Fabulous Five 026 - Laura's Secret

THE
FABULOUS FIVE #26

LAURA'S SECRET

BETSY HAYNES

A BANTAM SKYLARK
BOOK®

NEW YORK • TORONTO •
LONDON • SYNDEY • AUCKLAND

RL 5, 009-012

LAURA'S SECRET

A Bantam Skylark
Book / September 1991

Skylark Books is a
registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell
Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and
elsewhere.

All rights
reserved.

Copyright
©
1991 by Betsy Haynes and James Haynes.

Cover art
copyright © 1991 by Andrew Bacha.

No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information
address: Bantam Books.

ISBN. 0-553-15871-6

Published
simultaneously in the United States and Canada

Bantam Books are
published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books
"
and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth
Avenue, New York, New York 10103.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA

CWO      0 9 8 7 6 5
4 3 2 1

"Oh, no!" Laura McCall wailed. "I can't
believe it! This is terrible!" She glared at her reflection in the mirror
and pounded her fist on the edge of the bathroom sink.

"What is it? What's wrong?" her father's voice
called from his bedroom.

Laura moaned. "Oh, nothing. My life is just ruined,
that's all," she said.

She stared at the red splotch on her new white blouse, the
blouse that made her figure look so great and went so well with her stonewashed
jeans. Thirty seconds ago it had been perfect. Now it had a large blob of liquid
blush smeared into it, right in front.

"I'll
never
get this out," Laura muttered
to her mirror image.

There was a tap on the bathroom door.

"Come in!" Laura said angrily, rubbing the spot
with her finger.

"What's the trouble, babe?" Laura's father asked,
pushing the door open and poking his head inside. With their reflections side
by side in the mirror, it was easy to see that they were father and daughter.
Both were tall and slender with sandy blond hair; Laura's was styled in a long
braid that started at the top of her head and fell over one shoulder.

"My new blouse! I just ruined it!" Laura wailed. "I
spilled this blush on it, and it's probably on there permanently!"

"Can't you just wash it out?" Walker McCall asked.

He strode over to the neatly-folded stack of clean
washcloths on the bathroom vanity, picked up the cloth on top, and ran it under
the water.

"Are you kidding, Daddy!" Laura cried. "You'll
set the stain for
sure
if you put cold water on it!"

She grabbed the washcloth from her dad.

Didn't men know
anything
?

Her father certainly didn't. Oh, sure, he was a great dad,
and she loved him very much. But he had no idea how to take care of clothes or
keep the apartment clean, and he joked that if there hadn't been ready-made
baby food, he would have been feeding Laura hamburgers and pizza when she was
an infant.

She should be used to it by now, though. Laura had lived
with her father ever since she was a baby. Her mother, Clare, had left them and
gone to New York City not long after Laura was born, saving that she wasn't cut
out for motherhood. Clare had become a successful fashion designer, and Laura
rarely saw or spoke to her.

Her father had hired a woman named Mrs. Skinner to take care
of the apartment when Laura was small, but now that Laura was older, most of
the responsibility fell on her shoulders. She did the cleaning, shopped for the
groceries, cooked most of the meals, and washed the clothes—except for her
father's shirts, which went to the dry cleaner.

Lately things had been even worse than usual. Her father was
in fierce competition for a huge promotion at work, and he had become an
absolute
bear
to live with, always growling at her about something or
other. Do this! Do that! She knew that he was under a lot of pressure, but it was
driving her berserk.

Walker McCall shrugged. "Guess I can't help you with
the blouse. Besides, you know more about this stuff than I do." He glanced
at his watch. "I've gotta go, babe. I have an important meeting with one
of my biggest clients this morning. I've got to impress my boss all I can
before that promotion is decided." He checked his reflection in the mirror
and straightened his tie. "Oh, by the way, would you iron my blue shirt
with the pinstripes tonight? I've got to pitch a new client tomorrow, and there
isn't time to send it to the cleaners."

Laura let out an exasperated sigh. "Okay, okay,"
she said.

Mr. McCall leaned over and kissed his daughter's cheek. "Go
find yourself a new blouse," he told her. "I'll buy it for you. Say,
be sure to clean up the apartment before school, okay? It's a wreck. You and
your friends left a mess in the living room yesterday."

Laura didn't speak, but nodded, her lips pressed tightly
together in frustration.

Her father smiled fondly in the mirror at his daughter. "What
would I do without my chief cook and bottle washer?" he said, chuckling. "See
you tonight, hon."

When Laura heard the apartment door close a moment later,
she let out a scream. "
I can't stand it anymore!
I'm his
slave!
It isn't fair!"

She stomped into her bedroom, tore off the blouse, and threw
it on her bed. She opened her closet and began flipping through the expensive,
stylish clothes hanging there.

"This one's not the right color. I'll freeze in this
one. This one isn't ironed. Nope, nope, nope." Tears gathered in her eyes.
"What am I going to
wear
today? This is terrible! The new blouse
would have been awesome!"

She leaned against her closet door and imagined her
classmates' reaction to that blouse. All the guys would have turned to watch
her walking down the hall, and the girls would have been green with envy. Laura
smiled. She enjoyed that, seeing the other girls watch her, admire her, wishing
they were Laura McCall.

Ha! she thought. What a riot. If only they knew. They're
wishing themselves into slavery.

But they never would know. She would see to that. After all,
why did they admire her in the first place? They thought she had it made,
living with her bachelor dad, getting chauffeured in his bright red Maserati,
wearing gorgeous clothes, and entertaining kids in her apartment without a
parent around to bother them.

