Fabulous Five 014 - The Seventh-Grade Menace Read Free

Jana thought he was going to hit Clarence, Shane
Arrington stepped in between them.
    "Hey, Max," Shane said in a friendly voice, as if
he were oblivious to what was going on. "I was wondering if I could have
your autograph."
    A look of confusion came over Max's face. "My
autograph?" he asked suspiciously, squinting at Shane.
    "Sure," said Shane, putting his arm around Max's
broad shoulders as if they had been buddies for a long time. "I was
talking to Jana Morgan, and she and Funny Hawthorne are going to have a feature
in the yearbook about the animals that some of the kids at Wacko collected
money for at Christmas. Since you donated, they thought you'd be a good model
for a reenactment."
    Jana's mouth dropped open at what Shane was saying. It was
true that she and Funny Hawthorne were seventh-grade coeditors for the
yearbook, but they hadn't talked about a feature like the one Shane was telling
Max about. She had seen Shane trick Max into donating money to save the
animals. Was he trying to con Max again? She left her seat and went closer so
she could hear better.
    "Model? Reenactment?" asked Max. He had forgotten
all about Clarence Marshall, who was wiping his bloody nose with the end of his
shirttail and listening with interest to the conversation.
    "Sure. You know how they do it when they want pictures
of something that's already over," continued Shane. "They set up a
reenactment and take pictures as if it were just happening. Since you were so nice about donating money, they thought you wouldn't mind having your
picture taken at the collection table in the cafeteria." Seeing Jana
nearby, Shane added, "Isn't that right, Jana?"
    Not knowing what else to say, she nodded. "Yes, it is."
    "See? What did I tell you, Max? And since you're going
to have your picture in The Wigwam so many times, being a star football
player and all, I thought I'd ask you for your autograph for my yearbook before
everyone else did."
    Max looked at Jana. The angry look had faded from his face.
She shrugged and smiled at him.
    Then, as if he had just remembered Shane was a lowly
seventh-grader, Max winked at one of the ninth-grade boys he had been sitting
with. "You'll have to stand in line."
    "Okay," said Shane, smiling. "I just thought
I'd ask." He walked away casually, but Jana saw him look around for
Clarence, who had gone to sit with Joel Murphy.
    A short while later, as she was leaving Bumpers, Jana caught
up with Shane.
    "You're such a con man," she said, laughing. "What
would you have done if I had said I didn't know anything about doing a feature
story on saving the animals at Christmas in The Wigwam ? "
    "Ducked," Shane responded with a big grin.
    "That's twice I've seen you do that to Geena's big
brother. The other time was when you tricked him into flipping a coin to see if
he would donate to the animal fund, and he lost."
    Shane looked at her with a twinkle in his eyes. "But
you'll never be able to prove I tricked him, will you?"
    They had walked along together for several blocks when Jana
noticed a frown cross Shane's face. "What's wrong?"
    "Hmm?"
    "You were frowning."
    "Oh, I guess I was just thinking about Igor."
    Jana braced herself for whatever was to come next. Igor was
Shane's pet iguana and he was always making fantastic claims about him. He
insisted that when he let Igor out of the house and he wanted to come back in,
Igor would bang on the door with his tail. He also claimed that Igor had a
stuffed dinosaur that he liked to sleep with. During the campaigning for class
officers, Shane had brought Igor into Bumpers wearing a sign that was draped
over the lizard's back that said Igor for President, and he had even tried to
use Igor as a substitute baby during a Family Living class project. Shane was
the only person she knew who loved an iguana, and she was sure he was about to
pull something funny on her.
    "Okay," she said with an I-know-it's-coming-so-get-it-over-with
sound in her voice. "What's wrong with Igor?"
    "He's sick,