Fabulous Five 021 - Jana to the Rescue Read Free Page B

scowled and pressed
her shoulder up next to the lockers to avoid contact with any more kids.
    "Do you have your schedule card?" Jana asked.
    Lizzie nodded but didn't move.
    "Your combination is printed on the top right corner,"
Jana said.
    Lizzie frowned but still didn't move.
    Jana couldn't understand why Lizzie didn't open her locker. "Do
you want to hang up your jacket?" she asked, trying hard not to let the
exasperation she was feeling be heard in her voice.
    "I want to wear my jacket, okay?" Lizzie's
voice was thick with hostility.
    Jana winced. "Sure, okay," she said. "I just
thought you might like to open your locker and make sure the combination's
right. Once in a while, the office makes a mistake or the locker sticks. If it's
not okay, we can get it fixed right away."
    "No," Lizzie said, her voice a little softer.
    Jana nodded and forced herself to smile.
    "Okay," she said. "Maybe we'd better get to
your biology class so that I can introduce you to Mr. Dracovitch. We have just
five minutes between classes, so you'll always have to hurry if you're going to
stop at your locker or the bathroom."
    The two girls walked down the hall in silence. One minute
Jana wanted to scream in frustration. The next, she wanted to stomp off and let
Lizzie find her way around by herself. But she knew she couldn't do either.
This is what this project is all about, she reminded herself. Helping kids like
Lizzie feel at home in a strange school.
    "Hi, Jana!" Alexis Duvall called out as she passed
them.
    "Hi, Alexis," Jana answered.
    "Wait till you take that math test," Alexis
shouted over the noise. "It's a killer!"
    Lizzie hadn't even looked up to see the girl who spoke. She
kept her eyes directly on the floor.
    "Oh, here's your biology class," Jana said. "Mr.
Dracovitch is a little weird, but everybody loves his class."
    Jana led the way into the classroom, then turned to speak to
Lizzie.
    "Come up front, and I'll introduce you," she said.
    The classroom was already crowded with kids. Jana walked
briskly between two rows of seats up to the front of the classroom. The teacher
was writing on the board, his back to her.
    "Excuse me, Mr. Dracovitch," Jana said.
    The tall, slender man turned around. The paleness of his
skin and the black, shiny toupee that always sat too far forward on his head
made all the kids think of Dracula. In fact, everyone even called him Dracula
behind his back.
    Jana and the rest of The Fabulous Five had thought that he
didn't know what the kids called him. But not long ago they discovered that he wanted the kids to think of him as Dracula in order to get them interested in
coming to his class and studying science.
    "Yes, Jana," he said.
    "I'd like you to meet your new student, Lizzie Flagg,"
Jana began. She turned around to gesture to Lizzie, but Lizzie wasn't there.
    "Lizzie?"
    "A phantom student, Jana?" Mr. Dracovitch said,
smiling devilishly. "Sounds like my kind of person."
    Jana couldn't help grinning. "She was here just a
minute ago." "Excuse me, I'll be right back."
    Jana rushed down between the rows of desks to the back of
the room. Students were milling around, chatting and getting ready for class to
begin.
    "Lizzie!" Jana found Lizzie still standing in the
doorway, gazing into the hall. "Come up and meet Mr. Dracovitch."
    Lizzie frowned but followed Jana up to the front of the
classroom.
    "This is Lizzie Flagg," Jana said in a controlled voice.
"She's new today and has some classes with me, so I'm showing her around."
    "Hello, Lizzie," Mr. Dracovitch said. "Glad
to have you join us. I think there's an empty seat in the back. You can sit
there."
    Lizzie shrugged. "Okay."
    She trudged to the desk located in the back of the
classroom, close to a window, and sat down. She stuffed her hands into the
pockets of her jacket. Jana hurried to her own class, relieved to get there and
face an entire class period without having to try to make conversation with
Lizzie.
    The morning classes seemed to drag for Jana. She