Jana

It took me a few seconds after Keith put my necklace back into my hand to really compute everything that had just happened. Wow, everything had just happened so fast! One minute Keith was smooth talking his way to victory, the next he was actually admitting to stealing my necklace!

"Beth!" I cried, running over and throwing my arms around her. "You were wonderful!! I can't believe you were able to do that!"

She laughed and hugged me back. "I really can't either! I just knew I had to do SOMETHING... I couldn't let him get away with all his lies."

As the rest of The Fab Five came up and hugged Beth, too, followed by Randy who came up and hugged ME, I shook my head in puzzlement.

"But Beth, I'm so confused. How did you know Keith had the necklace? I mean, I'd never even discussed that option with you! I was going to tell you how Randy had caught him with it Saturday after the game, but you weren't home all weekend, so how did you realize he had it?"

"Yeah, and if you KNEW he had it, why didn't you say so?" Melanie demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can't believe you didn't tell us the most important part of the puzzle!!"

Beth laughed and shook her head. "Honestly, it amazingly had never even crossed my mind that Keith might have stolen your necklace till I got on the school grounds this morning. When I arrived, everyone was standing around watching you and Keith arguing, and I was so confused, I asked Heather Clark about what was going on, and she just said you were telling everyone he stole it, while he insisted you'd given it to him." Beth took a deep breath. "The thing was, Heather didn't really know who to believe. She said she thought you were probably the one telling the truth, but that there was no proof... only your word against Keith's. I couldn't believe she'd say that, but then I figured that if she was on that line of thought, a lot of other kids probably were, too. So I realized the only thing I could do to help was tell everyone I'd seen him take it. And amazingly, it worked out perfectly."

"So you didn't really see him take it," Christie stated, raising her eyebrows. Beth shook her head.

"Nope, I just thought about how Melanie and Jana had seen him at his locker the same time they were going to class and put together what I thought he might have done." She paused a second, then added. "I WAS telling the truth about delivering some papers from Mr. Naset to another teacher at that time. But in truth, I didn't go anywhere NEAR the 8th grade lockers, I was practically on the other side of the building. But I knew Keith wouldn't know that, and I figured if he really wanted to test my theory, he could ask Mr. Naset about it and Mr. Naset could back me up by saying that yes, I did deliever some papers for him at that time."

We all couldn't help shaking our heads in wonder.

"Wow, Beth- you can think so FAST!" Melanie cried. "I'd never ever be able to do that! I'd make mistakes all over the place. Thank God for your quick thought process."

"And acting ability," Katie grinned, slapping Beth on the back. "You were so convincing that *I* believed you!"

"How did you know to trap him by saying he took it from my locker, when he'd really picked it up off the floor?" I asked, still a bit confused.

Beth grinned. "I didn't. I had no idea whether he'd taken it out of your locker or what. Heck, I didn't even know for sure whether he'd taken it at that time or not! I just figured he MUST have, since it was when you got back from gym class that you missed it, and he had a perfect opportunity. I was really just trying to come up with a convincing enough story that everyone would believe- I knew nobody would believe me if I just said something like 'Jana's telling the truth cause Keith's such a jerk!' and that I needed a good solid story." She smiled at me. "It actually turned out better that I was wrong about where he took the necklace from exactly and that it made him so upset that he let the truth out himself."

"Yeah, I agree," Randy said, speaking up for the first time. He smiled at Beth. "It worked out perfectly- he turned himself in so that no one can doubt the truth now. Way to go, Beth!"

She mock-bowed and we all laughed.

"I still can't believe he actually admitted the truth," Katie said, shaking her head.

"I don't think he meant to confess!" I laughed. "I really think he just got so mad at Beth for making it sound like he was not only horrible for taking the necklace, but taking it out of my LOCKER, that he just couldn't stop himself."

"Or he could just be a dumb blonde," Christie grinned and we all cracked up, mainly because Christie has blonde hair.

Just then the first bell ring and we all started making our way to the school.

"I have one more question," I said to Beth as we started up the steps. "What if someone today asks you that if you knew he'd stolen it all this time, why you didn't, for instance, tell me? I'm sure everyone can tell I didn't know you'd 'seen' him take it. I didn't exactly help you out there today- I know I looked just as suprised at what you were saying as I felt," I added apoligetically.

Beth shrugged. "No matter. I'll just tell anyone who asks that I was only trying to solve things on my own- that I wanted to confront him alone, tell him what I'd seen, and make him give it back before I told everyone. I'll say I was just trying to make it easier for you because I knew that if you found out about it, you'd accuse him in front of everyone like you did this morning. And then I can tell them that when I arrived today, I saw I was too late and had to expose him like I did." She grinned at me. "Don't worry, I'll be able to pull it off."

I smiled back. "I have no doubt about that! After today, I think you can pull off just about ANYTHING!"