Fabulous Five 032 - Class Trip Calamity (4 page)

Jana stood there, blinking back tears of jealousy and rage.
How dare Laura try to sink her claws into Randy and work on him to join her
party crowd? That was obviously what she was doing.

Laura glanced up. Seeing Jana, she let a smile twitch around
her mouth for an instant, and then she looked at Randy and went on talking.

Jana whirled around and stomped down the hall, aware that
she was going in the opposite direction of her locker, but not caring.

Maybe I should rat on Laura and the others, after all, she
thought angrily as she turned down a hall that ran through the center of the
building and would take her to her locker without having to pass Laura and
Randy again. Maybe I should write a note and sneak it into Mr. Bell's mailbox
by the office door. Or maybe I could call the school and disguise my voice.

Jana sighed. She couldn't do either of those things, and she
knew it. It was not just that she would never snitch, no matter what. There was
Randy. What if Laura really had persuaded him to go along with her crowd? Then
if Jana ratted, he would get in trouble, too. She could never be responsible
for a thing like that.

When she reached her locker, she worked the combination
lock, remembering suddenly that she had forgotten all about telling her friends
the warning she had received from Funny. She would have to tell them at lunch,
because there was no way of knowing what Laura might be cooking up.

As she swung open her locker door, she heard a crash,
followed by the sound of glass breaking near her feet. Before she could look
down, the strong smell of liquor rose toward her and made her cough.

"Oh, my gosh!" Jana cried. "Where did
that
come from?"

Scattered at her feet were fragments of a bottle, a few of
them lying in small, brownish puddles. Some of the liquid had splashed onto her
white tennis shoes and the legs of her jeans.

"Pe-YEW!" said Mona Vaughn, who was standing at
her locker next to Jana's. Mona made a face and pretended to gag.

"Yeah. Where
did
that come from?" asked
Heather Clark.

Jana was too flustered to answer for a moment. "I don't
know . . . honest . . ." she faltered. "I don't have
any
idea!"

By now a large crowd had gathered.

"Hey, Jana's starting the party early," yelled
Tony Sanchez, and laughter rang in the hall.

"Somebody get Mr. Bartosik," called out Joel Murphy.

Jana panicked at the mention of the custodian's name. "No!
Don't call him. I can clean it up myself."

"It's too late," said Mona. "Somebody already
went to get him."

"Oh, no," Jana murmured.

"What's going on?" asked Katie, elbowing her way
through the crowd.

Jana almost collapsed with relief at the sight of her
friend. "Somebody planted a booze bottle in my locker, and it fell out and
broke when I opened the door. Thank goodness it was almost empty."

Melanie and Beth walked up in time to hear Jana's explanation.

"Who do you think did it?" asked Beth.

"I
know
who did it," said Jana, and then
she told them what Funny had said on the way to school.

Katie frowned. "How could Laura or anyone else get into
your locker? Didn't you lock it when you went home last night?"

Jana was stunned. "Of course I locked it last night. I
just unlocked it right now. But you're right. Nobody knows the combination to
my lock. Not even the rest of The Fabulous Five."

"Then you're going to have a hard time explaining this,"
Katie told her.

"Explaining it!" Jana exploded. "Why should I
have to explain it? You know I didn't put that bottle in there myself!"

"Calm down, Jana," said Katie. "I know you
didn't put it there, but Mr. Bartosik will have to report it to Mr. Bell, and
then you'll probably have to go before Teen Court. I just want you to be
prepared for the questions the judges will ask."

Jana groaned. "Not Teen Court. What will I say?"
Just then Mr. Bartosik came through the crowd, pushing a cart that contained a
trash barrel, a broom, a mop, and a bucket of water.

"Been an accident here, huh?" he said pleasantly,
but his expression changed as he sniffed the air. "Young lady, is that what
I think it is?"

Jana gulped. "I . . . I think so, but I didn't put it
in there," she insisted. "I just opened my locker, and the bottle
fell out. I don't know where it came from."

The custodian gave her a look that said, "A likely
story," and went to work cleaning up the mess.

It was almost time for the bell, and kids drifted back to
their own lockers to put away their jackets and get out their books for
classes.

Jana turned to Katie again. "What am I going to do?"

"I don't know, unless you can find out who put that
bottle in there
and
how they got into your locker. Otherwise, Teen Court
won't have much choice but to find you guilty of bringing booze to school."

"Oh, Jana, this is awful." Melanie put her arms
around Jana and gave her a big hug. "I wish there were something we could
do."

