Free Georgia's Greatness by Lauren Baratz-Logsted Page B

everything you want to know, but we'd like to do it in that nice front room and only after you've met our reasonable demands."
    "I think it all does sound very reasonable," the McG said, getting into the spirit of things.
    "You know," Crazy Serena said sweetly, "it does sound very reasonable." Then she held the door open for us. "Just so you know, though, there's no point in trying to make a run for the front door. I have the only set of keys."
    Then she pointed at Petal and Zinnia. "You and you, go use the bathroom."
    She pointed at Durinda and Jackie. "You and you, to the kitchen for your water and cookie."
    She pointed at Rebecca. "You, take a blanket from the closet and wrap it around yourself."
    She pointed to Petal. "You, take off your uniform."
    "But I can't do that!" Petal tried to cover her clothed body with her hands. "Then I'd be naked!"
    "Fine," Crazy Serena said, "so sweat to death. What do I care?"
    She pointed at Annie and Marcia. "You and you ... I don't remember you asking for anything." She clapped her hands. "Okay, everybody, hustle! Hustle! You need to do everything you have to and then meet me in the front room in forty-five seconds!"
    Gee, she didn't expect much, did she?
    And yet somehow we managed to pull it off.
    We all gathered back in the front room. "Fine," Crazy Serena said, her arms crossed, her foot tapping. "I've met your demands. Now talk. "
    Crazy Serena never saw Georgia coming.
    It was the wooden spoon that entered the room first, floating along, suspended in the air as though by...
    "Magic!" Crazy Serena said, awed. "I didn't know you could do magic! Did Lucy teach you that?" she asked, saying our mother's name.
    Crazy Serena wasn't as delighted when the floating spoon struck her on the shoulder. "Hey!" she cried out, wincing.
    A few moments passed, and then a frying pan entered the room and struck Crazy Serena on the rump.
    Our parents had always taught us that it was wrong to be violent for the fun of it. But they'd also said that if a person is fighting for her life, almost anything goes.

    And on that night, we felt as though we were fighting for our lives.
    "Ouch!" after "Ouch!" after "Ouch!" informed us that Invisible Georgia was performing her pinching trick on Crazy Serena, who kept twisting around, trying both to escape and to locate her unseen attacker.
    And suddenly Georgia was everywhere , popping in and out of sight, making herself appear and then disappear again. It took us a while to figure it out, but eventually we caught on: Georgia was taunting Crazy Serena!
    "Georgia!" Crazy Serena cried, at last catching a glimpse of her.
    "In the flesh, baby, " Georgia said, then double twitched her nose and vanished again.
    "Georgia Huit," Crazy Serena commanded, going all Bad Cop, "I order you to come back here!"
    "Try and make me," Georgia said with a laugh.
    So Crazy Serena tried being Good Cop again. "Didn't anyone ever train you to respect your elders?"
    "Did they?" Invisible Georgia said, as though she couldn't decide.
    Then she remembered something from our younger years. We all did.
    "Mommy and Daddy always said," Invisible Georgia stated, "that everyone deserves a clean slate when you first meet them, and with that clean slate comes respect."
    While Invisible Georgia spoke, Crazy Serena lunged at the space where the voice seemed to be coming from. But she was too slow, and Invisible Georgia kept dancing out of reach.
    "But no one gets to keep that respect automatically," Invisible Georgia continued, "not if they do things to"—and here she paused as though searching for the exact word Mommy had used —"squander it."
    " Squander means 'waste,'" Annie explained for the benefit of Petal and anyone else who might not know, "like when a person spends money foolishly."
    "Principals don't get automatic respect for life," Invisible Georgia said, "presidents don't get automatic respect for life, and pretty substitute teachers who lie through their pretty teeth about who they are and