfully tasty, Avery thought.

When the Beacon Street Girls found a table as far away as possible from Julie, they sat quietly for a couple of minutes.

“Go ahead, guys, talk about the party,” Avery said. “I know you're dying to and I don't care, now.”

The tone of Avery's voice was a little mysterious, but it was clear to the BSG that she was going to deal with it in her usual way. Charge ahead. Don't waste time with small petty stuff. Charlotte admired her spunky friend. People could learn a lot from Avery's attitude toward this whole party fiasco. Avery was filled with courage, and Charlotte hoped everyone at Abigail Adams would recognize it some day.

Before anyone could say anything, Chelsea Briggs approached their table. She seemed hesitant to do so, but Charlotte scooted over to make room for her to sit with them.

“Do you mind if I sit down?” Chelsea asked, smiling.

“No problem,” Katani said. “How's the photography business doing?”

“It's good, Katani. I printed up those fliers and one of the teachers asked me to take pictures of her daughter's
birthday party. But I need an opinion here,” Chelsea said as she brushed aside everyone's congratulations. She still wasn't used to people being interested in “the fat girl.” Of course, she
had
lost two pounds since she came home from Lake Rescue. Her brother high-fived her this morning when she announced the loss at the breakfast table. “Slow and steady wins the race, dude,” he said, but not before giving her a friendly noogie on the head.

“Seriously. I really need your opinion about something.”

“Shoot,” Avery said, jumping up and tossing a make-believe basket. “Score three points.”

“Julie didn't invite me to her party,” Chelsea said, spreading her lunch before her.

“What else is new? I didn't get invited either.” Avery looked at Chelsea.

“A BSG didn't get invited?” Chelsea seemed incredulous.

Avery grinned. “Yeah, go figure.”

“It's really an outrage,” chimed in Katani.

“Go ahead, Chelsea,” encouraged Charlotte.

“Well, then she came to me this morning and asked me to take pictures. It seems the high-priced photographer they had hired backed out on them. He probably got a better job. They can't get anyone else, so they asked me. I guess I'm good enough to take photos, but not to be a guest. My mother said it was my choice. But the whole thing is so weird I don't know what to do. I thought I would ask you all…I mean, what do you think?”

At first there was silence around the table. No one
could believe how tacky Julie Faber and this whole
who is invited, who is not
had become.

Finally, Katani shrugged. “No big deal, Chelsea. Consider it a job. There are times when you have to separate business from pleasure.”

Isabel clapped and then all the BSG laughed. When it came to business, Katani was all business.

“Charge them big bucks,” Maeve suggested. “Ask what they were paying the unreliable professional and get at least half that.”

“Why not charge what the original photographer was getting?” Isabel asked.

“Oh, I can't do that yet. I'm not a professional—someday, but not now.” Chelsea stirred her cottage cheese.

“But they're in a pinch, aren't they?” Avery offered Chelsea some almonds. “They need you. That's when professionals raise their rates.”

“I don't know…is that right?” Chelsea looked up from her cottage cheese.

“Chelsea has to keep her integrity.” Charlotte took a bite of the spicy lasagna. “Or people won't trust her business.”

“So you think I should take the job?” Chelsea said, spooning some fruit and cottage cheese onto some crackers.

“Of course. Each job leads to the next.” Katani smiled. “As soon as I started putting a Kgirl label on the little clutch bags I designed, people came to me and asked to buy my stuff. People love original designs.”

“I know. Everybody was talking about your bags in photo class. Maddie Westheimer was showing off her black and pink one. It was so cool.”

Katani blushed but was pleased with the compliment.

“Get a stamp with your name and logo to put on the packages of finished photos you deliver,” Isabel said. “I'll help you design a logo.”

“Thanks. You guys are great. You should start a company called BSG, Inc.” Chelsea grabbed a carrot. “Oops, I gotta go.” Chelsea jumped up from the table. “I'm meeting with Mr. Sherman. Do you believe how hard that math test was? I almost flunked it.”

Maeve blinked. Chelsea had had done poorly too. She felt bad for Chelsea, but also comforted that somebody she knew was having trouble as well. She didn't feel so alone. She wondered just how many people flunked the test. She was going to ask around. Maybe they could get Mrs. Fields to start a special after-school group. They could call it “Math Victims No More.”

