Fabulous Five 006 - The Parent Game (2 page)

Jana stood on the front porch of Taffy's house waiting for
someone to answer the door. Taffy lived in the nicer part of town, and it had
taken Jana a full twenty minutes to bicycle over. She wouldn't have come for
anything else that Taffy might have said except that she had something serious
to talk about that concerned Randy Kirwan. It was just like Taffy to want to
get Jana on her own turf without any of Jana's friends around.

It's funny, Jana thought, she'd known Taffy since the first
grade, and the only time Taffy and she had come close to being friends was when
they had found Baby Ashley in a basket on the front steps of Mark Twain
Elementary. Baby Ashley had brought them close together for a short time, and
Jana remembered the warm feelings they had shared as they knelt over the
wiggling baby with her little hands waving and clutching at their fingers. It
hadn't taken long, however, for Taffy to go back to being her old self and
trying to hog the spotlight when the newspaper reporter came.

The door was opened by Taffy's mother. "Oh, hello,
Jana."

"Hi, Mrs. Sinclair." If Jana could feel sorry for
Taffy for any reason, it would be because of her mother. She was always pushing
Taffy into acting and singing classes and modeling jobs, and she had even
gotten her a role in one of the episodes of the TV show
Interns and Lovers.
Jana had to admit that Taffy had never looked better than in the death scene.

Jana stepped into the foyer as Taffy came into the living
room. She couldn't believe it. Taffy was just as dressed up at home as she was
at school. She was wearing a pleated skirt and a sweater layered over a
gorgeous blouse, and her hair was pulled back with a bright blue ribbon. Seeing
her made Jana feel scroungy in the old jeans she had put on after school.

"Hi, Jana," Taffy said, sweeping toward her.

"Hi," responded Jana, trying to be friendly in
front of Taffy's mother.

"Let's go up to my room."

Upstairs Jana tried not to gawk. Taffy's room was big, like
the rest of the rooms she had peeked into on their way, and it had been
redecorated since the one other time Jana had been there. She had thought it was
pretty then, but now she was sure it was the most beautiful bedroom she had
ever seen. It was just as Jana imagined the bedrooms of movie stars would be.
There was a silky canopy that had its center attached to the ceiling and fell
in graceful folds to hide partially a large four-poster bed. In the middle was
a pile of beautiful stuffed animals with the biggest white bear Jana had ever
seen. It was dressed in a tutu and had a sparkly tiara on its head.

Everything was white in the room, including the furniture
and the carpeting. Jana thought about her own little crowded bedroom with its
used furniture in the tiny apartment she lived in with her mom. After Pink and
her mother were married, she would probably even have to keep some of Pink's
bowling trophies on the shelves in her room.

The walls of this room were covered with pictures of Taffy
posing in different costumes. She was in gorgeous party dresses, sundresses,
swimsuits, all kinds of beautiful things. Then there were pictures of Taffy
with what looked like important people. She recognized some of them as movie
stars; others looked as if they were just plain rich and important.

Jana was suddenly aware that Taffy was standing back while
Jana admired her room. She was obviously eating up the chance to show off.

"Those are pictures taken by the studios I work for,"
Taffy said, moving to the wall with the most pictures on it. "This one was
for Tanninger's spring catalog; that one was for a book cover—aren't those two
boys standing on either side of me darling?"

She told Jana what each of the pictures was taken for. It
impressed the socks off Jana, but she tried not to show it. She hadn't known
that Taffy had done so much modeling.

"Mother's trying to get me a part in an after-school
television show. It won't be very big, but it would be a start."

"Gee, that's great," said Jana. "You're
getting to be really big-time."

Taffy smiled at the compliment. "It's just work, but it's
starting to pay really well. Mother says I might even get a chance to go to
Hollywood someday. She has dreams of my making it
really
big, and
her
having a beautiful home in Beverly Hills."

Jana thought she looked a little sad for a moment.

Then Taffy brightened. "I really didn't ask you over to
show you all my pictures. As I said on the phone, I have something serious to
talk about.

"You know, Jana, you and I didn't get along at Mark
Twain. You even had"—she hesitated and then corrected herself—"
we
even had clubs against each other. Since we've gotten to Wacko, though, we
haven't really seen much of each other, and I've been thinking a lot about us."
She had a worried look on her face. "I know you still have The Fabulous
Five, but there's no reason for us to be enemies anymore."

