Free Fabulous Five 031 - The Fabulous Five Together Again by Betsy Haynes Page B

important this week was to you, and we
ended up acting like total idiots, and we know it."
    "I'll say," chimed in Jana. "We got carried
away. I think we were jealous of Phoebe, Nicki, and Ellie because we thought we'd
never see you again."
    "And then I had to drop the fact that you're moving
back to the States on them like a bombshell," added Melanie.
    "After you left, we remembered how we felt when you
moved away," said Jana. "It was as if we had lost a part of
ourselves. We thought The Fabulous Five might be broken up forever. I'm sure
that's how Phoebe, Nicki, and Eleanore are feeling right now."
    "We told them all of this while you were gone,"
explained Melanie.
    "And we had to confess, too," said Phoebe, smiling
at The Fab Five. "We were just as jealous as they were. We resented their
coming over here and taking up so much of your time."
    "We should have remembered how important they were to
you," continued Eleanore. "We didn't take time to get to know your
chums, the way we should have. None of us was thinking about you."
    "All this confessing is liable to make me cry, and then
my eye liner will run," said Nicki. "The bottom line is, we've all
acted like poops, Christie, and we're sorry."
    As Christie looked around at the seven girls, she knew that
Connie was right. She was lucky to have such fabulous friends on both sides of
the ocean.
     
    The following evening Christie and her parents drove The
Fabulous Five to the airport. Phoebe's father had brought the British girls by
to see them off, too. They all stood talking as they waited for the gate to the
jetway to open.
    As Christie stood watching the others, she started thinking
about what had happened to her since she had come to London. For one thing, she
had changed. For the first time, she had moved away from friends she had known
all her life and found that you can't count on things staving the same forever.
She had discovered what it was like to move to a foreign country and suddenly
be the odd one, not understanding everything that was said or what people
meant.
    Now a huge part of her would be staying here in England.
Some of her would stay with Phoebe, Nicki, and Eleanore, no matter how things
turned out. Little bits of her would stay with Mrs. Mansfield, Mr. Dudley, and
Miss Woolsey, one of her favorite teachers at St. Meg's. And bigger pieces of
her, pieces that could never be replaced, would stay with Connie and Jenny. She
quickly brushed away a tear.
    Jana's voice suddenly broke through Christie's musing. "When
Christie was going away," she was telling Phoebe, Nicki, and Eleanore, "we
wanted to give her something special to remember us by. You know the bears that
she keeps on her bed that look like us?"
    "Well . . ." Katie jumped in. "We were hoping
to leave you something nice to remember us by, so that you didn't only have bad
memories of us."
    "We asked Christie if it would be all right if we took
the bears back and gave them to you," said Beth. "They mean a lot to
us."
    She opened her bag and pulled out the bear dressed in bright
colors with hoop earrings hanging from its little brown ears. "This is
supposed to be me," she explained, handing it to Nicki. "I want you
to have it."
    As Nicki reached out to take it, Christie noticed tears in
her eyes.
    "And this is me," said Melanie, pulling out her
bear with the dress covered with hearts.
    Eleanore took it.
    "And there's no doubt who this is supposed to be."
Katie chuckled, taking out her bear with the white wig and judge's robe.
    Phoebe took it from Katie.
    "Since there are four bears and only three of you, I
guess you'll have to share mine," said Jana, pulling hers out.
    Nicki wiped her eyes with her hand and fumbled in her bag
for a tissue. "Darn you guys, anyway," she muttered, blowing her nose.
"You're spoiling my image."
    "One of these days you'll be getting another bear to
remember me by," said Christie. "The one dressed in a tennis outfit
that my father gave me."
    Just then a voice came over the