Fabulous Five 017 - Celebrity Auction (7 page)

For the next few days, Beth waited for the right opportunity
to tell Keith she wanted to break up, but whenever she saw him at school or at
Bumpers, he always seemed to be surrounded by friends. Sometimes it was Tony
Sanchez, Bill Soliday, and Joel Murphy, the three who had been with him the
morning he squirted green slime in her hair. At other times he was with Richie
Corrierro and Derek Travelstead, the boys who had acted so immature in the
lunchroom by pretending to be Beth and Keith smooching. She almost had the
feeling that Keith didn't want her to catch him alone, and although she waited
for him to call and say he wanted to come over with his Brain Damage tape, that
didn't happen either.

The Fabulous Five were also busy handing out addresses to
kids who were willing to write letters. They told them to stop by the office to
get school stationery and then to give the finished letters to Beth, who would
take them to Miss Simone for postage and then mail them. Gradually more and
more students were getting interested in contacting celebrities, but not nearly
as many as were needed. They also set a date for the auction and contacted
Curtis Trowbridge's uncle, who was a professional auctioneer and who had agreed
to do the auction for them free.

At the same time, the girls kept their eyes on Steve
Melchior, Tucker Cobler, John Mauhl, and Jay Romberg.

"Have you noticed how they never seem to touch anything
but their own property?" Beth asked one day while they were finishing
their lunches in the cafeteria.

"Or the walls," grumbled Katie. "They don't
touch anything that's movable. They may think they're safe, but they're still
not taking any chances."

"And time's running out," said Beth. "If we
don't get our plan working pretty soon, we can forget about catching the vandals
in time for it to make a difference for the auction."

"Right," said Jana. "Kids are still refusing
to help because they think we're all still getting blamed." While they
were talking, Beth had been gazing across the room, absently watching the kids
who had finished eating, taking their trays to the conveyor belt that carried
dirty dishes back into the kitchen. Suddenly her eyes focused on the two boys
who had just put their trays on the belt. Tucker Cobler and John Mauhl. Tucker
had slid his on first, followed by John, and then the two boys had sauntered
out of the lunchroom.

"It's perfect," she mumbled. "Why didn't I
think of it before?"

"What did you say?" asked Christie, who was
sitting beside her. "Were you talking to me?"

Beth didn't reply. Instead she jumped up from the table and
raced toward the tray return. She had to keep sight of the boys' trays as they
rode slowly toward the kitchen. Beth dodged through the maze of crowded tables,
and careened around kids carrying hot food away from the steam tables. Once she
almost collided with Mr. Naset, the teacher on lunchroom duty, and he frowned
at her and yelled, "Stop this instant, Beth Barry! Don't you know that
there is no running in the cafeteria?"

Beth skidded to a stop and looked frantically from the
conveyor belt to Mr. Naset and back to the conveyor belt again. The two trays
were almost to the opening. Another few seconds and they would be beyond her
reach, dumped into the hands of the waiting kitchen help and then scrubbed
clean of
fingerprints!

"I'm sorry, Mr. Naset," she fumbled, looking at
the conveyor belt as she talked and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "It's
just that I . . . I . . . I left something on my tray, and I have to get it
before it goes into the kitchen."

"Very well then," Mr. Naset said sternly. "But
walk
, don't
run.
"

Beth zipped away, walking like someone in a videotape film
that was being fast-forwarded. She was only a few feet away when the trays
headed into the kitchen, and she made a sprawling dive across the conveyor belt,
grabbing a plate from John's tray an instant before it disappeared from sight.

"I got it," she said in a prayerlike whisper as
she closed her eyes and stepped back from the tray return.

"I just hope you didn't smudge out his prints,"
Katie said as The Fabulous Five hurried up the steps to the science lab a few
minutes later.

"Oh, my gosh," groaned Beth. "I never thought
about that."

Mr. Dracovitch greeted the girls with his usual vampire-type
smile and rubbed his hands together in obvious anticipation when he saw what
they were carrying. "I gather that you had some luck finding a
fingerprint," he said as they made their way toward his desk.

