Fabulous Five 017 - Celebrity Auction by Betsy Haynes Page B

things, at all."
    "Let me see where he mentions The Fabulous Five,"
said Katie, craning over her shoulder.
    Melanie and Christie came running up and wanted to see the
letter, too.
    "Dekeisha! Come see what we've got," shouted Beth.
Soon a crowd was gathered around Beth, and she had to read the letter out loud
eight times as new people joined the crowd.
    "Wow!" said Marcie Bee. "Stars really do
answer their letters, don't they? I've only written two, but I'm going to write
a bunch more if that's the kind of letter you get."
    "Me, too," agreed Kaci Davis. "I didn't think
we'd get anything, but four tickets and those pictures, those are super."
    Everyone began chattering excitedly about the auction, and
several people left to go to their homerooms to begin writing more letters.
    Jana winked at Beth. "Well, Beth, I think you've done
it again. With everyone as excited as they are, our auction can't fail."
The other girls wrapped their arms around her and hugged her.
    Beth laughed. "I know. But there's one more thing we've
got to find out about."
    There was still ten minutes until the first bell when The
Fabulous Five marched into Mr. Dracovitch's classroom. The teacher had five
Bunsen burners lined up in a row with glass beakers sitting on them that were
filled with bubbling, yuck-colored liquids. He was staring so closely at one,
Beth thought he would burn his nose. He looked up and arched his eyebrows in
that curious way that made Beth think of the Dracula she had seen in the
movies.
    "Well, I was expecting a visit," Mr. Dracovitch
said. "I suppose you want a report on how your plan is progressing?"
    "Uh, yes, sir," answered Beth, moving from one
foot to the other. "I saw Steve Melchior and his friends yesterday, and he
was very mad. I kind of thought something may have happened."
    Mr. Dracovitch stroked his chin. "Whenever deductive
reasoning is used properly, you can be guaranteed that your conclusions will be
correct."
    "Yes, sir," said Beth. She didn't understand what
he meant, but she hoped he wasn't going to give them a lesson in science. If he
did, they would all be late for homeroom.
    "And in this case," he continued, "the logic
used in the reasoning was infallible."
    "What does that mean?" asked Katie. Beth could
tell that Katie was getting anxious to find out what he was talking about.
    He looked at each of them in turn. "That means,"
he said, pausing for effect, "that your plan worked excellently. The
culprits broke into this classroom last evening and were apprehended by the
police, who were waiting in the adjacent room. Mr. Melchior and his friends had
found the broken plate and were caught red-handed with it. Thanks to you, the
case is closed," he said with a big smile. "And my integrity is still
intact, because I only said that I was investigating what I believed to be one
of the vandal's fingerprints, which it turned out to be. I never said that the
plate was part of the vandalism of the school. Nor did I say I had proof of who
the vandals were."
    Beth and the rest of The Fabulous Five began cheering and
pounding each other on the back.
    "Now everyone will know we not only are trying to
repair the damage, but they'll know for sure who did it and quit blaming all
the kids," said Beth. She stuck her hand in the air and the others,
including Mr. Dracovitch, gave her a high five.

CHAPTER 17
    When Beth showed Trevor Morgan's letter to Mr. Bell, he
asked her to read it to the whole school over the public address system. When
she had finished, she could hear a roar of cheering go up all over the
building. The rest of the afternoon, kids yelled things like "Right on,
Beth!" when they saw her in the halls. She felt like an instant celebrity.
Still, she knew that it was really Trevor's letter that had turned things
around and made kids want to get involved.
    From that moment on, Beth and the rest of The Fabulous Five
were swamped by enthusiastic kids asking to help with the celebrity auction.
The girls decided that it was