Fabulous Five 005 - The Bragging War (4 page)

"I thought you were grounded," Keith grumbled as
soon as Beth picked up the phone and said hello.

"I am grounded," she insisted. "For the whole
weekend."

"Oh, yeah? Then what about the slumber party Laura
McCall says you're having? The one with boys?"

Beth fought down a wave of panic. She had hoped Keith wouldn't
hear about that. But she hadn't counted on Laura McCall's TPing his house,
either. Laura had said they saw Keith and the other boys, but she didn't say
anything about talking to them or mentioning Beth's party. She would have to
think fast, but as she struggled to answer him, her lips felt stiff, and the
words came out slowly.

"Laura was just making that up." Do I sound
convincing? Beth thought wildly. Or can he tell I'm the one making things up? "You
know how she feels about The Fabulous Five," she went on urgently. "She'd
say anything to make us look bad."

"I don't know," Keith mumbled. "She wasn't
the only one talking about your party. Some of the other girls were, too.
Whitney Larkin even said that you told her that if she came to your party, she
could invite Curtis."

"If you don't believe me, call my friends," Beth
challenged. "Call Jana or Christie or Katie or Melanie. They're probably
at home, and they'll tell you that I'm not having a slumber party, much less
inviting boys to it. How could I, when I'm grounded? Besides!" she went on
breathlessly. "If you really liked me, you'd
trust
me!"

"Okay. Okay," said Keith. He still sounded a
little miffed, but Beth breathed a small sigh of relief as he said, "I
just wondered why I wasn't invited if it was true."

"Of course I'd invite you," Beth assured him. "I
wish I could have a party and invite boys, but I doubt if my parents would let
me. Whenever I mention it, my dad always says that things are crazy enough
around here without any
more
kids."

Keith laughed at that, and they talked for a little while
longer. After they hung up, Beth sprawled across her bed. She could hear Agatha
whimpering outside her door, but she had too much on her mind to get up and let
her in.

Life had been so simple back at Mark Twain Elementary when
she and her friends had only Taffy Sinclair to deal with instead of Laura
McCall and the rest of The Fantastic Foursome.

What was she going to do now that Laura had called her bluff
on the fake slumber party? Laura had not only had a real slumber party with
everyone getting to TP cute boys' houses, but she had caught Beth in a lie.

And what was worse, Keith had been really mad when he
thought she was having a party and hadn't invited him. She had liked Keith for
ages, and he had been her boyfriend ever since they went to a movie together with
a big gang of sixth-graders last year. Since then they had gone out several
times and always met at Bumpers after football games.

There was no doubt about it, Laura was out to get her and her
friends, and so far Laura was ahead. In fact, it was Laura McCall: 2, Beth
Barry: 0.

She heard the faint ring of the phone through her closed
door, and a moment later Todd called out, "Beth! Phone!"

It's probably Laura calling to rub it in, she thought as she
scuffed down the hall.

"Hello," she said, and crossed her fingers behind
her back for luck.

"Beth Barry, how could you do such a thing?"

It was Jana, and she sounded positively furious. "What
are you talking about?" Beth asked in surprise.

"You know what I'm talking about," said Jana. "Your
dumb idea of bragging to everybody that you were going to have a slumber party
tonight and invite boys. Randy just called. He said he heard about it from the
girls who TPed his house."

"Well, he obviously didn't believe it," said Beth.
"Otherwise he wouldn't have called you because he wouldn't have thought
you were at home."

"He called your house first," said Jana. "But
your line was busy. So then he called here. He was so mad that if I hadn't been
home, he would probably have broken up with me, and it would be all your fault."

"Come on, Jana," pleaded Beth. "You know I
didn't mean for anything like that to happen. I was just trying to get back at
Laura for making The Fabulous Five look like a bunch of losers."

"Well, if you ask me, it backfired."

Jana slammed down the phone in Beth's ear, but now it was
Beth's turn to be angry. How could Jana blame me? How could she possibly think
it was my fault that Laura McCall was making fools out of us? she thought
desperately. How could anybody think that? It wasn't fair.

Beth stomped back to her room, grabbed the pillow off her
bed, and hurled it into the floor. Her life had turned into a roller coaster
ride: up one minute and in the pits the next—and it was all because of Laura.
She would get her for this if it was the last thing she ever did.

