The Karma Club (26 page)

I’m pretty sure no amount of free tutoring is going to help me with that one.

I’ve been trying to have faith, though. You know, believe in the power of good. Believe that my recent shift in paradigms will result in a shift in fortune, and somehow, some way, the whole Jenna thing will disappear. My friends will forgive me and everything will be okay.

However, when Wednesday morning finally arrives, I still have nothing. I mean, I don’t have
nothing
nothing. I have Spencer, who has been amazing. And I have my tutoring program. And I
already have six tutors who have signed up to volunteer. I mean I have nothing in terms of fighting off the evil ways of Jenna LeRoux and her vicious notebook scheme.

So you can see why I’m nervous.

The four of us—Jenna, Jade, Angie, and I—all agreed to meet in a far corner of the student parking lot after school on Wednesday afternoon. Jenna thinks that we’re meeting to go over the details of Spencer’s demise, and my friends think that we’re meeting so I can present my alternative solution. Because to them, failure is not an option. Letting that notebook slip through our fingertips is not a viable solution. No matter how much I try to convince them that Spencer doesn’t deserve to be the target of revenge.

As I make my way to the far end of the parking lot and see Jade and Angie standing there waiting for me, dread washes over me. This is it. Something has to happen in the next five minutes or I’m totally toast. Actually, Spencer’s the one who’s gonna be toast.

I stop about three feet away and stand there staring at them. They look like a smaller, duet version of the threesome that used to be our little group. And suddenly I realize what it feels like to be on the outside of that, looking in. Because right now, as I stand a good arm’s length away from them, observing their closeness, not only in proximity but in friendship, I nearly want to burst into tears. I miss them so much it hurts. And standing here on the outside, wanting so badly to be let back in, only makes it that much more poignant.

It’s impossible to tell if they miss me too, because their faces are like stone walls. They give away nothing. But judging by the fact that neither of them has returned any of my calls, I’m willing to guess they’re still pissed off.

“So, what have you got?” Jade asks me, her voice totally cold and detached and devoid of any sort of feeling.

“Um,” I say, suddenly feeling tongue-tied. “I guess you’ll just have to find out.”

I guess we’ll
all
have to find out,
I think. Because, unfortunately, I’ve still got nothing.

I can see a car in the distance. It’s heading down the last row of parking spaces and turning toward us. I squint to get a better look. It must be Jenna, coming to collect her blackmail check.

And that’s when I realize that I’ve made a huge mistake. Enormous. How could I not plan
something
? How could I show up here empty-handed and leave everything up to fate? What kind of idiot even does that? That’s like the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Even stupider than that joke about the guy who gets caught in the flood, so convinced that God will save him that he turns down the help of two rescue boats and a helicopter. Well, you know what happens, don’t you? He drowns. Yep, the flood swallows him up. Then when he gets up to heaven, he asks God why he didn’t save him and God says, “I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What else do you want from me?”

Now that’s me. Drowning in my own stupidity. About to be eaten alive by the floods and tidal waves of Hurricane Jenna, all the while saying, “Karma will save me, I believe.”

How could I be so blind?

As its daytime running lights glow in the distance and the car inches closer, I know I’m doomed. And Spencer is going to suffer because of my lack of judgment. It’s not fair. He doesn’t deserve any of it.

Where is Karma now? Why is it always forsaking me in my
time of need?
Why?
I was honest. And I’m trying to be good. I swear I am.

I turn my back to the car and shut my eyes. I can’t watch. I know some people get kicks out of watching car crashes on TV, but I can’t just stand there and watch my life run straight into a brick wall.

I hear the car door open, and I wait. Wait for her voice. Wait for it to be over.

But I don’t hear it.

Instead I hear a loud gasp. Then I hear Angie say, “Oh my God.” And I can’t take it anymore. I open my eyes and turn around.

And when I do, I see that it’s not, in fact, Jenna who is waiting there. It’s Spencer. He’s standing next to his car, a clever smile plastered on his face.