It was as if Jana had been hit by a tidal wave. This was not
at all what she had expected to hear from Taffy Sinclair. She had assumed they
would be enemies for life. "I guess not," she said hesitantly.

"To prove it, I want to do something for you, but I
won't
if you don't want me to. I promise."

Jana's old defensive instincts about Taffy came rushing
back. What was she trying to pull?

"Randy and Laura McCall are in my Family Living class.
I know how much you dislike Laura, kind of the way you felt about me in Mark Twain
Elementary," she said with a sideways smile. "I heard Laura telling
Tammy Lucero that she wanted to ask Randy Kirwan to be her partner in the
parent project. I didn't think you would like that very much."

Jana stared blankly at Taffy. Randy and Laura McCall?
Teaming up on the parent project? Her boyfriend and her worst enemy in junior
high walking around school together and acting as if some stupid stuffed
animal, or even Randy's
football,
was their darling little baby? Jana's
face turned red as she realized just how much Laura would love to rub that in.
She would absolutely die.

Taffy looked sympathetic. "Don't worry, Jana," she
said as she gently placed a hand on Jana's arm. "I have a plan."

Taffy wants to help me? Jana thought in disbelief. It was
impossible. They had
always
been enemies. It was true that they hadn't
seen much of each other since they had come to Wakeman. She had been so busy
getting used to junior high that Taffy hadn't been on her mind as much as she
had been at Mark Twain Elementary. The Fantastic Foursome had taken her place
as the number one enemy of The Fabulous Five. Still, Randy had said that Taffy
had told him she liked Jana now.

"What kind of plan?" Jana asked. She braced
herself to hear some obviously devious idea.

"I want you to remember that I won't do this if you say
not to." Taffy seemed to be considering how to tell her. "I thought
if
I
asked Randy to be
my
partner on the Family Living project,
Laura couldn't ask him, and then she couldn't steal him away from you. I'd only
do it because I want us to be friends."

Jana felt as if she were going to be sick. Taffy and Randy
acting as make-believe parents for two whole weeks? She didn't know whether to
laugh or cry. How different would that be from Laura and Randy's being
partners? she wondered. Was either one of the girls less likely to try to steal
Randy away from her than the other?

Taffy did say she wanted to be friends, Jana reminded
herself. And she wouldn't ask Randy to be partners if Jana didn't want her to.
Did Taffy
really
want to be friends? Jana couldn't imagine going to
Bumpers or to a movie with Taffy the way she did with The Fabulous Five. She
felt trapped. What could she do?

"You have to decide real soon," Taffy said,
gripping Jana's arm dramatically. "Laura may have already asked him."

Jana thought the expression on Taffy's face must be right
out of one of her acting classes.

"I don't know," Jana answered. She needed time to
think. "This is awfully sudden. I don't know if I want to butt into
something Randy is doing."

"I know you need time to think about it," Taffy
said sweetly. "But Laura could ask him any minute. You've got to hurry and
decide."

On the school ground the next morning Jana found Katie and
Melanie waiting at their special place by the fence. Christie and Beth came up
just as she was starting to repeat Taffy's offer.

"Don't tell me you believed her!" squealed
Christie.

"I just can't figure out why she would lie to me,"
Jana answered defensively. "What can she gain? She could ask Randy to be a
parent without even asking me, couldn't she? I couldn't do anything about that.
And I'm certainly not going up to Randy and tell him he can't be Taffy's
partner."

"You're right," said Katie. "That's what's so
puzzling. But I just can't believe she'd do it out of the goodness of her
heart."

"Maybe she
has
changed," said Melanie. "We
haven't seen that much of her, and we certainly haven't had any fights with her
lately."

"Taffy change?" asked Beth, rolling her eyeballs
back in her head. "Not in a million years."

"So you haven't talked to Randy about it?" Christie
asked.

"What would I say? Hey, Randy, don't be partners with
Laura or Taffy on the Family Living project. They're just trying to steal you
away from me. He'd think I was acting jealous."

"I guess so," agreed Christie. She seemed to be
thinking the situation over. "I wonder if it
is
possible that Taffy
feels differently about us," she said slowly. "Why don't we each try
to talk to her and sec how she reacts? You know, just make casual conversation.
If she really feels differently about you, she ought to be friendly with all of
us."

