"Kate Kenyon - Junior High 15 The Night The Eighth Grade Ran The Mall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Kate)

JuniorHigh15 Ц Night the Eighth Grade Ran the Mall, The Ц Kenyon, Kate.



Chapter 1.
They had pushed four tables together at the ice-cream parlor, Temptations, so they could all sit in one group. Something was happening in Cedar Groves that the eighth grade thought was absolutely going to change their lives. But before they could talk about it, they had to give their order to the waitress who was hovering next to the table.
"Come on, kids," she shouted over their voices. 'Time for everyone to make up .their minds. I haven't got all day for the ten-cent tip you'll probably leave for all eleven of you.Ф
"Oh, Gloria, you know we're more generous than that," Jennifer Mann said. Under her joking there was a serious tone. Jennifer took care of the world: old people, whales, animals; and she couldn't stand the idea that Gloria
really felt deprived of a decent tip.
Gloria smiled. "Okay, Jen, so you'll all leave a quarter. Now, what is everyone having? As if I didn't know. Nora, you'll have yogurt and probably sprinkle your own wheat germ on it. Never will you risk having anything not healthy. You probably think when you apply to medical school, they'll ask on the application if you've ever eaten anything loaded with non-nutritious goodies."
Nora took her ambition to be a doctor very seriously and couldn't really join in with the laughter that went around the table. "There's nothing wrong with eating decent, healthy food," she mumbled.
Jen came to the defense of Nora, who was her best friend since kindergarten. "Don't laugh at her. She's entitled to eat whatever she wants."
Steve Crowley, who thought Jen was the most wonderful girl in all of Cedar Groves Junior High, immediately said, "Yeah. She's right."
"Right about what, Steve?" Tracy asked, pushing her long blonde hair off her lace. She had her Tracy-Douglas-puzzled look on her face; a look that just seemed to come naturally to her.
"Yeah, Steve," Tommy said, as he combed his sandy-brown hair for the fourteenth time that day. "Is Jen right because Nora is entitled to eat what she wants? Or is Nora right that there is nothing wrong with healthy foods?" Tommy looked around the table, waiting to see if the girls would all appreciate what he considered to be his sharp sense of humor.
Gloria held up her pad with a warning gesture. "First, we are going to talk about what everyone is ordering. Now!"
"Coke!"
"Chocolate ice cream!"
"Apple juice!"
"Blueberry pie!"
"Iced tea!"
"Cornflakes!"
УWait a minute," Tommy yelled. "Who ordered cornflakes?"
"I did," Jason Anthony said, his fair eyebrows going up toward his red hair. "What's wrong with that?"
"Okay, okay," Gloria said. "Let's just finish this up without analyzing what everyone is eating."
When the orders had all been given, she left the table, shaking her head.
.
As soon as Gloria returned with the orders, and everyone had had a chance to sample theirs, Tracy began, "I want to talk about the pool"
'Tracy is right," Jen said. "It's the most incredible thing in the whole world. Cedar Groves is going to build a swimming pool! Can you believe it?"
Denise Hendrix smiled a slightly superior smile. "Well, don't expect it to be the most wonderful pool in this country. It will probably be a little rinky-dink." She smoothed back her shining blonde hair and refastened the real gold barrette that held it in place.
Denise Hendrix's father owned Denise Cosmetics, and the Hendrix family was rich. Denise had lived all over the world and had gone to a private school in Switzerland before Mr. Hendrix had moved his family back to his hometown, Cedar Groves. Denise was a year older than the other girls, and though she really tried to fit in with the other eighth-graders, she sometimes couldn't help letting them know she was really much more sophisticated than they were.

"Ill probably be the only one to put it to good use," Mitch Pauley said. "You have to be an athlete, like me, to really know how to make the most of a swimming pool."
"Mitch, keep quiet," Susan said.
Nora held up a hand commandingly. "You're all jumping ahead way too fast. Cedar Groves can't build the pool until they have the money. Remember?"
Mia Stevens stopped pulling at the pink spikes in her punk hairstyle and said, "Well, they have half the money. I mean, the city treasury is going to provide half the amount needed. Right?"
"Yeah," Steve said. "And the rest of the city is going to raise the other half. That includes all of us, our parents, the school, businesses, etc., etc., etc."
"I say let the etceteras raise the rest, and well just wait to swim in the pool," Jason said.
That's what you call civic spirit," Lucy Armanson answered, smoothing down the turtle-neck on her chic yellow sweater, and running her fingers through her short Afro.
Jason shrugged. "How are kids like us supposed to raise money? I mean, real money. It's nuts."
"Well," Tommy said, grinning. "You could start by selling your skateboard. You'd get at least four cents for that."
"Sell my skateboard! I'd rather not have the pool," Jason said.
"He means that," Nora said. "Can you believe it?"
"Look," Steve said, "we're all intelligent human beings. We should be able to come up with a way to raise some money."
"I don't think Jason is either intelligent or human," Susan said.
"Can we just not argue?" Jen shouted. "We have a real problem here. Do you want the pool or not? Think how wonderful it would be on warm summer days to just lie around a gorgeous pool... with all our friends." She looked at Steve as she talked, and blushed slightly.
Steve gazed back at Jen. "Yeah," he whispered to her, looking into her hazel eyes.
"Okay," Nora said. "So, all we have to do is figure out how we can raise some money."
"We can have a dance party benefit," Mia said, standing up and dancing around the table.
"Where?" Tommy asked.