"I
hope
so," said Beth, offering him the
plate in her outstretched hands.

Mr. Dracovitch held up a finger. "One moment," he
said. Then he carefully put on a pair of transparent surgical gloves and
reached for the plate. "Let me look at this under the microscope."

He set the plate under the lens, adjusted the microscope
first one way and then another. With each adjustment he would bend low and peer
at the plate. Finally he snapped to attention and smiled at the girls. "There
it is. One perfect print!"

Her friends seemed relieved, but Beth was still unsure. "It
isn't mine, is it?" she asked.

The teacher shook his head. "As I said before, the one
on the plate is a
perfect
print.

"Now to get on with our little experiment," said
Mr. Dracovitch. "Are you girls ready to begin telling everyone that I have
a fingerprint that I believe belongs to one of the vandals and that I'm testing
it here in my lab?"

The five friends looked at each other and grinned. Then they
nodded to the science teacher and hurried out of the room.

It was almost time for the bell ending lunch period, and The
Fabulous Five each went their separate ways toward their afternoon classes.
Beth was deep in thought as she moved through the hall, wondering for the
hundredth time if her plan to trap the vandals would really work, when she
rounded a corner and almost smacked into Keith.

"Oh, my gosh!" she cried, jumping back and
juggling her books to keep from dropping them. "There you are, Keith
Masterson. I've been looking all over for you. I really need to tell you
something," she said before she could lose her nerve.

Keith glanced around quickly as if he were looking for a
place to hide, but he had his back to the wall, and Beth was standing directly
in front of him. "Hi," he finally said sheepishly. Then he swiped a
lock of blond hair off his forehead and asked, "What's up?"

Beth had practiced what she would say a zillion times, but
when she opened her mouth to speak, the words tumbled out helter-skelter. "I
think that . . . well . . . it's just that . . ." She sighed in
exasperation. "What I'm trying to say is that I think we ought to break
up. I can tell you don't want to be my boyfriend anymore. You don't even want
to come over and play your Brain Damage tape. And if you don't want to go with
me anymore, then I certainly don't want to go with you either."

Their eyes locked, and they stared at each other for a
moment. Beth felt as if a steel hand were squeezing her heart. Keith was the
only boy she had ever really liked, and she had just told him that she didn't
want to go with him anymore. But at least she had put it into words. His
actions had been telling her for a long time that he felt the same way.

Finally Keith looked down. "Okay," he said with a
shrug. "If that's how you feel."

Beth nodded, praying that the tears she felt wouldn't spring
into her eyes and give her away. Then she turned and walked slowly down the
hall.

She stumbled through her afternoon classes, barely aware of
what was going on in them and completely forgetting to mention the fingerprint
to anyone. After school, she avoided her friends, even though she had told them
she planned to break up with Keith. She just wasn't ready to talk about it yet.
When she got home, she tiptoed up to her room, relieved that no one was in the
kitchen to stop her and ask about her day. Brian's music was going full blast
in his room, and when she slipped into her own room and closed the door behind
her, what she saw there made a lump form in her throat.

"Agatha," she cried, jumping into the middle of
her bed where her shaggy friend waited with her nose between her paws. "Oh,
I'm so glad you're here. You knew I needed you, didn't you?" she said,
hugging the huge dog and letting flow the tears she had held back since that
awful conversation with Keith.

The next day, the rumor that Mr. Dracovitch had one of the
vandal's fingerprints and was testing it was flying around Wakeman like crazy.
Beth heard it herself from Shawnie Pendergast when she stopped at the drinking
fountain between two of her morning classes.

"Dekeisha Adams told me she actually saw Mr. Dracovitch
looking at a piece of broken plate under a microscope. The boys must have left
it when they trashed the cafeteria," said Shawnie. "Those jerks weren't
as smart as they thought they were."

"Right," said Beth. "That's what I heard,
too." She smiled to herself. Since so many kids were talking about it,
surely the word would spread to Steve Melchior and his crowd soon, if it hadn't
already.

