Part VI
Honey ran up to Jim’s room after hanging up the phone on Trixie. Oh, why didn’t I think of this before? Honey thought. This will definitely help Trixie. I just hope this works!
When Honey reached Jim’s bedroom, she knocked on the door, which was locked. Jim soon unlocked it and answered it. "Hi, Honey," he said. "Do you need anything?"
"Yes," Honey said. "Can I borrow your address book?"
"My address book?" Jim questioned. "May I ask why?"
"I need to look something up in it—someone’s phone number."
"Whose?"
"Please, just give it to me!"
"Oh, fine," Jim went to his desk, got his address book, and gave it to Honey. "I need it back by tonight."
"You’ll get it back before then," Honey assured her adopted brother.
* * *
Ring! Ring!
"Hello?"
"Hello, Honey Wheeler speaking. Is this the Webbert home?"
"Yes," the voice at the other line replied. "Who do you want to talk to?"
"James, please," Honey said.
"Please hold," the voice said. It sounded like the person at the other end set down the phone. Then Honey heard a shout: "James! Phone! Some Honey Wheeler."
"Hello?" the voice now was James’s.
"Hi, James. It’s Honey," Honey said.
"Hi, Honey! Hey, have you ever asked joined a club before?"
Honey knew what James was aiming at. "Umm…no," Honey answered truthfully. She had not asked to join the Bob Whites of the Glen, she was invited.
"How would you like to join one?" James asked.
"That sounds real fun!" Honey said as enthusiastically as she could.
"Well, Jessi Billings and I are starting a club," James explained. "It’s called the Club of Cool Kids. Want to join? You’ll be the first person to join—besides Jessi and myself—and you’d be a founder, too! Founders get lots of rewards! But there can only be 5 founders, so you’d better hurry up if you want a spot!"
"Gee! What fun!" Honey said. "I’ll join for sure! Where’s the clubhouse? How about meetings? When will we start planning stuff for the club? How many people will join? What are we going to do in the club?"
"Gosh! You’re throwing a lot of questions at me!" James said. "We don’t have a clubhouse, we meet in the schoolyard. Meetings we’ll arrange soon enough. Planning begins right away. As many people as we can get to will join the club! We’ll be having lots of fun in the club! Lots of activities, games, oh, all sorts of things!"
"Sure, I’ll join!" Honey said, trying to sound excited. "Thank you so much! Can I tell my best friend about it?"
"Who’s your best friend?" James asked.
"Why, Trixie Belden, of course!"
"No!" James said. "No. Umm…she already refused to join. Sorry."
"That’s okay," Honey said. "I really have to go now! When will meetings begin?"
"I’ll tell you at school tomorrow," James said.
"Thanks!" Honey said, then hung up the phone. Now I’m going to tell Trixie about all the good news! she thought.
* * *
Ring! Ring!
"Hello, Trixie," Trixie Belden said as she picked up the phone.
"Hi, Trixie, it’s Honey," said Honey, who had called Trixie.
"Why did you hang up the phone on me?" Trixie demanded.
"Oh, forget about that," Honey said. "Guess what."
"What?" Trixie said, rolling her eyes.
"I joined James Webbert’s fan club!"
"What?!" Trixie said. "Honey, have you turned on me?"
"I’m a founder," Honey said. "People will be trusting me. While James thinks I’m putting up posters about his club, the Club of Cool Kids—don’t make fun of the name, he means business—I’ll be taking down the posters that are already up and put up different ones that tell kids not to join his club.
"So, what’s your plan of attack?"
"So far, I have none," Trixie said. "Honey, you’re not allowed to quit, though!"
"So? That doesn’t mean I have to vote for James. I can still vote for you and be in the club, right?"
"Yeah," Trixie sighed. "But I still think it’s a bad choice."
"Did you refuse to join the club?" Honey asked.
"What? I never even knew it was going to start till you told me!"
"Then James was lying," Honey said. "Caught in the act! Well, I asked him if I could tell you about the club, and he no, you already refused."
"Oh, Honey," Trixie said. "Isn’t the club going to be done away with after the election?"
"Well, James and Jessi didn’t mention anything about when the club will end," Honey said. "But, they did say that you couldn’t leave the club unless Jessi or James tells you that you can."
"Honey," Trixie said. "What else can you remember?"
"They already started putting posters up about electing James as president."
"Oh, no!" Trixie moaned. "I forgot all about posters! What will we do?"
"Don’t worry, Trix, we already have that taken care of."
"What?"
"Mart and Di and are making them together, Jim and Brian have been thinking of what should be on the posters and the buttons that I’m making. Also, I’m going to bake muffins with the initials TB on them. We can give them away at recess."
"Oh, gosh!" Trixie said. "You guys are so nice! I’m not even helping! How could you do all this behind my back?"
"We’re doing it because we want you to win the election," Honey said. "You deserve to."
"You guys are so sweet," Trixie said.
"I have to go now," Honey said. "Batman’s on!"
"Okay, Honey," Trixie said. "See you tomorrow!"
Trixie hung up the phone and went up to her room to think about plans.
To Be Continued