Tammy
"There you are," I said in a slightly offended tone as Funny Hawthorne, the fourth member of our clique, "The Fantastic Foursome", slid into the booth. "We were wondering if you were ever going to show up."
Funny gave me a suprised look. "What do you mean? Didn't you see me come in awhile ago?"
"Yes, we saw you," Laura McCall snapped. "With Jana Morgan. Why do you always insist on hanging around her, anyway?"
"Yeah- I hope you're not telling her all our secrets," Melissa McConnell muttered.
Funny rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you guys! Honestly! Don't you know me at all? Jana and I are friends, but I would never tell her any of our private stuff. Come on!"
Melissa, Laura and I all shared meaningful looks. For the past year, we'd been having troubles with Funny. The first day of school last year, she'd become good friends with Jana Morgan, the leader of our rival clique, and refuses to break her friendship with her, even though it's dangerous for all of us.
"What were you talking about that was so important you had to be secluded in your own bumper car?" Laura asked.
Funny played with the straw of her cup and shrugged. "Nothing really. She's, um, kind of helping me with something."
"With what?" I pressed.
Funny hesitated.
"Oh, COME ON, Funny!" Laura snapped. "We're your best friends! What secret can you have with Jana that you can't share with US!?"
Funny sighed. "All right, all right. I'll tell you. But you have to promise not to make fun of me, okay?"
"You know we wouldn't do that," Melissa sniffed.
Funny shifted uncomfortably. "Well, see, I kind of like this one boy. And I kind of slipped about it in front of Jana and now she's trying to help me get aquainted with him, that's all."
"You told Jana Morgan who you like and not us?" I gasped with disbelief. I was throughougly shocked. We really WERE losing Funny if she wasn't telling us first who she had a crush on, especially since she never got crushes on guys.
"She just found out today!" Funny insisted. "Like, half an hour ago!"
"Well, who is he?" Laura asked.
"Mark Peters."
"Him?" Melissa said, raising and eyebrow. "Well, he's ok, I guess."
"What's wrong with him?" Funny demanded.
"Nothing," Melissa insisted. "I'm just a bit surprised you have a crush on HIM. I mean, he's kinda weird."
Funny's expression went from defensive to puzzled and slightly hurt, and I couldn't help feel a bit sorry for her. Funny was allowed to like whoever she wanted and I really didnt think Mark was *weird*- he could just be kinda zany sometimes. Anyway, she should know better than to take anything Melissa says about guys to heart. The kind of guys Melissa thinks are worthwhile are the totally boring ones that spend all their time buried under moutains of textbooks studying.
"So, what's Jana been doing to help you?" I asked.
Funny shrugged. "Nothing really. She helped me get into a conversation with him just a few minutes ago... since she's known him for so long and everything. She has some other ideas, too."
"Other ideas, huh?" Laura sneered. "Probably planning on making you the laughingstock of Wacko."
"What are you talking about?" Funny asked, looking perplexed and a little mad. "Jana wouldn't do something like that. What I'm SURE she meant by other ideas was coming up with ways to throw Mark and me into situations together. So that we can get to know one another."
"Ok, fine, whatever you want to believe," Laura said casually.
Funny frowned. "You're just mad because Jana found out about my first real crush before any of you guys. Look, I didn't MEAN to tell her, it just came out. So there's no reason to get all hyper."
Laura frowned back, and I could tell Funny had hit the nail right on the head. Truthfully, though, I was kinda upset too that Funny hadn't confided something like that with us first.
"I'm not mad," Laura answered evenly a moment later. "I just think you should be careful about what you're getting into." Then she turned towards Melissa and me. "Did you guys see that red sweater combo Queen Danae was wearing today? Totally heinous."
"Totally," I agreed quickly, glad for a change of subject in conversation. I really didn't want us all to end up in a fight. So what if Funny and Mark weren't the most obvious couple? Funny was our friend- and I planned to stick with her. Especially in making sure that Jana Morgan didn't try anything suspicious. You never can be too careful around The Fabulous Five.