She didn't have to wonder long. As she was closing her
locker after school, John Mauhl and Jay Romberg walked hurriedly past her. They
looked worried, and she heard Jay ask John, "What's Melchior mad about?"
but she couldn't hear John's answer as they went out the exit.

Beth clutched her books to her chest and scampered after
them just in time to see the two boys meet Steve Melchior and Tucker Cobler in
a corner of the outside wall of the school. Steve looked very angry, and he was
waving his arms and shouting at the others. Beth ducked behind the gum tree and
listened to what he was saying.

"Which one of you stupid idiots took his gloves off?
Was it you, John? Were you afraid you'd get your gloves all dirty?"

"No, I didn't do it," John protested, holding his
hands up. "I had them on the whole time."

"Me, too," said Tucker.

Steve looked at Jay. "Hey, no! Not me, man. I kept my
gloves on."

"Well, somebody fouled up, and it wasn't me," said
Steve angrily. "And now we've got to do something about it."

Steve's voice faded and Beth peeked from behind the tree to
see what they were doing. They were huddling with their heads together, and
Steve was telling the others something she couldn't hear. Beth took the
opportunity to sneak away. She had pushed her luck far enough.

When she reached the street, she let out the breath she had
been holding and did a little dance step. Her plan was working. Now, the rest
of it was up to Steve and his crowd. Somehow she just knew they would come
through for her. She did another little dance step and headed for Bumpers.

"Hi, sweetheart," Mrs. Barry greeted Beth when she
entered the Barry kitchen later. Beth had met the rest of The Fabulous Five at
Bumpers and had told them about what she had seen and overheard behind the gum
tree. They all agreed to keep their fingers crossed for good luck. Melanie had
even crossed her eyes until Katie playfully hit her behind the head to
straighten them out.

"Bethy, you got a letter!" shouted Alicia. She was
holding an enormous white envelope and jumping up and down.

"Let me have that!" said Beth, grabbing for it.
Alicia twirled and scampered under the table. "Mom-m-m!" Beth
pleaded.

"Alicia, give your sister her letter," said Mrs.
Barry without looking up from the recipe she was reading. Alicia crawled out
from under the table with her lower lip covering her upper one and handed it to
Beth.

Beth looked at the return address. It was an official Brain
Damage envelope with their emblem on it and everything!

"WOW! It's from Trevor Morgan. He's answered already."
Turning, Beth went running to her bedroom where she could read the letter in
private.

Beth flopped down on her bed and held the envelope to her
chest with both hands. Trevor had answered her! The envelope was so big it had
to contain an autographed picture. He didn't think her request for something to
auction was silly after all. She sat up quickly and carefully tore open the
flap, trying not to damage the envelope's contents.

Inside was a picture of the Brain Damage band signed by
every member and a separate picture of Trevor Morgan. The bold signature on his
was the most beautiful handwriting she had ever seen. The pictures were
accompanied by a letter and four coupons for free tickets to any Brain Damage
concert.

Beth's hands were shaking as she spread the letter out and
read it.

Dear Beth
,

She shivered at the thought of his calling her "dear
Beth."

I very much appreciated receiving your letter. It made my
day.

I was sorry to hear about how someone did so much damage
to your school. It's a shame there are people like that in the world. I want
you to know how much I admire you and your friends for what you are doing to
help repair the situation. It's just what I would expect from The Fabulous
Five.

It's also a shame that some of the adults are putting all
you kids in the same category. I can certainly understand how you feel. It's
not fair. Some people think all rockers are the same
,
too
,
but we
don't all play hard rock and get into trouble. Some of us are quite wholesome
fellows
,
and proud of it. It's just that not everyone takes the time to
understand the other person. We need to look below the surface sometimes and
find out what really is going on inside of others.

Tell the students at Wakeman
,
for me
,
not
to let other people's opinions shape their view of themselves. Tell them to
stick by the things they believe in
,
and sooner or later other people
will recognize the good in their actions. I'll be pulling for them on the day
of the auction
,
and I know you'll do well.

