Fabulous Five 003 - The Popularity Trap (8 page)

Christie walked into the school on Monday morning with the
rest of The Fabulous Five. Her friends were all hyper about the election and
her chances of becoming president, but Christie had something else on her
mind—Curtis. What if he revealed that he was the mystery candidate too soon and
blew the whole thing? She knew she would be nervous all day, especially when
everyone saw the new posters. Would he be able to keep his mouth shut?

Jon, Curtis, Whitney, and she had gone to Curtis's house
yesterday to make posters that said, MYSTERY CANDIDATE TO BE REVEALED AT
BUMPERS MONDAY AFTER SCHOOL. It had been fun, and with all four of them working
on Curtis's campaign, Christie had the feeling that it just might work, and she
wouldn't be elected. Now she had her fingers crossed behind her back as they
walked down the hall where kids were gathered around one of the posters that
Curtis and Whitney had put up earlier that morning.

"Can you imagine the nerve?" Katie's voice sounded
frantic. "Everyone will vote tomorrow morning in homeroom, and whoever
this clown is, is going to wait until after school today to reveal his or her
identity. Okay, guys. We've got to put on a big push for Christie while we
still can."

"Right," agreed Jana. "We all have to talk to
everyone we know today. We can't let this mystery candidate win."

"I'll talk to Scott and some of the other boys,"
said Melanie.

Katie looked at her with exasperation. "After your idea
about putting stickers on the football helmets, I think you'd better be careful
with the players."

"Well, if Scott had only checked with the coach like he
was supposed to . . ." Melanie pleaded.

"It doesn't matter now," said Jana. "What
matters is getting Christie elected."

"Would it really be that bad if someone besides me or Melissa
were to win?" asked Christie. She had been listening to their conversation
and trying desperately to think of some way to discourage them. "I thought
we were mostly interested in beating Melissa."

"That's true," said Beth. "But who knows who
this mystery candidate really is. I mean, it could be someone worse than
Melissa—like Taffy Sinclair, for instance."

"Or somebody gross like Clarence Marshall," said
Melanie, wrinkling her nose.

"So, what if it's someone terrific?" offered
Christie. "What if all the posters are right and this person is
hardworking and popular and deserves to be president?"

"But we don't know that the mystery candidate is
someone terrific," argued Jana, "and if it turns out to be someone
horrible and you stop trying to win, Melissa will win for sure. She'll get all
of Riverfield and then part of Mark Twain and Copper Beach. Your staying in is
the only way the mystery candidate can have a chance."

"And don't forget all the kids who might vote for
Melissa just to go to a party at Laura's," cautioned Katie. "You'd be
letting everybody down if you let that happen."

Christie knew in her heart that Jana and Katie were right.
She hadn't thought about it before, but she had to keep running to keep Melissa
from getting votes. And if she backed out, everyone would think that she was
afraid to run against Melissa. She wanted to find the happy medium, but just as
always, things were out of control, and she was being swept along. Oh, Jon, she
thought, I hope our plan works.

The after-school crowd at Bumpers was enormous. Christie,
Jana, and Beth had to squeeze through the people at the door.

"Over here! Over here!" Melanie waved and shouted
above the din from the booth where she and Katie were saving seats.

Christie looked around the room. Every booth and bumper car
was packed, and kids were standing in the aisles. Jon was near the counter
talking with Tony Sanchez and Bill Soliday, and Curtis and Whitney were on the
other side of the room talking to Mandy McDermott and Darcy Holyfield.

Christie gulped. This was the big moment. She was
frightened. What if she had been wrong about Curtis's being the best candidate?
What if Curtis did something foolish in front of everyone? She would die.

Whitney looked at Christie and nodded slightly when kids
finally stopped coming in the door. Then she walked over and said something to
Mr. Matson. Christie looked nervously at Jon, and he gave her a reassuring
smile. Then the music playing on the old Wurlitzer stopped.

Everyone turned to see what was going on. Suddenly, over the
sound system came the blare of trumpets, and people looked at each other and
snickered.

Christie cringed.
Oh, no,
she thought. Is Curtis
going to make
too
big a deal out of this? Will everyone laugh?

At that moment Whitney stepped forward and waited calmly for
everyone to stop talking.

"I have the honor and the pleasure," she spoke
clearly and with pride in her voice, "to announce the name you have all
been waiting to hear." She paused for effect.

"The name of the person whom we from Copper Beach and,
I'm sure, you from Mark Twain and Riverfield all know and respect.

