Fabulous Five 017 - Celebrity Auction Read Online Free PDF

how
responsible and hardworking Wakeman kids really are."
    "Way to go!" said Katie, thrusting her fist into
the air. "If a garage sale will get Marge Whitworth to do a story like
that, I'm all for it."
    "Why wait until the morning?" asked Melanie. "Let's
start calling kids as soon as we get home. I'll call Scott and Shane and
Garrett."
    Everyone agreed that Melanie's idea was a good one, and Beth
rushed home, making a list in her mind of whom she would call. First, she would
call Keith. She would never admit that to her friends, though, or else they
would accuse her of being as boy crazy as Melanie. It was just that she hadn't
had much chance to talk to Keith since yesterday afternoon when he apologized
for putting green slime in her hair. Maybe if she asked him to help with the
garage sale, he would realize that she really did like him, in spite of how
immature he acted sometimes.
    The kitchen was empty when she reached home, and she put her
books down on the table and picked up the phone.
    ". . . and when she told me that, I knew Jessica
had been lying . . ."
    Beth crossed her eyes in exasperation. "Brittany,"
she pleaded. "I really need to use the phone. It's important."
    "Bug off, little sister. This is a very private
conversation."
    "But, Britt," Beth insisted. "I'm not joking.
I really do have to make some important calls."
    "I'm full of sympathy," Brittany said with a bored
sigh. "And you can certainly make them just as soon as I'm off the phone. Got
it? "
    Beth narrowed her eyes, then held the receiver three inches
above the cradle. It dropped with a loud clatter. "I've got it," she
mumbled to herself as she heard her sister shriek in the upstairs hall. "And
now you've got it, right in the ear."
    Beth grabbed a slice of cold pizza out of the refrigerator
and headed for her room to wait for her turn at the phone, thinking about how
awful it was being the middle one of five kids in the Barry household. Nobody
ever paid any attention to what she needed, much less what she wanted. Brittany
was sixteen and Brian was seventeen, and they were always claiming privileges
because they were older. Todd, eleven, and Alicia, five, were the babies of the
family and kept their parents wrapped around their little fingers. She sighed
as she heard the familiar padding of paws up the stairs behind her. Only
Agatha, the family's Old English sheepdog, seemed to really care about her.
    "And all you really care about is getting some of my
pizza. Right?" she said good-naturedly, ruffling Agatha's shaggy hair with
her free hand. "Okay. Come on. I'll share it with you."
    By the time she finally got the telephone and dialed Keith's
number, it was almost suppertime. Mrs. Masterson answered, and Beth could hear
her yelling for Keith, who took forever to get to the phone.
    "Hi," he said, and Beth could hear him panting as
though he had been running.
    "Hi, Keith. It's Beth," she said as cheerfully as
she could.
    "Yeah?" he said with a trace of impatience in his
voice.
    She took a deep breath and tried to get a conversation
started. "So, what were you doing?"
    "Shooting baskets with a couple of guys," he said.
"What do you want?"
    "Oh, well . . . um," she fumbled. This didn't
sound like the best time in the world to bring up a garage sale, but she was
stuck. She didn't have anything else to talk about. "My friends and I
thought that if all the students at Wakeman got together and had a garage sale,
we could raise the money to pay for the damages the vandals did. What do you
think of the idea?"
    "What!" Keith shrieked. "A garage sale! Whose
dumb idea was that? Besides, we don't have to pay for the damages. We didn't do
anything."
    Beth gulped hard. She could feel her face turning red and
was thankful that Keith couldn't see her. "It was The Fabulous Five's dumb
idea. And for your information, we do, too, need to pay for the damages
ourselves. It's the only way that we'll be able to prove to adults that all
kids aren't like Steve Melchior and his