Hi, hope you've all enjoyed reading this story. This story is starting to wind down; after this chapter will be one more than this story is COMPLETED! The usual disclaimers and in addition, to borrow a quote that belongs to Ann Martin's, not this author...happy reading!


STACEY:

"Mom!" Syrie called out the door just as I pulled into the driveway after work on a balmy evening in early May. "Phone's for you!"

"Thanks, love," I gave her a kiss and headed inside and grabbed the phone.

"Stacey...?" It was Maya Oregla on the other end.

"This is Stacey," I responded, still catching my breath.

"Congratulations. Your experiment worked and could change how we use electricity forever," she told me.

"Oh, my God..." I gasped. The experiment I'd worked on all last summer. It...worked. It actually...

"You still...?"

"Yes, I'm here, I just..." I walked over to the kitchen chair and sat. "Thank you." I managed to say once I caught my breath.

"Thank *you.*" Maya congratulated.

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KRISTY:

"Heeey, Mom, here it is!" Liz called. I booked into the living room and sure enough, there was the story on Stacey's discovery about electricity. Claud and her kids were here too and all of us whooped.

"WAY TO GO, STACE!!!" We bellowed and did a high-five. Once we'd settled down, Mary Anne called, then Abby.

"Just think, the way of antennas and phone wires are becoming a thing of the past," Mary Anne told us.

"Right on!" Abby whooped.

"I think we should send her a congratulatory card," Anna, who I gathered was at Abby's, put in.

"Definitely," I agreed. "And all of us sign." I made a mental note to call Dawn, Mona, Mallory, and Jessi.

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MARY ANNE:

God, I'm so happy for Stace! I must have spent the next few weeks wiping tears from my eyes. Several of my students noticed and grinned. They know that I'm close friends with Stacey and they'd seen the news reports about her invention. Carly Bradbur, the science teacher, was having a good time with her classes talking about this.

"They're just soo excited about this," she told me as we had a snack in the lounge between classes. "Never have I had so many student be this enthused about science. If only it'll last after the novelty wears off." We both laughed some. "Hey, I'm sure you're getting a million, but add my congrats to your friend up in Vermont."

"I will," I nodded.

"Heard anything about the position you applied for?" Carly asked, stirring her coffee.

"Nope. I suppose if I get the position, they'll notify me this week."

"Good luck, dear," Carly reached out and held my hand. "If anyone deserves to be promoted to principal, it's you." I thought about that as I walked back to my next class. If I was twelve still, I wouldn't have considered myself a leader. I smiled ruefully as I remembered the braids I used to wear and the jumpers and little girl cords I also wore with them. A few minutes later, my students for seventh period trickled in, babbling about the end of school being a month away and about upcoming final exams. Bit by bit, they sat. About two-thirds way through the class, my cell rang and I answered it. It was a call from the office telling me to come down.

"Class..." I told them. "I have to see about something in the office, so I'll be gone a few moments. Go ahead and start on tonight's homework."

"Sure..." "Yeah..." "We will..."

I headed on down, figuring maybe about half of the students would get started while the other half would pull out their own books, finish conversations with friends, or the multitude of other things tenth-graders do when they're sitting in a classroom a month before the end of another school year.

"Congratulations, Mary Anne," Alexa Zerra, the principal told me as she shook my hand once I got to the office. "You have the position as principal of Lazarus High."

"Oh...God!" I gasped. "Thank...you!" I looked around at the secretary from Lazarus and at the office people and they all clapped and whooped.

"And from one principal to another, good luck!" Alexa added with a grin.

"Thanks..." Tears came and Alexa grabbed some tissues. I cried into the tissues, tears of gratitude and happiness filling my soul and the room. I was glad Lazarus was near this school, too. It slowly sunk in as I wiped my eyes. Me, Mary Anne Spiser, high school principal. I couldn't wait to get home and e-mail my friends and Leah Silverbein as well.

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TAMARA:

I was debating on whether to put something in the oven as I was finishing my homework when Mom came home. "Hiii!" Alma and I called.

"Hello, dears!" Mom called back, coming upstairs. "Feel like eating out tonight?" she asked my sister and me.

