Green Algae and Bubble Gum Wars (9 page)

“For my budding little scientist…anything!” her father said with an approving nod. “But only on one condition: no more late-night research projects. Deal?”

Katani laughed. “Deal.”

When the doorbell rang, Katani ran for her bedroom and put her head under the pillow. But not before she heard her father say, “Sorry, officers. It was nice of the neighbors to call, but our ‘intruder' was just a budding scientist who wanted a head start.”

Katani hoped the policemen weren't blabbermouths. She would be so embarrassed if it got out that Katani Summers was caught doing homework in the middle of the night.

L
et me get this straight…you were breaking and entering[ ]…in
your own house
?” Avery was laughing so hard that milk had begun to drip out of her nostrils. The thought of her completely cool, confident friend Katani caught red-handed like some kind of criminal cracked Avery up.

Katani shook her head, making the color-coordinated beads in her hair clatter. “Shhhh…I know it was bad, but let's not announce it to the whole school. Definitely not one of my coolest moments,” Katani admitted.

“Hey, on the bright side, your mom's a lawyer right? So she can represent you…a
nd
sue you?” Isabel joked.

“Ha ha, very funny, girls. But seriously, you have no idea what kind of pressure I'm feeling here! I need my project to be awesome…and so far all I've done is totally freak out my family,” Katani paused and let out a giant yawn, “and stayed up way too late. But on the plus side I think I know what I want to do my project on…well, kinda. My dad was telling me some basic stuff about electricity and alternative energy
this morning. I was thinking I could look into some of those other kinds of energy sources…maybe. But it's gonna be tough since I don't know anything about it.”

Charlotte put her hand on her friend's shoulder. “Are you kidding, Katani? You'll get this done.” She picked up a pickle from her lunch tray and held it over the table. “Anyone want to trade a pickle for a cookie?” Isabel, Maeve, and Katani looked at her as if she had three heads.

“Throw in half your turkey sub and we'll call it even,” Avery agreed, snatching the pickle out of Charlotte's hand.

Maeve thrust her head into her hands and grabbed at her hair in typical dramatic fashion. “Ugh! I'm the one with the extremely wonderful tutor who's a whiz at science…and I don't have a clue what I'm going to do my project on. I can't believe how on the ball you are already, Katani. Everybody's always ahead of me on school stuff!”

Suddenly, Katani heard the sound of snorting from the table behind them. “Katani Summers? On the ball? I thought that sports wasn't your thing.”

Katani felt her blood boil, but kept her Kgirl cool and slowly turned around to see who would make such a lame remark. She found herself face-to-freckled-face with Reggie DeWitt, a.k.a Math Boy, a.k.a one of the top students in the seventh grade…and therefore, her academic rival. Especially since Reggie had decided he didn't want her as his partner for the big math project a few weeks ago—just because Katani forgot to show up for one little meeting. And then he acted like a total weirdo around her, even
after
Katani wrote him a really nice apology note. What
ever.
At this point, Katani really had no interest whatsoever in speaking to Mr. Reggie DeWitt at all.

But the Reggie DeWitt in front of her was definitely not the Reggie DeWitt she was used to. Katani exchanged a look with the rest of the BSG, who were all staring at Math Boy. He had always been a khakis-and-a-button-down kind of guy—but now he looked like he had walked straight off the set of a hip-hop video, wearing an oversize black hoodie with baggy jeans and a baseball cap turned slightly sideways.

“Uh, Reggie, what's with the new look?” Avery asked.

“Just a little change of pace, ladies,” Reggie smoothly explained. He was eating lunch alone at a table behind them surrounded by a mountain of text books. With one slick shift, however, he was suddenly sitting backwards on his lunch chair at the BSG table, jammed smack between Avery and Katani…and the Kgirl was not pleased.

“Whaddya think, Katani? I know you're really into clothes and stuff,” he asked, leaning in closer so she couldn't help noticing his sparkling green eyes. She suddenly flashed back to that time before she wasn't speaking to him, when they first started working on the math project, when she had noticed for the first time how cute he was…

Katani shook her head to get rid of all those thoughts. Reggie had dumped her, and she was mad. She frowned at him. “I don't think it's really your style,” she said coldly.

Reggie seemed to lose his cool for a moment, then regrouped and went right on. “Now, I'm curious, as the founders of the Green Machine, what are you girls doing your projects on?” Reggie asked. Charlotte had to admire his recovery. Katani could freeze a cup of Montoya's hot chocolate in August with one of her stares.

