Fabulous Five 013 - The Christmas Countdown (4 page)

"Shane? It's Melanie," she said when he answered.

"Oh, hi, Mel. How's it going? Are you calling to say
that you've inherited a million dollars? Or that you've found someone to take
all the animals?"

Melanie crossed her fingers for luck and took a deep breath.
"Not exactly," she said slowly.

"Isn't 'not exactly' usually followed by 'but'?" he
asked cautiously.

This was it. There was no turning back now. "Actually
it is," she said, and then plunged on in. "Not exactly,
but
I
was wondering how your parents would feel about signing the adoption papers and
keeping the animals at your house until we can find homes for all of them. I
mean, you've said so often that your mom and dad are really cool and laid back
and nothing bothers them and that they believe in love and peace and—"

"Whoa!" cried Shane. "Just a minute. Let me
get this straight. You're saying that
if
we raise the money to spring
the animals and
if
we can't find people to adopt them, you want
my
parents
to take them all in?"

Melanie closed her eyes and crossed her Fingers again.
Everybody knew that Shane's parents had been hippies and that they still made
the peace sign and talked about love among all people on earth. Surely they
loved animals, too.

"Could you ask them?" she asked. "I mean,
maybe they would. It would just be temporary until we found enough good homes,
and it might save the lives of all those animals."

Shane didn't answer for a moment. Finally he sighed and
said, "They aren't home right now, but even if they say it's okay, there's
somebody else you're forgetting. Igor. I couldn't just bring in a bunch of
strange animals without checking with him first. It would hurt his feelings."

Melanie choked back a giggle. "Okay," she said. "Talk
to Igor."

Shane put down the phone and was gone for a couple of
minutes. "Hello, Melanie?" he said when he picked it up again.

"I'm still here. What did he say?"

"He isn't sure we have room. He says fifteen animals is
a lot," said Shane. "But personally I think he's just afraid he won't
get enough attention. Is there someone else who could keep some of them?"

Melanie bit her lower lip. "I don't know," she
admitted. "We're really stuck, but maybe we could divide them up into two
groups with dogs in one group and cats in another. How would he feel about
taking the cats?"

Shane put down the phone and was gone again. "Igor says
cats drive him nuts. They follow him around and bat at his tail as if it were a
piece of string that he was dragging for them to play with."

"What about dogs?" Melanie asked, trying not to
panic. She had thought Shane's parents might give them trouble, but she hadn't
counted on its being
Igor.

A moment later Shane came back on the line. "He says
dogs are worse. He's nocturnal, you know, and dogs keep him awake during the
day with their barking, and sometimes they even chase him."

"Oh, no," groaned Melanie. "Can't you talk to
him? We really need a place to keep some of the animals. The shelter won't
release them unless we can guarantee homes."

"Hold on," said Shane. "I'll try again."

This time Shane was gone forever, and Melanie was beginning
to wonder if he was ever coming back when she heard him pick up the receiver.

"Okay, Mel," said Shane. "Here's the plan.
Igor says that if he has to choose, it's the cats. I hope you realize that you
owe him a favor now. He'll probably want you to catch some flies for him or dig
him some worms."

"Yuck!" cried Melanie. "You've got to be
kidding!"

"I'm not kidding," Shane assured her. "Besides,
you'd better be nice to him. Igor's the only one who can convince my parents to
take in the cats."

Melanie was bent over laughing when she hung up the phone.
Shane had been wonderful, and she was sure that he was beginning to like her.
Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have been so willing to help her out with the
cats. But as much as she wanted to dream about Shane, she still had a lot to do
for the second half of her plan.

She found her parents in the dining room wrapping Christmas
presents.

"May I come in?" she asked timidly.

"Sure," said her mother. "Most of yours are
already wrapped. We're working on Jeffy's things while he's playing at a friend's
house."

Melanie glanced at the assortment of trucks and games still
waiting to be wrapped. She hoped that when her parents had said
most
of
her presents had been wrapped, they had meant that one would wear only a bow. A
present named Rainbow.

"What is it, sweetheart?" asked her father. "Did
you want to ask us something?"

Taking a deep breath, Melanie nodded. "I was just
wondering if I could invite The Fabulous Five to sleep over tonight?"

Her mother was thoughtful for a moment. "I don't see
why not. Do you, Larry?"

Mr. Edwards shook his head. "It's okay with me."

