Free Fabulous Five 027 - The Scapegoat by Betsy Haynes

it?"
    Christie shrugged. "Miss Woolsey, my homeroom teacher,
knows I'm not passing. She told me to have a talk with Miss Finney and
straighten things out. But things have gotten worse instead of better."
    "That's tough," replied Connie, looking at her
sympathetically.
    "For some strange reason Miss Finney thinks I'm a
show-off who doesn't know what she's talking about. I tried to explain to her
how serious I am about making good grades and that I want to go to Oxford
University. She doesn't seem to think I'm smart enough."
    "Just thinking about going to Oxford makes my head
hurt," said Davey.
    Nicki looked surprised. "I thought I made your
head hurt."
    "That, too," answered Davey.
    "Let's dance," said Connie, taking Christie's
hand. He led her out onto the dance floor.
     
    "You were quiet tonight, Christie," remarked
Connie as the two of them stood on her front steps. "Thinking about that
dragon lady, Miss Finney?"
    "Not really. I've been thinking about other things."
    "About the guy in the States?" Connie asked.
Christie nodded.
    "I guess I haven't been doing very well, if you're with
me and thinking about him," he said.
    "You've been doing all right." She smiled up at
Connie. "It's just that I have to figure out some things for myself."
    "Does that mean you might date me again?"
    Christie thought for a moment before answering. Then she
nodded.
    Connie's grin was her reward for giving him the answer he
wanted.
    Later, in her room, Christie sat on her bed for a long time,
thinking. It was so hard to know what to do about Chase and Connie.

CHAPTER 15
    "Your project looks great, Christie," said her mother.
They were standing in the gymnasium at St. Margaret's on Saturday morning,
where the science competition was taking place.
    Christie repositioned one of the space vehicles she had
carved from balsa wood and hung from an almost invisible piece of fishing line.
From a few feet away, it looked as if it were floating in the air. She checked
the simple ice maker to see if it was still cooling. There was a nice frost
building up on the prehistoric section of her display. It made her artificial
glacier look very real.
    Christie had had to work every night for the last two weeks
to finish her science project. She was thankful she wouldn't have to spend any
more time down in the basement.
    She, her parents, and Mr. Dudley had moved her project to
St. Margaret's the night before and set it up. When it was finished, Christie
felt satisfied.
    The three sections of Styrofoam formed the land for
different periods of time in England's history: the prehistoric period, the
present, and the future. In the prehistoric part she had connected England to
the coast of Europe. She had exposed the edge of the land to show the way the
earth's crust was twisted from the pressure of the movement of the plates on
its surface.
    On one side was a receding glacier with pebbles that
represented boulders it was leaving behind. She had painted in rivers formed by
the melting ice with silver paint, and had added trees. Miniature cave dwellers
were walking from Europe to England over the land bridge and camping beside the
rivers. Christie hoped this wouldn't doom her with Miss Finney. A volcano, like
the one her mother had made when she was a girl, spewed red smoke. She had even
put in a few dinosaurs they had gotten from the British Museum.
    Signs she had printed described different parts of the
project and what they demonstrated. One told how the earth's crust moved.
Another told how the ice age came and went. A different sign explained certain
details of the lives of primitive people and what tools they used.
    The second part of her project showed England today—its
cities and villages, highways, factories, and thatched-roof farm buildings. She
had built a little nuclear plant and had used dry ice to make steam come out of
its towers and the factories' chimneys. The signs on it described how England
developed the energy to run things, how it produced its