Yearbook Memories

by Betsy Haynes

A yearbook of the Fabulous Five looks back on some unforgettable events from the seventh grade, as the Fab Five get ready for the eighth grade. Original.

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1992

About the author

ABOUT ME

Maybe it's because my feisty grandma chased tarantulas around with a broom when we lived on an oil lease property when I was a baby that made me love danger and adventure. And maybe it was my father's spending nights as a trombonist with the bands of his day and his days spent drawing sketches that sparked my artistic side. Do you suppose that because my mother stood only four feet ten inches tall that I feel like a giant at five feet? And I'm sure my FBI (Full Blooded Italian) step-father, his seven brothers and sisters and their families are responsible for my LOVE of Italian food. That's who I am. Who are you?

My First Book, Peppy The Frog That I Wrote In The 2nd Grade

I'll always be a child at heart. Whenever I close my eyes, wonderful, funny, awful, embarrassing memories of middle school/​junior high come flooding back to fill the pages of my contemporary novels. My childhood friendships and rivalries with old enemies all find their way into my books. I've even spied on my own kids for story ideas.

Unlike most kids who can't wait to grow up, I've gotten younger--at least my stories have. I've stepped into the world of 7 to 10 year olds.

I and my husband, Jim, live in Texas on Lake Lewisville north of Dallas. We are owned by our greyhound, Miller. Our favorite things to do are traveling the world and boating.

Reviews

[Tiffany Spencer]

Yearbook Memories
Jana and Randy are about to go to the end-of-the-year dinner-dance. Jana is worried about the changes next year. They’ll be the oldest in their schools. Melanie and Shane catch up with them, and they go into the gym together. They meet up with Beth, Katie, Tony, and Marcie. They all wish that Christie were there. Even tho she’ll be there soon. Mr. Bell announces he’ll be giving out the achievements, but first he has copies of the Wigwam (the school year book) is passed out. As her friends reminisce, Jana thinks back on how fun it had been to work on the yearbook with Funny. But then there was one time that she had to a full-page article on her worst enemy.

Jana’s Memory
Mr. Neal tells her he has a special assignment for her. He says he wants her to do a feature on Taffy Sinclair. He says they went to the same elementary school. So, she knows her better than Funny. He knows they didn’t get along then, but figures they’ve moved on since. This is true. Still… He wants her to ask about life on the set, get some pictures, so forth.

Jana sets up a day to come to Taffy’s house and decides to keep the interview short, take a few pictures, and then leave as fast as she can. Taffy’s house looks like a museum, and her room looks like something out of a movie. Taffy starts to show off her photos of herself and Raven Blaine. Jana has no doubt that Taffy’s left her WAY behind. She lets Taffy pick out some pictures for the feature. Taffy gives her a whole album. Jana then asks her some questions. Taffy shows off the star necklace Raven gave her. Then she tells her how she got roses from him, and how he asked to date her if she can back.

Jana’s temper gets the better of her, and she snaps at Taffy that she probably can’t wait to get back. It’s better than hanging around boring Wakeman. Taffy confides in her that she missed doing the normal things. She didn’t realize this until she had to give it up. She was the ordinary kid there, and she was scared they’d make fun of her acting. She confides in her about how Paige treated her at first. Jana doesn’t want to see Taffy as the victim, and tries to tell herself Taffy deserved it.

Taffy says she realized Paige was down on herself with made her hate herself and feel inferior. But they matured when they realized how much they had in common. Jana starts to feel like Taffy is trying to make amends with her and is really being sincere. Jana realizes Taffy grew up and she didn’t. Jana suggests that she and Taffy be friends. Jana and Taffy never got a chance to be friends because Taffy got called back to Hollywood to work on a new movie. But, Jana wishes she were there.

Garrett asks Melanie to sign his yearbook. She wonders if Shane will get jealous, but he’s distracted. So they sign each other’s. The sports teams are acknowledged. Then the cheerleaders. Melanie thinks about how much fun it was being on the squad. She then starts to think about the cheerleading clinic at Trinity College

Melanie’s Memory
It takes 3 hours to get there because of a flat tire. Then snow starts to fall. Melanie and Beth find out they’re rooming together. Their other suitemates are Bob and George. They decide to try to find someone to straighten it out because it must be a mistake. But they can’t find anyone. Out of curiosity, they decide to look inside the connecting bathroom. It’s empty. So, they’re happy that they have the whole suite to themselves.

