School went on the next day much as usual. Betty met Marcella in the
hall and received a friendly smile, though Marcella was preoccupied. As
the next few weeks went by, Betty almost forgot how important the
sorority matter had seemed. They did not see as much of Peggy, that was
all. And it was probable that Carolyn and Betty did not confide such
intimate affairs to Peggy as before. It made a difference to feel things
might be passed on to others with whom Peggy was now intimate. The girls
wondered how she "stood" Mathilde, but Peggy never mentioned Mathilde.
The weeks sped on with the customary tests and the welcome Holiday
season. Betty did not see anything of her old friends, Janet and Sue,
who could not visit her at any time suggested. But they all went to the
farm on Christmas, for Grandma was well and longing for them to come
once more. There was plenty of snow there and hills for sledding. Dick
tried to make some skis, without remarkable success, but Doris and Betty
enjoyed trying them.
The spread of white, snow-covered fields, the freedom from the city's
noise and traffic and the great open fires of the old farmhouse were a
joy to everybody. But Mr. Lee made plans about how a furnace could be
put in for Grandmother, since she refused to leave the home place. That
should be done before another winter. The children had brought their
various reports to show Grandmother, who asked Betty, "Still on the
honor roll in spite of athletics?"
"Yes'm," said Betty, with an engaging smile. "You see, hikes and
swimming and practice games are in the nature of recreation. I go home
and rest and eat good meals and then I can get my lessons all right."
"Aw, Betty is just smart, Grandma," said Dick. "Couldn't all of them do
it." And Betty, surprised at this brotherly tribute, made Dick a
sweeping bow.
Betty was on the regular class basketball team now. There were about two
hundred girls who had "gone out" for basketball on the call for the
inter-class contest teams, though the contest would not start until
February. But the teams were organized before Christmas and Betty was
chosen captain. How that had happened she claimed not to know and was
really surprised, for she thought that one of the athletic teachers had
been influenced by Mathilde and did not like her.
But Betty had played good hockey and in basketball practice games she
was light, active, showed powers of leadership, and best of all, could
make baskets, an important ability in basketball, it would seem! In
consequence she found herself in command of the Sophomore Jumping-Jacks,
a name for which Betty was not responsible. But some one had watched
them and declared that several of the girls were "regular jumping-jacks"
when it came to lifting the ball to and through a basket. Some one who
overheard called them the Jumping-Jacks and the name stuck till the
girls considered it "cute" enough to be adopted. The "squad" was a large
one, with a number of girls who played nearly as well as those on what
was considered the "team." There were a few jealousies to be handled, as
Betty well knew. How she had made the position of captain she scarcely
knew yet. Carolyn told her that she was the "dark horse," as she said
her father called it in politics. "Sort of a compromise?" queried Betty,
who had not even sought to be captain and dreaded it.
"Yes. Everybody knew you weren't after it, and there was such a mess
this time, sorting out for the first and second team. So you're it. Now
see that we beat everybody. I'm only playing basketball on your account,
Betty."
"Don't you really like it?"
"Yes, but I don't enjoy a big contest. I'll do my best, though, to make
my part of the second team so good that I'll get called in to help out
the first squad."
"Good for you. If I have anything to say, you'll get a chance to play
with me!"
Kathryn was on the first team and a good player. She was as quick as
Betty and with her practiced on the floor to make long shots from
different angles. "It sometimes saves the day Betty," said Kathryn. "Do
you remember last year how Freddy Fisher had a chance to put the ball
through that basket from 'way across the floor! We certainly have missed
Freddy this year, haven't we? But Ted Dorrance is playing basketball and
he's good."
"Is that so? He wasn't on the football squad."
"No. His mother draws a line on football and said she'd take him out of
school, or send him away somewhere to school if he played. But he's
grand in basketball. Didn't you see that write-up of him in the _Roar_
last week?"
"I missed getting that number, Kathryn. Have you a copy?"
