Promises, Promises Page 15

  At that moment, Charlotte thought Henry’s idea about making someone else smile was brilliant.

  Out of Order

  When the bleachers finally cleared out enough, Maeve bounced down from her top row seat to where the other BSG were standing. Maeve wasn’t sure how she ended up on the top. She wished she had been in the front row with Isabel and Charlotte.

  Maeve hoped that the fact they were all together meant that Katani and Avery were finally getting along.

  “Great job, everyone. Let’s go to Montoya’s for hot chocolate to celebrate!” Maeve called out.

  It took a little persuasion. But the two candidates agreed that getting away from school sounded like fun, like it used to be! They went to their lockers, gathered their books, and met on the front steps.

  The fresh air felt good as they walked to Montoya’s Bakery, with Maeve leading the way. Behind her, Charlotte walked with Avery. Bringing up the rear were Isabel and Katani.

  They each ordered hot chocolate and a cookie and carefully carried them to their table.

  Maeve was keenly aware that this was her chance to reunite the five of them on something they all loved, Marty. She chattered on about the Think Pink! contest.

  “Hold up, Maeve,” Katani said. Katani’s expression was divided perfectly between confused and annoyed. “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  “The ‘My Pet Looks Perfect in Pink’ contest at Think Pink!” Maeve said.

  “Tell me you aren’t seriously thinking about putting Marty into a pink outfit,” Avery said.

  “That’s the whole point of the contest, Avery,” Maeve snapped.

  Avery’s jaw dropped. “Pink! Marty can’t wear pink—he’s a boy! This is crazy! You can’t do this!”

  “Too late. We are! You two have been so wrapped up in the election. You haven’t been paying attention to anything else,” Maeve said.

  “Sorry. But count me out,” Katani said.

  “What?!” Maeve shrieked. “But we need you, Katani! We were counting on you to sew Marty’s costume.”

  “Tell the little guy I’m sorry, but priorities are priorities,” Katani said.

  “Nothing’s a priority with either of you except winning the class election,” Maeve said.

  “And what else is there right now?” Katani asked with a haughty tone.

  “Fun, and helping the local pet shelter. Why do you two have to be so serious about everything?”

  “Caution! Caution! Yurt Alert!” Avery sounded the alarm.

  Katani laughed. “Are you sure it’s not a ‘My Pet Looks Perfect in Green’ contest?”

  “Hey!” Avery said, sitting up straight and staring at Katani. “There’s nothing wrong with being green!”

  Katani laughed. “I meant the color, not the cause, Avery.”

  Isabel raised her hand slowly from the table and held it out like she was a crossing guard directing kids at a dangerous intersection. “I think we shouldn’t talk about the election while we’re all together.”

  “I agree,” Charlotte said, looking worried.

  “I’ll totally and completely second that!” Maeve said. The group had dangerously come close to talking about the election again. It seemed no matter what subject Maeve threw out there, it always came back to that one topic.

  Avery flopped back in the chair and folded her arms across her chest.

  Katani sat up straight, crossed her arms in front of her, and leaned on the table. As Maeve talked on about the new arrivals at Think Pink!, Katani tilted her chin to study the ceiling fan in the center of the room.

  Avery finished her muffin and started chewing on her fingernails instead.

  Katani caught sight of her and made a disgusted “tsk” sound and looked away.

  “What? What?” Avery asked.

  “Nothing!” Katani said. “Nothing that you would understand.”

  “Stop it!” Maeve shouted. “You are both acting so obnoxious! You’re ruining this for all of us!”

  Katani snapped her mouth closed and glared at Maeve.

  Avery flopped back in her chair and crossed her arms in front of her in a classic pout.

  Their silence was almost worse than the arguing.

  Maeve took a deep breath. Clearly, this had been a huge mistake. She thought if she got them all together things would be better, but it looked as if until the election was over, nothing was going to work. The question was…once the election was over, would they ever go back to normal again?