Two girls tho jump out. It’s Bobbi and Georgia. They tell them they have a prank in mind when they get to the cafeteria. Melanie isn’t so sure. Her mom is one of the chaperones. Beth and Melanie start to talk to some of the girls in line. George puts a fake brownie among the real ones. Then they have a seat to see which one takes it.

The brownie is toward the back. The faculty come in, and Melanie prays it won’t be her mom that gets the brownie. Mrs. Wolfe gets the fake brownie. When Mrs. Wolfe tries to eat the brownie, it SQWAKES! She’s like, ha ha very funny. Then they all go back to eating. The next morning, Melanie and Beth are to eat breakfast and meet Mrs. Wolfe by the trophy case at 7. They meet up for their first class (tumbling).

At lunch, Bobbi and George say they have another joke. During the afternoon class, George finds a way to blast their school’s fight song from the sound system (Nathan Hale Junior High). Melanie tells Beth no one will forget Nathan Hae or its cheerleaders for a long time. Everyone is talking about it at dinner. Even Laura and Tammy are impressed. George and Bobbi entertain everyone with stories of some of their other jokes. That night, they all sit around talking and sharing other stories.

The other girls decide to sneak out to get pizza. Melanie will stay behind and be the lookout. It’s not long before Melanie starts to feel left out. Dekeshia comes by and asks what they’re doing. Everyone else is in the lounge dancing (including the boys). Melanie tells them they’ll be right down. Melanie decides to play a joke on her suitemates. She’ll pretend she left the room, and since everyone’s at the party no one will hear them if they knock on anyone else’s window.

But they aren’t back by lights out. (Melanie fell asleep). Luckily, Melanie is able to find the pizza place, call them, and speak to Beth. She says they pounded at the window but no one was there. Melanie’s mom comes around to check on the girls. Melanie tells her mom they’re sleeping, and she says good night. Melanie convinces Mrs. Wolfe that Beth is in her bed asleep. But then the other girls call out to let them in. Melanie finally gets rid of Mrs. Wolfe and lets the other girls back in. George takes back what she said earlier about Melanie being a chicken. Beth and Melanie have heard from them since telling them about their pranks. But Melanie hasn’t played one single prank since.

Christy wakes up in the middle of the night with the dinner dance on her mind. She starts to imagine how the gym will look. Then she starts to feel homesick. She thinks about all her classmates and John and Chase. Then she starts to cry and wonders what’s wrong with her. She’ll only have a few more weeks to hang out with her British friends. She thinks about the three guys she’s dated this year. Not even Melanie had done that. She thinks of her first date with John Smith.

Christie’s Memory
Christie and John meet the rest of the Fab Five at the movies. When he picks her up, his expression is miserable. Christie sits in the front. John sits in the back. Christie wants John to hold her hand, but he keeps looking at the screen. When she thinks he’s about to. He just reaches for the popcorn. John blames himself at the end of the date for Christie not having a good time. But she blames herself. They agree to have their first date over again.

The second date goes better, but they never think of each other as boyfriend and girlfriend. They go out a while, and then they start to date other people. Dating Chase was different. It’s a little more daring and Christie actually breaks her curfew. Then there’s Conrad. They had a date, and have dated frequently since. But there was one special date.

Connie’s parents invite her to a reception for the Princess and Prince of Wales (and her parents). Christie is a little nervous, so she goes to the library to read up on what to do around royalty. She gets a new pale blue dress from Harrods. Princess D is nice and takes interest in the Fab Five. Christie wishes her friends could have been there. She thinks how far she’s come and the amazing things she’s done. She wonders what it will be like to move back home and will she stay in contact with Connie.

The Teen Court members are introduced. Katie starts to think of some of their more difficult cases. The most difficult of all being when she was blackmailed.