It’s not his flashy German sports car or his slick designer button-down shirt that’s inspiring the looks of absolute astonishment on the faces of my friends. But rather, what he’s proudly holding in his outstretched hand.

A small pink notebook.

I’ve definitely heard
of knights in shining armor showing up to rescue you. That’s old news. But knights in shiny new BMW convertibles showing up to rescue you? Now, that’s original.

“How did you get this?” I shriek to Spencer as I throw my arms around his neck.

He laughs tenderly at my excitement. “Easy. I just asked Jenna very nicely to give it to me, and she did.”

I look at him skeptically. “Seriously? All you did was
ask
nicely and she handed it over?”

“Yeah,” Spencer says, his voice implying that he has no idea why I would suspect otherwise.

He glances back at Jade and Angie, and neither of them appears entirely convinced either.

“Okay,” Spencer finally admits. “So I kind of had to give her something in return.”

“I knew it,” I replied. “What did you have to give her?”

“My word.”

“Your word on what?”

“My word not to tell anyone that she defaced her own locker.”

This makes me laugh. And pretty soon Jade and Angie are joining in. And it feels incredible. My two best friends laughing with my new boyfriend.

Then Spencer does this totally strange thing. I mean, it’s cute and sweet, but totally not something I would ever expect him to do. He steps toward Jade and Angie and actually offers his hand for both of them to shake. Then he says, “Hi, I’m Spencer Cooper. I don’t believe we’ve met.”

At first, it seems condescending to me, but it doesn’t take long for me to realize that he’s being sincere. My friends
haven’t
met him before. At least not the real Spencer Cooper.

Spencer is so far from the person that we once thought he was. And the remarkable thing is that we made those judgments about him without ever speaking to him once. How crazy is that? But that’s just high school. Your reputation precedes you, no matter how accurate or inaccurate it is.

Maybe Spencer
used
to be the person that is represented in the school’s gossip archives. Maybe he used to be this really rich, stuck-up kid who hosted kick-ass, invitation-only parties at his parents’ loft and who barely took notice of the little people, but that’s not who he is today. And if we judged everyone by who they
were
and not who they’ve learned to become, well then, I guess none of us would have any friends. Including me.

I’d like to say that things are finally back to normal, but I’m not sure I know what normal is anymore. I mean if normal is having everything exactly the same as it used to be, before all of this went
down, then no, things are not back to normal. And trust me, that’s a good thing. But if normal is having my friends back in my life, then I guess maybe things are pretty normal these days.

The first thing we did after we got back the Karma Club notebook was to rip out all of the pages that had anything to do with our previous endeavor and start fresh. I explained the rules of the new (and improved) Karma Club. A club that’s not a secret. That’s not exclusive. And that’s not reserved for members only. Anyone can join.

And most important, it’s not about seeking revenge and Karmic payback. It’s about spreading good Karma throughout the lives of the people around you. I can be the first to testify that it works.

If I hadn’t come clean to Spencer about everything, then he wouldn’t have even known about Jenna and the stolen notebook. And he wouldn’t have been able to get it back for us. So you see, it all worked out in the end.

I so knew that it would.

Okay, I had some small doubts when it came down to the wire, but the story sounds much better when I say that I was an unwavering believer the entire time.

Jade and Angie have recently followed suit and started a few good Karma initiatives of their own. Jade joined this children’s theater program in the city that provides an opportunity for kids to be involved in plays and musicals. And Angie started volunteering at a teen drug abuse hotline center where she gets to talk to troubled kids about illegal drugs and misused prescriptions.

So far it seems to be working. A few weeks ago, the police caught the guys who broke into Mr. Miller’s store when they attempted to hold up a mini-mart in the next town. Now, I don’t know if this
is in any way directly related to what the three of us have been doing, but I’d like to think we played at least a small part in it.

I’d like to think that Karma has been looking out for us.