"Thanks," Melanie said, giving each of them a hug
and bounding out of the room. She grabbed the phone and punched in the first
number.

Melanie was waiting by the front door when her friends began
to arrive. Jana was the first, and Melanie was glad that her parents were
watching the six-o'clock news in the family room instead of sitting in the
living room where they could see her friends come in.

"Come on. The coast is clear," she said, helping
Jana maneuver a sleeping bag through the door that was so fat it almost got
stuck. "You'd better take it upstairs to my room while I watch for the
others to arrive."

Jana nodded and dragged the enormous bag up the stairs just
as Katie came up the front sidewalk. Her sleeping bag was as big as Jana's, and
she tugged it up the stairs without being seen by Melanie's parents either.

By the time all of The Fabulous Five had arrived and stuffed
their sleeping bags into Melanie's room, there was hardly space for the girls
to squeeze in.

"Now that we've gotten them here, why did you want us
to bring all these old blankets and rags hidden in our sleeping bags?"
asked Christie.

Melanie listened at the door for a moment and then said, "I
couldn't tell you on the phone because Mom was in the same room, but Shane and
I have a plan for keeping the cats and dogs in case we can't find homes for
them before Christmas Eve."

"Wow. That's great," said Beth. "What is it?"

"Shane and Igor have agreed to keep the cats at their
house, and I'm going to hide the dogs in my dad's workshop behind the garage.
He never goes out there this time of year, and I think I can keep my parents
from finding out that the animals are there if I'm
really
careful."

"But why do you need all this stuff?" asked Katie,
looking around at the assortment of rags and blankets on the floor and
wrinkling her nose.

"I asked you to bring them over because the workshop
isn't heated. The dogs need something to burrow into to keep warm."

"Gosh. I don't know," said Jana. "Do you
really think you can keep the dogs a secret from your parents? And how are you
going to get this stuff out to the workshop without their seeing it?"

"Yes, I can keep it a secret," Melanie insisted. "And
we
are going to take this out to the workshop tonight after my parents
go to sleep."

"Oooooh,"
groaned the rest of The Fabulous
Five in unison.

Sleepovers were usually a blast, but tonight was one of the
longest evenings Melanie could remember. Everyone was too antsy to have any
fun. Besides that, they couldn't think of anything to do. Jana tried calling
Randy and Beth tried Keith's number, but neither boy was home. Then they called
Mona Vaughn and talked to her about all the poor dogs and cats in the animal
shelter until they were all depressed enough to cry.

"We could call kids and try to talk them into adopting
an animal," suggested Beth. "Maybe Alexis Duvall would take one, or
Kim Baxter."

"Naw," said Katie. "I've already talked to
both of them. Alexis is allergic to animals, and Kim has a parrot named Squawker
who drives her whole family crazy. I don't think she's much of a candidate for
a dog or cat."

Melanie looked at her watch. It was only ten after nine. Her
parents wouldn't be going to bed for a long time.

"Is anybody hungry?" she asked. Nobody was.

"Why do we have to wait until your parents go to sleep?"
asked Beth. "The house will be as quiet as a tomb then. It seems to me
that if we sneak out to your father's workshop now while the television is on
and they're busy talking, we have a better chance of making it without being
heard."

"Are you kidding?" said Christie. "What if
they saw us sneaking down the stairs?"

"And carrying all this
stuff
!
" cried
Jana.

"I know," said Beth, rushing to Melanie's window
and throwing it open. "Let's drop it out the window before we go
downstairs."

"Great idea," said Melanie. She picked up an
armload of rags and tossed them out into the darkness. "Come on,
everybody, and help."

"What are we going to do now?" asked Christie when
all the blankets and rags were gone from the room. "This is the craziest
thing I've ever done in my life."

"Just follow me," instructed Melanie. "And if
anybody giggles, you're dead!"

Melanie put on her jacket and mittens and listened at the
door again. Behind her, the rest of The Fabulous Five were putting on their
jackets, too. When everyone was ready, she opened the door and tiptoed into the
hall.

"Act
casual
," she instructed as she
sauntered down the stairs. After a minute, her friends started down, too.

"Melanie? Is that you?" asked her mother from the
family room. Then she stepped to the door and got a surprised look on her face.
"Where on earth are you girls going at this time of night?"

Melanie gave her mother a bored look. "Oh, just out in
the backyard to look at the stars," she said.

