Fabulous Five 008 - The Runaway Crisis (8 page)

"Shawnie!" Katie shouted, throwing open the
basement door and flipping on the light. She heard her mother gasp behind her,
but she didn't care. "Shawnie, where are you? I have to talk to you."

Katie thundered down the stairs and hurried to Shawnie's
corner room, sidestepping boxes that had been shoved aside to clear out space
for the hideaway.

Shawnie was sitting in a lawn chair listening to Katie's
radio through the headphones. But the basement light's flashing on had
apparently startled her, because by the time Katie reached her, there was panic
on her face.

"What's the matter?" she cried, pulling off the
headphones and jumping to her feet.

Katie stopped and looked hard at Shawnie. Willie stepped up
beside her, and Shawnie's eyes shifted frantically back and forth between them
as if she couldn't decide whom to fear the most. Katie didn't look at her
mother. She would deal with Willie's disapproval later, and she knew that her
mother would be upset to find Shawnie here after sending her home once before.

"Is something wrong?" Shawnie asked softly.

Katie ignored the question. She had a question of her own. "Is
it true that the reason you ran away is because your parents wouldn't let you
join the march for hunger?"

"Yes," Shawnie answered, and shrugged, and then
she added quickly, "But there's more to it than that."

"Like what?" demanded Katie.

Shawnie gave a deflated sigh and sank back down into the
chair. She sat there a moment, staring at a crack in the floor as if she were
choosing her words carefully. "You see, my mom and dad are almost never
home. They're both attorneys, and they have these big careers going. They're
never
ever
home after school, and most of the time at least one of them
misses dinner. They work a lot on Saturdays, too. They think it's terrific
because they can buy lots of stuff and my college education is already paid
for. I think it's the pits."

Shawnie glanced up for the first time and sighed heavily
again.

"Go on, honey," Willie urged. "Tell us the
rest of the story."

Shawnie nodded. "Everybody thinks I'm spoiled rotten
because I have so many great clothes, but the truth is, I'd rather have my
parents around once in a while than all these clothes."

"But what does that have to do with them not letting
you do things?" asked Katie.

"Well, you see, making me come straight home from
school every day is their way of knowing I'm safe and out of trouble. They call
and check on me a lot. And since they aren't available to drive me to things,
they don't have to worry about that either. It makes them feel better if I don't
get involved. It's just their way of handling the situation. They're afraid
something terrible will happen to me. I think it's really cool how they've been
sitting at home by the phone ever since I ran away waiting for me to call. This
is the longest they've been at home in years."

"But Shawnie . . ." Katie began. She felt so sorry
for her friend for having parents who wouldn't let her do things and left her
alone all the time, but the anger at being deceived that she had felt just a
moment before had turned to confusion. That still didn't make it right to run
away.

"What about the bruise on your arm?" Katie
challenged. "Did you really run into the closet door, or . . . did your
parents hit you?"

"I really ran into the closet door," Shawnie
whispered. "I knew what you were thinking, and I guess I just let you
think it."

Willie frowned thoughtfully. "Your parents were on
television again a few moments ago, and they said they would cancel the plans
they had made so that you could join the march for hunger if you would just go
home. What plans were they talking about?"

"We were going to go away for the weekend,"
Shawnie huffed. "They thought it was such a big deal to plan a weekend
trip since they're gone so much, but why did it have to be the same weekend as
the march for hunger? I tried to explain that everybody from Wakeman would be
marching and that what I really wanted was to march, too. But do you think they'd
listen? No. I begged and screamed, but they kept on insisting that we should go
away. They're always doing things like that. You understand, don't you?"

She looked pleadingly first at Katie and then at Willie and
then back at Katie again. "They were being so
unfair,
" she
insisted. "You're always talking about fairness, Katie. That's why I
turned to you. I knew you'd understand. And you did. Remember that you're the
one who came up with the idea to invite me over and tell my mother that we were
working on a project."

"I do understand," said Katie. "And I agree
that they've been awfully unfair to you." She paused, thinking that Tony
and Mandy and the other kids from Copper Beach had judged her unfairly, too,
because they didn't understand what she was going through at home. "But
you're being unfair by scaring them so badly. In fact"—she paused again,
trying to find a way to express how she felt—"everyone's been unfair, and
that's a shame, but I think you've been the most unfair of all."

Tears brimmed in Shawnie's eyes, and she looked quickly at
Willie as if searching for support.

