Georgia's Greatness (10 page)

Sometimes evil doesn't look evil or ugly. Sometimes it looks good or, worse, beautiful.

"But how could we have been so wrong about someone?" Durinda asked. It was something we all wanted to know. All of us, with the exception of Georgia, had been wrong about Crazy Serena. Well, Mandy hadn't been wrong either.

Georgia shrugged. "We were all blinded by her beauty. Even me at first."

And that was something else we had learned:

It didn't matter what people looked like; evil people were not necessarily ugly, like the Wicket. Anyone could be bad. Anyone could be good. Looks were deceiving.

"How did you know she wasn't what she seemed?" Marcia asked Georgia.

"And don't say it was just what you overheard when she was on the cell phone in the gym," Rebecca warned Georgia. "There
has
to be more to it than that!"

"We don't have time for this right now," Georgia said. "We can talk philosophy all you want once we're safely out of here. At the moment, what we need is a plan to get us all out ... alive."

"And I suppose
you
have a plan?" Rebecca said.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Georgia said calmly. "I'll disappear again, and then you all pound on the door like crazy. Make as loud a racket as you can. When Crazy Serena comes, tell her you're ready to talk, that you'll tell her
everything,
but that there's not enough air in this room. Tell her you want to talk to her in that front room we first saw. I'll take care of the rest."

We all stared at Georgia, stunned.

Who knew she could be so commanding?

"Do it
now,
" Georgia commanded.

Then Georgia twitched her nose twice and made herself invisible again.

The McG blinked twice, but said nothing.

What else could we do?

We pounded on the door, screaming at the same time.

"That's useless," the McG told us. "I've tried that before, and trust me on this: in this house, no one can hear you scream."

But we guessed that Crazy Serena
could
hear us, because the door swung open, nearly knocking us off our feet.

We could only hope that there was more to Georgia's plan than she'd said.

CHAPTER TEN

"We'll tell you everything," Annie said.

"But first Petal needs to go to the bathroom," Durinda said.

"And Durinda needs a drink of water," Jackie said.

"Jackie could do with a cookie," Marcia said. "She's looking rather pale."

"It's very cold in this room," Rebecca said. "Didn't you pay your heating bill this month?"

"It is very hot in here," Petal said, fanning herself and wholly missing the point. Still, we loved her.

"I need to go to the bathroom too," Zinnia said, adding, "to do number two."

"So you see," Annie said, "we'll gladly tell you everything you want to know, but we'd like to do it in that nice front room and only after you've met our reasonable demands."

"I think it all does sound very reasonable," the McG said, getting into the spirit of things.

"You know," Crazy Serena said sweetly, "it
does
sound very reasonable." Then she held the door open for us. "Just so you know, though, there's no point in trying to make a run for the front door. I have the only set of keys."

Then she pointed at Petal and Zinnia. "You and you, go use the bathroom."

She pointed at Durinda and Jackie. "You and you, to the kitchen for your water and cookie."

She pointed at Rebecca. "You, take a blanket from the closet and wrap it around yourself."

She pointed to Petal. "You, take off your uniform."

"But I can't do that!" Petal tried to cover her clothed body with her hands. "Then I'd be naked!"

"Fine," Crazy Serena said, "so sweat to death. What do I care?"

She pointed at Annie and Marcia. "You and you ... I don't remember you asking for anything." She clapped her hands. "Okay, everybody, hustle! Hustle! You need to do everything you have to and then meet me in the front room in forty-five seconds!"

Gee, she didn't expect much, did she?

And yet somehow we managed to pull it off.

We all gathered back in the front room. "Fine," Crazy Serena said, her arms crossed, her foot tapping. "I've met your demands. Now
talk.
"

Crazy Serena never saw Georgia coming.

It was the wooden spoon that entered the room first, floating along, suspended in the air as though by...

"Magic!" Crazy Serena said, awed. "I didn't know you could do magic! Did Lucy teach you that?" she asked, saying our mother's name.

Crazy Serena wasn't as delighted when the floating spoon struck her on the shoulder. "Hey!" she cried out, wincing.

A few moments passed, and then a frying pan entered the room and struck Crazy Serena on the rump.

Our parents had always taught us that it was wrong to be violent for the fun of it. But they'd also said that if a person is fighting for her life, almost anything goes.

And on that night, we felt as though we were fighting for our lives.

"Ouch!" after "Ouch!" after "Ouch!" informed us that Invisible Georgia was performing her pinching trick on Crazy Serena, who kept twisting around, trying both to escape and to locate her unseen attacker.

And suddenly Georgia was
everywhere
, popping in and out of sight, making herself appear and then disappear again. It took us a while to figure it out, but eventually we caught on: Georgia was
taunting
Crazy Serena!

"Georgia!" Crazy Serena cried, at last catching a glimpse of her.

"In the flesh,
baby,
" Georgia said, then double twitched her nose and vanished again.

"Georgia Huit," Crazy Serena commanded, going all Bad Cop, "I order you to come back here!"

"Try and make me," Georgia said with a laugh.

So Crazy Serena tried being Good Cop again. "Didn't anyone ever train you to respect your elders?"

"Did they?" Invisible Georgia said, as though she couldn't decide.

