Out of Bounds (2 page)

 

I
t can't be
this
cold,” Maeve wailed.

“It's like we're in Alaska or something,” Katani added, stomping her feet on the bleacher steps.

“My hands feel like polar bear snacks!” piped in Charlotte as she tucked her hands into the sleeves of her favorite hoodie sweatshirt.

“I'm thinking Mexico…on the beach…tropical sun beating down…a cold drink,” added Isabel dreamily. “Ooh! You have to try this. Think about sweating and being really, really hot. It helps. Try it.”

Unseasonably cold
, that's what Kristy B., the most popular weather woman in Boston, said.
Record breaking
. But it wasn't supposed to last. By Wednesday, it would be back in the sixties. That's just what fall was like in New England. What was it that Isabel's Aunt Lourdes said when they moved east to live with her?
If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a minute
.

But all in all the Beacon Street Girls loved the fall.

“The air is just so crisp and clear,” Avery always said.
“It makes you just want to jump around and do backflips.” Avery
would
say that because she was the only one of the Beacon Street Girls who could actually do a backflip and land on her feet!

Isabel decided that fall was her favorite season, too. The leaf colors were totally awesome—bright red to intense orange to vibrant yellow and even deep purple. You really had to be totally oblivious not to notice them. And the fall light—it cast the most amazing shadows. They called it northern light, the kind of light that all real painters love. Isabel thought everyone should live in New England at least once. At least all artists, or aspiring artists like her, as Isabel wasn't ready to give herself the honor of being called a real artist yet.

Isabel, Katani, Maeve, and Charlotte were cheering at Avery's soccer game. Well, it wasn't her game exactly. Avery wasn't
on
the team this time; she was an official referee in the fourth-grade girls' tournament. And this game was a big one: the Twisters vs. the Tornadoes.

“Go Twisters, Go Twisters!” whooped Maeve as she stood, raised her arms, and rocked back and forth. It wasn't as if she had any loyalty to either team, but they were sitting in the Twisters' bleachers, so she figured she owed them her best cheerleading efforts.

“Sit down, Maeve,” scolded Katani. “You're making Avery laugh, and she has to concentrate. She's getting paid real money for this.” Katani was totally a businessgirl type. President of a major corporation was definitely in her future, or at least owner of her own fashion boutique. The Kgirl had some serious style.

They all looked down on the field and saw Avery grinning up at Maeve and shaking her head back and forth.

“Okay,” sighed Maeve with a fake sorry look. “I guess my cheerleading abilities are not wanted here.”

Charlotte grabbed one of Maeve's arms and Katani grabbed the other. They yanked her down, shouting in unison, “Sit down, Maeve!”

Behind them, a group of little boys repeated, “Sit down, Maeve,” and burst into uncontrollable laughter. Isabel, Charlotte, and Katani completely cracked up. “You are so busted,” they sputtered in between their giggles.

“The life of a performer is very trying,” complained Maeve in her best dramatic voice, and she went back to looking intently at the field. Her friends knew she wasn't mad, though. Maeve hardly ever got mad at anyone. It just wasn't her style. Sometimes her feelings got hurt, but her upbeat spirit always managed to shine through.

Avery once said that Maeve was like one of those wobbly dolls that whenever it gets knocked down, it bounces right back up again. So true, because with a mischievous little grin on her face, Maeve jumped up for one more quick whoop and roll before anyone could stop her. Then she turned and high-fived one of the little boys behind her.

“You are so hyper,” Katani said.

“It's all this cold weather,” Maeve said, once she settled herself back on the bench. “If I sit still, I am going to freeze to death.”

There was a shout from the field. One of the Tornadoes had just missed scoring a goal.

“Twisters and Tornadoes are the same thing, you know,” Isabel offered. She had recently moved here from Michigan, where they actually had some seriously big storms. Twisters were one of the only things about the Midwest that Isabel didn't miss. Watching a house fly off its foundation and spin
around in the air was a pretty scary sight. Isabel shuddered as she thought about some of the news pictures she had seen.