"I agree with Katie," said Willie. "But you
can start to make things better at home by going upstairs right now and calling
your parents to tell them you're okay. Then when you get home, sit down and
have a long,
calm
talk with them about how you feel. It's the only way
you'll ever make things better."

"No!" Shawnie shouted angrily, jumping to her
feet. "And you can't make me. I'll stay down here until I . . . I . . .
mildew!
"

Katie was astounded when her mother turned to go upstairs,
saving, "Okay. If that's the way you feel, then I guess there's nothing we
can do. Come on upstairs, Katie. Let's finish our dinner."

Katie followed Willie up the stairs, but she couldn't
understand what was going on. "We can't just leave her down there forever,"
she insisted. "Especially since she was right about one thing. It was
partly my fault. I'll bet that I even encouraged her not to go home by talking
about fairness so much."

"Maybe so," said Willie, "but she still has
to stop blaming everybody else and take some responsibility herself. That's the
only way she's ever going to change things. You'll have to admit, she is a
little bit spoiled. But don't worry about her right now. After she thinks things
over, she'll come around."

Willie paused for a moment. Her face clouded. "But as
for you, young lady, you are always talking about justice. How could you
possibly take justice into your own hands, hiding Shawnie and helping keep her
parents in anguish without bothering to find out the whole story? Right or
wrong, don't you believe that the Pendergasts had a right to know that Shawnie
was okay?"

Katie tried to protest, but Willie held up her hand for
silence.

"You not only jumped to the conclusion that Shawnie was
the only one being treated unfairly, but then you took it into your own hands
to decide that Shawnie had the right to hide out even though the police are
looking for her and her parents are crazy with worry. Is that your definition
of fairness?"

Katie stared, unblinking, at Willie. Half of her wanted to
shout that she had only tried to help a friend when nobody else wanted to, and
the other half of her felt overwhelmed by how complicated right and wrong could
sometimes be. It seemed so much simpler in Teen Court when all you had to do
was listen to both sides and then decide who was right or wrong. Except that it
hadn't always seemed simple then either. And her mother was right, this time
she hadn't even listened to both sides. How could I have forgotten such an
important thing as that? she wondered.

Sighing, Katie looked at Willie. Her mother was looking at
her closely, and Katie knew Willie could almost read her thoughts by watching
the expression on her face. Still, she wanted to say the words out loud.

"I guess you're right," she admitted. "It was
just so easy to believe Shawnie that I forgot all about what being fair really
means."

Willie put her arms around Katie. "You were trying to
be a good friend, and that's okay as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else."

Just then footsteps sounded on the basement steps. "Is
it all right if I use the phone?" Shawnie asked sheepishly as she stepped
into the kitchen. "I want to call my parents to come and get me."

After Shawnie's parents picked her up, Katie dialed Tony's
number. She leaned against the wall and listened to the ringing on the other
end. Five . . . six—it looked as if no one was home. Just as she was about to
hang up, she heard someone answer.

"Hello." It was him.

"Hi," Katie said in a soft voice. "It's me."

She noticed the short pause before he said, "What's up,
Your Honor?"

"I need to talk to you, Tony. In fact, I think I owe
you an apology."

"Oh?" His voice was softer.

Katie told him the whole story about thinking that no one
understood Shawnie and that her parents mistreated her and how she had helped
Shawnie hide from her parents. She told him about how she finally found out the
truth and knew now that everyone had been a little unfair, especially Shawnie.

"And I was unfair, too," she said. "Especially
to you. I really thought you were mad at Shawnie for dumping you at Copper
Beach Elementary."

"She didn't dump me at Copper Beach."

Katie was stunned. "That's what everyone says."

"I don't care what everyone says," he responded. "You
ought to know that by now. That's why I didn't say anything when she told
people she had dumped me. If it made her feel better, that's okay."

Katie heard him take a deep breath on the other end of the
line and then he continued, "I didn't see how it would do any harm to let
people think whatever she told them. I guess it has, though. It made you mad at
me. I liked Shawnie a lot. I really did. But then I realized how spoiled she
was, always having to get her own way, and I stopped seeing her."

Katie stared at the phone in amazement. Tony had suspected
all along that Shawnie was trying to pull something. He had tried to warn Katie
that she was being taken without actually putting Shawnie down, but she had
been too headstrong to listen. Instead she had blamed Tony for being macho and
trying to hurt Shawnie. Thank goodness she had finally decided to talk to him
and straighten things out.

"Tony, I'm so sorry," she said. "I don't know
how I could have doubted you."

