Free Fabulous Five 005 - The Bragging War by Betsy Haynes Page A

right in front of everyone, and
they all heard Beth say you could get Brain Damage to come to Bumpers. It looks
to me as if we're stuck."
    The Fabulous Five sat around for the next half hour,
gloomily trying to think up ideas that could get them out of their mess. Each
time someone came up with one, the others shot holes through it. Finally the
meeting broke up, and they all left dejectedly for home.
    In her room Beth flung herself on her bed and lay in the
dark, her eyes filled with tears. She felt almost as bad as she had the time
her mother had been ill and she had thought it was her fault. She had run away
and hid until her friends found her that time. If only she could do that now.
    Why do I do such stupid things? Why can't I be like Melanie
or Jana or Christie or Katie and know the right thing to do all the time? Even
Brian and Brittany seem so sure of themselves. Every time I try to do something
that people will notice, it turns out like this, a mess.
    Beth rolled over onto her back and sighed. She felt like a
nobody. Things had seemed so simple back at Mark Twain Elementary when they had
only Taffy Sinclair to deal with. Now there was Laura and The Fantastic
Foursome and everything else that was different at Wakeman Junior High.
    Why have I started to feel as if there's an explosion going
on inside of me with pieces flying in all directions? she wondered. All my
friends are the same as before. Even as bad as the problem over Brain Damage
is, they're still sticking by me. Yet there are times when everything feels
different. Why can't I control my emotions?
    Beth pulled the edge of the bedcover over her head. Her
shoulders shook with sobs that she stifled in her pillow. Soon she was quiet as
she slept.
    The sound of Brian's music awakened her sometime later. She
rubbed her eyes and wondered for a moment where she was. Her clock said six o'clock,
and that meant Todd would be yelling for everyone to come to dinner shortly.
    Beth got up and went into the bathroom to wash her face. She
looked into the mirror and couldn't believe how bad she looked. Her hair was a
mess and her eyes and nose were red.
    "Suppertime!" she heard Todd yell up the stairway.
    A clamor of footsteps and Agatha's barking sounded in the
hall as the rest of the Barry clan ran for the kitchen. Beth dried her face,
brushed on a little powder to hide the redness, and then she followed.
    The conversation at the table was normal with everyone's
trying to tell the story of their day and complaining about someone else's
taking too much food. Agatha wandered from person to person begging hopefully
for a morsel to eat.
    Beth sat quietly eating, half listening to the others and
passing food when asked.
    "Beth, are you feeling all right?" her mother
asked as she handed out dishes of blueberry cobbler for dessert. "I can't
remember when you've been so quiet."
    "I'm fine." She was hardly ever ill, and they all
knew it.
    "You don't look as if you're fine. Jeff, feel her head.
Does she have a temperature?"
    Everyone went silent as her father reached over and put the
back of his fingers to her forehead. "Feels okay to me," he said, but
he looked worried, too.
    "Are you sure you're okay, Bethy?" asked Brittany.
    Beth could hardly believe the looks of concern on the faces
at the table. Suddenly, by not saying anything, she had become the center of
attention. As hard as she had tried before, except for the time she put on the
fake wounds, it had been impossible to get someone to even look at her much
less listen to what she had to say.
    After dinner her mother and father knocked on her door. "Honey,
are you sure you're all right?" her mother asked again. "Is something
wrong? Usually you're so bright and bubbly."
    She reassured them she was okay, and they finally went away,
but she could hear them talking in worried tones as they left. Later Alicia,
Todd, Brian, and Brittany each stuck their head in the door to say something
cheerful. Alicia even brought Agatha, "to cheer