Fabulous Five 005 - The Bragging War (2 page)

All the way home from school Beth rehearsed what she would
say to her parents to persuade them to let her have a slumber party Friday
night. She would have to start with that and work on a great plan as she went
along. If she or her friends thought of a really terrific way to lure girls
away from Laura's party, there could be a real crowd. I'll have to deal with
that problem later, she thought.

A bigger problem was going to be getting her parents to
listen to her request in the first place. Especially since she didn't know how
many people would be coming. With five kids in the family it was always a total
madhouse around the Barry household.

At least Todd, her younger brother who was in the fifth
grade, was shooting hoops in the driveway when she got home. That eliminates
one distraction, she thought. She waved to him and ducked in the door beside
the garage as he tried to blast her with the basketball.

"Hey. Wanna play bombardment?" he shouted as she
closed the door.

Inside, her older brother Brian's stereo was cranked up so
high that the walls seemed to pulse with the music. Brian was probably upstairs
in his room—where he could hear the music better, she thought wryly.

Looking around the family room, she saw that both of her
sisters were in their usual afternoon spots. Alicia, the five-year-old, was
stretched out on her stomach watching
Sesame Street
with Agatha, the
sheepdog, who was stretched out on her stomach, too. As usual, sixteen-year-old
Brittany was talking on the phone.

"Hey, Britt. Where's mom?" Beth asked.

Usually Brittany's response to being interrupted on the
phone registered on the Richter scale, but today she put a hand over the
mouthpiece and said, "At Mark Twain. She and Dad had a conference with
Todd's teacher. It seems our saintly brother was involved in a mutiny over a
substitute teacher."

Beth chuckled. She was dying to ask her sister more about
the mutiny, but Brittany waved her off and went back to her conversation. There
was no use asking Todd. He would blow the story up so big that she wouldn't be
able to tell fact from fiction.

But why did he have to pick today for his mutiny? she
wondered as she dumped her books on her bed. That was all her parents would
want to talk about at dinner tonight. She wouldn't be able to get a word about
the slumber party in edgewise.

"There isn't anything new about that," she
grumbled out loud. Sometimes Brian's music was so loud that she had to talk out
loud to hear her own thoughts above it. "SOMETIMES I EVEN HAVE TO YELL!"
she shouted, knowing that no one would hear her.

It was always the same. Utter chaos. What's more, Alicia
idolized Brittany and always bugged her and got into her makeup. Todd idolized
Brian and always bugged him and got into his music. Brittany and Brian were
always screaming at Alicia and Todd, who always screamed back, which made their
parents constantly get after all four of them for fighting. Agatha loved the
uproar, and she would run in circles barking. That left Beth to get attention
the best way she could, and tonight—if Todd was in trouble at school—that
wouldn't be easy. She would have to try hard.

Beth thought for a moment and then knelt beside her theater
trunk, which stood in the corner near her closet. Actually the old steamer
trunk had been a basement relic that she had rescued and cleaned up. Now it was
one of her most prized possessions, which, like vaudeville trunks in the olden
days, was filled with the costumes and stage props she would use someday when
she became an actress. But until then, when all else failed, she could always
find the help she needed inside.

The
skre-e-ech
of the lid's being opened was lost in
the twang of steel-string guitars coming from Brian's room next door. Beth
rummaged around in the trunk, which smelled faintly of mildew, tossing out the
gorilla costume Brian had worn one Halloween, an Oriental fan, wigs, fake
mustaches and beards, and assorted pieces of clothing until, near the bottom,
she found exactly what she was looking for.

She smiled as she pulled out a rectangular yellow box and
read the words on the lid:

Wounds
, Hurts,
and Vampire Blood
A complete special-effects makeup lab
Use these specially designed professional quality makeups to create effects
that look just like those you see in the movies.

This ought to get their attention, Beth thought gleefully. I'd
like to see them ignore me now.

She opened the box and spread the contents out on her
dresser. There were horrible-looking wounds made out of soft, flexible plastic,
spirit-gum glue for sticking them onto skin, greasepaint makeup, including a
purplish color for simulating bruises and black eyes, and skin tone for blending
the artificial wounds into the person's skin color and making them look real.
Last but not least was the tube marked VAMPIRE'S BLOOD. It would add the
perfect touch.