Beth
,
I must close for now. As you can see, I am
enclosing a few things for your auction. I hope they are satisfactory. With
regard to the four coupons for our concert
,
they are for the auction.
When we are playing in your town again
,
I expect The Fabulous Five to be
my special guests.

Trevor Morgan

Beth rolled over and clutched the letter to her. She thought
she would die of ecstasy. Trevor Morgan thought their auction was a great thing
and wanted The Fabulous Five to be his special guests at his next concert. She
popped up off the bed. She had to call Jana, Melanie, Christie, and Katie right
away.

Beth was the first person to reach school the next morning.
Mr. Bartosik, the head custodian, waved to her as he carried a trash can around
to the back of the building, and she was tempted to show Trevor Morgan's letter
to him just to have someone to show it to.

Shortly, however, kids started coming down the sidewalks
leading to Wakeman Junior High, and she saw Jana and Katie hurrying toward her.
She hopped up and down and waved the letter at them.

"I can't wait to see it!" said Jana. "Is it
in Trevor's handwriting?"

"His signature is," answered Beth. "It's not
one of those stamp things, at all."

"Let me see where he mentions The Fabulous Five,"
said Katie, craning over her shoulder.

Melanie and Christie came running up and wanted to see the
letter, too.

"Dekeisha! Come see what we've got," shouted Beth.
Soon a crowd was gathered around Beth, and she had to read the letter out loud
eight times as new people joined the crowd.

"Wow!" said Marcie Bee. "Stars really do
answer their letters, don't they? I've only written two, but I'm going to write
a bunch more if that's the kind of letter you get."

"Me, too," agreed Kaci Davis. "I didn't think
we'd get anything, but four tickets and those pictures, those are super."

Everyone began chattering excitedly about the auction, and
several people left to go to their homerooms to begin writing more letters.

Jana winked at Beth. "Well, Beth, I think you've done
it again. With everyone as excited as they are, our auction can't fail."
The other girls wrapped their arms around her and hugged her.

Beth laughed. "I know. But there's one more thing we've
got to find out about."

There was still ten minutes until the first bell when The
Fabulous Five marched into Mr. Dracovitch's classroom. The teacher had five
Bunsen burners lined up in a row with glass beakers sitting on them that were
filled with bubbling, yuck-colored liquids. He was staring so closely at one,
Beth thought he would burn his nose. He looked up and arched his eyebrows in
that curious way that made Beth think of the Dracula she had seen in the
movies.

"Well, I was expecting a visit," Mr. Dracovitch
said. "I suppose you want a report on how your plan is progressing?"

"Uh, yes, sir," answered Beth, moving from one
foot to the other. "I saw Steve Melchior and his friends yesterday, and he
was very mad. I kind of thought something may have happened."

Mr. Dracovitch stroked his chin. "Whenever deductive
reasoning is used properly, you can be guaranteed that your conclusions will be
correct."

"Yes, sir," said Beth. She didn't understand what
he meant, but she hoped he wasn't going to give them a lesson in science. If he
did, they would all be late for homeroom.

"And in this case," he continued, "the logic
used in the reasoning was infallible."

"What does that mean?" asked Katie. Beth could
tell that Katie was getting anxious to find out what he was talking about.

He looked at each of them in turn. "That means,"
he said, pausing for effect, "that your plan worked excellently. The
culprits broke into this classroom last evening and were apprehended by the
police, who were waiting in the adjacent room. Mr. Melchior and his friends had
found the broken plate and were caught red-handed with it. Thanks to you, the
case is closed," he said with a big smile. "And my integrity is still
intact, because I only said that I was investigating what I believed to be one
of the vandal's fingerprints, which it turned out to be. I never said that the
plate was part of the vandalism of the school. Nor did I say I had proof of who
the vandals were."

Beth and the rest of The Fabulous Five began cheering and
pounding each other on the back.

"Now everyone will know we not only are trying to
repair the damage, but they'll know for sure who did it and quit blaming all
the kids," said Beth. She stuck her hand in the air and the others,
including Mr. Dracovitch, gave her a high five.