Fabulous Five 008 - The Runaway Crisis

  THE FABULOUS FIVE #8

  THE RUNAWAY CRISIS

  BETSY HAYNES

  A BANTAM SKYLARK BOOK®

  NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND

  RL 5, IL age 009-012

  THE RUNAWAY CRISIS

  A Bantam Skylark Book / May 1989

  Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1989 by Betsy Haynes.

  Cover art copyright © 1988 by Ralph Amatrudi.

  So part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Bantam Books.

  ISBN 0-553-15719-1

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  CW 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For Mrs. Paula Karl's seventh-grade reading classes in Colleyville Middle School, Colleyville, Texas.

  CHAPTER 1

  Katie Shannon had just reached the spot at the fence where The Fabulous Five met every morning before school when Beth Barry came running up. "You'll never guess what I just saw in the girls' bathroom!" she shouted.

  Katie exchanged shrugs with Christie Winchell, Melanie Edwards, and Jana Morgan.

  "Boys?" Melanie asked slyly, and the others laughed.

  "No, silly," said Beth. "It was Shawnie Pendergast. She had one foot propped up on the sink and she was shaving her legs! Right here at school. Can you believe it?"

  Jana made a face. "Why on earth would she do a thing like that?"

  "I know," Katie said quietly. "She probably can't do it at home. Her parents are really strict. She's been talking to me about it a lot lately."

  "What's she been saying?" asked Christie.

  Katie hesitated. She didn't want to betray a confidence, but Shawnie hadn't asked her not to tell. Besides, she felt sorry for Shawnie and knew her best friends would sympathize, too, if they understood the situation.

  "She says her parents don't allow her to go out much on weekends or to do very many things most seventh-graders get to do. In fact, a few days ago when Miss Dickinson assigned us to write bumper stickers for English Lit class that criticized something we felt was wrong with the world, Shawnie's sticker said, 'Empty the nation's prisons. Let your kid out of the house once in a while.'"

  "Gosh, that's awful," said Melanie.

  "She also told me that no matter what she asks her parents for permission to do, they automatically refuse," Katie went on, "and she has to sneak around to do almost anything."

  "That's pretty drastic," said Melanie. "To look at her, you'd think that she has everything going for her. I mean, she's tall and blond with a gorgeous figure. And she looks more like a ninth-grader than a seventh-grader. I've always thought she was lucky."

  "Have you met her parents?" Jana asked Katie.

  "No. According to Shawnie, they're busy all the time. She said that they're so busy that their conversation with her consists mostly of one short word, NO."

  "Poor kid," said Beth. "How does she stand it?"

  "Maybe we should be extra nice to her," offered Christie. "Do you think she'd like to go to Bumpers with us after school?"

  "Do you think her parents would let her?" chimed in Beth.

  "Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing her there very often," added Melanie.

  "At least we can ask," said Katie. "I have English Lit with her. I'll talk to her then."

  When the bell rang and she was heading for her classes, Katie was glad she had told her friends about Shawnie's problems. Even though the five of them had totally different personalities, they could all be counted on when someone needed help. Katie knew that her own strong point was her sense of fairness, and it hurt her to think that someone as nice as Shawnie was being treated unfairly by her parents.

  "I'd love to go to Bumpers with you and your friends," Shawnie said when Katie stopped her outside the door of their English classroom later in the day. "I'll just have to watch the time and make sure I get home before my parents. I'm supposed to go straight home and do my homework, but if I'm careful, they'll never know the difference."

  Katie cringed. As sorry as she felt for Shawnie, she wasn't comfortable with sneaking around. "Why don't you call your mom and clear it with her? Maybe she'll say it's okay."

  "And maybe she won't, which is more likely. Then I'd be dead. She'd find out for sure if I went anyway after she had said her favorite word—NO. Don't worry," Shawnie added cheerfully. "I can handle it. I've done it lots of times before."

  When Katie got to her locker after school, Tony Calcaterra was leaning against it, grinning at her as she approached.

  "How about going to Bumpers with me?" he offered. "I'll buy you a Coke."

  "It's a criminal offense to bribe a judge!" she retorted, but she couldn't fight down the smile that crossed her face or the tingly feeling that she always got when she was near Tony.

  "Oh, so you've heard about it already, huh?"

  "Heard about what?" Katie asked in surprise.

  Tony grinned proudly. "That I have to go before Teen Court again this week."

  "Of course not. We never know what cases we're going to get until the court session starts. That way we don't make up our minds before we hear the evidence," said Katie. She put her hands on her hips and gave him an exasperated look. "What did you do this time?"

  "If you're not supposed to hear about your cases ahead of time, then I guess I shouldn't tell you about it, should I?"

  Katie sighed and shook her head in disbelief. Tony was terrifically handsome with dark hair and sparkling eyes, but he was also terribly macho. What was worse, he was constantly being brought before Wakeman Junior High's Teen Court, where she was a student judge, for breaking school rules. She swallowed a giggle as she remembered the last time when she had had to sentence him to removing graffiti from all over the school for spray-painting "T.C. + K.S." on the outside wall of the gym. She couldn't imagine what he had gotten himself into this time.

