Fabulous Five 017 - Celebrity Auction Read Online Free Page B

still don't want to get close to them.
They give me the creeps."
    "They more than give me the creeps," exploded
Beth. "They make me furious! It's because of them that the school is
wrecked and everybody thinks all teenagers are hoodlums. I'd like to tell them
what I think of them."
    "Whoa!" said Katie, grabbing Beth by the arm and
steering her toward the gym. "On second thought, maybe we'd better find
another entrance. All we need is for Beth to get decked for telling off Steve
Melchior in her usual dramatic manner."
    "Right," said Christie, taking Beth's other arm. "They
don't give Academy Awards for black eyes." Beth forgot about Steve and his
friends again as soon as she stepped inside the school building and gazed
around. Although it looked 100 percent better than it had the morning before,
it was still a shock. Glass and papers had been swept from the halls, but
graffiti still decorated the walls. The trophies were standing up again in the
trophy case by the office, and the broken glass had been removed, but new glass
hadn't been put in yet. Everywhere they looked there were reminders of the
disaster that had struck Wakeman Junior High.
    "They must have been in here for hours," marveled
Christie, shaking her head. "Otherwise, how could they have done so much
damage?"
    Everyone shrugged and headed off in different directions to
their homerooms. Beth was deep in thought as she marched toward room 109. There
had to be a way to turn this whole situation around. Surely she and her friends
could think of something to do if they put all five of their heads together.
But so far at least, they weren't very interested, so it was up to her.
    She opened her notebook to a clean page and doodled around
the edges while Miss Dickinson took attendance and read the announcements.
Finally Beth put a number one on the first line and racked her brain for ways
to raise money.
    1. Bake sale
    Immediately she scratched out the words. Everybody and his
brother had bake sales, and nobody ever made much money. There had to be something
else. She tried again.
    2. Car wash
    She scratched out that one, too. For one thing, it was the
wrong time of the year to wash cars unless you were an Eskimo. And for another,
car washes were as common as bake sales. She had to think of something else.
    "Instead of a car wash, maybe we could have a dog wash,"
she said when The Fabulous Five had gathered in the cafeteria at lunchtime.
    "A dog wash!" shrieked Melanie. "Where did
you get a dumb idea like that?"
    "It's not dumb, " Beth said indignantly. "Practically
every kid in Wacko has a dog. If we charged five dollars a dog, we'd make a
fortune."
    "Don't you realize that my family has Rainbow and eight
puppies?" Melanie argued. "If we got all of them washed, it would
cost"—she paused—"almost fifty dollars! No way! And I certainly can't
see someone with a toy poodle or a Chihuahua shelling out five dollars."
    "So," said Beth, her temper flaring, "do you
have a better idea?"
    No one did. Glumly Beth took a bite out of her peanut butter
and jelly sandwich and stared at the wall where bright red spaghetti-sauce
stains stood out against the white background. She kept asking herself over and
over again what they could do to raise five thousand dollars.
    Suddenly there was a commotion a few tables over. Steve,
Tucker, John, and Jay were gathered beside a table of ninth-grade girls, and
Steve had a pained expression on his face that was obviously fake.
    "Awwww," he said, leaning toward one of the girls,
who immediately spun around so that her back was to him. "Did your sweet
little school get all messed up? And here we thought that everyone would love
the new decorations."
    "Yeah," said John, nodding in agreement. "I
guess that goes to prove that you just can't please people, no matter how hard
you try."
    With that, all four broke up laughing and moved toward the
door, disappearing into the hall.
    "Where are the lunchroom teachers?" demanded Beth.
"Those guys practically