  CHAPTER 16

  Star Search

  Charlotte leaned up against the window. A fine mist had been falling all day. It was too wet to sit on her balcony tonight. Since she had moved to Brookline, the balcony had been her special spot. A place just for her.

  Charlotte scanned the evening sky. She was looking for the Seven Sisters—a constellation of the seven stars that travel the skies together. She remembered the night that her father had first shown her that constellation. It had made her think of the Beacon Street Girls and how they were traveling through life, or at least junior high, together. Secretly, she had added Sophie to that group. She exchanged letters at Christmas time with Shadya from Africa and Anabel from Australia, but Sophie had been her most faithful correspondent. Charlotte went online, hoping to find a response to the e-mail she had sent Sophie earlier in the week. She scanned down the list of names and her heart jumped when she saw the familiar name in the message box.

  To: Charlotte

  From: Sophie

  Subject: re: Class Election

  Ma cherie,

  I cry for you. you sound so sad. It is hard to make friends and harder still to be in fight with friends. They will come around, no? They will understand when the surprise is gone. But if they don’t you are free to runaway to Paris. I would take you in toute de suite. Speak of runaways, I saw glance of a small chat near the docks. Your lost Orangina? Alas, I am not sure. I cannot say. I don’t want to get your hopes up. There are so many stray chats in Paris. I will keep my eyes open for her.

  Bisous,

  Sophie

  Charlotte wished Sophie were here right now to help her understand all that was going on. Sophie might have seen Orangina? What better reason for Charlotte to run away to Paris for a while! She missed that little orange furball.

  There was a soft knock at her door.

  Charlotte closed the e-mail from Sophie. “Come in,” she said.

  “Hey, pumpkin, sorry I’ve been so busy with work lately. What’s up in Charlotte’s world?” Mr. Ramsey said, sitting on the bed next to her desk chair.

  “Nothing much. This week’s going to be crazy. Class elections are on Friday. I can’t wait until it’s over,” Charlotte said, sinking down on the bed next to her father.

  “Rough campaign?”

  For the first time in a long time, Charlotte started to cry. “It’s been horrible,” she said, the words catching in her throat. And before she knew it, she poured out her heart about the events of the past two weeks.

  “What about the other candidates?”

  “Dillon is just Mr. Popular…saying just what everyone wants to hear. Everyone laughs at Henry, but he made some good points,” Charlotte said. “I just wish Avery and Katani could get along. It’s been so…hard. I’m afraid none of us will be the same again.”

  Her dad patted her knee and then put his arm around her. “Well, it’s hard to compete against friends. On the sports field and court you have referees to help make sure things don’t get out of hand, but an election…well, as you can see from some of the political ads on TV, even adults have a hard time not letting things spin out of control.”

  “I’m just afraid,” Charlotte sighed as she sunk close to her father’s side. “We promised we would be friends forever. Now I’m not sure if we’ll all make it.”

  “Don’t give up on them yet. Things will calm down after the election is over. And those two girls are good kids. Just hang in there!”

  “Woof, woof,” barked Marty as
he jumped up in Charlotte’s lap.

  “See, Marty knows. Don’t you, little guy?” said Mr. Ramsey, scratching the little dog behind his ear.

  And then Mr. Ramsey told her that he was working on an article about Paris. “Who knows, Char, we might be drinking café au lait on the Seine again…you never know.”

  Charlotte’s heart skipped a beat. It was amazing how one little word, in this case, Paris, could change your whole outlook.

  The Red Pen Strikes Again!

  When Katani walked down the hall the next morning, the first thing she noticed was that everyone was looking up. The second thing Katani noticed was that everyone’s mouth was open. Only Anna and Joline were laughing. Anna pointed at one of Katani’s few remaining poster boards and there right in the center was a Post-it note: “Don’t Vote for this Beanpole,” was written in red ink.

  Katani was outraged. Steaming, she ripped the note from her board and examined it closely. In the bottom right-hand corner it was signed, “The Red Pen will strike again!” In the bottom right-hand corner, there was a little smiley face sticking its tongue out. Who would do this? Katani’s first thought was that it was Avery, but she immediately shook that thought away. No way Avery would be this heartless. Besides, there were Post-its on Avery’s poster that were downright cruel!