Laura sighed and turned back to her closet. "Guess I'm
slumming today," she murmured, picking out one of her least expensive
blouses. "At least it's clean and ironed. And it doesn't have a big red stain
on it." She looked closer. Well, there
were
a couple of little
wrinkles up near the collar, because her closet was too small and everything in
it was smashed together, but the blouse would have to do as it was. There was
no time to iron it.

She wondered if she'd be able to find another blouse like
the one she had ruined. She had to admit that it was nice of her father to
offer to buy her another one, and she certainly intended to take him up on it.
She'd have to rush down to Tanninger's department store right after school.

Laura finished dressing and managed to get the kitchen
cleaned up before she had to leave for school.

She found her friends, the other three girls that made up
The Fantastic Foursome, waiting for her at the corner of the school building.
Funny Hawthorne, leaning against the brick wall, stood up straight when she saw
Laura coming.

"Here comes Laura the Beautiful!" Funny cried,
grinning. She began to sing to the tune of "America the Beautiful": "Oh,
beau-ti-ful for spa-cious eyes, for amber waves of hair—"

"Hi," Laura said, a big smile spreading over her
face. She loved Funny's song. Of course Funny could be a ditz sometimes, but
she was fun to have around. She got such a kick out of everything.

"Hey, I didn't get to finish," Funny protested,
giggling.

"Yeah," chimed in Tammy Lucero. "I was
waiting to see how you were going to rhyme the 'hair' line."

"Whoa," Melissa McConnell said, eyeing Laura
critically. "I haven't seen you wear
that
blouse in ages!"

"So what's wrong with it?" Laura replied
defensively.

Melissa shrugged. "Nothing, really. You just don't
usually wear your older clothes to school. I mean, it's okay. It's just a
little wrinkled."

Laura felt her face getting red. She wasn't used to
criticism from other kids, especially her friends. Of course, Melissa always
looks so perfect herself! thought Laura. And she looks down her nose at anyone
who doesn't.

She bit her lower lip and thought about Tammy's motor mouth.
Tammy meant well, but with her love of gossip, the blouse incident would be all
over school by the end of the day. All the kids would be smirking behind Laura's
back. Some of them were so envious of her, they seemed to
live
for the
moment Laura McCall slipped up.

She felt her face grow hotter. She couldn't have that
happen.

"Well," she improvised quickly, "I'd be
wearing a really gorgeous white blouse today if—if the
maid
hadn't
ruined it!"

Funny let out a gasp. "The
maid
?
"
Her eyes grew wide. "You have a maid?"

"I didn't know you had a maid!" chimed in Tammy.

Melissa's eyes narrowed. "Since when?"

Laura shrugged and lowered her eyes to avoid Melissa's gaze.
"Oh, since a couple of weeks ago, when my dad got a big promotion. I guess
I just forgot to tell you."

"Wow!" said Funny. "That's awesome! I wish we
had a maid at our house!"

Laura gave a quiet sigh of relief Sure it was a lie, but at
least her friends weren't criticizing how she looked anymore. In fact, they
looked positively jealous.

"Does your maid live with you?" asked Funny.

"No," Laura answered. "She comes in every morning
after I leave for school."

"What does she do?" Tammy asked.

"Oh, she picks my clothes up off the floor, washes the
breakfast dishes, cleans the apartment, that kind of thing," Laura replied
casually.

"Wow!" said Funny.

"And then she makes dinner for Dad and me," Laura
added. Her story was getting better by the second!

"You're kidding!" exclaimed Tammy, slapping her
forehead with the heel of her hand. "What does she cook?"

"Whatever we order," Laura said airily. She was
enjoying watching her friends' faces. Even Melissa was buying the story,
although she was holding back her enthusiasm the way she always did. "Sometimes
we have her make lasagna and a salad, or maybe we'll order enchiladas and
Spanish rice."

"Yum!" Tammy licked her lips.

This is really going to get around, Laura thought happily.
Tammy will spread it all over school! She imagined all the kids talking about
her in reverent whispers, murmuring "maid" and pointing to her as she
passed by. It would be so great!

"So what's her name?" asked Melissa, joining the
conversation again.

Laura blinked in surprise. "Her name? Uh, well—it's—Chantal."

"Chantal?" asked Funny.

"Yes," said Laura. "She's French."

Tammy's mouth dropped open. "A
French maid?
"

"Wow!" Funny kept repeating. "Wow!"

Tammy grinned broadly. "I should have guessed that that
Maserati dad of yours would hire a French maid."

"Does she prance around your apartment in a short,
little skirt and high heels, and use a feather duster?" Funny asked,
trying to hold back the giggles.

"And say
'oui, oui'
all the time?' asked Tammy.

Laura laughed. "No, not exactly. But Chantal
is
beautiful."'

"Wow!" Funny said again.

"And what's most important," Laura continued,
plastering her most sincere expression on her face, "she's absolutely
devoted
to Dad and me. You know, it really is hard to get good help these days."

"So how did she ruin the blouse?" Melissa asked.

"The bl—oh, yeah, the blouse!" Laura said. She'd
almost forgotten how her story had gotten started in the first place. "Well,
Chantal was hand-washing it for me—it's a very fine, delicate fabric—and she
accidentally knocked some blusher on it that I had left sitting on the sink."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Funny.

"Well, Chantal felt just
terrible
about it,"
Laura told her. "She offered to buy me a new blouse, but Dad and I decided
not to make her do that. After all, it was just an accident."

"Gosh, that was nice of you guys," said Funny.

"Yeah, pretty generous, if you ask me," agreed
Tammy.

"Well, she's starting to seem like part of the family,"
said Laura.

Funny shook her head, grinning. "Boy, Laura. You really
have it made. You really, REALLY have it made!"

Laura smiled.
If they only knew!