The BSC Legacy - Book 3: When Numbers Really Count

By: CNJ

PG-13

15: Countdown to Winter Break

Mary Anne:

I feel happier than I have in ages. I'm feeling more comfortable in the rental house...not as lost as I did earlier.

I still feel sad sometimes thinking about our farmhouse, but that house is slowly being rebuilt and bit by bit, we're replacing all the things that we lost in that awful fire last summer.

Sharon, Dawn, and Dad seem more at ease too. Sharon doesn't talk about blaming herself anymore and I haven't heard Dad getting up at night.

I got the feeling that they had also felt lost, even though they didn't admit it. In English class that Thursday before the winter break, Ms. Cerrata handed back our tests.

"Yeeeeeee-HAAAA!" Stephanie Myler crowed. "Ninety-SIX!"

"Battle-ax gave me..." Simone Trentwood muttered, slamming her paper down.

I got a ninety-six also. The lost four points were for leaving out the connection between the two parts of the second question. But I was happy with the score.

"Ohhh nooo..." Lara Garrett wailed beside me as the other kids talked, whooped, or groaned.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I flunked." Lara's eyes welled up with tears.

"You can't have..." My stomach sank. "We went over that so many times..."

"Well, I did!" Lara snapped, flinging her paper at me.

Then she burst into tears. My heart joined my stomach when I saw her score...fifty-five.

"Oh, Lara, I'm so sorry..." Tears came to my eyes and spilled down over my face before I could stop them.

"Hey, Mary Anne, why're you crying?" Caitlin peered over. "You aced your test."

I tried to speak, but couldn't, so I pulled out tissues, handed some to Lara, then both of us just sobbed and sobbed softly.

I heard kids wondering what was wrong with us, but I didn't care. I wiped my eyes, stared at my ninety-six, which I'd been so proud of a moment ago, folded it up into a wad and stuffed it into my English folder.

"Uhhhh, ohhhh, ohhhuhhh, Mary Anne's CRYIN'...as usual!" Riles Greer singsonged, then laughed and pointed at me.

Perhaps I should have been embarrassed, but I was beyond embarrassment. I put a hand over my mouth and kept crying, feeling my brows twist and my mouth droop downward.

"Hey, girls, why the tears?" Ms. Cerrata came over. She put a hand on each of our shoulders.

"I...studied..." Lara sniffled. "Mary Anne helped me...I studied her notes."

"Goodness, Mary Anne, you're crying because..."

"I'm..." I struggled to catch my breath. I tried to control my sobbing, but couldn't. "I'm..." Sob. "I'm...s-s-so s-s-s-s-sad..."

More of my hiccupy sobs.

"Take a deep breath, Mary Anne," Ms. Cerrata instructed, rubbing my shoulder. She still also had her arm around Lara, whose tears had slowed.

I tried taking a deep breath and sounded like a malfunctioning tire pump.

"That's it, try to stay calm...so you helped Lara study..." Ms. Cerrata prompted.

"I tried, Ms. Cerrata..." I had to blow my nose several times with even more tissues. At this rate, my desk was getting cluttered with soggy tissues. "B-but it didn't work..."

Tears continued to spill over my face.

"I know you did," Ms. Cerrata soothed. "I'm sorry you're disappointed, Lara and you're upset, Mary Anne. Why don't you two go wash off your faces and maybe you'll feel better."

Slowly, Lara and I got up and headed out, me wadding up my wet tissues and throwing them out. My face still resembled a waterfall.

"Careful, Mary Anne's gonna flood the bathroom," Riles snickered.

"Randy..." I heard Ms. Cerrata warn.

"You didn't have to get upset and cry too, Mary Anne," Lara told me as she blew her nose once we were in the girls' bathroom. "It was my stupid test that I flunked."

"I just...couldn't help it," I tried not to choke on a sob as I wiped my face.

"I know you're sensitive, but I never guessed you were THAT sensitive, Mary Anne," Lara smiled shakily at me. "Well, it was a good try, but I guess with Sergeant Cerrata teaching that class, it still wouldn't have worked."

"She's just..." I had to blow my nose.

As I blew, my nose made a loud, unpleasant uuonnnk sound. I hate it when my nose does that. "...somebody you have to get used to. Maybe you could talk to her, tell her you're having a hard time in her class..."

"Forget it, Mary Anne," Lara sighed. "The woman's a drill sergeant."

For some crazy reason, that started fresh waterworks from me and I was blubbering again.

"Hey, hey, Mary Anne..." Lara patted my shoulder. "Don't cry again...hey..."

"I...j-just...feel so b-b-bad..." I bawled. "...that you...didn't even...p-p-pass..."

"Aww, hey..." Lara's crying had stopped by then and she put an arm around me until I could gain a measure of control over this fresh wave of tears.