Someone choked behind her, and Melanie braced for giggling
to break out. Instead, Beth pretended to cough and Christie cleared her throat.

"Did I hear you right?" asked Mrs. Edwards. "Did
you say that you're going out into the backyard to look at the
stars
?
"

"Sure," said Melanie, as if she had never heard
such a strange question. Then she made a beeline for the back door and called
back over her shoulder, "Mars is ascending into the seventh moon tonight,
Mom. Didn't you know?"

As soon as the door closed behind the five of them, they
couldn't hold back their giggles anymore.

"Mars is ascending into the seventh moon?"
shrieked Christie between laughs. "That sounds like astrology—you know,
like your horoscope—not the kind of stars you look at in the sky."

"Who cares?" said Melanie. "It worked, didn't
it?"

For the next half hour the girls gathered blankets off the
grass and picked rags from out of the bushes and put them onto the workshop
floor without interruption from Melanie's parents. When they were finally
finished, Melanie surveyed the job with satisfaction, thinking how cozy it
would be with each dog in its own little nest. Now all the animals would be
saved, and there was only one major thing left to do—get the money.

"Thirteen dollars and eighty-five cents! Is that all?"
Melanie asked in disbelief. "We collected over forty dollars Friday."

"I know," said Jana. She was seated with Randy
behind the collection table in the cafeteria on Monday. "The kids have
been looking at the pictures Garrett took of the cats and dogs on the poster
and talking about how cute they are, but most of them said they gave last week
or they were broke. And
no one
signed up for a pet."

"I can't believe it either," said Katie. "Don't
they care about what happens to the poor animals?"

"All I can say is, we'd better get a lot of money from
the newspaper ad," said Randy. "There are only five more days before
Christmas Eve, and right now all we can afford to pay for is two animals."

"Well, I'm going to have to find a way to talk my mom
and dad into going to look at Rainbow," said Melanie.

"Lots of luck," said Jana. "I talked to my
mom and Pink last night about getting a cat, and they said no way. With both of
them working and me going to school, we couldn't take care of a pet."

When Melanie got home from school, she ran into the kitchen
and dropped her books on the kitchen table. "Do I have any mail?" she
called.

"Who'd write to
you?
" asked Jeffy, who was
sitting at the counter licking cookie batter out of a bowl.

"None of your business," said Melanie, darting her
finger into the bowl and swiping some batter.

"The mail is in the family room on the TV," said
Mrs. Edwards. "I think there may be a couple of letters for you. I suppose
they're donations for that animal fund you're working on."

Melanie ducked out of the kitchen before her mother could
ask any questions. She wasn't ready to admit that they still hadn't found homes
for the dogs and cats or to take a chance on giving away her own secret plan.
She grabbed the stack of envelopes and shuffled through them, taking out two
that had her name on them and heading for her room.

"Don't forget your books!" called Mrs. Edwards. Melanie
spun on her heel, grabbed her books, and kept going.

In her room she kicked off her shoes and jumped into the
middle of her bed to open the envelopes. The first one contained a five-dollar
bill wrapped in a piece of paper with a note that said,
To the save the dog
fund.
It was signed,
Martha Glosner.
The shaky scrawl looked as if it
had been written by a very old person. Melanie thought about Mrs. Miller, and
how she loved her Duchess so much. The little dog still hadn't turned up.

The other envelope obviously had been sent by a child. It
contained forty-five cents in change, which was taped to a piece of cardboard.

Melanie sat on the bed and looked at the money. Five dollars
and forty-five cents. It wasn't much, but of course this was only the first day
they would have received donations in the mail. With the rest of what they had collected
and the money they each put into the box instead of exchanging presents, they
had a little over one hundred dollars. Melanie sighed. They only had this week
to raise enough money, and Christmas Eve day was getting closer and closer.

"The total now stands at one hundred seventeen dollars
and sixteen cents," said Christie, as she sat at the collection table on
Tuesday with her pad and pencil. Jon was sitting next to her watching her add
the figures, and Shane, Randy, Melanie, and Jana were standing with them.

"Don't forget the five dollars and forty-five cents we
got in the mail," reminded Melanie.

"Oh, yeah. That makes it one hundred twenty-two dollars
and sixty-one cents."

"Two dollars and thirty-nine cents more and we'll have
enough for five animals," said Jana.

"We're still a long way off from fifteen," said
Christie, chewing on the end of her pencil. "And we've only got four days
left." Worry lines etched her forehead.