For the next hour and a half Beth worked with the makeup
kit, trying a nail wound here, a slash wound there, and bruises in first one
place and then another. She was so absorbed that she barely heard when her
parents got home, but she pricked up her ears when the doorbell rang a little
later. She knew who that was: the kid who delivered pizza. That was normal on
nights when her mother was running too late to cook supper.

"Come on kids! Time to eat!" she heard her father
call from the bottom of the stairs.

Beth stepped in front of her mirror and smiled with
satisfaction. Her dark hair was in total disarray, carefully teased to stick
out in all the wrong places. Both eyes were bruised. A gash tore across her
left cheek. Vampire blood trickled out of her nose.

"Perfect," she whispered as she pulled the tail of
her blouse out of one side of her jeans. Racing to the door, she listened and
waited.

There was the thunder of feet on the stairs fading away
toward the kitchen and the scrape of chairs being pulled across the tile floor.
Voices rose as her brothers and sisters scrambled over pizza slices and her
father tried to bring order to the dinner table.

"Beth. You'd better come on," called her father.
He was at the bottom of the stairs again. "The pizza's getting cold."

Beth opened her door just far enough to see the kitchen
table and her father sitting down again. Everyone was munching contentedly and
chattering, probably about Todd's latest fiasco. The moment for her grand
entrance had arrived.

Opening her door, she grabbed for the railing, moaning
pitifully as she limped down the stairs.

The kitchen got deathly still as all eyes fastened on her.
Suddenly Agatha yipped, and her mother jumped to her feet.

"E-LIZ-abeth!"
she shrieked.

"So, what did your parents say?" Melanie eagerly
asked the moment Beth got to school the next morning. "Do you get to have
the slumber party?"

"No," mumbled Beth. "Not only that, I'm
grounded."

"What!" shrieked Katie.

With a heavy sigh Beth explained the events of the evening
before, ending with Mrs. Barry's reaction to the sight of her daughter's
stumbling down the stairs.

"Don't you think you overdid it a little?" asked
Christie.

"Yeah," agreed Jana. "She probably thought
you'd been run over by a truck."

"Worse," Beth said grimly. "Anyway, I can't
have the slumber party, and I'm grounded for the entire weekend except for
cheering at the football game Saturday afternoon. I can't even go to Bumpers
afterward."

"Now what are we going to do?" Melanie asked in
exasperation.

"You guys can go ahead and have a slumber party without
me," offered Beth. She didn't want to admit how much she hated the thought
of being left out of anything The Fabulous Five did. They had always done
everything as a group, from going to modeling and charm school together, when
Taffy Sinclair was trying to steal Melanie's friendship, to campaigning for
Christie when she ran for president of the seventh grade. Still, Beth knew she
had blown it with her parents this time. There was nothing else to do.

Jana gave her an understanding smile. "We can't do
that," she said softly.

"You've certainly got that right," Katie said matter-of-factly.
"There's no one left to come to our party. Laura has invited them all to
hers."

"That's what I heard, too," said Christie. "I
don't know how she's going to stuff so many kids into her bedroom."

"Apparently they're not going to stay in her bedroom
very long," said Melanie. "Where do you think they're going to go
after Mrs. Skinner goes to sleep and they sneak out of the house? Jana, can you
find out from Funny Hawthorne?"

"No. Funny and I are friends, but she wouldn't give
away any of Laura's secrets."

"Maybe they're going to Bumpers," suggested
Christie.

"Or to a late movie," added Katie.

"Naw," said Beth. "That can't be it. Everyone
is too excited. It has to be something really wild. Something spectacular."

Melanie's eyes got as round as saucers. "Maybe they're
going to do something to us!"

"Forget it," said Katie. "Some of the girls
going to Laura's party are our friends, too. They're just as excited as
everyone else, and you know as well as I do that they wouldn't do anything mean
to us."

"I guess you're right," admitted Melanie.

