Fabulous Five 024 - The Great TV Turnoff (3 page)

When Katie heard the telephone ring later that evening, she
looked up from her homework. Maybe it was Tony, calling to say he really wanted
to come over, but
not
to watch a baseball game on TV.

"Katie, it's for you," her mother shouted from the
bottom of the stairs.

Taking the steps two at a time, Katie hurried to the phone,
rehearsing as she went how sweet and forgiving she would be when Tony admitted
he had been wrong.

"Hi, Katie. It's me, Jana."

"Oh . . . hi," Katie said in a small voice.

Jana chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you. Who were you
expecting?"

"Tony," Katie said with a sigh. "I was hoping
he'd had time to think about our argument in the cafeteria today and was
calling to say he was sorry."

"Don't count on it. I hate to be the bearer of bad news,
but he's really steamed at you. That's what I called to tell you."

Katie swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Jana began, "you didn't come to
Bumpers after school, but Tony was there. He and Randy and Shane sat with The
Fabulous Five. And get this, he thinks you started this whole turnoff thing
just to get back at him for watching so many baseball games on TV."

"He what!" Katie cried.

"You heard me," said Jana. "He said that you're
the most stubborn person he's ever met and that he wouldn't put it past you.
Those were his exact words."

"You're kidding! Why, how could he?" Katie
sputtered in exasperation. "Jana, I can't believe he said that."

"Believe it," Jana said softly. "Anyway, I
thought you ought to know. What are you going to do? Call him?"

"No way," Katie huffed. "I wouldn't call him
now if my life depended on it."

"Oh, come on, Katie," said Jana. "Don't be so
stubborn. You two are never going to work this out if you don't talk about it."

"Now
you're
calling me stubborn. What is this,
some kind of conspiracy?"

"Sorry, Katie," answered Jana. "I was just
trying to be a friend and tell you what Tony was saying. I've got to go now. I'll
see you in the morning."

Katie stared at the telephone after she hung up. What was
wrong with everybody, anyway?

When Katie got to school the next morning, she was not surprised
at the number of students who had something to say about the turnoff.

"I'll do it, but I'm not happy about it," Mandy
McDermott said, as Katie stopped beside a group of girls at the drinking
fountain. "I don't really watch that much television, but I hate being
told what I can and can't do."

"I watch lots," admitted Lisa Snow. "But I
think it will be fun in a way. There are tons of things I keep meaning to do,
but most of the time I just cop out and turn on the TV instead."

"Right," Alexis Duvall added, nodding, "and
my parents are always calling me a couch potato."

"What I'm worried about is homework," said Dekeisha.
"I always do homework in front of the television. I don't know why
exactly. Maybe I just like the background noise."

"Hey, Katie, how do you feel about giving up TV?"
asked Mandy. "I mean, it's your mother who started all this."

Katie swallowed hard, wishing desperately that she didn't
have to answer. How could she explain to her friends that the whole idea for
the turnoff had actually started when she had gotten angry at Tony for watching
too much TV and had complained to her mother? She couldn't, that was all there
was to it. "I . . . I don't really watch a lot of TV, either," she
fumbled.

Alexis frowned. "Then you probably think this is a
great idea."

"Yeah," added Mandy. "It's nothing to you if
everyone else is miserable without TV."

"That's not true," Katie began, and then stopped.
The only way she could defend herself would be to put all the blame on her
mother. That would be an invitation for the others to bad-mouth Willie, and no
matter how she felt about the turnoff, she couldn't let that happen. Throwing
up her hands in frustration, she stomped away.

When Katie and Melanie arrived at Bumpers, Jana and Christie
were saving seats. The fast-food restaurant had gotten its name from the
brightly colored carnival bumper cars that were placed around the room for kids
to sit in. The place was crowded with boys and girls, and the old Wurlitzer
jukebox was blaring away.

"Where's Beth?" asked Melanie.

"The Media Club's having a meeting after school,"
said Jana. "She said she'd be here later."

"Anyone want anything?" Melanie asked. "Shane's
at the counter, so I'm going to get a soda."

"I'll take one, too," said Katie, digging in her
purse for money.

