Fabulous Five 019 - The Boys-Only Club (2 page)

The latch on the box was badly rusted, but Katie was able to
stick the point of the trowel in behind it and pry it off. The lid squeaked in
protest as she opened it.

Reaching inside, Katie pulled out two packets wrapped in waxed
paper and tied with faded ribbon. She laid these in her lap and reached in
again. She found a small porcelain doll, a lace handkerchief that had yellowed
with age, a rubber ring, and a large blue-green marble.

The porcelain doll had a beautiful face and was wearing an
old-fashioned dress. The handkerchief was fancy and looked handmade. Katie
couldn't figure out what the rubber ring was for.

She pulled the bow loose on the smaller packet and opened
the paper carefully. It crackled and split as if it was very old. Inside the
paper Katie found several photographs, which she separated gingerly. On top was
a family portrait of a man and a woman sitting side by side with three
children. The woman was holding a baby, and an older child, a girl, stood next
to the father with her hand on his shoulder. A boy, who looked older than the
girl, stood in the back.

They're all so serious-looking, thought Katie. She flipped
the picture over, but nothing was written on the back.

The next picture was of a man in a military uniform. He was
wearing a hat like the ones she had seen in pictures of the Royal Canadian
Mounties. Katie compared the picture with the one of the family. It was the
father.

The next picture made Katie smile. A monkey sat on a boy's
shoulder, its tail wrapped around the boy's neck. Katie turned the picture
over.
Tommy and Cho Cho
was written on the back. She giggled. I wonder
if Cho Cho is the monkey or the boy, she mused.

She laid the pictures on their wrapping and picked up the
larger package. Inside was a notebook that was bound at the top. It looked like
one kids might have used in school a long time ago. On the front was written in
pencil:
Hello
,
whoever you are.
She stared at the message. It was
as if she had just bumped into someone she didn't know and that person had said
hello.

Sitting back on her heels, Katie held the notebook in both
hands. It seemed like a personal thing, and she wondered at first if she should
open it, but the message made her think someone wanted the notebook found. She
turned the cover back.

Hi
,
I'm
Gwyneth Plum.

The handwriting looked like a kid's attempt to be formal. It
had all kinds of curlicues and the bottom of the
y
was a fancy swirl.

I'm thirteen years old and in the seventh grade at
Misener Junior High. Everyone calls it Miserable Junior High
,
but we
don't let the teachers hear us say it. Isn't that funny?

Katie chuckled to herself. It was just like everyone at
Wakeman Junior High calling their school Wacko.

The year is 1918 and this is my first time capsule. We
just learned in school that many people made time capsules in 1876 when our
country was one hundred years old
,
so I thought I would make one for myself.

A time capsule? So that was what this box was all about.
Katie made a quick calculation. Wow! She was the first one to read the words
written by a girl her age over eighty years before. She read on.

Our teacher told us that when you make a time capsule
,
you should put things in it that will tell whoever finds it all about you
,
and that's what I'm doing. I'm the girl in the picture.

That was easy enough to figure out, Katie said to herself.

The boy in the picture is my older brother, Robert
,
and
the baby is my brother, John.

My father, whom I love very much
,
sent me the
little doll from England. He's in the army there and is going to fight that
terrible man they call the Kaiser, in Germany. Mama and I worry about him. They
are calling this the first world war
,
ever, and it's really terrible.

The kerchief belongs to my mother, the marble is my
brother Robert's, and of course the teething ring is John's.

Let me see
,
what do I need to tell you about me?
Well
,
I live or lived in a white house with a black roof by this tree.
It was two stories tall. Is it still there?

Katie looked over her shoulder at the two-story house where
she and her mother lived. Before the owners had it covered with aluminum siding
three or four years ago, it had been wood, but the boards were starting to rot
and split. The roof was brown shingle and had been as long as Katie could
remember. She couldn't tell if it was the same house Gwyneth had written about.

My room was on the second floor in the back
,
and I
could look out the window and see my favorite tree. You'll know which tree it
is I'm talking about because you found this box under it. The tree has a swing
that I used to play in when I was little
,
and when Tommy comes over
,
he pushes me in it sometimes.

Katie's room was on the second floor at the back. She looked
up. High overhead on a branch that was far too high for a swing now hung two
tattered pieces of rope.

Mrs. Goddard
,
my teacher, says someone may find a
time capsule a long time after the person who made it is dead. That kind of
makes my skin crawl.

It made Katie's skin crawl, too, to think about it. She
closed the notebook and put it and the other things back into the box. She
wanted to read the rest of what Gwyneth had to say, but she didn't want to do
it kneeling in the backyard. She quickly planted the tulips in the hole where
the time capsule had been, and went into the house.