  It was obvious that Tony had a crush on her. He had been asking her out at least once a week ever since she helped him petition the school to change the dress code rule that said boys couldn't wear earrings. In many ways he was the exact opposite of what she liked in a boy, but in other ways she admired him. He certainly stuck up for what he believed in, and even though their petition had been refused, he had respected the rule and obeyed it.

  So far, though, Katie hadn't made up her mind if she wanted Tony for a boyfriend or not, and she had turned him down every time he had asked her for a date. Still, she thought, he made her heart beat like crazy and maybe going to Bumpers with him wouldn't be such a bad idea . . . just this once. "If I say yes, will you carry my books?" she teased.

  "Load me down, Your Honor," Tony said with a wide smile. He held out his arms to receive them.

  Laughing, Katie began pulling books out of her locker and piling them on Tony's outstretched arms until he could barely see over the top.

  "On second thought," she said, standing back and surveying him
thoughtfully, "if I let you carry all of them now, how will I get them back to school in the morning?"

  He winked at her over the top of her English Lit book. Then he wobbled slightly as if his knees were buckling under the weight and said in a weak, raspy voice, "I'm always at your service, ma'am."

  "Hi, Katie. Are you ready to go to Bumpers?"

  Katie jumped to attention at the sound of Shawnie's voice. How could she have forgotten that she had invited Shawnie to go to Bumpers with The Fabulous Five? Especially since she had extended the invitation herself?

  "Darn you, Tony Calcaterra," she muttered too low for him to hear. "I can't think when you're around me.

  "I'll be with you in a minute, Shawnie," she said, and turned back to Tony.

  "What was that all about?" he asked from behind the stack of books.

  Katie was relieved to see that Shawnie had moved on down the hall toward Beth, who was closing her locker.

  "I can't go to Bumpers with you today," Katie said, and began retrieving books from the stack on Tony's arms and putting them back into her locker. "I totally forgot that Shawnie was going with my friends and me. If it were just The Fabulous Five I was going with, it would be different. But I'm the one who asked her to come along."

  Tony frowned and looked toward Shawnie.

  "She has a lot of problems at home," said Katie.

  He grinned at her again. "And Her Honor Katie Shannon, champion of justice, is coming to her rescue. Is that it?"

  "Don't he mean," she said. "You're just mad because she wouldn't sign your earring petition. Anyway, I'll go to Bumpers with you tomorrow . . . if you still want to."

  "Of course I'll still want to," he said, "but don't get too carried away trying to help Shawnie. I went to school with her at Copper Beach, and there are a lot of things about her that you don't know."

  They said good-bye, and Katie watched him trot off down the hall to join Bill Soliday and Keith Masterson at the drinking fountain. For a moment she stood there puzzling over his remark about Shawnie. Was it just sour grapes because she wouldn't sign his earring petition? Or was there really something about Shawnie that she needed to know?

  CHAPTER 2

  "Oh, rats! I just realized that I didn't wear my watch today," said Shawnie as the six of them left the school together. Looking straight at Katie, she said, "I need to be home before five. Would you keep me posted on how late it's getting?"

  "Sure. It is now three twenty-seven post meridiem," Katie said dramatically.

  "Post what?" asked Melanie.

  "Post meridiem," repeated Katie. "You know, p.m., afternoon. It's Latin."

  "Wow!" said Shawnie. "I'm impressed. Post meridiem, huh?"

  Everybody laughed, and Katie was glad. It seemed to clear the tension out of the air. When she had told her friends that Shawnie was going to sneak around to go to Bumpers with them, no one had been comfortable with the idea. Still, no one had wanted to tell her that she couldn't go, either.

  By the time they made their way through the crowd in Bumpers and found a table, Shawnie was positively glowing.

  "I just love it here," she said, sweeping her arm to take in the entire fast food restaurant that was the junior high hangout. "Whoever it was who thought of salvaging old bumper cars from an amusement park ride, fixing them up, and then using them to decorate this place was a genius."

  They had barely gotten seated when Christie jumped up again. "I see Jon over there," she said. "I have to talk to him a minute. Save my seat."

  "I don't see Randy anywhere," said Jana, frowning.

  "I see tons of cute boys," Melanie said in a breathless voice. "I think I'm just going to sit back and feast my eyes."

  The last thing Katie wanted to do was act as boy crazy as Melanie. She didn't even want anyone to think she liked Tony the way Jana wanted everybody to know about Randy and Christie was so public about her feelings for Jon. Still, she wondered if Tony had come to Bumpers after she had changed her mind about coming with him. Looking around as casually as she could, she spotted him across the room. He was sitting in a booth with several seventh-grade football players, and he noticed her at almost the same instant. But instead of smiling, he frowned in Shawnie's direction and shook his head.

  She looked away abruptly. What's the matter with him? she wondered. He's acting as if Shawnie has something contagious.

  "So, are you looking for anyone special?" Beth asked Shawnie.