  Katani dropped her books in front of her locker and continued down the hall, angrily ripping the Post-its from the posters, lockers, and walls. She tried not to read them as she stacked them in her hand, but she couldn’t help it. Who would say such awful, hurtful things?

  Even though she was mad, truth be told, Katani was also relieved. For the first time since the posters started disappearing, Katani knew that Kelley wasn’t responsible. It couldn’t be Kelley. It wasn’t her handwriting. Besides, Kelley didn’t know how to be cruel.

  Mr. Danson was on one side of the hall ripping down the notes and Ms. Rodriguez was on the other side of the hall doing the same. Quietly, Avery joined them.

  “Girls, I would like those as evidence,” Mr. Danson said when they had finished.

  Katani walked over and handed her pile to Mr. Danson.

  “Do either of you have any idea who may be behind this?” Mr. Danson asked, a stern look in his eyes. “This is very serious,” he added.

  Avery looked to Katani and they both shook their heads that they didn’t.

  “Well, don’t let them get you down,” Mr. Danson said.

  “We won’t,” they said at the same time. It was the first time in weeks they had agreed on anything. It felt good to be on the same side for a change.

  Back to the Drawing Board

  Charlotte was happy when she arrived at lunch at the exact time Isabel did. That meant they went through the hot lunch line together and arrived at the empty table at the same time. Charlotte hated sitting at the table by herself.

  “I finished the caricatures,” Isabel said, pulling her sketchbook from her backpack. “I want you to look at them and tell me what you think.”

  “How do you feel about them?” Charlotte asked.

  “I like them better than I did the EDGY stuff. Still—they’re not my usual thing. The more I try to focus on political cartoons, the more ‘birdy’ ideas I have. I’ve also been working on something else all weekend.”

  “What?”

  “An idea for the Tower.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, I think I figured out a solution that will make everyone happy.”

  “Ooooo! Let me see.”

  “First things first,” Isabel said, putting the sketchpad on the table. She thumbed it open to the first character sketch.

  Charlotte peered down at the first caricature and saw Henry Yurt smiling up at her. Isabel had done a great job of portraying the Yurtmeister’s zest for living. “This is great,” Charlotte said before she flipped to the next caricature.

  Isabel smiled as she sipped from her milk carton.

  “They’re so good!” Charlotte said. She flipped back through the caricatures again and ended up on the picture of Avery. It was so full of energy, it practically buzzed. “But personally I like your bird ones better, too.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Isabel sighed. “Birds are me, but Jennifer wants something about the election.”

  Without warning, the table jolted. Applesauce sloshed from Charlotte’s divided tray into her macaroni and cheese. Avery had arrived.

  “Hey guys, what’s up?” she asked as she twisted the top off a yogurt smoothie and downed it in one long gulp. “Hey! That’s me,” she said, pointing at the caricature of herself. “This is awesome. Can I use it for my campaign posters?”

  “I don’t think so. These are for The Sentinel,” Isabel told her.

  “There’re more? Let me see the others!” Avery lurched, grabbing for the sketchpad.

  “Dillon looks so funny. These are awesome, Isabel!” When Avery flipped to Henry’s caricature, she slapped the table and busted out laughing. When she paged to Katani’s, she fell forward in silent convulsive laughter like she was having a seizure.

  “Avery, breathe!” Charlotte said. Avery looked as if she might pass out. Her uncontrollable giggles were contagious. In an instant, Charlotte and Isabel were laughing as hard as Avery. They were laughing so hard, they didn’t hear Katani walk up to the table.

  “What’s so funny?” Katani asked as she glanced down at the caricature of herself. Katani’s eyes widened, and she backed up a step. “So you’re all laughing at me?”

  “No!” Charlotte said. She’d tried to stop laughing so fast that the “no” came out with a huge snurp, which sent the three of them back to uncontrollable giggles.

