Green Algae and Bubble Gum Wars (15 page)

W
hen Maeve swooshed into school the next day, the crowd literally parted in two. Maeve smiled at her gathering fans, knowing that she was truly a sight to behold. She'd transformed her tight red ringlets into sleek waves. She was wearing a stretchy white V-neck T-shirt, her enormous, glam-tastic movie star sunglasses, and a pair of designer jeans. Well…“designer” in so far as the one and only Katani Summers had embellished Maeve's favorite flares with magenta embroidered roses and sparkling rhinestones. But the best part of all was what was on her feet: pink boots, the very pair she'd seen at the mall with her mother a few weeks before. She couldn't believe her mom had remembered and had gone to the trouble and expense of going back to buy them for her.

Before she'd left for school, her mother had given her a few pointers on how to wear mascara. “At your age and with your complexion,” Ms. Kaplan advised, “clear mascara is the way to go. Black is dramatic, but on a redhead everyone will
know it's not natural.” She let Maeve have her spare clear mascara, and Maeve couldn't believe how stunning her lush lashes looked. Sometimes mothers could be so sweet!

Maeve pretended not to notice when Dillon, Nick, and the Trentini twins gaped at her as she strutted into Ms. R's homeroom.

“
Muy caliente
!” Isabel gasped.

Maeve giggled. “
Gracias, mi amiga
.”

Katani gave her an approving nod. “You look fierce, girl!” Maeve couldn't help blushing. Some days her overly pink mood and 'tude could be a little bit much—as Katani often reminded her—but today she was sure she'd gotten it down just right!

“Wow,” Charlotte remarked. “You seemed so sad these past few days and now, well,
look at you
. What happened?”

Maeve shrugged. “Let's just say the Queen of Romance is back and better than ever!”

“Good,” Isabel said, wrapping her arm around Maeve's shoulders, “because we can't do this whole Scott/Elena Maria matchmaking thing without you!”

“Ooh, speaking of…” Charlotte began, “Dad gave me the thumbs up for an official BSG sleepover in the Tower on Saturday. Are you guys in?”

Maeve started clapping, as Katani and Isabel exclaimed, “Yeah!”

“Oh, look, it's BSG number five!” Maeve sang as Avery sprinted into the room just as the last bell rang. “Hey, Ave—sleepover at Char's this weekend!” Maeve informed her.

“Oh, yeah? Cool. Uuughhh!” Avery grunted as she hauled the garbage bag she was holding onto the chair of her desk.

“Don't tell me…,” Katani mumbled.

“Oh, yeah, you'd better believe it.” Avery rubbed her hands together maniacally. “The biggest, baddest batch o' gum yet!” She reached in and came up with chunks of green. “Finally got the green coloring to work. I call it Green Tea Lime Fusion.” She plopped a ball of gum in each of the BSG's hands.

“And just what are you planning on doing with all this?” Katani asked.

“Simple,” answered Avery. “I am conducting a scientific experiment as we speak. The subjects are the students of Abigail Adams Junior High. Once people see that cutting down on packaging and making gum from natural materials isn't hard, tastes better, and helps save the rain forest, we might have a shot at stopping that factory. Can't you see it now—my recipe goes all over the world and nobody buys gum anymore, 'cause everybody can make it at home. That cuts out the packaging completely! But don't ask me for the recipes yet, loyal fans…I'm building suspense…everybody will have to wait until I release
those
on the night of the science fair.”

“But, Avery, weren't you all, like, concerned about the greenhouse gases the factory will create?” Katani reminded her. “Did you do any research about that? Like how much CO
₂
this
particular
factory will
actually
release into the atmosphere? And what makes you think everyone is going to like
your
gum so mu—”

Katani was interrupted by a sudden rush of kids crowding around Avery's desk with outstretched hands. “Avery! Avery! Over here! Avery! Toss me a piece, please!” The only
ones to hang back were Anna and Joline, who looked quite sullen chewing their Tru Blu gum.

“Step right up! Step right up and get your gum! Save the planet!” Avery called, showering gum all around like she was riding a Mardi Gras float.

Charlotte glanced at Anna and Joline sulking in the corner and noted to Isabel, “I guess there's a new Queen of Gum around here!”

“Queen of Romance and Queen of Gum…I knew the BSG would be going places, I just didn't know it would be so soon!” Isabel giggled.

But Katani had a hard time rejoicing in Avery's gum success.
What if Avery's plan actually works?
she wondered.
If enough people rally against the new gum factory, then Dad might lose his contract. He'll have to go back to working a million little jobs, and he won't be at home nearly as much.

As the kids shuffled out of homeroom and off to first period, Ms. Rodriguez pulled Avery aside. “I need to speak with you a minute, Avery…it's about your gum project.”

Katani felt a pang of hope that maybe Ms. R was going to put a stop to all this crazy gum business.

 

“Great news, guys!” Avery chirped as she waltzed into science class. “Ms. R told me the science department approved ‘a small grant' for me to make more gum and print out a recipe book. She said as a fellow environmental advocate she really admires my initiative!”

Katani, who was sitting on a stool across from Avery at the BSG's favorite lab table, gasped. “Wait a minute.
That's
what she had you stay after homeroom about?”

Avery beamed. “Uh-huh!”

“That's great!” Maeve gushed. Charlotte and Isabel nodded enthusiastically.

“Is something wrong, Katani?” Avery asked. Katani wasn't great about keeping her feelings to herself and the frown she was wearing was almost identical to the ones Anna, Joline, and Kiki were sporting on the other side of the room.