"What's that, sweetheart?" asked Willie as Katie
moved some papers and set the metal box on the corner of her desk.

"It's a time capsule."

Willie's eyebrows arched. "A what?"

"A time capsule. Can you believe it? I found it buried
under the tree out back where I planted your tulips."

"Oh? Let's see."

Katie went through the items one by one, telling Willie
about each in turn. She could see the interest building in her mother's eyes as
she explained about the porcelain doll, the pictures, the lace handkerchief,
the rubber teether, and the blue-green marble. Finally, she came to the
notebook, which she had intentionally left for last.

"And Gwyneth Plum wrote this," she said, handing
it to her mother.

Willie slowly thumbed through the pages. "This
is
interesting. It just might make a good article I can sell to the paper. Would
you mind if I did one after I finish what I'm working on?"

"That's a great idea," replied Katie.

Later, in her room, Katie took the notebook out of the box
again and flopped on her bed to continue reading.

What should I tell you about me next? Well
,
I kind
of go with Tommy Rawls
,
although we've never been alone. Mama wouldn't
allow that. He's really cute. I'm going to put a picture of him in my time
capsule.

Tommy made me mad the other day
,
though
,
and
I'm not speaking to him. I told him I wanted to be a doctor when I grow up
,
and he said that colleges don't let girls in medical school so I might as
well forget it. He said it was because girls couldn't understand all the
scientific things they teach. I said
,
girls are as smart as boys
,
and
he said it was a proven fact that they aren't.

"Darn!" Katie exclaimed. "Don't put up with
that, Gwyneth. You're as good as he is any day of the week."

Well
,
I told Tommy that it wasn't true. There were
,
too
,
girls in medical school
,
although not as many as men.
People don't give girls the chance to show how smart they are. I also told him
I didn't want to speak to him again until he changed his attitude. Boys are so
immature.

Way to go!" cried Katie. Her opinion of Gwyneth Plum
was soaring, and now she didn't want to put the notebook down. Katie had heard
about women having to fight for the right to vote, to be paid the same as men,
and to be treated like more than just housekeepers. In fact, she had read that
at one time if a woman was married and inherited money or property from her
parents, it automatically belonged to her husband. But she hadn't thought about
what it would be like to be a girl way back then. This was like talking to
another kid just like herself who had lived through it.

"Katie! Dinner's ready," Willie called.

Katie tore a piece of paper out of her own notebook to mark
her place and put Gwyneth's book in the drawer of her table. She'd do her
homework after she ate and if she still had time, read more of what Gwyneth
Plum had to say.

"A time capsule?" asked Christie excitedly. "In
your own backyard?" The Fabulous Five were standing at their favorite
place by the fence on the grounds of Wakeman Junior High the next morning.

Melanie's eyes were open wade in amazement. "Was it
from an alien from outer space who landed here thousands of years ago?"

Katie laughed. "No, silly. It wasn't from any alien
from outer space. It was from a girl named Gwyneth Plum who buried it in 1918.
The amazing thing is she was thirteen when she did it."

"What does it look like? What's in it?" asked
Jana.

"It's a metal box about so big." Katie illustrated
the dimensions with her hands. "And inside there was a porcelain doll,
some pictures, a lace handkerchief, a baby's rubber teething ring, a marble,
and a notebook." She went on to describe the pictures and what she had
read so far in the notebook.

"Did Gwyneth say whether she and Tommy got back
together?" asked Beth.

"Not yet," replied Katie. "And he's so mean I'm
not sure I want them to. I had a lot of homework last night, and I haven't
finished reading what she wrote. It's pretty long."

"That's neat," said Melanie. "It's like a
real-life soap opera that took place even before they had television."

Christie frowned. "1918? Did they even have radios
then?"

"I bet they didn't," said Beth. "That's
almost before they had electricity."

"Wouldn't it be fun to make a time capsule ourselves?"
said Katie. "We could bury it someplace for someone to find years from
now. It would be neat to think that people who live fifty, maybe a hundred,
years in the future would know about The Fabulous Five."

"Maybe even hundreds or thousands of years!" exclaimed
Melanie. "What could we put in it?"

"If we had a box big enough, we could put you in it,"
teased Christie. Melanie punched her playfully on the shoulder.

"Someone could donate their Fabulous Five T-shirt, for
one thing," said Beth.

"Not me," said Jana. "I wouldn't give mine up
for anything. Maybe we could chip in and have another one made."

"What about putting in some gum from the gum tree?"
asked Melanie, referring to the tree where everyone stuck their wads of gum
before going into the school.

"Eeeyew!"
the others cried, and made faces
in unison.