Melanie came back shortly with Shane and Randy Kirwan. Katie
looked around for Tony. He wasn't there. She had an empty feeling in the pit of
her stomach that it was because he didn't want to see her.

"So, Shane," said Christie. "What's going on
with Igor these days?" Igor was Shane's iguana.

"He was tired when I left for school today.
Night of
the Iguana
was on the late movies last night, and he stayed up to watch it.
There were popcorn kernels all over his cage this morning."

The Fabulous Five laughed.

"Hey, Katie, is it true that there's no more TV for
Wacko kids for the rest of the year?" Randy asked.

Katie's backbone went rigid.

"Yeah, I heard that, too," said Shane. "If it
happens, I'm going to have to have a long talk with Igor. He loves TV, especially
Late Night With David Letterman.
He'd hate giving it up. But that's
okay. The light from his TV has been keeping me awake, anyway."

"Laura's spreading that rumor," said Katie. "She's
even saying that it was my idea, but it wasn't."

"What about video games?" asked Shane, looking at
Katie. "Does that count as watching television?"

Katie shrugged. She hadn't thought about video games. "I
don't know."

Shane looked puzzled. "If we can't watch television and
we can't play video games, what's left in life?"

Shane and Randy looked at each other. "School?"
they asked in unison.

"Aagh!" cried Randy, acting as if he were hanging
himself.

"As far as I'm concerned, until somebody tells me
otherwise, video games aren't part of the turnoff," Shane declared
emphatically. "Hey, look. Here come Jon and Scott." He nodded toward
Jon Smith and Scott Daly, who had just walked in the door. "Let's see if
they want to play video games Saturday."

"Boy, Laura's not wasting any time starting rumors,"
mumbled Melanie, after the boys had left.

"Well, if that's all she does, sooner or later everyone
will know she wasn't telling the truth," said Jana. "Most kids
probably don't believe her, anyway."

"Geena did," said Katie. "She heard Laura's
rumor that no one can watch television for the rest of the school year, too,
and she thought it was true until I straightened her out."

Katie glanced up just as Beth walked into Bumpers and headed
straight for them.

"Hi, everybody." Beth plopped down in the seat
next to Jana. "Boy, have I got something to tell you. Jack Albright, the
star of that new hit TV series
Taking Chances
is coming to town, and the
Media Club is going to have a chance to interview him for the local cable
station. Mr. Levine wants
me
to be the one to interview him. Can you believe
that?" Her eyes were dancing. "Connie Chung, eat your heart out!"

"Oh, wow!" exclaimed Melanie. "I'd die if I
got to be in the same room with Jack Albright."

"Gee, that is great, Beth," said Christie. "When's
the interview?"

"Next Wednesday. A week from tomorrow."

"You're not planning on a new outfit for the interview,
right?" Jana asked, grinning. The last time Beth had been on television
with the Media Club, she had borrowed Shawnie Pendergast's credit card to buy
new clothes and spent a fortune.

"No new wardrobe," said Beth sheepishly. "But
I'm dying to meet Jack Albright. He's such a great actor." Then Beth's
smile faded. "There's one problem, though. The interview will probably be
shown on cable television during the turnoff. You might as well know right now
that if that happens, I'm going to cheat and watch myself on TV."

Katie swallowed and looked at Beth, not knowing what to say.
She could understand Beth's position, but The Fabulous Five always stuck
together. How could her own mother have started something that was going to
split them apart?

Katie suddenly became aware of a nearby conversation.

"Can you imagine such a dumb thing?" Laura McCall
was saying to Daphne Alexandrou, Shelly Bramlett, and Holly Davis, who were
sitting in a yellow bumper car about ten feet away. "This used to be a
free country, but now we're being
forced
to turn off our television sets
and leave them off. And it's all one person's fault," Laura reminded them.

"It's going to be tough," said Daphne, "but
it will be a challenge, too. And I'd love to beat Branford. They've really been
rubbing it in about beating us so many times in sports this year."

Holly nodded.'"I have a cousin in Branford. She said
that they don't care who else they beat as long as they beat Wakeman. It would
serve them right."

"I already know what's going to happen at our house,"
said Shelly. "My brother will have more time to pick on me, and I'll fight
back. My mom'll be out of her mind by the end of the two weeks."