  “Isabel, out of all the BSG, I thought you were the only one who truly supported me. How could you?” Katani asked as she turned on her heels and headed toward the door.

  “Wait! Wait!” Isabel shouted after her and caught her right outside the door.

  “I drew caricatures of everyone. It’s for The Sentinel,” Isabel told Katani.

  “You’re going to put THAT in the school paper? I thought you were my friend! But you want everyone to laugh at me?”

  “It’s a caricature…”

  “You think that’s the way I look?”

  “I didn’t think you looked bad in it at all.”

  “My head is huge. My body is so small.”

  “Katani…caricatures of everyone look like that. Please come back to the table and I’ll show you.”

  “I’m not like EVERYONE. I have never wanted to be ‘just like everyone.’ Look, I can’t handle this right now. I gotta get out of here.” Katani pushed through the double doors, leaving Isabel standing speechless.

  “She didn’t like it?” Charlotte asked when Isabel returned to the table.

  “She hated it,” Isabel said. “I don’t know what to do…Jennifer wants something by tomorrow.”

  “Maybe you could draw a new one of Katani,” Charlotte suggested.

  “I don’t think she’ll like anything I draw,” Isabel said. “I just can’t take that chance. I don’t want to hurt Katani’s feelings.”

  “If she can’t take a joke, that’s her problem,” Avery said matter-of-factly, and in between crunching on her sunflower kernels.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be a joke.”

  “Are you kidding? Caricatures are supposed to be funny. Look at mine! I’m funny! Go ahead. Turn it in,” Avery said.

  “I can’t turn this in. And what if Katani finds whatever I draw insulting?”

  “Maybe it’s just as well, I didn’t want to say anything, but I found out yesterday that Chelsea Briggs is taking photographs of all the candidates,” Charlotte admitted.

  “Who?”

  “Chelsea Briggs. You know, she was the one who did the ventriloquist act with the Cabbage Patch doll for the Talent Show.”

  “Oh yeah, Chelsea. I remember now. Too bad she had a sore throat that night. She was so good in the rehearsals.”

  “I think she must have practiced t
oo long. Anyway, I just found out she took some candid pictures of the candidates, and Jennifer is going to use them in The Sentinel.”

  “Photographs?” Isabel asked.

  “Yeah. Actually, Chelsea’s pretty good. When I said something to her about her pictures, she told me she liked being the photographer because that way she’s always behind the camera and never in front of it.”

  “Why would she say that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she’s a little embarrassed about you know…how she looks,” Charlotte said uncomfortably.

  “What’s the matter with the way she looks?” asked Avery.

  “Well, you know…she is kind of chunky,” Isabel said as a picture of Chelsea appeared in her mind.

  “Oh, that,” Avery said, clearly disinterested in the topic. “Later,” she said, and headed to the boys’ table.

  “What are you going to do now?” Charlotte asked. “The deadline is tomorrow.”

  Isabel shrugged. “Since the caricatures aren’t going to work, I guess it’s back to the drawing board. Look, I’m going to get a pass to go to the library…maybe I’ll find something to inspire me there.”

  Isabel left Charlotte sitting at the lunch table alone. She wondered briefly where Maeve was again today, then she couldn’t help thinking about Chelsea’s comment that she’d rather be behind the camera than in front of it.

  Charlotte was thinking the same thing. “Cabbage Patch Chelsea.” She said that to remind herself that her name started with a “C,” just like Cabbage Patch. But Charlotte couldn’t help thinking that Chelsea kind of looked like a cabbage patch doll: the full round face, the dimpled elbows, and the curly blonde hair. Of course, she would never say that to anyone else. Not even to the BSG. It was almost too mean to think! Charlotte chased the thought from her mind.

  Luckily, the bell rang, and she was off to her afternoon classes.

  Avery’s Blog

  *Campaign Update*

  The mudslinging has begun! Except no one knows who’s slinging mud or why! Whoever it is seems to hate all the candidates. What’s up with that? This election will go down in the history of Abigail Adams Junior High as one of the most contentious (cool word, huh?) ever.