"Watch out, Laura McCall," she muttered under her
breath. "From now on, it's all-out war."

Beth had intended to spend the whole weekend figuring out a
way to get back at Laura McCall, but that was before she glanced into the
mirror Saturday morning and made a horrible discovery. A pimple, huge, red, and
ugly, was beaming out like a beacon in the night from just left of her nose.

"What!" she gasped. "Where did
that
thing come from?"

It hadn't been there last night. She had washed her face
before she went to bed, and there was definitely no sign then of Mount Everest
erupting on her face for all the world to see. How could she possibly go down
to breakfast looking like this?

Beth could already hear her father in the kitchen, singing
at the top of his lungs and going through his regular Saturday-morning pancake
ritual. Her father made the best pancakes in the world—or so
he
said—and
every Saturday morning the whole family gathered at the breakfast table
together to sample his latest concoctions. It was a tradition in the Barry
family and practically the only time during their busy week when they could all
eat together. She would get killed if she didn't show up within the next
fifteen minutes.

She glanced at herself in the mirror again, and tears shot
into her eyes.
But I can't go down there looking like this!
she thought
desperately.

Beth rummaged through the jumble of aspirins and ointments
and other odds and ends in the medicine cabinet looking for the Band-Aids and
praying that the box wouldn't be empty. Alicia was crazy about Band-Aids.
Whenever anyone else in the family had a Band-Aid, she always wanted one for
herself, and it had to go onto the exact same spot. That meant that half the
time the Band-Aid box was empty. She shook it, hearing a faint rustling sound,
and opened it to find one lonely Band-Aid inside.

Grabbing it, she stuck it over the pimple just as Todd
banged on the bathroom door and yelled, "Come on. Breakfast is ready."

For once in her life Beth was glad that no one in her family
ever noticed her as she slunk down the stairs and slid into her place at the
table. Leaning on her elbow, she slumped over her plate and covered the left
side of her face with her hand. All she had to do was stay in that position
until she had finished her pancakes, and she would be home free.

"Cut yourself shaving?" Brian asked offhandedly
from across the table.

Beth froze. Whom was he talking to?

"Hey, Beth. I asked you a question," he said, and
this time she could hear laughter in his voice. "Did you cut yourself
shaving? Hey, everybody. Beth's started shaving!"

He broke out laughing for real this time, and she could feel
all eyes turn on her.

"Bethy! Bethy!" Alicia shrieked. "Why are you
shaving? You're a
girl!
"

"I'm not shaving," Beth mumbled, still staring
down at the soggy lumps of pancakes swimming in syrup in her plate. "Now
leave me alone, Brian."

"Sure she's shaving," Brian insisted. "Why
else would she have a Band-Aid on her face?"

Mrs. Barry leaned toward Beth, probably to inquire if she
was feeling okay. But before anybody else could say anything Brittany
intervened.

"Knock it off, Brian. She probably just found her first
zit. Believe me, I know how it feels. Of course, you wouldn't. Your whole head's
a zit! You're the only one I know who looks
better
covered with pimples."

"Children!" Mrs. Barry warned just as Beth was
groaning and wishing she could become invisible. Why was this happening? Why
couldn't they all just shut up? What a miserable time to be noticed.

"Oh, my gosh!" Brian shouted, completely ignoring
his mother. "Her first zit? Look out, everybody! Another teenager has just
been unleashed on the world." He cupped his hands around his mouth and
appeared to be shouting to someone outside the back door. "Look out,
world! Here comes another case of adolescent behavior to drive you nuts."

"Mom! Dad! Can't you do something about this moron?"
Beth shouted, jumping to her feet and pulling her hand away from her face so
quickly that she accidentally ripped off her Band-Aid, exposing the huge red
pimple that pulsed with flaming heat. That was absolutely the last straw, and
she spun and raced back up the stairs to hide in her room.

Belly-flopping so hard onto her bed that she bounced, Beth
buried her face in her pillow. Zits! Adolescent behavior! Baloney! How dare
Brian make fun of her. And how dare Brittany say she knew how it felt. Brittany
didn't know how anything felt. Not anything that I feel, anyway, she thought.

Beth was still lying on her bed staring into space a little
while later when there was a soft knock on her door.

"Who is it?" she growled.

"Mom."

