Fabulous Five 030 - Sibling Rivalry (4 page)

When Beth walked out of the great room to go up to her room,
no one even noticed.

I wonder what Katie and Melanie and Jana are doing right
this minute? Beth thought sadly as she made her way back to her room. They're
probably somewhere together, talking about what a great time they had last
night.

Closing the door behind her, she started taking off her ski
jacket when her hand brushed against the pocket where she'd put her small
leather purse.

"Maybe it wouldn't hurt if I spent a
little
,"
she whispered. "Just enough for one short phone call to my friends. How
much could that cost, anyway? Especially if we only talked for a couple of
minutes." She pursed her lips and eyed the telephone on the table between
the beds. Then she picked up the instruction card lying beside the phone.

To make a
long-distance call
, dial 9 + area code and number. The call will be
billed to your room.

That sounds easy, she thought. I'll just explain to Mom and
Dad that I needed to talk to my friends, and then I'll give them the money to
pay for the call when we check out and get the bill. A sudden memory stopped
her for an instant. It was the time she had gotten into a lot of trouble with
her parents over money when she borrowed Shawnie Pendergast's credit card to buy
clothes. But this is different, she assured herself.

Beth plopped down on her bed and reached for the phone. This
is going to be so much fun, she thought. But her hand stopped in midair.

"Gosh," she said. "Which one of them should I
call?"

She thought for a moment, deciding on Jana. Then she picked
up the receiver, dialed 9 and then the area code and Jana's number.

It rang only once before a cheery voice said,
"Hello."

Beth blinked in astonishment and then looked at her watch.
She had expected Jana's mother and her stepfather to be at work, but it was
after five in the afternoon. "Oh, hi, Mrs. Pink. Is Jana there?"

"Beth? Is that you?" asked Mrs. Pinkerton. "I
thought you were away on a big ski vacation."

"I am," said Beth. "I'm calling
long-distance."

"I see. Well, Jana isn't here right now," Mrs.
Pinkerton told her. "She's at the dentist. I hope nothing's wrong."

"Oh," gulped Beth. "No, nothing's wrong, but
I'd better hang up. Thanks, Mrs. Pink. Just tell her I said hi."

Beth sighed as she hung up. She would have to pay for the
call, and she hadn't even talked to Jana. It was a shame to spend money and get
nothing for it, she thought, looking at the phone again. Surely, she reasoned,
if she made one more call, she'd catch someone at home.

This time she dialed Melanie's number.

"Hello. Edwards residence.
Mr.
Jeffy
speaking."

"Hi, Jeffy. This is Beth. Will you get Melanie? And
please hurry. I'm calling long-distance."

"Can't," Jeffy replied matter-of-factly.

"Why not?"

"She's not here. Bye."

The dial tone rang in Beth's ear before she could ask him to
take a message. "Six-year-olds," she muttered in exasperation.

Beth chewed on her lip and thought again. Two calls to pay
for, and she still hadn't talked to one of her friends. "It's
incredible!" she exclaimed. Still, she would have to call Katie to make
spending all this money worthwhile.

"But I
can't
spend any more money," she
whispered. On the other hand, she knew Mrs. Pinkerton would tell Jana she had
called, and Jeffy was a goofy six-year-old, but she was sure he would tell
Melanie, too. Katie will be hurt if I don't call her, Beth reasoned.

She took a deep breath and tried again. One, two, three
rings. At least I won't have to pay for a call if no one answers, she thought.
Five, six, the ringing stopped.

"Hello. You have reached the Shannon residence. Neither
Willie nor Katie can come to the phone right now, but if you will leave your
name and number after the beep . . ."

Beth slammed down the phone. "Not the answering
machine!" she cried.

She threw herself across her bed, burying her face in a
pillow. Three long-distance calls, and not one of her friends had been at home.
Suddenly she raised her head and moaned, "And I didn't leave a message for
Katie! She won't even know I called!"

Todd bragged all during dinner about how he had skied some
of the tougher slopes with "the guys."

"Man, you should have seen me bombing down those
mountains. Me and the guys probably broke some speed records while we were at
it." He grinned at Beth. "I bet things were pretty hairy on the bunny
slopes, too, huh?"