"Yes. I'll show it to you."
"What is his speciality?" asked Betty, thinking of the tall boy she
admired so much.
"Well, in the first game he made some under the basket shots that were
just in time to make the score. It beat the other team. It's a shame you
didn't see the account of the game. It's all in the paper."
"All I knew was that we beat," said Betty. "I didn't even see the
evening paper at home. That was the night I was studying for a test and
forgot everything else. It was my only chance, for we were doing things
all day Saturday."
"Ted has a new girl, Betty, they say."
"Really--who?"
"Oh, one of the junior girls that he is taking all around to the parties
and everything. He had her out here at the school for the minstrel show
the other night. That was real funny. Did you go?"
"No. I can't go to everything and I just _have_ to go to the musical
things. Mother and I went to the Symphony Concert the last time."
"It's funny Chet didn't ask you. He's been hanging around so much of
late, Betty." Kathryn gave Betty a roguish glance as she decided that
they had practiced enough and sat down to change her shoes, donning the
ones fit for the street. Betty, too, took off her gym shoes for the same
purpose. The gym was almost empty now, for it was after school hours.
"Oh, Mother wouldn't let me go out at night with the boys yet," answered
Betty. "It's all right for parties and picnics and things like that, it
seems, but not for shows and things. Mothers are funny; but I have a
very nice one and I suppose she knows why she lets me do some things and
says no about others."
"My mother says that she hasn't the least idea what to do with me about
anything in 'these days,' but she hopes to take care of me, if she has
my 'co-operation.'"
Betty laughed at this. "Our poor mothers! Well, I rather guess it's up
to us to co-operate then. Why, if you won't tell, Chet did ask me and I
couldn't go with him, but he wasn't mad at all. Mother just told me to
put the blame on her, so I did, explaining, you know. Then I felt as I
told you about choosing the things I can go to myself."
"Chet is a pretty good sort of a boy, of course. Chauncey said the other
day he thought he'd cut him out with you, Betty, and I told him to go
and do it." Kathryn slipped a foot into a shoe and stood up laughing.
"I'd like you real well as a sister, though I didn't go so far as to say
that to Chauncey."
"I should _hope not_!" said Betty, with emphasis. "It's none of it as
serious as all that, Kathryn, but I don't mind being liked and being
invited, do you?"
"What girl does? But I don't want a real 'case' yet."
"Mercy, no! And Mother says I mustn't accept invitations from boys that
I don't know anything about, no matter how nice they seem here. There
are some drawbacks to numbers after all."
"Yes, but you can usually tell about boys and girls, too, and it's easy
enough to find out about them. Dad says that he is a 'social democrat,'
but I notice that he is terribly particular about my company."
"We have such a lot of things going on at school that it is easy enough
to make friends and be with boys and girls you like without bothering
about dates any more important than meeting your 'boy friend,' as Dick
calls it, at the picnic or at the ball game. Carolyn's parties are
always such fun. I want to have one the spring vacation, though that
seems a long way off, doesn't it!"
"I'm having one in two weeks, on Friday night, Betty, so save that date,
please. I'll have a time getting ready for it during school, so please
come early and help me, will you?"
"Of course I will. It will be fun. What do you want me to do?"
"I'll tell you in plenty of time. I want it a _real_ party and I'm going
to invite Lucia, of course, so it must make a good impression on our
lady from the Italian nobility."
"Lucia won't be critical, Kathryn. She said that she liked you. You were
'so sincere.'"
"Did she? I like Lucia, too, though some things made me a little tired
at first."
"Just think of the handicap, Kathryn, of not being born an American!"
Betty was grinning, but she really felt that Lucia had not had a fair
chance to be like a girl who was born in the "land of the free." This
was a phase that had crept out with Lucia a time or two in her contact
with other girls and had amused that daughter of the Caesars as much as
a few of her ways amused the American girls. But they were meeting on
common ground in the school room and in the case of the few girls of
whom Lucia was becoming fond, friendly adjustments were easy to make.
