Nancy N. Rue - Totally Unfair. Nama Beach High Series, Book 4

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Nama Beach High Book 4: Totally Unfair
Copyright 2005 by Youth Specialties

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ePub Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-56895-7

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rue, Nancy N.
Totally unfair / by Nancy Rue.
p. cm. -- (Nama Beach High ; bk. 4)
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Laura Duffy relies on her faith in God when
a vindictive classmates dishonest tactics turn Lauras best friends
against her.
ISBN 0-310-25183-4
[1. Christian life--Fiction. 2. High schools--Fiction. 3.
Schools--Fiction. 4. Teacher-student relationships--Fiction. 5.
Competition (Psychology)--Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.R88515To 2005
[Fic]--dc22

2004016917

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version (North American Edition), copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other(except for brief quotations in printed reviews) without the prior permission of the publisher.

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Editorial direction by Laura Gross
Edited by Janie Wilkerson
Proofread by Joanne Heim and Kristi Robison
Cover design by Proxy Design

04 05 06 07 08 09 / DC / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENT

I was feeling good about my sweet self.

My BFFs or Best Friends Foreveraccording to my sister Bonnie who was six and knew allwere looking at me like Id just led them to Olympic gold or something.

Okay, I admitI pretty much felt that way too. Because there they wereCeleste, Stevie, Joy Beth, and Trentall with bags the size of carry-on luggage under their eyes and hair that hadnt been washed in two days. Who shampoos at a retreat?

But their eyes were shining and their expressions were noble, almost responsiblenot something I saw in any of our 16-year-old faces that often.

Can you believe every single person made the pledge? I said.

Yeah, baby, yeah, baby, yeah, babyyeah!

That, of course, came from Celeste, who had been straight-faced and principled as long as the rest of the youth group was there. But the minute they went off to pack for home, the freckles across her constantly sunburned face started dancing, and that real-to-the-marrow smile stretched from one dangly rhinestone earring to the other. Only Celeste would wear faux diamonds with a backward ball cap and plaid boxers. And only Celeste could get away with it. She flipped that blond ponytail the way she did everything elsewith total comfort inside her own skin.

Stevie, my other best girlfriend, just sat there and smiled. I knew she was recovering from all the high fives and hugs shed received from the guys in the group before theyd dragged themselves away. Her luscious tousle of highlighted tresses and her deep brown eyesas well as absolutely everything else about her petite, Latina-flavored selfwere impossible for guys to resist. Me, on the other hand, they had no problem resisting.

Duffy, Celeste said to me. Read it out loud.

Trent raised his chin from the top of Joy Beths head where hed been resting it and scrunched up his very-small-for-a-big-guy mouth. Shes already read it three times.

No stinkin way! Celeste said. Her Brooklyn accent was fully operational. Where was I?

Joy Beth grunted. That was her answer to just about everything. Her swimmers shoulders and her gray-eyed laser gaze created a presence that said it all.

You were either in the kitchen scavenging, Stevie said, or changing the spark plugs on Pastor Enniss car.

Did I hear my name? said Pastor Ennis as he passed through with a package of trash bags. She jumped my battery. He turned his head, shiny to the receding hairline, toward Celeste and added, Do you change spark plugs?

I can be your full-service mechanic, Pastor, Celeste said. She whipped her face toward me, her freckles still doing the cha-cha. Just read it again, Duffy. I want to hear how awesome it sounds one more time.

It really was a big deal. Our youth group had only been in existence for a couple of months. And although wed gone from eight members to fifteen in that time, we were still tiny compared to the megachurches in Panama Beach. But there was nothing small about our voicesas wed shown through our rowdy-til-dawn pillow fights two nights in a row and, better yet, by the pledge.

Do it, Duff, Celeste said.

I turned to the giant sticky note on which Stevie had written the pledge. She was a former cheerleader. Cheerleaders could make posters in their sleep.

Okay, I said. Heres what weve pledged to do, and I read it to them one more time.

I will be part of the solution for ending hatred in my generation.

I will not harbor any kind of suspicion about people just because theyare different from me. I will not tear them down.

I will speak up when other people are showing their ignorance.

I will be sensitive to the hearts of otherseven those who seem to haveno hearts at all.

I will be strong in my mission to set an example of a caring person andnever let my lack of understanding hurt another human being.

I know I cant do this alone. I will continually ask God for his strengthand wisdom, empowering my whole generation to stop the hatred.

I will pray for those who hatefor only then can I truly be like GodsSon.

Stevie grinned at the BFFs. And all Gods people said

Amen!

It was a pretty impressive response. And it should have been. I was hoarse from doing it about 20 times over the weekend; wed amened everything from tacos to Lets hit the beach. That and all the singingwhich I lovedhad practically given me laryngitis.

You really think everybodys going to stick to it? Trent said.

You obviously dont, Stevie said.

Joy Beth gave Trent a love punch on the arm. He will.

Im not talking about me, Trent insisted. Im talking about some of the other guys. Theyre saying they dont want to preach in the locker roomyou know, make fools of themselves.

Who said they had to make fools of themselves? I said. Do they think Im gonna do that?

You did get your jaw broken, Duffy, Celeste said. And your car stolen

They just dont want to hand out pamphlets or pray in the lunch line, Trent said.

Hello! Celeste said. Who said we were going to do that?

I think its a valid concern. Stevie was also in student government, which meant she had experience with these kinds of heated discussions. But they dont have to do any of that. And how would we know if they did or didnt anyway? They dont even go to our school.