Beth rolled her eyes in disgust. "Grow up," she
growled. Even Jeffy Edwards acted more mature than Todd.

"Todd," Mr. Barry warned, "you take it easy.
I watched some of your friends skiing today, and they're pretty advanced."

"So am I!" Todd replied, obviously insulted.

"Yes, you are," Mr. Barry agreed. "But just
be careful."

Beth smirked at her brother, thinking that he deserved to be
reprimanded by their dad. At the same time she secretly wished she were good
enough to ski some of the bigger slopes. Marcel had pointed out the warning
markers and explained their color coding to alert skiers to the differences in
difficulty—green for beginner slopes, black for intermediate slopes, and red
for the more dangerous expert slopes. What fun it would be to be really good
like the skiers she had watched streaking down the mountain with plumes of snow
spraying up behind them.

She bet Christie would be a good skier. Christie was an
expert tennis player, and did everything else just as well. It was sad that
Christie's family had moved to England. Beth missed her a lot.

Beth glanced at her sister. Brittany hadn't made any rude
comments about Beth's hanging around with her and her friends for a while. In
fact Brittany hadn't even seemed to notice her.

After dinner Beth's parents went off for a walk in the snow
with Alicia, and Julie, Molly, and Sarah came over to the table. Brittany was
busy looking for her new crush, Marcel, so Beth had become invisible again.

"If Marcel isn't here in fifteen minutes," said
Julie, "we should go and see if he's in the game room."

"Are you really going to ask him to dance?" Sarah
asked Brittany, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Sure. Why not?" Brittany answered confidently.
"Don't you think he'd dance with me?"

"Absolutely," said Sarah. "I'd never have the
nerve, but
you
are such a great dancer, Brittany. I bet he'd love to
dance with you."

A smile crept across Brittany's face. "Maybe I'll ask
him on a slow song."

Julie looked awestruck. "I'd give
anything
for a
slow dance with Marcel."

Just then Brad Jenkins, the boy from Wisconsin, stepped up
to their table. "Brittany, would you like to dance?"

"Not this time, thanks," Brittany replied with a
definite lack of interest in her voice. "I'm really tired after all the
skiing today."

Brad looked so disappointed that Beth blurted out without
thinking, "I'll dance with you."

She was immediately sorry she'd opened her mouth, because
everyone at the table looked at her. Brittany snickered.

Brad looked as if he were going to drop dead on the spot.
"Sure, okay," he mumbled.

Stupid
,
stupid!
Beth raged at herself.
Why
didn't you keep your big mouth shut!
She got up stiffly and didn't look at
him all the way to the dance floor. It was a slow dance, and Brad put his arm
around her waist and took her hand in his.

"I like this song," he said.

"Me, too," replied Beth.

They didn't speak for the rest of the dance. When the music
stopped, Brad said, "Thanks for dancing with me."

"Sure," Beth answered.

He turned and walked back to his own table. The last thing
Beth wanted to do at that moment was face Brittany's sarcasm, so she walked
straight out of the dining room and into the great room.

Brad had seemed like a nice person. Unfortunately it was
Brittany he was interested in, and Brittany obviously thought she was too
sophisticated for him. Her silly comment about being too tired to dance
certainly wasn't true. If Marcel had asked her to dance, she would have danced
all night!

Crossing the great room, Beth headed for the game room. In the
doorway she stopped in her tracks. There, playing pool with another guy about
his age, was Marcel.

Beth entered the room and slipped onto a couch along the
wall. There were a dozen or so people in the room, playing board games or
Ping-Pong, or watching TV.

She tried watching the movie on the TV, but it didn't hold
her attention. Her eyes kept flicking back to Marcel. When she and Keith
Masterson had broken up a couple of months ago, she had convinced herself that
she'd had it with boys, at least for a while. And of course Marcel was
definitely too old for her. But still . . . She couldn't help thinking how much
fun it would be to have something
interesting
to tell her friends when
she got back home.

"Hi, Beth." The voice beside her startled her. It
was Molly's.

"Oh, hi, Molly," said Beth. "Where's
Brian?"

"He went up to his room to get his coat," replied
Molly, smiling. "I invited him to take a walk in the moonlight."