He chuckled. "Just remember that the next time I come
before Teen Court, Your Honor."

Saturday was a beautiful fall day, and crowds of people
lined the three-mile course through downtown that Katie and Tony had laid out.

"I can't believe so many people turned out to support
us," she said to Tony as they checked Wacko students off the registration
forms and gave them badges shaped like cans of soup to pin on their shirts.
They had spent Friday evening at her kitchen table drawing and cutting out the
badges as if their argument had never happened.

Tony looked at his watch. "It's almost time to start
the march," he said. "Is everybody here?"

"Almost," said Katie, running a pencil down the
list of names. The rest of The Fabulous Five had been the first to arrive. The
Wacko football team had come together, and all of the cheerleaders were here.
Even Taffy Sinclair was near the front of the marchers in a new lavender
jogging suit.

"Why don't we go ahead and start?" asked Tony. "Everybody's
getting antsy."

Katie bit her lower lip. "Let's wait just five more
minutes," she said. She didn't want to admit it out loud, but she was
hoping as hard as she could that she hadn't been deceived again. If she had
been, it would be absolutely the last straw.

The minutes ticked by.

"Who are we waiting for?" Tony asked impatiently
after he and Katie had taken their places at the head of the crowd, and Katie
was still stalling. "Come on. Let's get going. "

Katie sighed. There wasn't any use waiting. They might as
well get the march started.

Just then a long black limousine came streaking up the
street and stopped beside the marchers. The door opened and out popped Shawnie.

"I'm here!" she shouted. "I get to march!"

Before Katie could say a word, the door on the driver's side
of the car opened and Mr. Pendergast stepped out onto the street. He headed
straight to Katie and handed her a folded paper.

"And here's my pledge for one thousand dollars to the
march for hunger just as I promised on television," he said, smiling
kindly.

A moment later the marchers were off, laughing and talking
and waving to the crowd. Katie could see Willie at the edge of the sidewalk on
one street they passed, and she felt so proud she almost burst. Everything had
worked out perfectly. Shawnie had gone home and was making progress talking
with her parents. The march was going to be a huge success, and her mother
would have a terrific story to write for the paper.

"Well, Your Honor," Tony said, taking her hand as
they sauntered along. "Now that you've saved Shawnie Pendergast from a
fate worse than death and raised money to feed the hungry, what causes are you
going to take up next?"

"Oh . . . I don't know yet," she said, tingling
all over with happiness. "
We'll
think of something."

"You're kind of quiet," Jon said as he and
Christie turned the corner onto her street.

"Oh, I've just been thinking about the Super Quiz team.
It sounds as if it will be a lot of fun. I just hope l can be in the matches."

"Don't worry. You're smarter than the others."

"That's easy for you to say," she responded. "But
Curtis, Whitney, and Melissa aren't dummies."

"Neither are you," Jon said, putting his arm
around her.

Christie jumped at his touch, then grabbed her books,
pretending she had almost dropped them to cover up her nervousness from Jon.
She had seen the Wakeman-Trumbull Super Quiz match the year before when she was
still at Mark Twain Elementary. It was like a TV game show with two teams of
students being asked questions by a moderator. If you thought you knew the
answer, you slapped a button and a buzzer sounded and a light flashed. It was
exciting with the kids trying to beat each other to the button, jumping up and
down, and yelling and laughing.

The names of the Wakeman seventh-, eighth-, and
ninth-graders who had been picked for the team this year had been announced
over the school public address system that afternoon. She was proud to have
been chosen, but it didn't mean she would actually get to be in the matches
against other schools. She could end up being a second-stringer and never
actually get to play against another school. Only two of the four people from
each grade would get to participate each time.

Her thoughts came back to Jon, and she squeezed his arm. She
was sorry she had jumped when he touched her. It wasn't only that she was
nervous about the Super Quiz tryouts. Lately she was beginning to think she
needed more space. She didn't want to have to worry about hurting his feelings
every time she wanted to do something with someone else or spoke to another
boy. And Jon and she had different interests.

Jon was fun to be with most of the time, but he was always
there. She really wished they were best friends instead of going steady. But
how could she tell him that? The thought of it made her shiver. She didn't want
to hurt him, but sometime, somehow, she was going to have to talk to him about
it.

And who would believe they were just friends? The kids at
school thought that if you walked down the hall with a guy or went to Bumpers
with him, you had to be going steady.

Christie is faced with all these problems and more, much
more, in
The Fabulous Five
#9: The Boyfriend Dilemma.