ELEANOR FINDS A WAY
Now that Thanksgiving was past, basketball became the topic of the hour.
The juniors had accepted the challenge of the senior class, and had
agreed to play them on Saturday, December 12, at two o'clock, in the
gymnasium. Only two weeks remained in which to practise. Their sorority
enthusiasm had so completely run away with them that they had even
neglected basketball until now. Therefore Grace Harlowe lost no time
in getting Miss Thompson's permission to use the gymnasium, and promptly
notified her team and the subs. to meet there, in gymnasium suits,
prepared to play, that afternoon.
The instant the last bell sounded on lessons, ten girls made for their
lockers, and fifteen minutes later the first team and the subs. were
moving toward the gymnasium deep in the discussion of the coming game
and their chances for success over their opponents.
A brief meeting was held, and the girls were assigned to their
positions. Grace had fully intended that Miriam should play center, but
when she proposed it, Miriam flatly refused to do so, and asked for her
old position of right forward.
"You are our captain," she declared to Grace, "and the best center
I ever saw on a girls' team. It would be folly to change now. Don't
you agree with me, girls?"
Nora was detailed as left forward, while Marian Barber and Eva Allen
played right and left guards. The substitutes were also assigned their
positions and practice began.
Before they had been on the floor twenty minutes the girls were
thoroughly alive to the joy of the game and worked with the old-time
dash and spirit that had won them the championship the previous year.
Now that they were in harmony with each other, they played with
remarkable unity, and after an hour's practice Grace decided that they
were in a fair way to "whip the seniors off the face of the earth."
"I never saw you girls work better!" she exclaimed. "It will be a sorry
day for the seniors when we line up on the twelfth."
"There'll be a great gnashing of senior teeth after the game," remarked
Nora confidently.
"Do you know, girls," said Grace, as they left the gymnasium that
afternoon, "I am sorry that Eleanor won't be peaceable. I wanted her to
like every bit of our school life and thought she'd surely be interested
in basketball. I suppose she will stay away from the game merely
because we are on the team. It is really a shame for her to be so
unreasonable."
"Grace Harlowe, are you ever going to stop mourning over Eleanor?" cried
Miriam impatiently. "She doesn't deserve your regret and is too selfish
to appreciate it. I know what I am talking about because I used to be
just as ridiculous as she is, and knowing what you suffered through me,
I can't bear to see you unhappy again over some one who is too trivial
to be taken seriously."
"You're a dear, Miriam!" exclaimed Nora impulsively.
It was the first time that the once haughty Miriam had ever referred
publicly to past shortcomings, although from the time she and Grace had
settled their difficulties at the close of the sophomore year, she had
been a changed girl.
"Where are Anne and Jessica to-day?" asked Eva Allen.
"Anne and Jessica have refused point blank to honor us with their
presence during practice," announced Nora. "I asked Jessica to-day, and
she said that they didn't want to know how we intended to play, for then
they could wax enthusiastic and make a great deal more noise. It is
their ambition to become loud and loyal fans."
"What a worthy ambition," said Marian Barber, with a giggle. "They are
such noisy creatures already."
There was more laughing at this, as Anne and Jessica were by far the
quietest members of the sorority.
"Remember, we practise to-morrow after school," called Grace as she
separated from her team at her street.
As she walked slowly down the quiet street, deep in thought, her ear
caught the sound of an approaching automobile, and she looked up just in
time to see Eleanor drive by in her machine. Grace nodded to her, but
her salutation met with a chilly stare.
"How childish she is," thought Grace. "I suppose she thinks that hurts
me. Of course it isn't exactly pleasant, but I'm going to keep on
speaking to her, just the same. I am not angry, even if she is; although
I have far greater cause to be."
But before the close of the week Grace was destined to cross swords with
Eleanor in earnest, and the toleration she had felt was swallowed up in
righteous indignation.
During the winter, theatrical companies sometimes visited Oakdale for a
week at a time, presenting, at popular prices, old worn-out plays and
cheap melodramas. These companies gave daily matinées as well as
evening performances, and the more frivolous element of High School
girls had in time past occasionally "skipped school" to spend the
afternoon in the theatre. By the girls, this form of truancy was
considered a "lark," but Miss Thompson did not look at the matter in the
same light, and disciplined the culprit so severely whenever she found
this to be the cause of an afternoon's absence that the girls were slow
to offend in this respect.
All this Eleanor had heard, among other things, from Edna Wright, but
had paid little attention to it when Edna had told her. Directly after
cutting Grace Harlowe, she had turned her runabout into Main Street,
where a billboard had caught her eye, displaying in glaring red and blue
lettering the fact that the "Peerless Dramatic Company" would open a
week's engagement in Oakdale with daily matinées.
Eleanor's eyes sparkled. She halted her machine, scanning curiously the
list of plays on the billboard. "The Nihilist's Daughter" was scheduled
for Thursday afternoon, and Eleanor decided to go. She wasn't afraid of
Miss Thompson. Then, possessed with a sudden idea, she laughed
gleefully. At last she had found a way to effectually annoy the
principal.