The matter of being acquainted with boys was natural enough in a large
high school, and a large residence district as good as that from which
Lyon High drew most of its attendance supplied children of some of the
city's best citizens. It was not very likely that boys attracted to
Betty and Kathryn would not have a good background, to say the least.
Many of them they had known all through their freshman year. What Betty
did not know was that Chet Dorrance was at present going out of his way
just to pass Betty in the hall, whether he had an opportunity to speak
to her or not. In a class or two in which both recited, he never stared
directly at her, but one corner of his eye knew where Betty was and what
she was doing. It was his first attack and very acute, Ted would have
said. Chet, however, was good at concealing his feelings and would not
have had the boys guess how much he liked Betty. Of course, they teased
him a little for "hanging around," but Chet, with apparent candor, said
that he liked "that bunch of girls" and didn't care who knew it. "You
have to have a little social life," said he. "It's a poor sophomore that
can't take a girl out once in a while."
If it had been Ted, Chet's brother, now, Betty might have been thrilled
a little at the frequent meetings and all the excuses that Chet made to
speak to her about this or that. But Betty was demurely responsive, or
pleasant, interested in what Chet had to say, but not including him in
any of her dreams. Chet wasn't the Prince Charming by any means. Yet
Chet would be that to some one, doubtless, one of these days.
The names of the basketball squads were posted, that of the freshmen
having more extras than those of the other classes. The sophomores now
had only a few more than the two "teams." Betty found that she was a
good deal more excited over the coming contests than she had expected to
be, since so much responsibility for whipping the sophomore team into
shape rested upon her.
Dates of games to be played in the girls' gym were also posted, another
spur to excellence. Kathryn postponed her party because of the necessity
for strenuous practice, but said that she would have one to celebrate,
when the sophomores "beat the championship game." Betty told her that
too much confidence was a "hoo-doo," but Kathryn told her that
determination to beat was "one of the greatest assets" a team could
have.
Betty, Kathryn and Carolyn had a front seat at the first game of the
contest, played between the seniors and freshmen. It would have been
hard to say which were the more excited, the busy players or the rooters
who were girls expecting to meet the two classes they were watching, in
a future game.
"Watch that freshman guarding, Betty. She's rough. We'll look out for
her and see that nothing is done that isn't seen! Say--that was a good
play! Did you _see that_?"
Betty was watching too closely to say a word. If she could get the
tactics, provided there were any special ones, or the important
characteristics of the senior girls, it would help, she thought. She
early dismissed the freshmen as opponents. They were playing a good game
in the main, but not a winning game. They needed practice and more
"team-work."
This game was on a Tuesday afternoon, after school. The next day the
seniors were to play against the juniors, and the girls of all the
teams, as far as possible, were urged by their captains to be present.
The score of seniors versus freshmen was only eleven to six and the
freshmen were jubilant over having kept the seniors from scoring as
heavily as they had expected. But Betty saw that senior mistakes would
be corrected. She still thought that her greatest effort would be in the
game against the seniors. Still, some had said that the juniors were
playing excellent games.
On Wednesday the gym was again full of interested girls who gave their
class cheers and cheered for the enemy. The sophomores rooted chiefly
for the seniors, but to their great surprise, the juniors won! "Well!"
cried Betty. "I'm not a prophet, and that is that!"
"I'm glad we don't meet the juniors or seniors first," said Lucia
Coletti, who sat next to Betty this time. Lucia was not playing
basketball, but she was interested sufficiently to identify herself with
her class and attend the games.
"Tomorrow we play against the freshmen, don't we?" she asked.
"Yes, and what did Miss Orme do but give us a test, a last hour test,
mind you, just before the game. I told her, but she looked at me in
perfect disgust. 'Do you think we should dismiss school on account of
the games?' she asked." Betty sighed.
"Oh, well, you'll be less excited for something else to think about.
Perhaps it will not be hard."
