Once again, the disclaimers...Katie Shannon, Jana Morgan, Melanie Edwards, Alexis Duvall, Kim Baxter, Liza or Beth Barry, and Christie Winchell as well as Mona Vaughn belong to Betsy Haynes, not the current author. So does the name Fabulous Five or Wakeman Middle.

And the BSC characters as BSC fans know, are the creation of Ann Martin, not the current author. Burkeview and other names that neither Fab Five or BSC fans recognize are the creation of this author and have been copyrighted.

There will be a little intermingling of former Fab Five characters in some of the upcoming chapters, but it's still mostly a BSC story, so it'll stay with the BSC. Soo, enjoy, all fans!

The BSC Legacy - Book 3: When Numbers Really Count

By: CNJ

PG-13

8: Liftoff of OTGY

Mona:

We made it to Aster and Duskers' the last Friday in September. The place was crowded as it usually is on weekend nights.

We'd gotten permission from the Washington Mall security and they gave us the okay once we left a copy of the flyer with them. All week in the halls, we'd been collecting from kids surreptitiously.

It was kind of a funny sight, when Mary Anne and Emily walked close in the hall and Emily passed her letter to Mary Anne and since they're both on the Stoneybrook Beacon, Mary Anne pretended it was an article for their paper when Simone Trentwood and Riles Greer passed them.

Later on, Claudia had leaned over the railing of the student lounge, then pretended to check something over by the stairs and Sandy Greenan purposely dropped her wallet and folder, leaned over to pick it up and quietly handed her letter to Claudia, who'd tucked it into her backpack folding her arms and leaning against the wall.

I myself had my letter written and had left it in Claudia's room, which is doubling as the headquarters for OTGY. Mary Anne is keeping a small notepad on who had turned letters in and which ones needed any questions answered or any editing.

I got a good response form a lot of Stamford and Mainview High kids who said that they'd get kids there to collect letters. One or more of us from the BSC would get over to Aster and Duskers' every Friday afternoon to collect letters and take them over to Claudia's.

I was hoping to catch some more Burkeview kids. After looking around a little, I spotted Alexis Duvall and another girl I didn't know.

"Alexis!" I called.

"Hi...oh, heyy, Mona, what's up?" she asked.

"A major movement at Stoneybrook High," I told her and explained about OTGY and told her that I was going to SHS and a little bit about the BSC.

"Sounds interesting," Alexis took a copy of the flyer.

She introduced me to the other girl and they looked over the flyer.

"Hey, you think Katie Shannon might pass the word around?"

Katie's a very solid thinker and makes other kids think too, once they get their minds off superficial things.

For instance, back in seventh grade at Wakeman Middle, Katie tried to raise awareness of how girls are still discriminated against and even started an all-girls' club.

But unfortunately, most of the girls didn't take her seriously and a lot of them were more concerned about getting and keeping boyfriends and clothes. The club had turned into a mostly makeup and clothes-modeling fest.

"She probably would." Alexis grinned. We talked a little, catching up, then Alexis told me she'd pass it around.

We came back every week. Unfortunately, Alexis said that only a few of the Burkeview kids had any real interest in OTGY a few weeks later when it was my turn to go. Only Katie, Beth Barry, Christie Winchell, Alexis and maybe sixteen other kids had put their letters in.

"Sorry about that," Alexis shrugged. Katie was with her and looked apologetic.

"No need to be," I smiled encouragingly at them. "Did you by some remote chance, get Jana or Melanie or Sara Sawyer?"

"Bwha..." Katie muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Not a chance," Alexis shook her head. "All's Jana cares about is Randy, Randy, Randy. And Randy and Melanie laughed in our faces while Jana cut us dead. And on top of that, Melanie's latched onto this new guy, Logan Bruno."

"Oh well..." I shrugged, looking over the small stack from Burkeview, then re-tucked the big stack from Stamford under my arm. "Thank you, you tried and I appreciate your efforts. I'll get these to Claudia."

"Good luck," Katie called. "If all of us women unite, we really will change this world for the better!"