"Yeaaah..." Alma and I both chimed in as we came out to the landing where she was and she put her arms around both of us and kissed each of us on the top of our heads. I sensed she was really happy about something. I wondered if she'd finished the book she was writing already and maybe sent it off early. It wasn't due until August, but there are always exceptions.

"You seem happy, Mom," Alma said as we headed downstairs.

"I am and I'll tell you why when we get there," Mom took off her earrings and tucked them into the side pocket of her purse, tossed a stack of student papers onto the coffee table, then we left. In the car, we decided on the Cheesecake Factory. Sound like a funny name? Actually, the place is more that just cheesecakes, which I love also. They have all sorts of other food there. Sometimes the wait is rather long, so they often give you a pager. But it was Thursday evening and it wouldn't be as crowded as it is on Friday and Saturday night. It was about half hour before we were seated and meanwhile, we strolled around Barnes and Noble bookstore. I leafed through a biography on the dancer Harry Potter, remembering how we'd seen him last December in the ballet. It was interesting and I considered buying it, but I was saving my baby-sitting money for a computer of my own soon along with several programs and modems to go with it. We have several shared ones in the house and Mom has two of her own in her room. Once our pager went off and we were seated, Mom told us the good news...she'd gotten her promotion to principalship.

"Ohhh, SWELL!" I squealed.

"Terrific!" Alma added, jumping up and giving Mom a hug. Once she was done, I reached over and gave her a hug, almost toppling my water.

"So, what high school is it again?" I asked once we'd settled down again and people stopped glancing at us.

"Lazarus High," Mom told us.

"That's right near Harvington Mall in Queens," I remembered. We live in the Manhattan borough. Just then the waiter came by and took our orders. We're big tea drinkers, so with dessert, Mom asked for another tea bag.

"What happened to your other one?" the waiter looked puzzled.

"We ate it," I blurted out. Mom put a hand over her mouth and stifled a laugh and Alma tittered. The waiter looked bewildered a second, then went and brought over the other tea bag. Once he left, we cracked up for real.

"Strange question..." Mom barely managed between laughter.

"Yeah..." Alma put in, taking a breath. By the time Mom paid the check, her face was flushed and we took our time leaving. By then the sun was setting. It was really pretty, lighting up the sky in oranges and bright magentas over the New York City skyline. It seemed also the smell of newly blooming flowers and trees were stronger now that it was night.

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KRISTY:

"WAY TO GO, MARY ANNE!" I bellowed into the phone later on that night. All of us in the BSC, including Mal and Jessi, were by either our cells or conventional phones that Friday night by conference call, so the rest of my friends also chimed in their congrats. Wow! That makes two of us BSC who've accomplished something this year! Stacey, who was still excited over her discovery, was doubly excited for Mary Anne.

"I e-mailed Leah Silverbein and told her the news," Mary Anne told us. "She wished me good luck, principal to principal. It's so hard to believe."

"You'll be a natural at it," Anna put in.

"Isn't it great I wheedled her to apply?" Dawn joked.

"You've weathered your way to the top," Mona added. All of us talked for a while, eventually moving on to other things when we sensed Mary Anne blushing a deep red which I know she does when she gets a lot of attention. Even now, electricity's becoming easier to use. I'm already getting offers in my store's website and snail mail about products selling without plugs and on something called neotricty. I told my friends about it and we pondered back on how it must have been for people in the late 1800's when the phone was first invented.

"It was have blown them away when they picked up that little receiver from a box in the wall and could hear someone across the country," Abby put in.

"And back then, phones weren't always reliable," Claud added.

"Like the net back in the early part of this century," Mallory chimed in. We all chucked, remembering how the internet back then often went down and sometimes website would inexplicably "crash." It still breaks down occasionally, but not as often and only in exceptional circumstances. It was almost as good as one of our physical get-togethers, all of us here on a conference call.

"You know what's good about modern technology?" Mary Anne asked. "We're able to stay in close touch, even though we're scattered all over the States."

"Yeah..." "Got that right..." We put in. It is. So many changes, yet part of us stays constant in our lives and I was glad one of those unchanging constant is our friendship, our unbreakable bond with each other.