Beth sighed. "Come in," she said, but she made sure
that her voice sounded as put out as she felt. The last thing she needed was a
lecture from her mother.

"Hi, honey," said Mrs. Barry as she came into the
room. "I'm sorry there was such a scene at the breakfast table, but you
know how this family is. Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah," Beth lied.

"That's good," Mrs. Barry said, bending close to
look at the left side of Beth's face. "I'm on my way to the grocery store
now so I'll pick up something for your face while I'm there. With any luck, it
will practically be gone by time for school Monday."

School.
Beth's eves widened. She had totally
forgotten about school. She nodded mutely to her mother and was just about to
go into a fit of panic over how she was going to face the kids at school with
the world's largest zit when her mother popped back in the door and said, "I
almost forgot. Dad said to remind you to get out in the front yard and clean
all the toilet paper off the trees and bushes. He wants it done today."

Great, she thought. That's just great! It's not enough that
I have the world's largest pimple; now I have to expose it to the world.

A chilly wind was blowing toilet paper into the neighboring
yards by the time Beth got outside. She had armed herself with a leaf rake and
a couple of black plastic trash bags, and she went right to work cleaning the
paper off the grass and snagging it out of the trees and off the bushes,
desperately hoping that she could get the job completed before anyone could
come down her street and see her—and her
enormous
zit.

"Bethy! Bethy! Don't throw that away," Alicia
shouted, racing out the door and down the front steps. "I need that for Nibbles."

Puzzled, Beth glanced down at the empty toilet paper tube
she had been about to throw into the trash bag. Nibbles was Alicia's hamster,
who had gotten his name when he ate his way out of his cardboard carton on the
way home from the pet shop. "What does Nibbles want with this?" she
asked.

"I'm making a laboratory for him," Alicia said
proudly.

Beth chuckled. "A laboratory? What's he going to do in
a laboratory? Discover a cure for cancer?"

Alicia put her hands on her hips and looked up at her older
sister in complete exasperation. "No. He's going to run through it and
play hide-and-seek."

"Oh," Beth said. "You mean a labyrinth."

Alicia cocked her head to one side and frowned. "That's
what I said. A LAB-ratory."

"All right. All right," said Beth. "I get it.
You want me to save these for you. Is that it?"

Alicia nodded. "Mom's driving me to my ballet lesson
now, so don't throw any away. Okay?"

Beth shrugged and turned back to her task. It would go
slower now that she had to separate out the empty tubes from the paper. It was
no wonder. Hadn't Funny Hawthorne said that they had saved the last of their
toilet paper rolls for her house? That meant there were at least a million
tubes. It would take her all day to clean up the mess.

To make matters worse, her pimple
was
throbbing. "Nobody
ever told me that these things hurt," she grumbled as she hauled the first
full trash bag around to the driveway. When her mother had returned from the
grocery store a little while earlier, she had handed Beth a tube of ointment
that Beth had dabbed carefully on the angry spot. That had been at least half
an hour ago, and so far, it wasn't doing the least bit of good.

She was just starting to come around the corner of the house
and into the front yard again when she heard the screech of rusty bicycle
brakes.
Keith!
she thought in a panic. She would know the sound of his
brakes anywhere.

It was too late to duck back along the side of the house. He
had already seen her and was waving and grinning like crazy.

"Hey, Beth," he called as he parked his bike and
stooped to scoop up a handful of toilet paper off the grass. "It looks as
if they got you, too. I just finished cleaning my yard. Want some help?"

Beth tried to smile, but it made her pimple hurt more than
ever. He was coming toward her. Any minute now he would be close enough to see
her terrible zit. Her knees were getting weak. What am I going to do? she
begged silently.

Makeup!
The word floated down from heaven like an
answer to a prayer.

"Wait here," she shouted, backing toward the front
door. "I'll get us some hot chocolate. I'm freezing. Aren't you?"

She barely heard Keith call out, "Can't I come in while
you're fixing it?" as she bumped up the concrete steps and stumbled in the
door.

She couldn't help it if Keith thought she was weird for not
inviting him in the way she always did. She would think up an excuse when she
went back outside. Right now, she had an important mission: to sneak into
Brittany's room and get some makeup to cover her zit.