  Shawnie dropped her eyes. "It wouldn't do any good if I were," she said sadly. "My parents won't let me date."

  "Not at all?" Melanie asked. "I mean not for special occasions such as school dances?"

  "Nope," said Shawnie. "Not . . . at . . . all." Then she grinned sheepishly and said, "I had a boyfriend in sixth grade, but my parents didn't know it. All we could do was eat lunch together and walk around together in the halls. Some romance, huh?"

  "I hate to say this," said Beth, "but your parents don't seem to be up with the times. Have you tried to talk to them and tell them about what's normal for somebody your age? Maybe they just don't understand."

  Shawnie sighed. "They understand. And yes, I've tried to talk to them. They just want things their way, and there's nothing I can do about it."

  Shawnie didn't say anything for a while after that. She just sat there looking sad, and Katie wondered if she was thinking about all the freedom The Fabulous Five had and wishing she could have just a little of it for herself.

  "Hey, it's now four oh three," said Katie. She was hoping to cheer Shawnie up and get her into some conversation.

  "Post meridiem?" Shawnie asked brightly.

  "You've got it," said Katie.

  "Thanks. I've got approximately twenty minutes before I have to leave. That will give me enough time before my mom gets home from work to spread a bunch of papers around on the kitchen table to look like I've been doing my homework." Then laughing and shaking her head so that her blond hair bounced on her shoulders, she added, "My mom worships homework!"

  "Would she let you come over to my house to do homework sometime?" asked Katie. "I mean, it wouldn't be very exciting, but it would get you out of the house."

  Shawnie's eyes brightened. "I'd love it!" she said so dramatically that Katie thought she sounded like Beth. "It might take some plotting, though. You know. Your mother calling my mother or something. But it's worth a try."

  "Great," said Katie. "I'll ask my mom, but I'm sure she'll say yes."

  When Shawnie left at 4:27, Katie looked nervously at her friends and said, "I hope she gets home in time and doesn't get caught."

  "Me, too," said Melanie. "But I also hope we don't get into trouble if she does."

  "Yeah," said Christie, who had come back to the table by then. "I'd be careful if I were you, Katie. I like Shawnie and feel sorry for her, but we don't know that much about her. Who knows what kind of trouble she could stir up."

  "Come on, guys," said Katie. She couldn't remember when she had been so annoyed with her friends. "Are you just going to sit there and let her go down the tubes because you don't know her that well? I'm not planning to do anything major. I'm just going to invite her over to do homework."

  "Sorry," said Jana, but there was still an edge in her voice. "We didn't mean to come off sounding like villains."

  "We just think you should be careful," offered Beth. The crowd was starting to thin out as kids drifted out the door and headed for home. Katie said good-bye to the rest of The Fabulous Five and started down the street leading to her neighborhood.

  "Hey, Katie. Wait up."

  She would have recognized the voice anywhere. It was Tony, and when she turned to look at him, he was loping toward her.

  "Well, Your Honor," he said playfully. "Did you accomplish your mission and rescue Shawnie Pendergast?"

  Katie frowned. "What do you have against her?"

  "Nothing. Honest." Tony put his arms up to protest his innocence. "I guess she's just not my type."

  "But you said that there
were things about her that I didn't know. What did you mean by that?"

  "Save the cross-examination for court," he teased. "I'll see you at school tomorrow, and don't forget that we have a date for Bumpers. Okay?"

  Tony was smiling his irresistible smile, and Katie nodded. "Okay," she said, and smiled back. Still, after he was gone, she couldn't help wondering if he had changed the subject because he wanted to talk about their date for Bumpers after school tomorrow or because he didn't want to talk about Shawnie.

  CHAPTER 3

  The first thing Katie did when she got home from school was dump her books on the kitchen table, grab a nectarine out of the bowl of fruit on the counter, and head for her mother's office.

  Wilma Shannon, who insisted on being called Willie, was a freelance writer. Ever since Katie's father died, Willie had earned a living for the two of them doing articles for newspapers and magazines. Often those articles were about causes that Willie cared about and that she wanted people to get involved with such as the women's movement and world peace. Katie's friends sometimes kidded her about being a chip off the old block, but she didn't mind. She had causes she believed in, too, and right now one of them was Shawnie Pendergast.

  "Hi," she called brightly as she stuck her head into the bedroom that Willie had converted into an office. "Whoops!" she said, and ducked out again when she saw her mother sitting before the blue eye of her secondhand computer and gazing into the distance. It had taken some doing, but her mother had finally convinced her that she was working her hardest when she was staring off into space.

  "It's okay," Willie called back. "I'm almost finished anyway. Libber and I just can't get this article to come out right. We need a break."

  Katie chuckled and strolled into the room. Taking a bite of her nectarine, she stroked Libber, the stray yellow cat they had taken in months ago, who liked to curl up around the back of the warm and softly purring computer while her mother worked on her articles.

  "I can tell that Libber needs a break," Katie joked. "She looks exhausted. What's your article about, anyway?"