"Good idea," said Jana.

"Gosh," said Beth. "I don't think I can stand
to go through life without Taffy Sinclair hating me."

Everyone laughed at that, and soon the conversation drifted
back to the parent project.

"I can't wait to be parents with Scott," said
Melanie. "It's going to seem just like we're married." She got the
dreamy look in her eyes again.

"What about Shane Arrington and Garrett Boldt?"
asked Christie. "I thought you liked them, too."

"I do, but Scott was my
first
true love. Then
Shane was my second, and Garrett was my third."

The rest of The Fabulous Five giggled.

"I don't know how you can be so fickle," said
Katie in an exasperated voice. "You act as if you want all the boys in
Wacko Junior High for yourself."

"Yeah,"
answered Melanie. "But wouldn't
it be fantastic? Besides, you're just saying that because Tony Calcaterra's not
in your class."

This time Katie stuck
her
tongue out at Melanie.

"There's no one in my Family Living class that I want
to team up with," said Beth.

"How about you, Jana?" Christie asked.

"Randy's not in my class, and I don't know if I want to
team up with anyone else or not."

"Well, if you're going to object to Randy's teaming up
with someone, I don't think you should have a partner," said Beth.

"I'm not
against
Randy's being partners with
someone. It's just who he teams up with, that's all." Then she added with
a laugh, "Mona Vaughn would be fine."

"I guess so," said Christie. "She's not
nearly as pretty as Taffy or Laura. But don't forget, Matt Zeboski is her
boyfriend, and he's in that class, too."

"I heard that Laura is going to use a stuffed unicorn
for a baby," Melanie continued.

"That's because it has a horn growing out of the top of
its head and will look like her," said Beth, grinning widely at her own
joke.

Katie said, "Lisa Snow told me she has a Garfield that
she's going to use, and Tammy Lucero has an orange piñata that's shaped like a
bull."

"Taffy's going to use a big white bear dressed in a
tutu," said Jana. "She showed it to me last night. Is it ever
gorgeous, and its name—get this—is Monique."

Just then the bell rang for class, and Jana followed behind
the others. Marcie Bee called to her from two lockers away as they got their
books out for class, "Oh, Jana! Doesn't the Family Living thing sound like
fun?"

"Sure does," Jana answered.

"I've got the cutest bunny I've had for ages that I'm
going to use. His name is Buniper. Of course I've got to put him through the
wash and hang him out by his ears to dry before I can bring him in Monday."

"Great," responded Jana.

"I've got a kangaroo that I've had since I was a baby,"
said Dekeisha Adams, a tall black girl who was from Copper Beach Elementary.
Jana knew Dekeisha from the modeling class they had been in at Tanninger's. She
was also on the seventh-grade cheerleading squad with Beth and Melanie. "Its
name is Jo-Jo. Won't that make a cute baby's name?"

Gloria Drexler and Melinda Thaler joined in the conversation
as Jana pulled her books from her locker and left. Even though she was beginning
to get more into the spirit of the parent project now that everyone else was
excited and constantly talking about it, she couldn't get Taffy Sinclair out of
her mind.

The morning took forever to pass. Jana had never been so
bored with her classes, and she couldn't concentrate on what the teachers were
saying. The more she thought about Taffy's offer, the more confused she became.
Should she believe Taffy or not? Which would be worse, she wondered, to have
Taffy as Randy's partner or Laura? One had been her worst enemy, and the other
was probably her worst enemy now.

"Jana. Did you hear my question?" asked Miss
Dickinson. "I asked you what your opinion is as to why the heroine behaved
the way she did."

Perspiration popped out on Jana's forehead as she suddenly
remembered she was in her English Lit class. The last thing she remembered Miss
Dickinson talking about was the book she had assigned the class to read.

Jana struggled to remember the story. She hoped it was the
heroine in the book that Miss Dickinson was asking about. She gulped and said, "Uh,
she did it because she felt that no one loved her. Uh . . . she was trying to
get attention."

"Very good, Jana. Please pay attention. Now class . .
."

Jana's thoughts went immediately back to Randy, Taffy, and
Laura. What
was
she going to do?