“I don't think I ever want to see a twister. I mean, it's kind of fun in the movies, but in real life…no, thank you,” said Maeve, handing their adopted little mutt, Marty, to Isabel.

The Beacon Street Girls were taking turns passing Marty back and forth among them like a football. Not only did he seem to enjoy the attention, but cuddling with Marty was helping them all stay warmer. He was like a little heating pad. Everyone was glad that Avery had insisted they bring Marty to the game. If the truth be told, no one was too thrilled to be watching fourth graders play soccer.

“I mean, if somebody's sister was playing, this might be sort of interesting,” said Charlotte.

Simultaneously, the girls looked at one another, and as if they had some kind of immediate psychic connection, all said at the same time, “Nah!” Of course, that set off another round of giggles. No, they were there because their buddy Avery was reffing. “You gotta be loyal to your friends,” said Katani, when Maeve first complained that it would be too cold. “We would go and see you dance, Maeve, so we have to support Avery, too.”

“Well, at least it got me out of cleaning my room,” Maeve grinned. “My mother said loyalty to friends was more important than cleaning the Maeve Toxic Waste Dump.” She did a perfect imitation of her mother's New York accent.

“Look at how completely cutified he is,” Isabel said, hugging Marty for warmth.

“He is just a major charmball, and sooo adorable,” Maeve agreed.

“I love those words—cutified and charmball. I think we
should make them official BSG words. I think I'm going to start a BSG dictionary,” mused Charlotte, who loved everything to do with being a writer.

Maeve, Katani, and Isabel all looked at Charlotte with amusement.

“I think you should call it ‘Word Nerd,'” offered Maeve.

“That works for me,” laughed Charlotte.

“I think Marty just smiled at you,” Katani said.

“No way,” Isabel laughed.

“He did, I swear,” Katani said. “See? He just did it again.”

The corners of Marty's mouth were turned up in what looked like a grin.

They all laughed, glad the little guy was there. Avery had said Marty needed to get out more. She didn't want him becoming a couch potato. And Marty seemed to think it was fine weather, great weather in fact, but then again, he had a fur coat. Lucky little dude!

It was funny the way the girls always thought they knew what Marty was thinking. Avery, who had been reading up on the subject, said all pet owners give their pets human qualities. But she said that Marty was different from any normal pet. As people in the stands jumped up to see what was going on, Marty jumped up too. Marty was the kind of dog that thought he was a person. You could just tell from the way he looked when someone tried to tell him what to do. It was as if he was saying, “Dude, I'm in charge here.” He was definitely a small dog, big personality kind of mutt. Great Danes, stay away!

“I think Mr. Marté is a big soccer fan. Look how closely he's watching all the plays,” Charlotte said, laughing. Having lived in Paris for a year, Charlotte liked to frenchify Marty's name. She thought it gave him “panache.” That was
another of Charlotte's favorite words. She said
panache
was so much cooler to say than
style
!

Marty heard his name and took a running leap into Charlotte's lap.

Isabel saw the surprised look on Charlotte's face and started to giggle. “I guess he's decided it's your turn to hold him,” she said.

Marty started snuffling around in Charlotte's pockets, looking for treats.

“All gone,” Charlotte said to Marty, but that didn't stop him. Instead, his little legs started digging at Charlotte's pants at warp speed. This set off another round of hysterical giggles. He looked so funny scratching around for nonexistent treats.

Finally, Charlotte emptied her pockets to demonstrate to Marty that she had nothing there. The only thing she pulled out were some golden coins she had been carrying around to practice a magic trick. Charlotte had been studying “great illusionists” for her next English report that was coming up in Ms. R's class. She'd already read one book on the greatest magicians of all time and another that was a biography of Harry Houdini. At the moment, she was reading a
how-to
book on sleight of hand.

Once Charlotte became interested in a particular subject, she read everything she could find on it. Right now, her big thing was magic. It was just so challenging to learn how to make things disappear.

