Beth

Monday morning I ran most of the way to school. Not because I was so anxious to get there- I hate Mondays- but because I was running late. We'd ended up going to my grandma's Saturday afternoon after I got home from the football game and not getting back till late Sunday evening. Because of this, I'd gotten to bed later than I usually did and had overslept a bit this morning. I wasn't going to be late for my first class by any means... no, I always liked to get there pretty early so that I would have time to talk to my friends before we headed to classes. I was also dying to talk to Jana. She had left messages on my answering machine both Saturday and Sunday, mentioning that she had something really important to talk to me about that had to do with locating her missing necklace. I couldn't wait to find out what it was all about- she made it sound like she'd found it! As I skidded to a stop at the entrance to the school grounds, I immediatly noticed something was up. Kids weren't clustered in their usual groups chatting, but instead were all standing around rather quietly watching something going on near the center of the grounds. I pushed my way through some kids and tried to see what they were all so interested in. I gasped as I noticed Jana and Keith faced off in the middle of everything. Jana had her arms crossed over her chest and was glaring at Keith. He, in turn, looked his usual cocky self. A strange feeling of deja vu swept over me as I couldn't help noticing how much the scene resembled last year... last year when Jana accused Keith of lying to everyone that the two of them had a thing for each other and had been sneaking around behind my back and Randy's. Luckily it had all turned out right, and Keith had been put in his place, but it had been a really hard time for me all the same. I wondered what they were faced off about now. Last I had heard, they were pretty neutral.

I glanced around and noticed Randy and the rest of The Fabulous Five were standing a few feet behind Jana and were glaring at Keith, too. Well, at least that was different from last year. I poked Heather Clark, who was standing next to me, in the arm.

"Hey, what's going on?" I whispered.

"Jana just accused Keith of stealing her necklace from her and telling Randy that she had given it to him," Heather replied, without taking her eyes off the scene. My mouth dropped open. What?! Jana thought Keith had taken the necklace?? Where had that come from? I figured that must have been what she wanted to talk to me about this weekend.

"Why does she think he took it? I mean, how does she know he did?" I asked Heather. She put her fingers to her lips. I was a little bit miffed, but figured maybe I'd catch on if I tried to listen to their conversation.

"--never do that, and you know it!" Jana was saying.

"Look, Jana, I know you're upset this all came out the way it did because I know you wanted to break it gently, but don't try to pin it all on me!" Keith replied smoothly, his face not even flinching at her angry words.

" 'Break it gently'?!" Jana repeated increduously. "As in, we both secretly like each other and were planning on letting it be known soon? Oh, please!!"

"Jana, Jana..."

"You are so full of it!" Jana snapped. "I don't know where you get off, making up all these lies! From all this, I would guess you HATED me and wanted to make my life miserable!!"

Good logic, I thought, nodding my head.

"That's uncalled for, Jana," Keith replied, shaking his head. "You're going to regret those words later, when this whole argument is over and I'm slow at forgiving the hurt you're trying to cause me."

"I hope you ARE slow at forgiving me!" Jana cried, stomping her foot. "I hope you never forgive me and just leave me alone! Now," she ordered, stepping towards him. "Give me back my necklace!"

As Keith just shook his head, saying something about that 'not being part of the plan', and the crowd started to mumble, I leaned towards Heather again. "Why is she so sure Keith has it?" I asked again. "Please, I don't understand!"

Heather gave me a surprised look. "How come you don't know anything? I thought she would have told YOU of anybody."

I waved my hand impatiently. "I was away. She left two messages."

Heather nodded and actually answered me this time. "Well, right before you got here, Jana accused Keith of taking the necklace out of her locker when she didn't shut the door hard enough Thursday afternoon on her rush to gym. She says that he took the opportunity to steal it, then told Randy that Jana had given it to him, as a sign of their 'secret affection'!"

My mouth dropped open. "Are you kidding me? Keith actually did something like that?! Wow, he's even more of a rat then I thought!"

Heather shrugged. "Well," she said slowly. "It's not really for SURE that he did steal it. I mean, Jana has no proof. It's just her word against his so far. Randy and the rest of The Fabulous Five vouch for Jana's side of things, but none of them actually saw him steal the necklace, so...."

I shot Heather a disgusted look. "Oh please. Like that matters! Jana giving Keith the necklace! What a lot of rot." When Heather didn't reply, I groaned out loud. "Oh, HEATHER, please don't tell me you believe Keith?!"

She just shrugged again. "From what I know of the past situation, I would say that Jana's the one telling the truth, but I dunno.... Keith's just so- calm. I mean, it could be that Jana really DID give him the necklace as a token and then got nervous about it and regretted it because she knew it would make Randy madder and wants Keith to give it back now... I don't know! I just think it's hard to tell who's right at this point."

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that Heather was actually considering Keith's side of things! And if Heather was, then who knows how many other kids were, too. But how could they? I glanced back to Jana and Keith and noticed that they were still arguing. Jana's face was flushed and I knew she was getting really upset. I figured that she had expected Keith to give it back right away, especially if other people were backing her up this time. As I stood there chewing my lip and staring at the two of them, I had never had such a feeling of helplessness in my life. Jana was my very best friend and she was getting beaten by that jerk, Keith, again. I had to help her! I just had to! But how could I? Everyone knew I was her best friend and if I said, "Jana's telling the truth because she doesn't lie, and Keith is lying because he'd say anything to save his own image!", why would anyone believe me? They would know I was just trying to defend her, even though I did believe what she said.

I stood there a moment longer, then finally came up with an idea. It was pretty risky and I wouldn't *quite* be telling the truth, but it was worth it. At least, I figured it would be. I couldn't think of anything else to do and I knew I had to do something fast, before Jana had to give up when the bell rang and try again later, giving Keith more time to work out a plan. So without another minute's hesitation, I stepped forward and throwing my head back, proclaimed loud enough for everyone to hear, "You're lying Keith Masterson, and I can prove it."