The lunch bunch broke up. Avery was glad Chelsea had come along to distract them from party talk, or to bring a different kind of party talk.

But they weren't home free yet. Before the BSG could leave the cafeteria, Anna and Joline crept up behind them. “So what, is Chelsea Briggs going to be in your little club now?” Joline asked.

“Something wrong with having good friends, Joline?” Maeve asked.

“As long as they don't act like boring old movie stars,” Anna said.

“And can count to ten,” added Joline, giving Maeve a snide look.

Before any of the BSG could think of a comeback, Anna laughed and they both rushed down the opposite hall.

“Wow, I really do look like Rita Hayworth,” Maeve said. “Even those two recognized the incredible resemblance.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and twirled around.

“Do you think late at night, when they think about what they've done, they ever feel guilty?” asked Isabel.

Katani, Maeve, Charlotte, and Avery looked at one another. After a pause they yelled in unison, “NOOO!”

Charlotte glanced at Maeve, glad she was in a good mood after yesterday's disaster. “Are we all getting together this afternoon?”

“Isabel and I have basketball practice,” Avery said.

“And I'm helping my mother with her exercises after practice,” Isabel said proudly. “Her physical therapist taught me how. So I'll probably talk to you guys tomorrow, then.”

“Oh, that's so cool, Isabel,” said Maeve. “How is your mom doing?”

“She's good, thanks for asking, Maeve,” answered Isabel.

“Can I take Marty for a walk after practice, Charlotte?” asked Avery.

“Sure, we'll be home all night. I have a ton of homework and my dad wants me home for dinner,” Charlotte said as she turned in her lunch tray and the BSG walked out of the cafeteria and into the crowded hallway. “He wants to talk about winter vacation plans.”

“Are you going away for vacation?” asked Katani, just as the bell rang signaling the end of lunch period.

“Come on, Charlotte,” interrupted Avery, “let's hurry! We don't want to be late for science!”

Avery grabbed Charlotte's arm and started booking it for the science lab. Charlotte waved good-bye to Katani, Isabel, and Maeve and tried not to trip as Avery dragged her along.

“Whoa, slow down, Ave!” Charlotte exclaimed.

“We're using the microscopes today, Charlotte!” Avery said as they turned the corner toward the math and science wing, narrowly avoiding colliding with a group of loitering eighth-grade girls. “I've been looking forward to this class all week!”

Avery and Charlotte arrived at the science lab with plenty of time to spare and managed to snag their favorite lab bench by the windows on the far side of the lab. Each bench had two lab stations, a small sink, and four high stools. Today there was a microscope, pipette, and slides at each station. The girls looked around the classroom and noticed eight jars of what looked like dirty water on the teacher's work bench at the front of the classroom. At the chalkboard, Mr. Moore, the science teacher, was putting the final touches on a drawing of a cell labeled “Amoeba.”

Nick Montoya and Henry Yurt entered the room shortly after the girls, and sat down at the other station at their bench.

“Hi, Charlotte,” said Nick. “How's it going, Ave?”

Charlotte gave a little wave and smiled, and Avery launched into about how psyched she was to do lab
experiments. Charlotte was happy too, because science was one of her favorite subjects; she just wasn't as vocal about it as Avery was.

“And I also can't wait to get to the unit on ecology,” continued Avery.

“I just hope this experiment doesn't have anything to do with sulfur,” Yurt said. “We could all go home smelling like rotten eggs.”

“Ew, yeah, that would be gross,” said Avery, scrunching up her nose.

The bell rang signaling the start of class, and Mr. Moore called for everyone to sit down.

“All right, class,” said Mr. Moore from his work station at the front of the lab, “last week we started our unit on cells. Today we're going to be looking at some single-cell organisms from right here in Brookline. Please take out your lab books and turn to page forty-five.”

Avery reached into her backpack and pulled out her book and opened it. At the top of the page in large letters it said: Protozoans.

“Protozoans are single-celled organisms,” Mr. Moore explained as he gestured toward the jars of cloudy water. “For this activity, you'll work with your lab partner, using your microscopes to identify the protozoans that are found in these pond samples that I collected from Hall's Pond.”

“Cool,” Nick said out loud. He loved knowing how everything worked.