Just as I thought I was going to wind up dehydrated, my tears slowed and I was able to finally gain some control over my crying.

Mona:

I'm all ready for the holidays. I just have to shop for one or two more things, then I'm all set.

I got to PE a bit early, so I waited for Mary Anne, who's in this class also. She came in a few minutes later with a group of other girls.

I saw that she had her head ducked and I called her over. She saw me and came over. I noticed her eyes were red and her mouth was droopy.

"What's wrong?" I asked softly.

"I just..." Mary Anne took a shaky breath as we changed into our gym suits. "Remember I helped Lara Garrett study for that English test?"

"Yeah..." I nodded. "Did something go wrong?"

"She...didn't do very well," Mary Anne's eyes welled up again.

"Oh, that's too bad."

"I...gave her notes. I just feel so bad that they didn't help..." Mary Anne put a hand over her eyes, sinking onto the bench beside us.

"Maybe I don't get through as well..." she muttered.

I could tell that she was fighting a back a fresh wave of tears.

"Hey...Mary Anne," I put a hand on her arm. "Don't blame yourself. I know you did the best you could. It was up to Lara to study and get more help if she didn't understand."

I sat beside her and put an arm around her.

Mary Anne sat for a long minute, hand over her eyes, taking shuddery, ragged breaths every few seconds. Once a sob came out of her and she struggled to keep more sobs from overtaking her.

"Are you going to be okay?" I asked softly.

"Ummm-hmbb..." Mary Anne slowly took her hand away from her eyes, took out more tissues and wiped at a few stray tears that had spilled out and blew her nose.

"Holidays are almost here," I added, smiling at her.

Mary Anne nodded and tried unsuccessfully to smile as we headed to the gym.

Claudia:

After school, Abby, Kristy, Anna, and I raced over to my house to prepare for our feast for the cast/BSC party. Abby and Anna both love to cook, so the four of us made all these little holiday cookies and tons of CHOCOLATE delectables, which I adore.

"Isn't it great that winter break is almost here?" I asked as we waited for the last batch of goodies to finish baking.

"Yeah, and who said Y2K is gonna be such a disaster?" Abby quipped, licking leftover batter out of a bowl.

"Oh, those superstitious fundamentalists," Kristy mused.

She stood up and shot silverware across the kitchen as if she were playing basketball. All but one landed there. We applauded and Kristy bowed dramatically. We were all psyched about this party and the impending two-week winter break.

"Hey...when's Janine coming back here for the holidays?" Anna asked me.

"Sunday," I told her.

Janine, my older sister, is in her second year at the Virginia Naval Academy. It's a smaller offshoot of the big one in Annapolis, Maryland. She might be a pilot or an engineer.

So now infused with her usual huge vocabulary is a lot of Navy jargon. I sometimes miss that, even though she used to drive me up a tree sometimes.

Abby:

When Anna and I got home, Gram and Grandpa were there and we hugged.

"So..." Gram said. "My granddaughters revolutionized the big town of Stoneybrook this year."

"I wouldn't say revolutionized," I told her as we sat in the living room. "But we changed a few things...like how our generation is portrayed. That Operation Today's Good Youth...changed some things in our school as well."

"So pray tell us..." Gram sat back.

So Anna and I did. We talked about the In crowd and how they'd intimidated other kids last year, including the BSC.

It is still rather hard for me to talk about when I was one of their targets and how they dubbed me Seaweed Stevenson and called me an idiot because I'm funny and boisterous.

And we added about Kristy's fistfight with Riles Greer.

"...so we had to do something this year," I added.

Anna and I told them about the letters we sent in and talked about Ms. Silverbein's support and how some of the parents raised flak.

We added how the local government stood by Ms. Silverbein as she stood by us, despite the criticism she got from some parents and Mr. Brooke, the principal of Burkeview High.

That's what finally weakened the In clique and gave kids the courage to stand up to them.

"...none of the In crowed got involved in this," Anna added. "But it's good to have our school back."

"Good for you," Gram told us.

"We're so proud of you girls," Grandpa added.

"It's hard to believe that my girls are growing so fast," Mom added softly. Her eyes grew moist. "A year and a half and they'll be ready..."

For college, I knew she was thinking. It's also hard for me to believe that in two years we'll be ADULTS and ready to move out on our own and head to college.

"Want to see the videotape of last night's production?" Anna asked our grandparents. Mom had videotaped the production.

"Sure thing..." Grandpa nodded and we set up the VCR to watch

Dawn:

I got home at around five that evening. Home. I guess this feels somewhat like home, even though we're only staying here until our other house is re-built.

Neither Mom or Richard were home yet, but Mary Anne was. I found her sitting on her bed, stroking Tigger and clutching a piece of wadded-up paper.

"Hi...what's that?" I asked.

"That English test," Mary Anne sounded a bit gloomy.

