Free Fabulous Five 009 - The Boyfriend Dilemma by Betsy Haynes Page A

face.
    Curtis fidgeted at Christie's left, and Tim frowned and
stared hard at the blank paper in front of him on her right. The three of them,
along with Daphne, Kyle, and Pam, had started out by losing the first game, and
they had trailed in the second before surging ahead by answering the last five
questions. The last game had been a neck-and-neck battle all the way.
    Christie looked across the stage at the table where the
Trumbull team sat. They're good, she thought. If we beat them, we'll be very
lucky.
    Rodney Cox slouched back in his chair, frowning and running
his fingers through his red hair. He had looked arrogant during the first game
and the first half of the second, when Trumbull was beating Wakeman, but the
cocky look had disappeared when Wakeman pulled even and then won the second
game. He looked like a volcano about to erupt when Kyle took a question on the
rebound from one of Rodney's teammates to tie the score at one eighty. Christie
didn't think she would like Rodney very much.
    "All right, everyone," Mr. Perdyne, the moderator,
said. "Here is the final question. And, may I say, both teams have fought
gallantly. Good luck to you both on this one." He pulled an index card from
the box in front of him.
    "The category is social studies," he said, and
then paused.
    Rats. Social studies, thought Christie. I wish it were math
or current events. She had done well in those categories and had helped the
Wakeman team to win the second game.
    "Who," Mr. Perdyne continued, "was the person
who fought for women's right to vote, and was eventually honored by having her
likeness placed on a silver dollar?"
    Christie's hand streaked to the button in front of her. At
the same time she saw a flash of movement across the room at Rodney Cox's
position. A buzzer sounded and she looked up to see the Wakeman light was lit.
She had beaten him. Thank you, Katie Shannon, she thought.
    The whole Trumbull team was leaning forward staring at
Christie, and she could feel her teammates' eyes on her.
    "Go get 'em, Christie," she heard Tim say in a low
voice.
    "The person who fought for women's right to vote and
had her likeness put on a silver dollar was Susan B. Anthony," Christie
said as loudly and clearly as she could.
    "The answer is correct," said the moderator. "The
match goes to Wakeman Junior High ."
    Cheers burst from the audience and Christie saw The Fabulous
Five jumping up and down. Curtis slapped her on the back so hard it hurt, and
Brad shook both fists.
    Christie smiled so broadly she thought her face might crack.
She could see her mother and father standing and applauding. They were probably
telling everyone near them that she was their daughter, she mused. At the side
of the auditorium she saw Jon with his camcorder trained on her, and she
clasped her hands above her head victoriously the way prize fighters do and
mugged for the camera.
    Behind her, she heard Tim call her name. She turned to thank
him for his encouragement, but before she could get the words out, he scooped
her up into a gigantic hug. She stiffened for an instant, remembering Jon, and
then she relaxed and hugged Tim back.

CHAPTER 16
    "Well, what do you think?" asked Christie. "Should
we order the red T-shirts or the gold ones?" The Fabulous Five were
sitting in Christie's family room. Two delivery boxes were on the coffee table
with the remains of one sausage pizza and one deep-dish pepperoni, mushroom,
and green-pepper pizza, which was Jana's favorite. T-shirt catalogs were spread
out all over the floor, and the girls were lying around looking at them.
    "I vote for red!" yelled Beth, talking around a
string of cheese that she had stretched out from her mouth to as far as she
could reach. "With THE FABULOUS FIVE in gold letters."
    "I vote for gold!" yelled Katie. "With red
lettering. The red shirt would look terrible with my red hair."
    "It would not," said Beth, letting the cheese
dangle back into her mouth.
    "Look," said Melanie, holding a catalog up