“Yeah, right—like I'd tell you!” Katani balked. “There's
no way you're gonna steal
my
ideas, Reggie DeWitt.”

Reggie began to laugh. “Steal your ideas? Oh, that's a good one! Brains, fashion, and a sense of humor…you are too much, Katani.” He laughed so loud and for so long that Katani started to wonder if Reggie hadn't spent one too many hours staring at his math textbook. The girls looked at one another again, all of them thinking the same thing:
What happened to Math Boy?

“What's so funny?” Isabel demanded. She wanted him to stop with the weird laughter.

“Nah, it's nothing,” he said, catching his breath. “Just that, well, I think it's real funny that you guys suspect me of being an idea stealer. But the fact of the matter is…it's just not necessary. You see, science and me…well, it's kind of a gift. This is really embarrassing, but last year, I did this essay on how coral reefs are being destroyed by climate change, and my teacher entered it into this nationwide competition, and I came in second in the country. There was all this scholarship money involved, and I just felt so guilty about it, 'cause I just wrote the essay for fun, you know?”

The BSG looked at each other and Avery made a funny noise. “I'm sure that was really hard on you, Reg,” she snorted.

“Dude!” Reggie insisted. “I felt so guilty about it. At least when I whup you all in the science fair this time”—he raised his eyebrows mischievously—“I'll be doing it on purpose.”

“How kind of you,” Katani said sarcastically.

Reggie folded his arms. “It is, don't you think? So tell me, Miss Summers, what is your brilliant project for the fair gonna be?”

Katani was just about to tell Reggie to leave her alone, when she heard another enthusiastic voice approaching. “Ooh, are we talking about the science fair?” It was Betsy Fitzgerald. Katani wondered why was it that when school pressure was at its worst, all the most competitive students seemed to stick to her like glue. Was there some sort of sign on her back that said “Annoy me” or something? (If so, she hoped it matched her purse!)

“I'm super-psyched about my project. I'm investigating the effects of global warming on the gray whale.” Betsy also didn't wait for an invitation to sit down at the BSG table. She slung her bag on the table and continued, “Did you know that climate change is affecting their food supply? They're skinny. And did you know that brown bears in Spain are affected? And did you know that the Arctic foxes in, of course, the Arctic are affected?”

Maeve glanced at Charlotte and shook her head. If Betsy Fitzgerald ever wrote her autobiography, Maeve supposed that the title would be “Did You Know That…?”

Reggie seemed to be losing interest fast, and turned his attention back to Katani. “You still haven't told me about your project, Katani. Give it up, yo.”

Watching Reggie try to get under Katani's skin reminded Charlotte of how her old friend Philippe from Paris used to tease her all the time. He loved writing like Charlotte, but of course writing in French was always a little easier for a native Parisian like him than for Charlotte, whose first language was English. He liked to mimic Charlotte's grammar and point out when she used tenses incorrectly. At the time, it made her so furious. Now she could see that this was Philippe's—and
Reggie's—way of trying to flirt. If this is what boys did when they liked you, Charlotte wondered what they did when they
didn't
like you. Judging by the death stare Katani was shooting at Reggie, his flirting attempts were failing fast.

“Well, I have an idea for my project,” Charlotte volunteered, hoping to divert Reggie's attention. “I want to do something on alternative energy too, Katani. I'm thinking I'll get Miss Pierce to help me, because she's an astronomer, after all. She knows so much about the stars…she'll be able to help me understand how our star, the sun, fuels our whole planet. Actually, I called her last night to see when she could talk to me, but she said she's busy until next week.” Charlotte looked down, a little glumly. “I might try again this afternoon, though. I mean, I'm just so excited to get started!”

“That's a great idea, Char,” Isabel complimented her. “I've actually done a little work on my project, too. Check this out.” Isabel pulled her sketchbook out of her bag and flipped to some beautiful, green illustrations. “These are my drawings of algae. They're just some rough sketches. I'm not sure where I'm going with it yet, but I was thinking of using my art to show how global warming affects algae.”

As the kids at the table oohed and aahed over Isabel's work, Maeve felt her own tongue go dry. How did her friends already have so much of their projects figured out, when she still didn't have a clue?

“Maeve? Yo—Earth to Maeve…is everything okay?” Avery waved her hand in front of Maeve's face.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine,” Maeve replied, blinking back to reality.