"And perhaps it will, Lucia. Be glad you aren't in her class. But that
is a good idea about thinking of something else. I'm gone if I worry.
And I've been getting that work so far. I'll just take it all as sport.
But I do want my team to play well."
"They'll beat the freshmen, I think, though those freshmen aren't to be
despised."
"Indeed they aren't."
Betty was pretty well keyed up before her first game of the class
competition, but Betty never lost her self-control. She set her lips and
went through the rather difficult written test as well as she could. The
air grew close, and it was with a thrill of actually joyous expectation
that Betty hurried to the gym as the time approached, and joked with the
freshman captain whom she met on the way. She could breathe in the gym!
"We're going to 'lick' the sophomores," jovially the freshman captain
informed her.
"Don't be too sure. We're out to win," cheerily answered Betty. She
gathered her girls together and told them of some points she had noted
about the freshman playing and they entered the game with confidence,
though warned not to be too sure. The "rough" freshman was taken out
after some too apparent fouls due to her performances, and the final
score was eighteen to three in favor of the sophomores. They had won
their first game at least, Betty said. "Now send up the score, girls, as
high as you can with every game. No telling what we can do if we try!"
The inter-class games continued, with some intervals due to other
important school events, for three weeks. Classes were given more than
one opportunity to better their score against other classes. But finally
it narrowed down to a contest between the juniors and sophomores, Betty
finding the sophomore record making her "famous," as Kathryn said.
Senior luck held part of the time only, but that class never had done as
well in basketball as in other things, Carolyn told Betty.
The championship game was to be played in the boys' gym, which was
larger, and the boys were allowed to attend. Betty, her cheeks pink from
excitement, saw that her mother with Amy Lou had a good seat. "Look out,
Amy Lou, and don't get hit with the ball!" and Betty left them to
disappear into the regions of the girls' gym, where the teams were
getting ready.
Dick and Doris were there and all the girls of the G. A. A. who could
come, to say nothing of various boys, particularly those of the
sophomore and junior classes. "Forget the crowd, girls, and whether your
nose gets shiny or not," advised Betty. "You're a graceful lot anyhow
and usually succeed in avoiding a terrible scramble. But remember that
we _have to beat_ those juniors!"
Betty was distrustful of Mathilde, who had gotten on the first team by
no wish of hers. She would be playing against Marcella and the other
juniors of Kappa Upsilon and Betty thought, though she could not be
sure, that she surprised a message between Mathilde and one of the
junior players at the other game they played with that class. Mathilde's
play had been a failure. Could it have been that she _wanted_ to give
the game to the junior captain, her sorority sister?
Betty told her worries to no one but Kathryn. She did not want to worry
Carolyn, who could not imagine that any one would be as mean as that and
was too unsuspicious to see anything but the most flagrant acts. "I'll
keep an eye out, Betty," said Kathryn. "Mathilde doesn't care for the
sophomores or anything but that old sorority, and she doesn't like your
being captain, though I hate to tell you that."
"Don't worry. I know it. We'll just keep awake and I'm glad to say that
it's Miss Fox who's keeping an eye out this time, besides the referee.
But it's going to be a fast game and no telling what may happen."
First with applause, then with silence, the little audience in the gym
greeted the two teams as they came out, without the preliminary stunts
that sometimes marked school affairs, and started right in. Amy Louise
stood straight up when she saw for the first time the big ball, tossed
from one to another, going across the floor, in the hands of Betty's
girls, to be popped into the proper basket. That was after the
"tip-off," as a freshman girl told Mrs. Lee. She knew few of the correct
expressions, but enough to indicate results. "The point is to put the
ball through their own basket, Mrs. Lee and they 'make the goal' and
'score.'"