Laura leaned forward, a pleased look on her face. "Plus
I heard that Mr. Bell asked Katie Shannon's mother to help run the turnoff.
Just because
she
doesn't like to watch television, she doesn't want
anyone else to, either. I bet she has lots of other great ideas for us, too."

Katie's face turned bright red, and little explosions went
off in her brain. Jumping out of the booth, she stomped over to Laura and stood
in front of her with her fists on her hips and her feet planted wide.

"
Laura McCall! You don't know what you're talking
about!
That's not at all why my mother is organizing the TV turnoff."

"Oh?" said Laura, looking like a cat that had just
swallowed a mouse. "She's probably not telling Mr. Bell how to run the
turnoff, either?"

"He asked for her help," snapped Katie, "and
she's helping. That's all! And not only that, I'm helping, too!"

Katie couldn't believe what she had just said. She had actually
committed herself to working for the turnoff when it was the last thing in the
world she wanted to do. Still, she thought desperately, what else could I do?

"What's that?" asked Dekeisha Adams, as a crowd
gathered around the bulletin board outside the school office the next morning.
Katie had to bounce on the tips of her toes to see.

"It's a notice about a school assembly for the TV turnoff
on Friday," Marcie Bee called from the front of the crowd.

Dekeisha's face lit up, and she nudged Katie,, saying, "Hey,
an assembly means we can get out of class for one whole period. Maybe this
turnoff isn't such a bad idea after all."

Everyone laughed, and Marcie went on, "It says that anyone
who wants to perform a skit, read a poem, or do anything that has to do with
turning off television can participate in the assembly."

"Does that include people who are against the turnoff?"
asked Taffy Sinclair. "If it does, maybe I'll do something."

Katie looked at Taffy in surprise. She had been a real snob
when The Fabulous Five were in Mark Twain Elementary, but Taffy had changed a
little since they'd started junior high. Now she sounded like her old self. It
was probably because she had recently starred in a Hollywood movie that would
be shown on television in a few months.

"I wonder if twirling a baton would be a good idea,"
mused Kaci Davis, a ninth-grader.

"Maybe you can twirl a television set instead," Shawnie
Pendergast said sarcastically. Kaci looked down her nose at Shawnie, and a lot
of kids laughed.

"I have a
super
idea," said Dekeisha. The
tall black girl smiled mysteriously. "But I'm going to keep it a secret
for now."

Geena McNatt's brothers, Max and Joe, stopped to see what
was going on. Max was in the ninth grade and a member of the football team, and
Joe was an eighth-grader.

After he read the notice, Max grumbled, "They're really
going ahead with this turnoff thing, huh? Well, there's no way I'm going to
miss wrestling on TV for anybody."

"Me, either," said Joe.

"Wrestling?" asked Kaci with a sneer.

Max glared at her as the McNatt brothers moved on down the
hall.

Katie was relieved to hear so many kids making plans for the
assembly. That had to mean that most of them were planning to go along with the
turnoff after all.

What about Tony? she wondered, thinking about how he
believed she was using the turnoff to get back at him. Would he refuse to
participate just to spite her?

"This TV turnoff contract says I can't watch videos or
play video games," said Beth. The Fabulous Five were seated in Bumpers on
Thursday afternoon after school. The turnoff contracts had been handed out just
before the dismissal bell, and students had been instructed to take them home
and discuss them with their families. If they decided to take part in the
turnoff, they were to sign the contracts and bring them to the assembly the
next day.

"They all say that," said Jana. "See, my
contract is just like yours." Jana pushed a sheet of paper toward Beth. On
it was written:

I, _________________________,

AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING:

1. I will not watch television or videos or play any
video games for two weeks.

2. I will find other things to do by myself and with my
family and friends.

3. I will keep a detailed diary during the turnoff that
describes the things my family did together, the things I did with my friends, and
everything else I did that I would not have done if I had been watching
television.

4. I will keep an honest record of the times when I
couldn't resist and watched TV or a video or played a video game. I will also
record my feelings about not watching TV.

This contract will be for the period of __________ through
__________. Upon completion of the turnoff I will receive a special award.