"What's wrong?" I saw the ninety-six on top. "You got an A. Don't tell me you're beating yourself up because you didn't get a hundred."

"Oh, it's not that," Mary Anne put the test in her desk drawer. "It's..."

She looked over at me, her large brown eyes sad. She sat by Tigger and pulled him into her lap and stroked him again. "Lara Garrett didn't."

"Lara didn't what?" I asked, petting Tigger too. I knew Mary Anne had been helping her study.

"She didn't do so great and I feel so bad about it," Mary Anne told me. "Lara was really upset and we both just...cried and cried right there in class. We were both so upset that we had to be excused to the bathroom and still I couldn't stop crying. I gave her notes and still..."

She shook her head, her brows tightening. "I feel so sorry for her."

"Oh, Mary Anne, that's too bad," I told her. "I'm so sorry about that."

"I felt terrible. I'm all cried out about it for now."

"That's good," I told her. "You did your best and that's what counts. Anyway, you know what else is good?"

"Wha..." Mary Anne looked up skeptically.

"One more day to go before the holiday break and we'll be able to sleep late for TWO weeks!" I laughed.

That won a small smile out of Mary Anne. I know she especially loves to sleep late.

"True." Mary Anne nodded. "And Grandma Baker is coming on Sunday and your grandparents are coming Monday."

Tigger crawled off her lap and Mary Anne stood and suggested, "C'mon, let's start dinner for our parents tonight. I'm sure they'll like that."

I nodded and we headed downstairs.

Claudia:

Friday we had just a half day and it was mostly little parties in every period and a ton of goodies passed around. A lot of us wore red and green colors and the teachers were having a great time too.

They didn't really attempt any regular classes, so it was like a no-school day. Toward the end of the day, Ms. Silverbein come on the loudspeaker to wish us a safe and happy holiday.

Once the last bell rang, a lot of kids whooped and I let out a "YEEEEE-HAAAAA!"

We scrambled out of our room and made a mad dash for our lockers. Stacey and Abby were there and we stood and waited a few minutes for the crowd to thin out.

"See you tonight at the party!" Caitlin called on her way out.

"See you tonight!" We called back. Once the crush had become manageable, we dropped our books into our lockers and the rest of the BSC met us by the bathrooms.

"Did you see that in the stall there?" Kristy asked, coming out of the bathroom.

"No...what?" Mona asked as she and Mary Anne came up.

"There..."

Kilroy was here to tell you to get ready for Y2K, one bit of graffiti said.

God help the above dork on Y2K was another one.

Another funny one that cracked us up was Ms. Silverbein throws up when she eats pork.

Someone had responded, Naturally, you dopey peon, she's Jewish!

True, Ms. Silverbein is Jewish and many Jews don't eat pork.

We laughed, then headed to the door. The bathroom stalls are always covered with graffiti, usually dull trite stuff, but once in a while, some of it is funny.

"Hey, it's snowing!" Mary Anne crowed as we stepped outside. Sure enough, it was! And in huge, white fluffy flakes too.

"Awright!" Kristy and I yowled.

"I hope it sticks, so we can have snow for the holidays!" Stacey added as we headed home.

It did and by that party that night, the ground was covered with at least two inches of snow. The party itself was fun and all of us had a blast. It was also the sixth night of Hanukkah as well, so I had up Hanukkah as well as Christmas stuff.

"Hard to believe it's almost the year 2000," I said as several of us stood in a group.

"Hey, I'm going to my dad's for New Year's and he and Samantha said it's all right if you all want to come," Stacey told us. "Samantha has her office in Times Square and you can see the ball drop from the window. She said we could bring our sleeping bags and sleep there and see it drop from there."

"Hey, swell!" "Great..." all of us nodded.

Wow! What a great way to welcome in the new millennium!

I woke up on Saturday morning after the party. Good. Saturday. No baby-sitting jobs to rush off to this morning. I could sleep in.

What a swell party it had turned out to be. What a week. That reminded me that it was the start of winter break and I let out a soft whoop of pure bliss, then sank into the pure joy of sleeping late for the next two weeks.

Mary Anne:

I slowly came awake and sat up, feeling a lot better since Thursday. I'd had a great time at the party last night.

I peered out at the snow and admired the sight for a minute, then still feeling sleepy, lay back down. I could hear Dad and Sharon in the kitchen, I guess having breakfast. Unlike Dawn and me, they're early risers.

I was looking forward to seeing Grandma Baker tomorrow. She'd told me that it had snowed a foot last week in Iowa, which didn't surprise me.

I picked up a book, The Bell Jar and started to read a while, but then dozed off. Wow, it feels so good to just spend a morning sleeping on and off after such a busy two weeks.

On top of that, the holidays are here and it's almost the year 2000. I drifted from a doze back into blissful sleep.