Fabulous Five 003 - The Popularity Trap Read Free Page B

fists and hiding them behind her back. "Well, you can come to
my house if you want to. Nobody will see us there."
    Jon shrugged. "Sure," he said. "Where do you
live?"
    Christie gave him the address, which he wrote on a small
scrap of paper and stuck into his shirt pocket. Turning to leave, he paused when
he reached the door and said, "Don't think this was my idea, because it wasn't."
Without waiting for her to respond, he was gone.
    "It wasn't my idea, either!" she called, knowing
that he was probably too far down the hall to hear her. The nerve! she thought.
I shouldn't have to apologize for something I was pressured into doing.
     
    After school Christie met Katie and Jana, and together they
walked to Bumpers for a soda. Bumpers was the fast food restaurant where the
kids from junior high hung out. It had gotten its name from the brightly
painted bumper cars, relics of an old amusement park ride, that were hanging
from the ceiling and spaced around the floor for kids to sit in. Christie sat in
a green one with Jana, while Katie sat in the booth they wanted to hold until
Beth and Melanie arrived from cheerleading practice.
    After they had ordered cherry colas Christie gave Katie and
Jana a helpless look. "How do I get myself into these things?" she
wailed. "I don't want to tutor Jon Smith."
    Katie frowned. "It's your fault for letting Mr. Bell
pressure you into it. You should have explained to him how you feel. He would
have listened to you."
    "Huh," scoffed Christie. "Fat chance."
    "Don't forget that you've been dying to meet Jon,"
said Jana. "It's the perfect opportunity for you to make an impression on
him."
    Christie started to protest, but Jana wasn't finished vet. "Don't
kid us," she said with a knowing grin. "You have a crush on him and
you know it."
    Someone punched a number on the old Wurlitzer jukebox, and
rock music blasted out, making conversation impossible. Christie was glad. She
didn't really want to talk about Jon. It was true that she had noticed him,
just the way Jana had said, and she did think he was awfully cute. But his
rotten attitude toward her tutoring him had given her second thoughts. Besides,
their tutoring sessions could make any chance of a relationship between them
impossible.
    Kids were still pouring into Bumpers, and a few minutes
later Melanie and Beth scooted into the booth and sat across from Katie.
    "Gosh. Cheering is so much fun," gushed Melanie.
She was breathless, and her cheeks were still pink from all the exercise. "I
can't wait until the first game. I'll be so excited that I'll die."
    "Greetings, girls," said a familiar voice from
over Christie's left shoulder.
    She didn't have to look around to know who it was. Only
nerd-of-the-world Curtis Trowbridge would say "greetings" when a
simple "hi" would do.
    "Hi, Curtis," said Beth. "What's up?"
    "Actually it's Christie I want to talk to," said
Curtis with a wink. "But the rest of you can listen in."
    Curtis whipped a small notebook out of his back pocket and a
pencil from behind one ear and looked at Christie thoughtfully. "I'm on
the school newspaper staff, you know, and I've been assigned to do a story for The
Wakeman Smoke Signal on the candidates for president of our class," he
said importantly. "And I'd like to interview you about your campaign
platform."
    Christie was astonished. "You what? " she
gasped. "Curtis, I just found out today that I've been nominated. I don't
have any campaign platform. I don't even want the job."
    "Don't print that!" Katie commanded, putting her
hand out in a halting gesture. She slid out of the booth and stationed herself
with folded arms between Curtis and Christie, looking as if she would grab the
pencil out of Curtis's hand if he wrote down what Christie had just said.
    "Of course she has a platform," Katie went on. "It's
a great platform. She just hasn't worked out all the details yet. We don't want
to start talking about it too soon, so how about giving us a little more time?"
    Curtis shrugged.