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friends— that's why! " Then
she slammed down the phone.

CHAPTER 8
    "Not one single person that I talked to liked the idea
of a garage sale," complained Melanie at the fence before school the next
morning.
    "Who did you talk to?" asked Beth. She was still
fuming about her conversation with Keith the night before.
    "Scott, Shane, and Garrett," said Melanie. "They
all said that garage sales were either stupid or just for girls. They also
thought the idea of raising the money to pay for the damages to the school was
pretty bad, too. They think that we shouldn't have to do a thing like that."
    "That's exactly what Keith said," Beth grumbled. "I
couldn't believe it."
    "I didn't have much better luck with my calls either,"
admitted Christie. "I called Alexis Duvall and Kim Baxter and they both
thought paying for the damages was some kind of joke. They liked the idea of a garage
sale, though," she added. "But they wanted to keep the profits from
the things they sold."
    "The same with Funny Hawthorne and Dekeisha Adams,"
said Jana. "Oh, yes, and Mona Vaughn."
    "I can't believe this," Beth stormed. "What's
the matter with everybody? Do they like being called irresponsible and
materialistic?"
    "I agree with you," said Katie. "I got the
same reaction from Shawnie Pendergast, and Tony nearly laughed my ear off when
I called him. But what are we going to do? Obviously having a garage sale isn't
the answer."
    "Well, one thing's certain. We can't give up,"
said Beth. "We just can't take the rap for Steve Melchoir and his
crowd. I guess it's back to the drawing board. Everybody think, and we'll talk
about it again at lunch."
    Standing before her open locker a few minutes later, Beth
saw Keith coming toward her, and she felt herself getting angry at him all over
again. Giving her locker door a slam, she wheeled around to face him.
    "Hey, why did you hang up on me last night? All I did
was express my opinion," Keith protested. "I don't see why you had to
get so mad about it."
    Beth rolled her eyes to the ceiling in exasperation and
slowly counted to three. "Keith, don't you understand? We have to do
something to get ourselves off the hook. The television, the newspaper, even
our own teachers are blasting us and saying we're all alike. I don't know about
you, but I resent that, and I want to do something about it."
    "Not all of our teachers are saying things like that,"
said Keith. "Mr. Dracovitch made a big speech in biology class yesterday
about what a great job we did cleaning up the mess. He said that the kids who
stayed around to help were an example of what's good about teenagers and that
more people should recognize that. And if any teacher should be mad, he should.
Half his science equipment got broken."
    "One teacher. Big deal," Beth mumbled. She wanted
to add, why did it have to be Mr. Dracovitch, of all people? But she didn't.
The science teacher was called Dracula behind his back because he wore a shiny,
black toupee and did strange things such as having his classes dissect cows'
eyeballs and burning garbage in his lab to try to find a way to make plastics
biodegradable. She knew he did those things to draw attention to his science
classes and get kids interested, but some kids still thought he was just plain
weird.
    Keith shrugged. "Can we change the subject?"
    Now it was Beth's turn to shrug. "Sure. What do you
want to talk about?"
    "I was wondering if I could come over to your house
tonight after supper. I've got a new Brain Damage tape, and is it terrific."
    Beth's heart fluttered. "Great. I love Brain Damage. I'll
get my homework done right after I get home, and I'm sure my parents won't
mind."
    Just then the first bell rang and Keith said goodbye and
headed toward his homeroom. Beth smiled to herself as she hurried to her own
homeroom. Brain Damage was her absolutely favorite rock group. They had been
ever since they played a concert in town a few months earlier. That was when
Laura McCall and she were involved in a bragging