"The name of the seventh-grade person who has already
made a name for himself at Wakeman.

"The name of the person who knows the most about what
is happening at school.

"The name of the mystery candidate."

Kids started to applaud, but she held up her hand and the
room got quiet again.

"The name of the NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE SEVENTH-GRADE
CLASS OF WAKEMAN JUNIOR HIGH IS . . . CURTIS . . . ELWOOD . . .
TROWBRIDGE!
"

The room remained in stunned silence for a long moment.
Christie's heart sank within her. It was worse than she could ever imagine. It
seemed that nobody could believe that the mystery candidate was Curtis!

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Mandy and Darcy
started whispering to each other. And then gradually other kids began talking
and whispering until a buzz of voices filled the room, but no one was saying
anything to Curtis, who stood beside Whitney with a look of horror growing on
his face.

"CUR-TIS! CUR-TIS! CUR-TIS!" shouted Jon, raising
his fist in the air each time he said it. Tony Sanchez and Bill Soliday looked
surprised at first but then shrugged and joined in the chant.

"CUR-TIS! CUR-TIS!" The shout filled the room, and
Curtis's look of horror turned to an ear-to-ear grin.

"ME-LIS-SA! ME-LIS-SA!" shouted Laura, Tammy, and
Funny, sticking their chins in the air in defiance. Slowly other Riverfield
kids began to join them.

"ME-LIS-SA! ME-LIS-SA!"

"CHRIS-TIE! CHRIS-TIE!" shouted Jana as Katie,
Melanie, and Beth picked up the chant.

"CHRIS-TIE! CHRIS-TIE!"

Soon the room was filled with the mingled shouts of "CHRIS-TIE!"
"ME-LIS-SA!" "CUR-TIS!" "CHRIS-TIE!" "ME-LIS-SA!"
"CUR-TIS!"

Jana, Katie, Beth, and Melanie were waiting at The Fabulous
Five's special place by the school fence when Christie arrived.

"Well, today is the big day, Christie," said
Melanie. "Whatever happens, I think we ran a
great
campaign."

"I still think Christie's going to win," said
Beth. "She's really popular."

"She sure is," answered Katie. "The only
thing that has me worried is Laura's promise to have a party for everyone who
votes for Melissa if she wins."

"I agree," said Jana. "But I couldn't tell
from all the shouting at Bumpers yesterday, when Whitney announced Curtis was
the mystery candidate, which one of the candidates is the most popular. I just
wonder who is
really
behind Curtis's campaign. I can't believe he and
Whitney thought that up and did all those things by themselves. Besides, Curtis
has too big an ego to keep a secret like that."

Christie took a deep breath and swallowed hard. "It was
Jon and me."

Her friends went silent and turned to her with stunned looks
on their faces. Their eyes were as big as saucers.

"You?"
said Melanie in disbelief. The
others stared at her with their mouths open.

"What do you mean, it was you?" asked Katie.

"Yeah? After all that work," said Beth.

Christie's heart almost burst at the feeling of having
betrayed her friends.

"Wait a minute," said Jana softly. She looked
deeply into Christie's eyes, and Christie gave her a silent plea for
understanding. "Why did you do it, Christie?" Jana asked.

"I'm sorry, really I am.
But I just don't want to be
class president.
I know you want me to be, and I appreciate your confidence
in me. But if I were president, I'd have to give up things
I
really want
to do, and I'm tired of doing that.

"My mother keeps pushing me to make good grades so I
can be better than my brothers. My dad wants me to play competition tennis. The
teachers all expect me to set an example for everyone else because I'm a
principal's daughter. And now you want me to be class president and make all
kinds of changes that you want. I love you all, but I don't want to do that."
Christie's chin quivered and a tear ran down each cheek.

"Oh, my gosh," said Melanie.

"We didn't understand," said Katie, putting her
hand on Christie's arm.

"Oh, we're so sorry," said Jana. "How could
we have been such idiots?"

Her four friends gathered around Christie, locking her in a
gigantic hug.

"You've got to forgive us," said Jana, holding
Christie by the shoulders. "We got carried away and weren't thinking about
you the way we should have."

Christie inhaled deeply and gave them a weak smile. "I
know. And I didn't want to disappoint you, either. Or my parents. I had a talk
with them this morning, too. At breakfast. I knew I had to prepare them in case
I lose the election today."

"Gosh," said Jana. "That must have been hard."