Beth looked down at the ground, making circles in the soft
dirt with the toe of her sneaker and thinking hard about the situation. She had
never felt so guilty in her life. Her friends were all being nice and not
saying so, but it was her fault that they couldn't have a slumber party and
talk some of the girls into coming to it instead of Laura's. That braggart, she
thought as her anger swelled again. I'll fix her if it's the last thing I ever
do.

"Listen, guys," she said hurriedly. "Don't
tell anyone that our slumber party is canceled. Okay?"

"But what if somebody wants to come?" asked
Christie.

"Right," said Katie. "What if someone says
she has thought it over and would rather be at our party than Laura's?"

"If that happens, tell them it's too late. Just say
that what I'm planning for my slumber party is so terrific that only my very
best friends—namely The Fabulous Five—are allowed to come now," she said
with a grand sweep of her hand. "I'll explain later." She flashed her
most theatrical smile and hurried away before anyone could insist that she
explain now. She had just come up with a great idea, but she wanted to test it
first before mentioning it to her friends.

The first seventh-grade girl she saw was Whitney Larkin.
Whitney had gone to Copper Beach Elementary and was such a genius that she had
skipped straight from fifth grade into seventh this year. Whitney made a lot of
kids nervous because she was so smart, and they snickered at her behind her
back and called her a baby. She was standing alone by the front gate. Probably
watching for Curtis Trowbridge, thought Beth. He was a genius, too, and Whitney
had seemed a lot happier since they had started dating. Beth didn't know her
very well, but Whitney certainly seemed nice enough to her.

Beth slowed down so that she would not appear overly eager
and walked toward Whitney.

"Hi, Whitney," she said as casually as she could.

Whitney looked around and smiled at Beth, murmuring hello.

Beth gave Whitney the most sympathetic look she could muster
and said sadly, "I suppose you're going to Laura's party on Friday night."

Whitney's face brightened for an instant at the mention of
the party and then crumpled into a frown. "What's the matter? Shouldn't I
be?"

"Oh, of course you should," said Beth. "It's
just a shame that so many of you got stuck having to go to Laura's party
instead of mine. I guess I'll just have to start asking earlier next time.
Still, I can't help thinking how much fun it would have been with you and
Curtis there."

Whitney gasped. "Curtis?" she cried. "You're
having
boys
at your slumber party?"

"Oh, they aren't going to stay all night," Beth
assured her. "I'm just letting each girl ask a boy she likes for the early
part of the evening. It's going to be so romantic. We'll probably sit up all
night talking about it."

"Well . . . gee," fumbled Whitney. "Maybe I
could tell Laura I can't come to her party and go to yours instead. I mean . .
. if I could ask Curtis and everything."

"Oh, gosh, Whitney. I'm sorry," said Beth, looking
deep into Whitney's eyes. "I really wish you could do that, but it's too
late now. My parents decided that they had to know exactly how many would be
there by last night. They're planning special food and stuff. You understand,
don't you?"

Whitney nodded, and Beth could see that she was really
disappointed. Her plan was working. Beth put a hand over her mouth and
pretended to cough so that Whitney wouldn't notice the smile breaking over her
face.

Next she sauntered up to Lisa Snow and Kim Baxter. After
they exchanged greetings, she gave them the same sympathetic look she had given
Whitney and said, "Gee. It's really too bad that you're going to Laura's
party. I'm not trying to make you feel bad or anything, but I know you'd rather
come to mine since you could have invited any boy you wanted."

Lisa and Kim looked stunned. "What are you talking
about?" they asked together.

Beth put on her best wide-eyed-and-innocent look. "Didn't
I tell you that you could invite boys when I asked you to my party yesterday?"

"No," snapped Kim. "All you said was that you
were having a slumber party."

Beth braced herself for the outburst that she knew was
coming. Again the two girls spoke in unison:
"Boys at a slumber party?"

Beth explained about how the boys would have to go home
before bedtime and also that her parents had said she couldn't invite anyone
else. Her excitement grew as she watched Lisa and Kim race off to spread the
word about the terrific party they were missing, and she had to keep reminding
herself that it wasn't really going to happen. It was only a harmless story she
had made up to outdo Laura McCall.