"That's five more cats and dogs than we have homes for,"
said Shane. He was playing with two quarters he had taken from the money box. "Igor's
really getting grumpy over the thought of sharing his sandbox with a bunch of
cats."

"I don't blame him," said Randy. "We'd better
do something fast."

"Hey, here comes Chet Miller and Jay Chisholm. Chet was
in the school play with Beth, maybe he'll give something," said Jon.

"Hey, Chet. Jay," called Shane. "Step right
up here and let us give you the golden opportunity of a lifetime." Shane
made his voice sound as if he were a barker in a circus, trying to draw a crowd
into a show. "Tell you what I'm gonna do. For the measly sum of fifty
cents apiece we're going to give you a chance to win the pet of your choice.
Where else can you get an offer like that?"

"That's an opportunity? It sounds more like a threat,"
said Chet, smiling. "My family already has a dog and two cats. If I brought
another animal home, somebody would have to leave, and I think my dad would
pick me."

"Well, you can at least donate fifty cents," said
Jon.

Chet and Jay dug into their pockets and pulled out some
change. "This is all I've got," said Jay, dropping some nickels and
dimes into the box.

"There's Max McNatt. Why don't you ask him to donate?"
asked Chet. "Hey, Max. Come here."

Melanie looked at Max, who was big and burly and played nose
guard on the varsity football team. He wore his blond hair short and swaggered
around Wakeman as if he owned the school. His round head was set right on top
of his shoulders so that he reminded Melanie of a human snowman. He was
blustery and scared her when she was near him, and his sister, Geena, who was
in the seventh grade, was kind of wild, too.

"What do you want?" Max demanded brusquely.

"We're collecting money to save cats and dogs who are
going to be put to sleep at the animal shelter," Shane answered. "Would
you like to donate?"

"Why should I?" Max responded.

Melanie stared at him with disgust. It was the sort of
answer she had expected from him.

"Because you're a nice guy?" questioned Shane.

"Who told you that?"

"I heard it from the center on Georgetown's football
team," Shane shot back.

Max glared at him, and Melanie saw Randy stiffen, but Shane
kept his cool.

"Tell you what," said Shane. "We'll flip a
coin and you can call it. If it comes up the way you say, I'll put fifty cents
in. If it doesn't, you put fifty cents in."

Max's eyes narrowed as he looked at Shane. "Let me see
the quarter," he growled. Shane handed it to him and he turned it over
twice, looking at both sides.

Shane reached out and took it back. "That's okay, if
you're afraid to take a chance." He flipped the coin and caught it.

"Heads!" shouted Max.

Shane looked at him as if he were surprised at the call. Then
he slapped the quarter down in his opposite hand and held his two hands palms
together and looked at Max. Slowly, he raised the top hand to reveal a quarter
tails-side up.

"Darn!" said Max, reaching into his pocket and
taking out some change, which he tossed into the box before stomping off.

"That makes one hundred twenty-three dollars and eleven
cents," said Shane, tossing the money he had been holding into the box,
too.

Melanie stared at him, and he smiled. She could have sworn
that she saw him throw in two quarters, but it had looked as if he just had one
when he was flipping with Max.

"McNatt's really a sweet guy, when you get to know him,"
said Chet. He smiled and left.

"Max makes Ebenezer Scrooge seem nice," said Jana.
"His sister Geena's in my Social Studies class, and she's always
disrupting class and picking on people."

"Let's forget about them," said Christie. "Now
that we're getting some money, doesn't anyone know
anyone
who wants a
cat or dog?"

"What about Mrs. Miller?" asked Jana. "Did
she ever find her dog, Duchess?"

"No," said Melanie. "Hey! That's an idea. If
Duchess doesn't come back, maybe we can give her one."

"I don't know," said Jon, shaking his head. "Maybe
she's too sad to want another dog right now."

Melanie looked at him. He might be right. "I'll ask Mom
about it. She talks to Mrs. Miller a lot. Maybe she can find out."

A glimmer of an idea was starting to grow in Melanie's mind.
Maybe this was just the opening she needed to get Rainbow, she thought as she
headed for her afternoon classes. If she could convince her parents to go with
her to the shelter to pick a new pet for Mrs. Miller, it would be the perfect
opportunity to introduce them to Rainbow. It just might work, if she played it
right. Maybe she would get a pet for Christmas after all.