"That sounds nice," said Beth.

Molly sat down next to her and whispered, "You should
go tell your sister that Marcel's in here."

"Oh, yeah," Beth answered, but she had absolutely
no intention of doing it.

"Beth," Molly said in a low, confidential voice.
"I've been trying to talk to you privately since last night." She
laughed a little, sounding nervous. "Tell me about Brian."

Beth turned to her. "What do you mean?"

"I want to know all about him."

"Well . . ." Beth shrugged. "He's
seventeen—"

"Does he have a girlfriend at home?" Molly asked.
That was obviously what she really wanted to know.

"Not really," said Beth. "I mean, he dates,
but he doesn't have a steady girlfriend."

Molly looked relieved. "Oh, that's great. And when is
his birthday?"

"In July," Beth said. "The second."

"Oh." Molly sounded disappointed. "I guess
it's not coming up anytime soon."

"No, I guess not." Boy, Beth thought, Molly really
has it bad for Brian.

"What kinds of things does he like in a girl?" Molly
asked.

The question caught Beth off guard. "Well, . . . I
guess he likes girls who have the same qualities
you
do. He sure seems
to like you."

Molly's face lit up. "Did he tell you that?" she
asked anxiously.

"Well, no," Beth admitted, "but he doesn't
have to. You two are together all the time, so he must like you."

"Hmmm," Molly said frowning. "Well, I mean,
what do you think attracts Brian? Does he like girls who are athletic, or
gorgeous, or talented—"

"All of the above." Beth laughed.

"Well, um, does he—" Molly stammered.

"What?"

"Well, what I mean is—" Molly hesitated a moment,
"do you think he prefers girls who have great—uh, bodies or superior
minds?"

Beth smirked. "Don't all guys like great bodies?"

Molly shrugged and started to ask something else, but just
then Brian came into the room.

"Here you are," he said to Molly.

She got up quickly. "Well, Beth, it was fun talking to
you." She looked at Brian. "Ready for our walk?"

Brian nodded, and Molly tucked her arm in his and gave a
little squeeze.

Wow, thought Beth as she watched them leave, is Molly ever
hooked!

After they had gone, she suddenly felt lonely again. If only
her parents had let her bring a friend.

"Hello," said a deep voice.

Beth looked up and caught her breath. Marcel was walking
around the pool table, looking at her.
And he had spoken to her.

"Hi," said Beth. She could feel her cheeks getting
hot.

"Was ze ski lesson today your first?" he asked.

Beth nodded. "Yes."

"You did very well," he responded. "Did you
enjoy it?"

"Oh, yes. I liked it a lot. Thanks."

"Good," Marcel said. "You'll be even better
tomorrow."

He went back to shooting pool, and Beth sat there stunned.
He
talked to me!
she thought.
He didn't have to
,
either. He was in
the middle of a game of pool!

She didn't have time to enjoy the moment, though, because
just then Brittany, Julie, and Sarah walked in. They put their heads together
and started whispering as soon as they saw Marcel.

Well, that's that, Beth thought with disgust. Marcel won't
be talking to
me
anymore, that's for sure. Brittany and her friends will
monopolize him.

Sure enough, the three teenagers strolled over to Marcel's
pool table to watch him play. They stood so close, he had to adjust his
position to keep from hitting one of them with his cue.

"Good shot!" Brittany called out as Marcel sank a
ball. Marcel nodded in recognition of the compliment.

"Gosh, he can ski
and
play pool!" Julie
gushed so loudly, he was sure to hear.

Brittany beamed in his direction. "He's good at
everything he does."

Beth watched Marcel to see how he would react. At first his
face didn't change. Then he smiled at Brittany. "Not everything."

"Oh, you're too modest," Brittany said, giving him
her best smile.

Marcel continued to play and talk to his friend while the
girls flirted with him.

"After your game," Brittany said, "would you
and your friend like to come back and dance with us?"

Beth saw Julie's eyes widen in surprise at Brittany's nerve.

Marcel checked his watch. "
Oui
. We have time for
a dance or two, don't we, Jake?"

"Sure," replied Jake. "The movie doesn't
start till nine."