Jana couldn't stop the anguish welling up inside her. "Booze!
Liquor! Alcohol! Why was it ever invented? All it ever does is cause trouble!
Especially
in my life!
" she said, thinking of her father. She stomped off down
the hall, leaving her friends to stare after her.

Sinking into her seat in homeroom a few minutes later, Jana
let her mind travel back to when she was three and a half. She wasn't sure if
she really remembered what happened then or if she had heard about it so often
that it seemed real.

She was sitting on the back steps with her father just as
the sun was coming up. He had awakened her and carried her out into the fresh
morning air to tell her good-bye.

"I'm going to get myself straightened up," he had
said, speaking just above a whisper. "I'm going to stop drinking so that
your mother will let me come home again. In the meantime, you be a good girl
and do what your mother says."

Then he had kissed her on the forehead and led her back to
bed. That was the last time she had ever seen him, because he hadn't stopped
drinking. He had gotten worse. And because of that, he never came to see her
and hardly ever wrote her letters, even at Christmas.

But a few months ago things had changed. He had written her
a long letter about a woman he had met. Her name was Erma Benfield, and she was
helping him stop drinking. In fact, at the end of the letter he had said they
were getting married. Since then, Jana and her father had exchanged several
letters, and each of the ones he wrote sounded more happy and optimistic than
the one before. He definitely had stopped drinking, and he had gotten a job
since he and Erma had married.

And then, without warning, the letters had stopped. Jana had
been puzzled for a while, but eventually she understood.

"It's that Erma Benfield—or Erma Morgan, now," she
had told Beth. "She isn't letting Dad see my letters."

"Why would she do a thing like that?" Beth had
asked.

"Because she's jealous. She's probably afraid that my
dad and I will get close again and then she'll lose him. I'm sure that's what's
happening. It's the only thing that makes sense."

"You don't think the reason could be that your dad
started drinking again?" Beth had asked. "That happens to people
sometimes, you know."

Jana had frowned. "That, too," she said. "For
all I know Erma may be encouraging him to drink again. She may be nervous about
his writing to me and be trying to put a stop to it by getting him drunk. I
certainly wouldn't put it past her."

"That wasn't exactly what I meant," Beth had said,
but Jana hadn't heard. She was too busy conjuring up pictures in her mind of
her father and Erma, sharing a bottle of liquor while her letters lay buried in
the wastebasket.

The bell ending homeroom shook Jana out of her daydream. She
hadn't heard a single thing that went on during the period.

She was heading for the door when Mr. Neal called to her.

"Jana, I just got a note that you're supposed to report
to the office right away. Mr. Bell would like to see you."

She swallowed hard and tried to keep her expression blank,
but inside she was quaking.

"Okay," she murmured, and hurried into the hall.

Jana had never seen Mr. Bell looking so stern.

"Sit down, Jana. We have something very serious to
discuss."

She perched on the edge of the chair beside his desk,
balling her hands into tight fists to keep them from shaking.

"I suppose you know why I've sent for you this morning,"
the principal went on.

Jana nodded and looked at the floor. She wanted desperately
to explain that she had not put the bottle into her locker, that it was a
dirty, rotten trick played on her by someone who wanted to get her in trouble,
but she knew she would never be able to force the words out around the lump in
her throat. In fact, the lump was growing bigger every second.

"Mr. Bartosik told me about the accident at your
locker, and I saw the pieces of bottle, as well as smelled them," he said.
"Now, I'd like for you to tell me what happened. Take your time. Just
explain it to me in your own words."

"I . . . I can't, sir," she began timidly. "I
mean, I can't explain
how
it happened. All I know is that I opened my
locker, and the bottle fell out. I didn't put it there. I swear I didn't."

"Am I to understand that you forgot to lock your locker
last night and someone simply opened the door and put the bottle inside after
you were gone?"

Jana blinked at him in surprise. It was too good to be true.
Mr. Bell was actually giving her an easy way out of this awful mess. "I
guess so," she said quickly before she could lose her nerve.

"Well, you've certainly been an exemplary student, so I
would find it hard to believe that you placed the bottle there yourself,"
he said.

Relief surged through Jana. He really did believe her.

"Do you have any idea who could be angry enough at you
to do such a spiteful thing?" asked Mr. Bell. He leaned across the desk
and added, "I'd like very much to find out who the culprit is."

"No," Jana lied. "Maybe . . ."

"Maybe what?" Mr. Bell prompted.

"Well, maybe someone was just looking for someplace to
hide it and accidentally found my locker," she offered.

Mr. Bell gave her a skeptical look. "Maybe," he
said solemnly, "but if you think of anyone who might have done it on
purpose, please let me know. You may go back to class now."