As she flipped the coins through her fingers, Charlotte wondered what it would be like to be invisible. She had seen an old movie called
The Invisible Man
at the Movie House. It was creepy and fascinating at the same time. Being able to walk into a room and hear and see everybody, but they couldn't see you—how completely weird would that be?
Maybe time travel would be better, she thought. You could go visit with Queen Victoria or something. Suddenly, Charlotte was in the English court, eating scones and having tea with the little queen who liked to dress completely in black.

“She looks so tall out there,” Isabel said. “It's funny how she towers over everyone.”

Oops, back to Earth
, Charlotte admonished herself.

“That's because the other girls on the field are fourth graders,” Katani said, and they all laughed.

Avery was athletic and strong. The one thing she wasn't was tall.

The wind shifted, and Maeve shivered under their blanket.

Katani, who'd brought a bright pink thermos of sweet tea, handed a cup to Maeve. “Go ahead and finish it,” she suggested. “It'll warm you up.”

Katani was the only one semi-prepared for the weather. She wore a poncho the girls had named the Kgirl Special. Katani had designed it herself by cutting up a bright yellow fleece blanket, adding a few tassels, and attaching vintage buttons all down the middle. It was the same color as some of the leaves that were falling behind her. With her poncho and her thermos, Katani looked as if she could be on the cover of
Style Girl
magazine. Still, Katani was not all that warm either. Her lips were starting to turn blue.

“You know, Katani, you look kind of cool with blue lips. Maybe you should get some blue lip gloss or something,” Maeve offered.

“Maeve, blue lip gloss is for super rock star types. I am going for the New York ‘
Excuse me, but I own a major fashion empire
' kind of look. You go for the blue. It would suit you to a T, especially if you decide to sing in Riley's band. Think of it, blue lip gloss, red hair, red silk shirt. Don't give me that
look. Redheads look fabulous in the right color red…and blue jeans with rhinestones down the side…”

“I think we got the picture,” said Isabel, nodding her head. Once Katani got on a roll with fashion, there was no stopping her!

Hmm, Riley's band
, Maeve thought to herself.

Riley Lee, the class musician, had been asking her for weeks if she wanted to sing with the band. But singing with Riley's band would be a lot of work because Riley was seriously serious about music. He lived and breathed it. Every week, he was talking about some fabulous new band. Maeve just didn't know if she was ready for that yet. She liked hip hop dancing and drama, too. But there were only so many hours in a day. And now there were two places to live…but she didn't want to think about that now. Her parents' recent separation was too new for her to be comfortable thinking about it even for a second.

By this time, the only one who looked really warm was Avery, who was running the length of the soccer field, blowing her whistle every few seconds. In fact, it looked like someone had painted two really big red circles on either side of her face. Refereeing fourth-grade girls wasn't easy. They were sooo sensitive. But Avery was determined to do a super job. She loved soccer with a passion and had dreams of being a soccer coach someday, that is if she didn't become a senator or a snowboarder in Colorado. “That's the thing about being our age,” grumbled Avery the other day. “There's so many amazingly cool things to do. How am I ever going to decide?”

“Avery,” Maeve had answered her, “You're not supposed to decide now. You're supposed to try a bunch of stuff first, see what you like, see what you are good at, and then when you grow up, decide on whatever you like best. Besides, if
you decide now, you'll get too serious and nothing will be any fun anymore. I mean, geesh, Avery, we're only in seventh grade!”

All the BSG looked impressed. For someone who wasn't the best of students, it was moments like these that made them realize that Maeve had a lot of common sense.

“But,” Avery had to add, “what if you like something that you are really bad at?”

“Well,” offered Katani in a serious tone, “I suppose you could work really hard at it, and you would definitely get better at it. But I don't know if you would be as good as someone who was naturally really good at something and worked hard.”

At that point, Charlotte, Maeve, and Isabel had had enough. “Don't worry about it,” they groaned. Avery had answered them with one of her now famous
snurps
(a combination of a snort and a burp), “I won't.”