Also, Jade managed to get a scholarship to UCLA after all. It wasn’t the one she had applied for, but when the scholarship fund found out about her volunteer work at the theater, they decided to create a brand-new scholarship just for her!

And me? I’m still with Spencer obviously. His parents ended up donating a huge chunk of money to help my tutoring program get off the ground. He told me it was tax deductible and his parents are always interested in finding new tax-deductible expenditures, but I know that’s not the only reason they decided to donate the money. I’m sure Spencer had a hand in convincing them as well.

I’ve tried many times to sum everything up in my head using another E! News report, but the truth of the matter is, E! News doesn’t usually report on stuff like this. There’s just not enough drama to warrant an account. I don’t think I mind all that much, though. There are plenty of things that I would choose to fill the other half of my Yin-Yang . . . and drama is definitely not one of them.

Obviously I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still get just a
small
kick out of the fact that Mason Brooks is scheduled to start community college in the fall because no other school would accept him. Or the fact that Heather Campbell’s face still hasn’t
fully
recovered from the Crisco incident. I’m only human. But trust me, that feeling is nothing compared to the one you get when you actually help someone who didn’t think that anyone ever would.

______

At the beginning of June, I’m presented with all types of graduation gifts. My mom gets me a new cell phone, my dad buys me a laptop for college, and Spencer gives me this really gorgeous, monogrammed leather notebook that’s supposed to be the new and improved Karma Club notebook.

Jade, Angie, and I give each other new charms for our bracelets. We keep the Yin-Yangs on there, obviously. But we replace the other charms with ones that more appropriately reflect the positive things we’ve been trying to do around here lately. Jade buys us charms in the shape of a theater mask to represent the work she’s been doing with her volunteer program. Angie gives us charms in the shape of a telephone to signify her affiliation with the substance abuse hotline. And I hand out charms in the shape of an
A
with a plus sign next to it. Because I can only hope that there are a lot more report cards with that grade being brought home these days.

But I have to say that my favorite graduation gift actually comes from
Contempo Girl
magazine.

It’s a full-page article in the July issue, and it hits newsstands in a few days. But I’ve already had the privilege of reading it. They sent me this really cool framed copy of it a couple of days ago. And right now it’s hanging on the wall of my bedroom so I can see it every time I walk into the room.

THE KARMA CLUB

Karma has a new name, and that name is Madison Kasparkova. A graduating senior at Pine Valley’s Colonial High School, Madison and her friends Jade Bristow and Angela
Harper recently launched a local initiative that they hope to take worldwide someday. It’s called the Karma Club, and its purpose is to do good.

“When people look at teenagers, all they see are self-centered, unsympathetic young adults who only care about how many text messages they have on their mobile plan,” Kasparkova told
Contempo Girl
in a phone interview last month. “The Karma Club just seeks to inspire kids our age to make a difference. To put other people’s well-being in front of their own. Because if all teens did that, even once, then we’d be that much closer to putting an end to the negative stigma that surrounds us.”

Madison’s most recent good Karma initiative? A volunteer tutoring program for students in underprivileged school districts who can’t afford the expensive tutoring sessions that some of the professional agencies are offering. “Kids volunteer to tutor in their favorite subjects, and then we go to these schools and schedule the sessions. The program really kind of runs itself,” Kasparkova said. “All you need is people who want to help.”

When our editors asked Kasparkova whether she plans to continue her work next year while attending Amherst College in Massachusetts she replied, “Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

According to its founding members, the inspiration behind the Karma Club is a secret that none of them are willing to talk about. But they did say that it started with an idea that went terribly wrong. Only later did they discover that “Karma is a powerful force. It can be your best friend or your greatest enemy. It all depends on how you choose to look at it.” Well,
it doesn’t really matter how it came to be, the good news is that it’s here.

To find out what you can do to join the Karma Club and make a difference in your community simply visit
www.thekarmaclub.org
and sign up for local volunteer events.