"If only Alicia were here," she muttered under her
breath as she raced up the stairs. Alicia was a genius when it came to sneaking
into Brittany's room, and she knew exactly where their older sister kept all of
her makeup, too. Oh, well, she thought. I'll just have to do it myself. At
least Agatha hadn't heard her come into the house and bounded along to crash
into things and get in the way. One thing's going her way was better than
nothing's.

Stopping in the upstairs hall, Beth surveyed the scene.
Brittany's bedroom door was slightly ajar, and the shower was going in the
bathroom. Brittany was right on schedule. Thank goodness she was predictable,
Beth thought. Her sister had the same routine every Saturday. Go down for pancake
breakfast with the family. Talk on the phone. Take a shower. Talk on the phone.
Blow dry and curl her hair. Talk on the phone. Get dressed and
finally
go out to meet her friends.

Beth took a deep breath and pushed Brittany's door open.
Stepping inside, she kept one ear tuned to the sound of the shower as she frantically
searched for signs of her sister's makeup. She grabbed Britt's purse and began
jumbling around inside. Wallet. Breath mints. Lipstick. Hairbrush. Period. That
was it. Beth tossed the purse aside and began pulling out drawers from the
bureau. She must have stashed it in here, she thought.

She was poking around in the third drawer from the bottom
when she stood up straight and listened. The shower had stopped.

"Oh, my gosh," she whispered. When did that
happen? Brittany could be on her way back to her room right this instant.

Beth didn't bother to close the drawer or even look up and
down the hall as she zipped out of Brittany's room and into her own, collapsing
onto the floor. She would kill me if she caught me in her room, Beth thought
when her heart quieted down enough for her to hear her own thoughts. She'd
murder me. Only Alicia could get away with a thing such as that.

A second later she remembered what this was all about in the
first place.
Keith.
He was outside waiting for her to bring hot chocolate.
Beth crawled to her window, pulled herself up onto her knees, and peeked out.
His bike was still in the driveway. She had been afraid for a moment that he
might have gotten tired of waiting and gone home. Half of her wished he had.
She still had the awful zit, and borrowing Brittany's makeup had just become an
impossible dream.

Beth sat down on the floor and rested the back of her head
on the sill. She couldn't go downstairs to talk to Keith looking like
this.
The Band-Aid box was empty. She had used the last one herself. If only she had
asked her mother to pick up another box at the grocery store.

Just then her gaze fell on her theater trunk, and an idea
began to form in her mind.

"Why not?" she asked out loud. "It worked on
my parents—sort of."

Throwing open the trunk lid, she rummaged through the
contents until she found the rectangular yellow box with the words on top that
said:

Wounds
, Hurts,
and Vampire Blood

Smiling slyly to herself, Beth opened the box and went to
work.

"What took you so long?" Keith asked as Beth
scooted out the door carrying two cups of hot chocolate a few minutes later.
Then suddenly his eyes seemed to focus on her face and he went pale. "What
happened to you?" he shrieked.

It took every bit of acting talent that Beth possessed to
keep from breaking up, but she managed to hold a straight face. She had wanted
to cover her pimple with a gross-looking puncture wound but decided that would
be carrying things a bit too far. Instead she had settled for a pair of bruises
made by combining red and blue greasepaint into a horrible purplish color. One
bruise covered the zit on the left side of her nose, and the other decorated
her forehead. Now she walked toward Keith, trying her best to look a little
weak and fluttery.

"Oh, nothing," she said. "I was just playing
with Agatha, and she accidentally knocked me into the wall."

"Gosh, that's too bad," he said, and Beth almost
died from relief. "I'll bet that really hurt."

Together they had the yard cleaned up in record time and
collected a huge pile of toilet paper tubes for Alicia. Keith laughed when Beth
told him about Alicia's "laboratory" for Nibbles.

"Wow!" said Keith, staring at his watch. "I
didn't realize it was so late. I've got to get to the stadium and get ready for
the game." Then he looked at her with a worried expression and asked, "Are
you going to be able to cheer today with those bruises on your face?"

Beth was stunned. She tried to nod as Keith jumped on his
bike and gave her one last wave before he rode away, but all she could
concentrate on was how she had been in such a panic to cover up her pimple that
she had forgotten all about cheering at the game today. Now what was she going
to do? Missing a game without a life-or-death excuse meant getting kicked off
the squad. At the same time, she couldn't possibly show up looking like this,
and if she washed off the fake bruises, Keith would suspect that she was lying
again.