Bad Girls, Bad Girls, Whatcha Gonna Do? by Cynthia Voigt Page B

foot to the other. “I guess you aren’t the only smart people around here,” he announced, as if it was just the three of them—him and Mikey and Margalo—in the room.
    At his news Margalo glanced in wide-eyed mock surprise atMikey, then back at Louis. “I’m sorry,” she said insincerely, adding dishonestly, “I couldn’t hear you.”
    Louis strutted a step closer. “I said,” he practically yelled, “that you aren’t the only smart people around here. Because I got a B in wood shop. Not a B minus, a straight B. That’s an honors grade,” he told them, in case they had forgotten.
    â€œGood going, man,” said Tim. “Congratulations.” Then he asked politely, since Louis lingered, “How were the rest?”
    â€œEnglish and Math don’t mean anything, not in the real world,” Louis informed him. He noticed Hadrian Klenk. “Klenk,” he began, decided against it, and strutted off away, stopping to announce his good grade at another table.
    â€œThat’s gotta be Louis Caselli,” Tim said to Margalo. He turned to his best friend, sitting beside him, “D’you know who that was?”
    Felix had no interest in Louis Caselli. “At the movies on Friday?” he asked the table. “You know who I saw? You’ll never guess.”
    â€œJust tell us,” Cassie advised him.
    â€œChet Parker.” He looked around expectantly.
    Mikey and Margalo weren’t sure who Chet Parker was, although they thought they’d heard the name. Mikey was sure she could take Felix’s way of telling news for only about one half second longer.
    â€œHe’s a senior, Mister Cool. He’s got great facial bones, photogenic, you know? He’s on all three varsities, drives an ’88 BMW,” Felix said. “He’s got everything. And he’s smart,too, or anyway, he gets the grades. He’s applied early admission to Duke, and he’ll probably get in.”
    â€œThe girls are all over him,” Tim added. “He can have anybody he wants.”
    Cassie snorted a Not me snort.
    â€œHe was at the movies with that long-haired blonde. Rhonda?” Felix said. He grinned an I’m in the know grin and said, “Her Mommy’s going to be sorry she didn’t take Sex Ed. But that makes me think, we should all go to the movies next Saturday. Anybody want to? Tim? What do you say, Mikey? Jace?”
    â€œYou’d probably pick something with subtitles,” Mikey objected. “Or aliens.”
    â€œI’ll hold your hand if you get scared,” Felix offered.
    â€œI don’t get scared,” Mikey told him.
    â€œThen you can hold my hand, because I do. Or we could go the week after. That one’s animated. Japanese.”
    Nobody, including Hadrian, made the mistake of thinking he was part of the general invitation. Mikey declined on account of her regular Saturday-afternoon father-commitment, or more precisely, father-and-girlfriend, or most precisely, father-and-girlfriend-and-girlfriend’s-two-little-boys. Margalo had a job interview, although she was pretty sure they wouldn’t give it to her, since the ad specified cash register experience. “You lied?” asked Tim, and she reassured him, “I just didn’t say what kind of experience I have on what kind of cash register.”

    Margalo had a good time telling them about the interview the next Monday, and she didn’t mind a bit their knowing that she didn’t get the job. “They had a test. I was supposed to ring out a basket of groceries, so they figured out right away that I didn’t know what I was doing.”
    â€œDidn’t they even think of teaching you?” asked Tim. “That’s pretty shortsighted of them.”
    â€œToo bad” and “Tough” and “Better luck next time” were the general opinions on her failure, but it was Mikey who