I smiled and waved and we parted. As I met Abby and Mary Anne near the door, a girl ran up to us, a small stocky girl with dark hair. There was something familiar about her face. Maybe it was the way her brown eyes kind of searched our faces.

"Heyy, glad I caught you. Here's mine; I'm Karen and I'm a senior from Stamford High," she handed us her letter.

"Thanks," Claudia put the letter in her tote bag.

Claudia:

At Monday's BSC meeting between client calls, we sifted through TONS of letters.

"Wow..." I gasped.

"Heyy..." Stacey held up one. "I think Ms. Silverbein's daughter is in here."

She showed us and sure enough, that letter that the last girl there had handed us was Karen Silverbein. I'd heard that Ms. Silverbein was widowed and had three kids, two grown and one a senior in high school.

"So that's why she looked so familiar!" Mona snapped her fingers. "She looks a little like her mom and has the same coloring."

"She does," I nodded.

How true. Ms. Silverbein's black hair is now streaked with gray and she's stocky, has dark eyes, and is about five-six.

Thinking back, Karen even had the same heavy dark eyebrows as her mother, but they had grown together the way I think Ms. Silverbein's have. I think Ms. Silverbein has a clump of hair between her brows and she shaves that hair every morning. I giggled to myself at the thought.

"Can you imagine your mom being the principal?" Abby asked.

"I think that's why principals don't usually take positions at the same schools that their kids go to," Mary Anne told us. "I think a lot of kids are uncomfortable with that."

"Her kids are lucky," Kristy put in. "She's great."

"Hey, you all, I haven't given up on Burkeview yet," Mona put in. "There were only around sixteen, but remember they have a BIG clique there too. I think a lot of kids are still afraid of them."

"Probably." Anna nodded.

"I'm glad kids here are beginning to fight back," I put in

I remembered how powerful the In crowd at our school had been last year. Hopefully, more kids here and at Burkeview will get sick of those awful cliques pushing others around and join OTGY.

Mona:

Anna invited Mary Anne and me to her house one rainy afternoon. We'd made it into the holiday production that's coming out in December. Once we'd found out that we'd made it, we'd hi-fived and Mary Anne's eyes had filled with tears.

I'm glad Anna and Mary Anne would be up on stage with me. The thought of performing in front of a crowd still scares me, but with two of my good friends up there, it would be a lot easier.

By the time we got to the Stevensons' house, Abby was at a soccer meeting with Kristy and the rest of the team.

Anna's been teaching Mary Anne and me how to play the violin. It was quite a racket at first, because when you're learning to play a new instrument, you haven't got the coordination down. We wound up laughing a lot.

It's fun strumming away at the violin and I'd brought my guitar. Mary Anne loved the violin and whenever she got a good long note in, she'd close her eyes and look like she was in heaven or outer space. After a while, we took a break and had a snack and talked.

"It's great that we have this band." I told the others. "The middle school I went to, Wakeman, had one. But it was all guys, so I know we could use an all-girl band."

"Yeah." Mary Anne sipped her soda. "Boys run too many things in a lot of schools."

"Speaking of running things," Anna added. "Abby got a bunch more letters for OTGY, mostly from our school."

"I talked with some of the Burkeview kids," I put in. "Just a few of them added their letters, but I get the feeling more want to..."

I frowned, remembering how a lot of kids kind of wavered, then said things like, I'll think about it or some kind of response like they don't see anything negative about our generation...

" It sounds like some of them are afraid of what the BIG clique would do," Mary Anne added.

"Yeah..." I nodded. "I wish I could find a way to give them more courage. Katie Shannon said she's trying to get more kids involved and she hasn't gotten many responses either."

"I guess it's something only they themselves can develop," Anna said softly. "No one can really give it to them." Mary Anne's eyes were intense with sympathy as she lightly touched my arm.

"Well, I'm glad kids here at Stoneybrook are on the ball," I drained the last of my Mountain Dew. "Come on, want to practice more?"

"Sure..." we went back to our playing.