Katie’s Memory
The members of the Teen Court sit around and discuss there being a punishment for Clarence and Richie not taking their trays up. It's decided they have to empty trays from the return for a week. During a break, Katie has to go to the bathroom and decides to just use the boy’s bathroom, but she’s caught by an eighth grader (Micheal). Unfortunately, Micheal comes into the courtroom.

They start to debate the previous case, and Katie is quoted by one of the team members. You can't just go around breaking the rules because it’s convenient. Michael listens attentively. The next case is Michael's. He’s been caught taking a boy named Billy’s homework more than once by Mr. Neal. He said it took it to write down the assignment”, but he had it all day. And the answers he turned in were similar. At first, Billy said Michael took it. Later, he said he let Michael have it. Michael makes a point of saying he didn’t do anything wrong. Not like if someone had used the boys bathroom. Katie knows the others didn’t pick up on it, but she did. He’s trying to blackmail her.

There’s a tie between guilty and not guilty; Katie is senior judge, so she has to break the tie. Katie says not guilty. But afterwards, Katie wonders if she was right to vote the way she did. The next day, Katie asks Billy if Michael took his homework or if he gave it to him. He says he gave it to him. (It’s clear he didn’t. The Fab Five says Katie should go back on her verdict, but she says she can’t do the case over. She does think of a plan tho. Mr. Neal agrees to help.

The next day, the Fabulous Five decide to follow Billy one at a time. Micheal stops Billy and pulls him behind a tree. Micheal says he’ll give it back before homeroom. Billy says that’s what he said last time. Michael asks if he’s calling him a liar. Billy says he can’t this time. Mr. Neal gave him a double assignment. Michael threatens to punch his lights out, so Billy tells him to give it back to him. Micheal says after lunch.

Katie confronts him and tells Billy she heard the whole thing. She tells him he should tell Mr. Neal. Billy shrugs it off. Katie says he’ll just continue to bully him if he doesn’t stand up to him. Katie says if Billy doesn’t speak up, she will. He says that if she does he’ll tell on her and she’ll get kicked off the Teen Court. She says she doesn’t care and he says he’ll see her in court.

During the next case, Katie brings up what she did and says it was the wrong thing to do, and she wants the court to decide on a punishment. Michael and the others are floored. Then Billy speaks up and says Katie doesn’t want to be blackmailed and tells them about what happened with Michael and the five other times he took his homework. Since no complaint has been filed against Katie there’s no punishment. Michael is found guilty and has to help clean black boards after school. UH WHAT?! This calls for ATLEAST a suspension.

The Media Club is then introduced. Beth thinks about a time when she almost give up being in the club.

Beth’s Memory
The Media Crew try to come up with an idea for an upcoming show. Beth has an idea to make the audience sit up and take notice. Beth's idea is to come into the media as a walking, talking basketball. Funny isn’t excited about the idea, but the others think it’s brilliant and a great way to get attention for the basketball tournament.

Beth hears some girls ridiculing her the next day in the stalls and wonders if she went too far. But she decides no. She’s an actress. But she remembers the looks on everyone's faces and how everyone looked at her like she’d lost her mind. Beth is teased all day. So, she makes a list of all the things she admires in the people around her and that’s what she’ll be like. Now she’ll have to tone down her clothes and her hair.

Mr. Bell wants to make Beth the official mascot. He sees television stations from all over the county will be covering the game. He’ll get the band to come up with a special fight song. Beth wants to cry and says she just can’t do it. She says her parents won’t let her go out on school nights.

The Fabulous Five confront Beth about not wanting to be in the group anymore. They say nothing she did today was like her, and there could only be one reason she defended Laura. She’s planning to join the Fantastic Four. Beth tells them the only reason she did it was to be more like them. Then she tells them what she heard in the bathroom from the girls. So, now Beth can call Mr. Bell and accept his offer to be the official mascot.

At the end of the book are signatures There’s pictures and commentary of Katie, Beth, Jana, Melanie, and Christie. There are the Wigwam’s staff grading of the teachers. There’s a pop quiz. There’s a Seventh-Grade Superlative Poll. Shane writes 5 years why the year was totally cool. Alexis Duvall has a poem called “The Days of Our Wakko Lives”. The last thing is Dekeshia’s “Class Prophecy”.

Rating: 6 Pretty good memories! Not a bad super edition.