“Nope.” Katani dove into her school bag and began rustling around. The rest of the BSG looked at each other nervously, feeling the tension in the air. “Argh! Where is my calculator!?” she growled. Katani leapt up and as she did, the BSG stared in horror as a string of bright green gum stretched from the back pocket of her chic camel-colored pants to the chair.

“Uh, Katani…” Maeve hesitantly pointed at the trail.

“Ewwwww!” she shrieked picking the gum off the fabric. “I am so, so sick of this stupid gum!” Katani marched away to find a calculator.

“Whoa! What the heck is bugging the Kgirl?” Avery asked. She wound her finger around her ear to show that she thought Katani was cracking up.

“Shh, listen!” Isabel insisted. The BSG huddled around the center of the table. “Katani called me last night. She's more freaked out about this gum factory thing than we thought. The deal is, she's really worried that Avery's gonna win the gum war and put the factory out of business and her dad's going to lose his commission.”

“That's crazy!” Maeve exclaimed.

“Shhh!”
the girls said at once.

“I mean,” Maeve dropped to a whisper, “one kid can't stop a major factory from coming in….”

Avery's face darkened. “Hey. Are you with the Green Machine or against it?”

“She's coming back guys. Shhh,” Charlotte warned.

The girls retreated to their stools and immediately began studying their science books. Katani eyed her friends dubiously.

The girls all felt relieved when Mr. Moore started class. But for once, they wished he was conducting a lecture instead of a lab. A lab meant half work, half chat. And today, they could smell trouble brewing.

Charlotte took the wheel on the experiment—looking at strands of hair under a microscope. The instructions specified that the students do a comparative analysis of various hair types under the microscope: curly, straight, and three different colors. “We're so lucky we can cover all the hair types without even looking outside the BSG!” Charlotte pointed out.

“Here, take one of mine! Ouch!” Avery plucked a strand of her long, black hair.

“Maeve?” asked Charlotte with an outstretched hand.

“But my hair is perfectly styled today,” Maeve objected. “This 'do took me aaaaages, you guys.”

“But it says,” Isabel leaned over and read from the assignment sheet, “one red hair.”

“Cough it up, sister,” Katani demanded.

“All right! What I do for science,” Maeve grumbled as she yanked one of her hairs out.

“Uh-oh!” Avery interrupted. “We've got a bigger problem,
girls. Look!” She pointed at Mr. Moore, who was making a chart on the chalkboard for the class to fill in their collected data.

“He's got your green gum all over the back of his pants!” Maeve shouted.

“Keep it down, would ya?” Avery said, panicked. “If he finds out
my
gum is on his pants, I could lose everything!”

“Well, somebody's got to tell him. Look at my pants! This stuff stains like crazy,” Katani objected. “You should have done better research, Avery.”

“Oh, come on!” Avery groaned. “Since when do
you
care about Mr. Moore's clothing status?”

Katani narrowed her eyes and breathed, “You
know
I care about
everyone's
clothing status.”

“She does love fashion,” Charlotte offered.

The girls all turned and watched the gum shake back and forth from Mr. Moore's pants like a little green tail. There were giggles from around the room as other kids looked up and noticed. “This is too humiliating…Mr. Moore is a great teacher,” Katani remarked. “I'm gonna tell him.”

“No!” shrieked Avery. “I know what this is about, Katani. You're afraid that my gum project is going to take down the factory and your dad will lose his big commission, and now you're trying to sabotage me!”

“Avery!” Katani gasped. “I would never sabotage a friend. How could you even think that?” Katani folded her arms and for a second Maeve wondered if smoke was going to stream out of her nostrils.

Maeve took a deep breath and decided to step into the role of peacemaker. She had done it before for the girls, and
she was happy to do it again. But as soon as she opened her mouth to give her famous let bygones be bygones speech, she realized someone else had stolen her lines!

“All right, everybody calm down!” Isabel insisted. “I can't believe that you guys are letting all this stuff about the gum factory blow up over this—a weird little gum tail on Mr. Moore's doofy pants.”

Charlotte and Maeve let out a giggle, but Avery and Katani were still fuming.

“Hello! Warning! Don't you guys remember why we started this science fair thing?” Isabel insisted.

Maeve raised her hand “Ooh! I do! Pick me!”

Avery rolled her eyes. “To do our part to save the environment.”

Katani nodded. “Agreed.”

“And isn't part of saving the environment working together!?” Isabel asked. Now she was really rolling.

“Yes,” mumbled Avery and Katani at the same time.

“I don't want your dad to lose his commission.” Avery sighed. “I just really,
really
wanted to show the Queens of Mean that not everyone was part of their zombie consumer tribe…that kids do care about the environment.”

Katani shrugged. “I know. It's just, things got so complicated. I want to help the environment too, obviously. But I also like having my dad home more.”

“So this is a truce?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes!”
the girls answered at once.

Avery had the girls put their all hands on top of one another. “Let's go, Green Machine!” she cried as they all lifted their hands to the ceiling.

As the girls finished up their lab, Mr. Moore walked over to their table. “Avery, I was wondering if I could have a word with you?”

“Suuuure…” Avery nervously replied, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Kiki and Anna were doubled over in laughter. She'd already stayed after class once today without getting in trouble—surely she couldn't get that lucky twice!

Mr. Moore went to his desk to grade papers as the students filtered out. When everyone had finally left, it was just him and Avery, and he didn't even look up.

“Ahem,”
Avery coughed, but no response.
“Ach…AHEM!”
she tried again.

Mr. Moore looked up. “Ah, yeah. Avery. We have a little problem on our hands.”

The image of Mr. Moore's pants and green gum flashed in Avery's mind. “Yes?”

Mr. Moore took off his glasses and said in a very serious tone, “It's about your gum.”

Avery gulped. “Uh-huh…”