Signature _________________________

"So if I sign this," Beth said, frowning, "I
definitely can't watch the tapes the Media Club is producing, right?"

"It includes
all
videos," replied Katie.

Beth sank back against the booth and sighed. "But why
does the turnoff have to happen now, just when I have my big interview with
Jack Albright? How can I stand not watching that?"

Christie smiled sympathetically. "I know it will be
tough, but it's just for two weeks."

"But it's the biggest interview of my life." Beth
pretended to sob. "What if some big producer from a national network sees
it and wants to offer me a job? I low can I tell him that I haven't seen my own
performance?" She sighed loudly and added, "Of course I know that won't
happen. And of course I'll sign the contract. The Fabulous Five stick together,
right?"

Melanie turned to Beth. "If you can wait to see your
interview, I guess I can give up my soaps for two weeks."

"Thanks, guys," said Katie. "You don't know
how much this means to me. Not that I'm crazy about this turnoff, cither."

"Believe me, I thought long and hard about doing it,"
Melanie said sadly, "especially since Sylvia was run over by a motorcycle
while she was shopping for her wedding dress and ended up in the hospital."

"Sylvia?" echoed Christie.

Melanie nodded. "Don't you remember her? She's this
beautiful girl on
Interns and Lovers.
She's been trying for months to
get this gorgeous guy, Cal, to notice her. She's so crazy about him that she's
secretly looking for a wedding dress."

"That's gross," said Katie. "Doesn't she have
any other ambitions?"

Melanie shrugged. "Cal is totally gorgeous, and that's
all she can think about."

"So she's in the hospital, and everything is ruined for
her?" asked Jana.

"Oh, no. It's great that she had the accident!"
exclaimed Melanie.

"It is?" the other four asked in unison.

"Yes. You see, Cal is an intern at the hospital. He'll
have to notice her now."

"Oh, no." Katie slapped her forehead. "I can't
believe this."

"Things like that can happen in real life,"
Melanie said defensively.

"I didn't mean I didn't believe that it could happen,"
said Katie. "I meant I couldn't believe anyone would watch that stuff."

Melanie stuck out her lower lip. "No matter what you
think,
Interns and Lovers
is very realistic. It deals with real
emotions, and the stories are sensitive and romantic.
I
think it's
great."

Katie chuckled. "Okay, I give up," she said. "After
hearing all that, I'm twice as glad that you're going to sign your contract."

Melanie beamed back at Katie. "The part in the contract
about keeping a diary just gave me a great idea. Every afternoon when I get
home from school I'm going to write down what I think is happening on
Interns
and Lovers
that day. That way, I won't miss the program as much, and I can
compare what I thought would happen with what really did happen after the
turnoff is over."

"Hey, that's a neat idea, Mel," said Christie. "And
if you predict exactly what happens, you won't have to waste time watching
anymore."

At that moment, Shane, Randy, Keith, and Jon approached The
Fabulous Five's booth.

"Boy, Katie, you did it to us this time," said
Shane. "This contract says no video games." He waved the paper in the
air. "That wipes out our Video Game Club."

"Yeah," agreed Keith, "and I was going for
the championship of the club this weekend. Now it'll be two whole weeks before
Jon and I can play our big match."

"You guys didn't
have
to sign it," said
Katie defensively. Then she smiled and added, "But I'm glad you did."

"Since we can't play video games Saturday, like we
usually do, we decided to build rockets instead," said Shane. "We're
going to use the vacant lot by my house to launch them from."

"Yeah," said Jon, "and we're trying to talk
Shane into letting Igor be our first astronaut."

"I think you should call him an
iguananaut,
"
offered Melanie.

Shane chuckled. "That's a good idea, but I don't know
if he'll agree to it. He's interested in designing rockets. I think he wants to
be a rocket scientist."

Suddenly a thought occurred to Katie. "Did all of you
guys sign contracts?" she asked, glancing at Tony, who was across the
room, talking with Bill Soliday.

Randy shrugged, and the boys looked at each other. "The
four of us did," said Randy.

Katie wanted to ask about Tony, but she didn't want to look
too interested. Who cares whether he signed, anyway? she asked herself. But
deep down in her heart she knew that she did care—a lot.