But there was little opportunity to explain. As had been predicted, the
game was a fast one. The sophomores had the advantage at the first and
scored several times. Then the juniors succeeded in keeping the
sophomores from scoring, put up a clever defense of their own, carried
the ball with bewildering speed from one to another and passed the score
of the sophomores with their own. The sophomores came back with a series
of successful plays after disaster temporarily visited the juniors; and
Kathryn covered herself with glory by making the long shot, for which
she had been practicing, and saved the day in a bad situation which had
occurred. Advantage now on this side and now on that, the first two
quarters ended with an equal score.
"If we can do that, Betty," whispered Kathryn, "we stand a good chance
to beat."
But Betty was too engrossed to heed. Miss Fox was talking to Mathilde,
who was answering loudly. The referee was called to the conference. Then
Miss Fox came to Betty, who was watching. "I--we--are taking Mathilde
out, Betty. She is not guilty of any foul, but we think that she
purposely lost an advantage. I'm not going to risk it. Put in Mary Emma
Howland for the rest of the game. If the juniors beat us they want to do
it fairly."
Mary Emma was only too glad to play. The other girls wondered a little,
but the game was too engrossing, when again they were in the midst of
it, to care who was playing. Betty gave Mary Emma a few instructions,
but Mary Emma was one of the best on the second team and had been hoping
for a chance to play the Championship game. Mathilde was very angry, as
Betty could see. She came up to Betty and said, "You put Foxy up to
that, I know!"
"I didn't even see what you did, or didn't do, Mathilde," replied Betty,
but she turned away. It would not do to get into a discussion now.
Again the contest waxed hard and fast, each side to put the ball through
their own basket, each side to keep the other from doing the like. It
took quick thinking and quick action and keeping the rules. Betty had an
opportunity at showing what she could do in scoring, getting away from
her guard and making two beautiful "shots" from unfavorable angles. The
juniors felt that it would be a disgrace to let the sophomores beat the
contest and began to grow excited. Betty never was more cool within,
though physically she was warm from the action. It wouldn't be so
terrible to be beaten by juniors--but oh, how good to beat them--even
Marcella, who was playing a good game.
But personal relations were forgotten on the floor. Marcella was kept
from sending the ball through the junior basket and Mary Emma starred as
guard in that occasion. The quarters,--the halves--passed, and the
pistol shot rang out for the close of the game with the score even.
No one was satisfied, of course, but many were the compliments for the
playing of both teams. Few fouls, clean playing, fast playing, enough
baskets, the comments declared. "It's so stupid when nobody can score,"
said one. "These girls managed to do it some way in spite of good
interference."
Twenty-five to twenty-five the score stood, said Marcella caught up with
Betty as they went back to the girls' gym to change costumes again. "The
_idea_ that you beat us, Betty," said Marcella with a smile. "I just
declared that you never would!"
"Why, we didn't beat you!" cried Betty.
"You might as well. We couldn't beat _you_, anyhow, which was terrible!
I think we were a little better in our guarding, but you overcame that
disadvantage by those long shots that we did not dream you could make.
You and Kathryn are stars, Betty. I'm sorry we did not get you in Kappa
Upsilon. What was the trouble with Mathilde, Betty?"
"I don't know, Marcella. You'll have to ask Miss Fox or the referee. I
didn't see anything."
"I imagine you have an idea, though," said Marcella. "Well all hail to
the Jingery Jumping Jacks! The Lucky Leapers are forced to give them
credit, though we don't want to do it."
"Aren't you a great jollier, Marcella Waite! I'm glad it's over, but I'd
rather somebody would beat. Still, there are things to be said in favor
of a tie, provided a body couldn't win the championship outright. Oh, do
you suppose they'll make us play another game?"
"Let _us_ have another chance, you mean," winked Marcella. "No, the big
excitement is over and they'll not do it, though I'd love to."
"The sophomore team will be ready," said Betty, "though just now I'm for
a good dip in the pool and a square meal at home!"
"Sensible idea. You make me hungry at the thought. Oh, Mathilde! Wait!"
Betty watched Marcella follow Mathilde, who neither turned around nor
waited, but hurried into the other gym.