Dinner's ready," Willie called.
Katie tore a piece of paper out of her own notebook to mark
her place and put Gwyneth's book in the drawer of her table. She'd do her
homework after she ate and if she still had time, read more of what Gwyneth
Plum had to say.
CHAPTER 4
"A time capsule?" asked Christie excitedly. "In
your own backyard?" The Fabulous Five were standing at their favorite
place by the fence on the grounds of Wakeman Junior High the next morning.
Melanie's eyes were open wade in amazement. "Was it
from an alien from outer space who landed here thousands of years ago?"
Katie laughed. "No, silly. It wasn't from any alien
from outer space. It was from a girl named Gwyneth Plum who buried it in 1918.
The amazing thing is she was thirteen when she did it."
"What does it look like? What's in it?" asked
Jana.
"It's a metal box about so big." Katie illustrated
the dimensions with her hands. "And inside there was a porcelain doll,
some pictures, a lace handkerchief, a baby's rubber teething ring, a marble,
and a notebook." She went on to describe the pictures and what she had
read so far in the notebook.
"Did Gwyneth say whether she and Tommy got back
together?" asked Beth.
"Not yet," replied Katie. "And he's so mean I'm
not sure I want them to. I had a lot of homework last night, and I haven't
finished reading what she wrote. It's pretty long."
"That's neat," said Melanie. "It's like a
real-life soap opera that took place even before they had television."
Christie frowned. "1918? Did they even have radios
then?"
"I bet they didn't," said Beth. "That's
almost before they had electricity."
"Wouldn't it be fun to make a time capsule ourselves?"
said Katie. "We could bury it someplace for someone to find years from
now. It would be neat to think that people who live fifty, maybe a hundred,
years in the future would know about The Fabulous Five."
"Maybe even hundreds or thousands of years!" exclaimed
Melanie. "What could we put in it?"
"If we had a box big enough, we could put you in it,"
teased Christie. Melanie punched her playfully on the shoulder.
"Someone could donate their Fabulous Five T-shirt, for
one thing," said Beth.
"Not me," said Jana. "I wouldn't give mine up
for anything. Maybe we could chip in and have another one made."
"What about putting in some gum from the gum tree?"
asked Melanie, referring to the tree where everyone stuck their wads of gum
before going into the school.
"Eeeyew!" the others cried, and made faces
in unison.
"We don't want to gross them out," said Jana. "Why
don't we all think about it and decide later. I say, whatever we put in should
tell whoever finds it something about each of us."
After talking to her friends about the time capsule, Katie
felt more cheerful than she had since lunchtime yesterday. But as she rounded a
corner on the way to her first class, she bumped into Tony and her dark mood
returned.
"Yo, Your Honor!" he said with a big grin.
Katie's heart softened at the sight of his smiling face, but
she tried hard not to show it. After all, she reminded herself, he was the one
who would rather play computer games with the boys instead of going to the
movies with her on Friday night. "Hi," she said, trying to sound
nonchalant.
He fell in step with her and tried to look her directly in
the eyes. She turned her head. "You're mad at me, aren't you?" Tony
asked. The smile faded from his face.
Katie straightened her shoulders and stiffened her back. "No.
Why would I be angry at you?"
"You've got me," he said, shrugging. "Is it
because I said I couldn't go to the movies with you Friday?"
"You've got better things to do. I understand that."
He didn't speak for a few steps. "I didn't say I had better things to do," he said finally in a stiff tone. "I said I had already
told the guys I'd play computer games. I didn't know I had to get permission."
Katie could feel the heat working its way up from under her
collar. "Who said you had to get permission? Not