"Not as hard as I thought it would be," Christie
admitted. "They really do care about me, and they said they didn't realize
that they were pushing me so hard. Dad even said he didn't mind if I played
tennis just for fun from now on." She paused a minute. "I believe
them. I just hope they remember not to push so hard the next time something
comes up that they want me to do."

"You could still win," said Melanie.

"Sure," said Christie. "But you know, Curtis
is
a good candidate when you think about him. He is all the things Jon and I said
on the posters and on the tape. I even think someday he may be a senator. Maybe
even president."

Melanie and Beth looked at each other, covering their mouths
and giggling at the thought.

"That was Jon's voice on the tape?" asked Jana.

"That's right," said Christie, laughing, too, at
the thought of Jon's muffled voice and mysterious laugh.

"Okay!" said Jana, taking command. "This is
what we're going to do. We've got to talk to as many Mark Twain kids as we can
before we vote in homeroom. Tell everybody to vote for Curtis. Tell them THE
FABULOUS FIVE said so." She held up high five, and the others hit it and
cheered.

Christie worried all morning. Her friends had run around the
school as fast as they could stopping every Mark Twain seventh-grader they saw
and telling them to vote for Curtis. Randy Kirwan, Scott Daly, and Keith Masterson
joined in to tell as many boys as they could. Jon and Whitney talked to the
Copper Beach kids and told them that Christie wanted them to vote for Curtis.
But would it be enough? She was still afraid she or Melissa might be elected
when she marked her ballot during homeroom.

The cafeteria was noisier than usual when she went in for
lunch. Her friends looked at her sympathetically when she sat down with them.

"Well, we did our best," said Katie.

Christie smiled at her and nodded. She was lucky to have
four such great friends. If she had just not been so afraid of hurting them and
had said what she was really thinking in the beginning, the five of them would
have figured another way to beat Melissa and The Fantastic Foursome. She would
know better next time. She would stick to the happy medium the way Jon had
suggested and be more honest about her feelings. The thing that counted most was
that The Fabulous Five were sticking together, as always.

"ATTENTION PLEASE," a voice came over the public
address system. "FOLLOWING ARE THE RESULTS OF THE SCHOOL ELECTIONS."

Christie went tense as the names of the officers for the
ninth and eighth grades were announced. Her hands went clammy as the
announcements started for the seventh grade.

"TREASURER—RICHIE CORRIERRO."

A cheer went up around the table where Richie was sitting,
and he stood up on the bench and waved his clenched hands in victory.

"SECRETARY—ELIZABETH HARVEY."

Everybody from Riverfield began yelling and clapping.

"VICE PRESIDENT—MANDY MCDERMOTT."

A cheer went up from another part of the room for Mandy. "PRESIDENT—"

Christie had been holding her breath until she thought her
lungs would burst.

"—CURTIS TROWBRIDGE."

She let out all the air she had been holding as Jana, Katie,
Beth, and Melanie started pounding on her just as if she had won, and all five
of them yelled for joy. She looked across the room and saw Jon with a big smile
on his face. You know, she thought, I never knew losing could feel so good.

Two tables away she saw Laura turn to Melissa and frown.
Uh-oh, thought Christie. The Fantastic Foursome may have lost the election, but
they had to know that The Fabulous Five had thrown their support to Curtis.
They wouldn't stand still for defeat by The Fabulous Five for very long. It was
anyone's guess what they would try next.

Christie climbed into bed that night thinking that her day
had been practically perfect. Curtis had won the election, and her friends and
her parents all understood. And to top things off, Jon had taken her to meet
his famous parents this evening. Wow, she thought. I'll be the envy of half the
seventh grade.

Chip Smith and Marge Whitworth were really hyper. She had
wondered if all television personalities were like that—acting as if they were
on stage all the time. They were nice, but she could see how it would be
difficult living with them.

After they had left his house, Jon had smiled at Christie
and said, "Now that you've rescued my brain, how about tutoring me in
tennis and helping me improve my backhand? It's pretty rotten."

"Sure," she had replied, returning his smile. "But
I'll have to warn you that I may not be able to bring you all the way up from
rotten to fabulous. You may have to settle for happy medium."

Now, snuggled under her covers, Christie thought about
finding a happy medium. It made a lot of sense to her. She was herself instead
of the person everyone had wanted her to be. Jon was himself, too, and not a
cop-out. Everyone was happy—her friends, her parents, even Jon's parents. So,
there was only one more thing that she absolutely had to do. Tomorrow she would
begin concentrating on tennis and especially on improving Jon's
wonderfully
rotten backhand.