“Really?” asked Isabel. “You've been acting kind of weird
all through lunch. Are you sure there's not something bothering you?”

Isabel looked concerned. Maeve wondered if Elena Maria had mentioned their little run-in at the mall on Monday. Usually, Maeve adored being the center of attention. But right now, with not only the BSG staring at her, but Reggie and Betsy too, Maeve was not enjoying the spotlight. “I'm fine! Everything's fine. Geez…” she muttered, dabbing a few beads of sweat from her forehead. “Why, did someone say something?” Maeve asked Isabel softly.

Isabel looked bewildered. “Say something? Say something about what?”

“Something about…” Maeve's voice dropped, “
something…
” Maeve jerked her head and glanced around the whole table. Suddenly the whole table burst out in laughter.

“Yikes, Maeve!” Avery chuckled. “You really had me going there for a second. I say, don't worry so much about the projects, dudes. This is supposed to be
fun
on top of being all educational, remember? And I mean, I'm the one who came up with the idea for the Green Machine, and I don't even have a clue about my science fair project yet. There's just so many different things you could do a project on! Like global warming, recycling, animal habitats…”

While Avery rattled on and on, Maeve felt relieved that the subject had been changed to something that wasn't her, but she still wasn't 100 percent convinced that Elena Maria hadn't told Isabel about her bra. Soon enough, she knew, it would be time to come clean.

Just then, out of the corner of her eye, Charlotte noticed Anna McMasters giggling about something with Kiki
Underwood. If Anna and Joline were the Queens of Mean, Kiki was the Grand Empress of Mean. And when those girls got to chilling together, Charlotte knew they were up to no good. Using her detective skills, Charlotte pulled a small mirror from her bag to inspect the scene going on behind her.

She watched closely as Kiki handed Anna a tiny, bright blue rectangle. “This stuff is totally off the hook!” Anna squealed. She popped the little rectangle into her mouth and started chewing noisily. “I mean, it's really good,” she said to Kiki through a mouth full of blue goo, “but are you sure bubble gum is…like…cool?”

Charlotte watched Kiki narrow her eyes at Anna. Then she shrugged and started casually putting her stuff back into her purse. “Whatever, Anna. If you don't want to be on top of this trend, that's fine with me. I'm sure there are tons of other girls in our class who want to be official Tru Blu Promotion Girls.”

“No no no no no,” Anna replied quickly, smacking the gum even harder and faster. “You're so right! This gum is totally hot!” She jumped up and marched right over to stand near the BSG table. “Everyone wants to know where I got it, Kiks!”

Kiki cackled delightedly. “Oh, there is a whole big bag where this came from, girlfriend. This gum is so delish, and it blows the biggest bubbles. It hasn't been released to stores yet, but when it does, can you imagine how
huge
it'll be? Plus, with Jake Axle endorsing this? We're going to be unstoppable!”

Charlotte snapped her mirror shut, realizing that spying wasn't really spying if the people you were spying on
wanted
to be spied on. She made a note to write that one down, as it would make a fabulous tongue twister.

“This new deal with the gum factory is going to make your dad filthy rich,” Anna gushed. “You could like have your own yacht or something.”

“My dad and me rock,” Kiki added, shooting the BSG a glance to make sure they were listening. “I love my life!” she sang as she and Anna skipped away.

“Gum factory?” Avery looked around the table suspiciously. “What the heck was that about?”

Reggie chortled. “Don't you girls read the paper? There was a huge article in the newspaper just two days ago. You know Kiki Underwood's dad is a manager for rock bands, right? He manages Jake Axle. Well, he made a deal with this huge bubble gum factory that's about to open here in Boston, and Jake Axle is endorsing the product. His new song, “I Am Rubber, You Are Glue” is going to be on all the gum commercials. I mean, not that I listen to pop music, but—”

“Gum factory!” Avery cried in outrage. “Gum factory? Another factory spewing toxic chemicals into the air is the last thing Boston needs. Did you guys know about this?”

Betsy Fitzgerald folded her arms. “Are you kidding? I pride myself on staying on top of all current events: global, national, and
especially
local. This factory is nowhere near the T and no buses go there, so there'll be lots of commuters' cars pumping more fossil fuel fumes into the air. And the real problem is that Tru Blu is totally overpackaged—wrappers over wrappers over wrappers. It's so not Green. But…I don't know about toxic chemicals, Avery. I didn't read anything in the paper about their carbon emissions or—”