Jana nodded. She murmured, "Thank you," and got
out of the office as fast as she could.

By lunchtime her insides had stopped shaking, and around
bites of her jelly and cream cheese sandwich, she told Beth and Katie and
Melanie about her trip to the principal's office.

Katie looked at her in astonishment. "Jana Morgan, do
you mean you actually
lied
to Mr. Bell?"

"What else could I do?" demanded Jana. "I
could have admitted my locker was locked, and then he would have believed I put
the bottle in there myself. Or I could have said Laura did it, but that wouldn't
have explained how she got into my locker, and he would
still
have
believed I did it and that I was trying to pin the blame on someone else."

"I agree with you, Jana," said Beth. "You
would have been dead if you'd told the truth."

"Well, at least it's over, and you didn't get into
trouble," said Melanie.

"Wait a minute," added Beth. "Maybe it isn't
over. If Laura could get into your locker once, she could do it again."

Jana's heart sank. "You're right. I didn't think of
that." Then she brightened again. "I know. I'll change my lock."

"The trouble is," Beth went on, "you don't
know what kind of system she's got. Even if you change locks, there's no
guarantee that she won't be able to get in again."

"Gee, Beth, you're full of cheerful news,"
complained Katie. "I think if Jana changes her lock, she'll be okay,
especially if she gets a lock with a key instead of a combination. Laura may
have been smart enough to figure out Jana's combination once, but she'd have to
be a genius to get into a lock with a key."

"And we all know she's no genius," Jana commented
wryly. "I think I'll get a new lock after school. Anybody want to head for
the mall with me?"

"I can't," replied Melanie.

"Me, either," said Katie.

Jana looked at Beth.

Beth sighed. "Actually I could, but if you don't mind,
I'd rather go on home and check the pantry for more baby food."

"You still haven't talked to your mom?" asked
Melanie.

Beth shook her head. "I know I should, and I've started
to a couple of times, but I always chicken out. And she's been acting funny,
too. Take last night. I walked into the den, and Mom and Dad suddenly stopped
talking and gave me one of those big, fake grins. I know something's up, and I
know
what it
is.
Why don't they just come out and tell us?"

"You've got to remember that they don't know you know,"
said Melanie. "I think they're just waiting for a special moment. They may
even be planning a party or something."

Beth made a face. "Listen to the romantic," she
said, nodding toward Melanie. Then she grinned. "I think they're just
afraid the five of us will gang up on them and refuse to baby-sit with the
little brat when it gets here."

"Or charge ten bucks an hour," suggested Katie.

"Hey, now that's what I call a super idea," said
Beth, and they all laughed.

Jana was rounding a corner between fifth and sixth periods
when she saw Funny Hawthorne walking ahead of her, and an idea occurred to her.

"Hey, Funny, wait up," she called.

Funny flashed a big grin as Jana caught up with her. "What's
up?"

"You mean you haven't heard?" Jana asked in
astonishment. Then she filled Funny in on the disaster at her locker and her
interview with Mr. Bell.

"Wow," replied Funny, "Laura really works
fast. I knew she was thinking of doing something to you. I told you about that
this morning. But I had no idea she had already done it."

"Well, she did," said Jana. She took a deep
breath. "And I need to ask you a big favor."

"What is it?" asked Funny.

"Do you think you could find out how she did it? I
mean, my locker was locked, and somehow she managed to get it open so she could
plant that bottle. I'm going to change my lock, but I'm still worried. If she
could do it once, what's to stop her from doing it again?"

Funny whistled low. "I see what you mean. Gosh, Jana, I
have no idea how she did it. I'm really the odd man out in a lot of her
schemes, especially anything to do with you. Laura knows you and I are friends,
and she hates it. But maybe I can find out something. I'll try. I promise."

"Thanks. You're a terrific friend." Looking at
Funny's sunny smile, she said, "You know, Funny, sometimes I just can't .
. ." She broke off, shaking her head.

"Sometimes you just can't what?" asked Funny. "Understand
why I stay friends with Laura?"

Jana nodded sheepishly.

"Don't forget, Laura and I've been friends for a long
time. We started kindergarten together." Funny looked as though she were
going to add something, then seemed to change her mind. "I don't know. I
guess I just don't feel as if I can desert her right now." She giggled and
added, "But I'll have to admit that she was a lot nicer in kindergarten."

After they parted to go to their separate classes, Jana was
still thinking about Funny. Laura doesn't realize what a loyal friend she has,
Jana mused, but I just hope that loyalty won't keep Funny from helping me now.