Then she remembered something from our younger years. We all did.

"Mommy and Daddy always said," Invisible Georgia stated, "that everyone deserves a clean slate when you first meet them, and with that clean slate comes respect."

While Invisible Georgia spoke, Crazy Serena lunged at the space where the voice seemed to be coming from. But she was too slow, and Invisible Georgia kept dancing out of reach.

"But no one gets to keep that respect automatically," Invisible Georgia continued, "not if they do things to"—and here she paused as though searching for the exact word Mommy had used
—"squander
it."

"
Squander
means 'waste,'" Annie explained for the benefit of Petal and anyone else who might not know, "like when a person spends money foolishly."

"Principals don't get automatic respect for life," Invisible Georgia said, "presidents don't get automatic respect for life, and pretty substitute teachers who lie through their pretty teeth about who they are and who kidnap real teachers don't get automatic respect...
not
if they squander it."

In that moment, we thought that Invisible Georgia was the most gloriously gorgeous person we'd ever not seen.

Then there was a huge tearing sound—Invisible Georgia had ripped the pocket off Crazy Serena's dress!—followed by the jangle of many keys.

"Give me those back!" Crazy Serena shouted as Invisible Georgia yelled, "Annie! Catch!"

As Annie raced for the door, keys in hand, we didn't need Invisible Georgia to tell us what to do next.

We fell on Crazy Serena, figuring we'd sit on her for as long as it took Annie to get someone to help us.

It didn't take Annie long to find the help we needed. She unlocked all the many locks and threw open the door, and there stood Pete.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"What are you doing here?" Annie asked, more stunned than she'd been by anything yet.

"Do you know this house is soundproof?" Pete asked. "I've been out here banging for hours." He raised his fist. His knuckles were raw.

"But how did you get here?" Annie asked. "How did you know?"

"Oh, that," Pete said. "It was that schoolmate of yours, the little redheaded one."

"
Mandy?
" Annie said. "Mandy
Stenko?
"

From our position on top of Crazy Serena, we could just barely see Pete's shrug.

"I dunno," he said. "I suppose that's what she's called. Anyway, just as I was leaving, she grabbed me and she told me she thought this substitute teacher of yours might be A Bad Person and that she got worried when she saw you lot getting into her car. When she told me that, I naturally jumped in my pickup and followed you here. But the teacher got you all inside before I could stop you, and then it didn't matter how much I pounded and yelled. I guess that when you're outside of this house, no one inside can hear you scream."

Just then, Pete caught sight of the McG, whom he'd met before when we'd gotten in trouble that one time.

"Oh, hullo, ducks," he said, tipping an imaginary hat as he stepped into the house. "Nice to see you again."

"You're the Eights' uncle, aren't you?" the McG said, as though wondering if wonders would ever cease.

"Er, yes," Pete said, "yes, I am, Mrs. McGillicuddy."

"Please feel free to call me Hilly," Mrs. McGillicuddy said.

Hilly?
But we thought the McG's first name was Phyllis!

"It's a nickname," the McG added. "My mother used to call me that because—"

"What is this?" Crazy Serena shouted. "Old Home Week? Let me out of here!"

"Did this lady hurt you?" Pete asked us.

Eight heads nodded, plus the McG's.

"To be perfectly exact," said Georgia, who'd popped back into view just before Pete crossed the threshold and who was now sitting on Crazy Serena's back, "she hasn't really hurt us, not yet. But she wanted to."

"And she did keep me hostage here for two weeks," the McG added.

"You were right to fear me," Georgia said with satisfaction to Crazy Serena. "I am always the most trouble. You really should have kept a better eye on me." Then she laughed. "Too bad you couldn't."

Crazy Serena sneered a sneer that would have done Rebecca proud, but we weren't bothered by it.

"Leave the lady to me," Pete said.

Then he indicated that we should get off her.

We were reluctant to do so. We felt as though we were safer with all of us sitting on her back, her arms, and her legs. But we did trust Pete. So one by one, we each peeled ourselves away.

Crazy Serena scrambled to her feet, but before she could do anything, Pete grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. Then he hustled her through the door and out onto the street.

"Get out of my town," he told her, "and stay out. And don't even
think
about coming back, because if you do, if you
ever
bother the Eights again,
I
will know it, and what I will do then, you will not like."

Then he turned her around so she was facing away from us and gave her a slight tap on the shoulder blade with one finger. It was like starting an old wind-up toy working. At first, Crazy Serena just took a stumbling step or two, but then she started moving faster until she was running down the street, racing away from us.

"
God,
you're wonderful, Mr. Pete!" Jackie cried, throwing herself at him and giving him a mighty hug.

Then we were all hugging Pete. The McG looked as though she would like to, but she hung back.

"C'mon, Eights," Pete said once we'd all hugged for long enough. "It's time to get you lot home. You've got school in the morning."

"
School?
" Rebecca said. "After what we've just been through? Don't you think we deserve a day off?"

"I'm sure your teacher won't be missing school tomorrow," Pete said, glancing at the McG, "will she?"

"Oh, I'll be there," the McG said with a firm nod of her head.

"You
see?
" Pete said. "Now, what kind of an uncle would I beif I let you scarper off school?"