"We don't want to gross them out," said Jana. "Why
don't we all think about it and decide later. I say, whatever we put in should
tell whoever finds it something about each of us."

After talking to her friends about the time capsule, Katie
felt more cheerful than she had since lunchtime yesterday. But as she rounded a
corner on the way to her first class, she bumped into Tony and her dark mood
returned.

"Yo, Your Honor!" he said with a big grin.

Katie's heart softened at the sight of his smiling face, but
she tried hard not to show it. After all, she reminded herself, he was the one
who would rather play computer games with the boys instead of going to the
movies with her on Friday night. "Hi," she said, trying to sound
nonchalant.

He fell in step with her and tried to look her directly in
the eyes. She turned her head. "You're mad at me, aren't you?" Tony
asked. The smile faded from his face.

Katie straightened her shoulders and stiffened her back. "No.
Why would I be angry at you?"

"You've got me," he said, shrugging. "Is it
because I said I couldn't go to the movies with you Friday?"

"You've got better things to do. I understand that."

He didn't speak for a few steps. "I didn't say I had
better
things to do," he said finally in a stiff tone. "I said I had already
told the guys I'd play computer games. I didn't know I had to get permission."

Katie could feel the heat working its way up from under her
collar. "Who said you had to get permission? Not me."

Tony stopped in his tracks, and Katie brushed on past him
toward her class, trying not to look back. Her emotions felt all jumbled. It
was infuriating that Tony was insensitive enough to join the boys-only club,
but at the same time being mad at him made her feel terrible inside.

For the rest of the day it seemed as if everywhere Katie
went, something went wrong. First, she found out she had done the wrong
problems for math homework, then all her books fell out of her locker between classes
when she was hurrying because she was late.

Her blood was still boiling when she reached her gym class.
She sat down on the bench in the locker room with a thump and started taking
off her shoes.

"I think Bill Soliday likes me." It was Alexis
Duvall talking to Heather Clark. "He kept making little paper airplanes
and throwing them at me in study hall when Mrs. Karl wasn't looking."

"He's cute," said Heather. "You're lucky.
Maybe he'll ask you for a date."

"I wouldn't be surprised," answered Alexis. "I
pretended he was making me angry, but I threw the planes back, and I'm sure he
knows I thought it was cute."

Lisa Snow joined in. "I wish I could get Richie
Corrierro to pay attention to me. Do you think it would help if I started
throwing things at him?"

"Have you thought about throwing
yourself
at
him?" asked Melinda Thaler with a grin. She pulled her gym suit on over
her head. As her head popped out of the top, she said, "Maybe he'd catch
you and you could say, 'Oh, Richie, you're
so
big and strong.'"

"That's not a bad idea," said Heather, chuckling. "And
baby talk might help, too. Oh, Wichie, you're so
big
and
stwong,
"
she said, fluttering her eyelids and pursing her lips. Their laughter filled
the locker room.

"Is that all you can think about?" snapped Katie. "There's
more to life than boys, you know."

"Like what?" asked Marcie Bee. "Maybe one of
Bumpers' super hot-fudge sundaes, but that's about it!"

Katie stood up as tall as her five-foot height would let
her. "You
could
think of how it looks when you go chasing after
boys. They think you can't live without them. Where's your pride?"

The conversation had attracted the attention of everyone in
the locker room by that time, and girls were gathered in a circle around Katie
and the others. Katie saw Laura McCall and the rest of The Fantastic Foursome
watching her from the back row. Laura and her three friends Funny Hawthorne,
Tammy Lucero, and Melissa McConnell had been causing trouble for The Fabulous
Five ever since the two cliques had met on the first day of school.

"My pride goes right out the window on Friday and
Saturday nights," Alexis said with a laugh. "I'd rather die than sit
at home while everyone else is at the movies or eating pizza at Mama Mia's. I'd
do anything for a date with Bill Soliday."

"I'd carry Richie's books for a week for one date,"
said Lisa.

"I can't
believe
this," said Katie.

"Well, what about you?" challenged Melissa
McConnell. "You date Tony Calcaterra, and he's as macho as a guy can get."

Katie gulped. She had been waiting for The Fantastic
Foursome to give her a hard time, and Melissa had jumped at the first chance.
It was true that Tony acted macho, but he wasn't any more macho than a lot of
other boys at Wakeman. People just didn't understand him. "He's not really
macho," Katie declared. There was a chorus of hoots from the other girls.

"All right, vat's going on in here!" It was Miss
Wolfe, the gym instructor. "Everyvun out or I'll make you do laps around
de chimnasium. Out! Out!" The girls scattered in front of her frantically waving
arms.

Katie hurried to finish dressing. She was relieved at being
rescued, but still she felt like the lone crusader.