"OUT OF IT"
For on that Saturday morning Mrs. Case had called at the Grimes house
and asked to see Hester. The girl came down and, the moment she saw
the physical instructor of Central High, seemed to know what was
afoot.
"So you've come to tell me I'm not on the team any more, I s'pose,
Mrs. Case?" she demanded, tossing her head, her face growing very red.
"I am sorry to tell you that, after your actions at the game with East
High Wednesday afternoon, it has been decided that another girl
nominated to your position on Team Number 1 would probably do better,"
said Mrs. Case, quietly.
"Well!" snapped Hester. "You've been wanting to get me off ever since
last spring----"
"Hester! although we are not at school now, we are discussing school
matters, and I am one of your teachers. Just as long as you attend
Central High you must speak respectfully to and of your instructors,
both in and out of school. Do you wish me to report your language to
Mr. Sharp?"
Hester was sullenly silent for a moment
"For I can assure you," continued Mrs. Case, "that if I were to place
the entire matter before him, including your general deportment at the
gymnasium and on the athletic field, I feel sure your parents would be
requested to remove you from the school. Do you understand that?"
"I don't know that I would be very sorry," muttered the girl.
"You think you would not," said Mrs. Case; "but it is not so. You are
too old to be taken out of one school and put in another because of
your deportment. Wherever you went that fact would follow you. It
would be hard work for you to live down such a reputation, Hester."
"I wish father would send me to a boarding-school, anyway."
"And I doubt if that would help you any. You will not be advised,
Hester. But you will learn yet that I speak the truth when I tell you
that you will be neither happy, nor popular, wherever you go, unless
you control your temper."
"What do I care about those nasty girls on the Hill?" sputtered the
butcher's daughter. "They're a lot of nobodies, if they _are_ so
stuck-up."
"There is not a girl in your class, Hester, who puts on airs over
you--or who attempts to," said Mrs. Case, warmly. "And you know that is
so. Deep in your heart, Hester, you know just where the trouble lies.
Your lack of self-control and your envy are at the root of all your
troubles in school and in athletics."
Hester only pouted; but she made no reply.
"Now I am forced to remove you from this team where--if you would keep
your temper--you could be of much use. You are a good player at
basketball--one of the best in Central High. And we have to deny you
the privilege of playing on the champion team because----"
"Just because the other girls don't want me to play with them!" cried
the girl, angrily.
"And can they be blamed?" demanded the teacher, quite exasperated
herself now. "If you had any loyalty to Central High you would not
have acted as you did."
"I don't care!" flashed out Hester.
At that Mrs. Case arose to go. "You are hopeless," she said,
decisively. "I had it in mind to offer you a chance to win back your
position on the team. But such consideration would be thrown away on
you."
"I don't want to play with the horrid, stuck-up things!" cried Hester,
quite beside herself now with rage and mortification. "I hate them
all. I don't want any of them to be my friends. And as for your old
athletics--I'm going to tell father that they're no good and that I
want to withdraw from the League."
"You may be saved the necessity for that if you haven't a care,
Hester," warned Mrs. Case, taking her departure.
It was because of this visit from the physical instructor, perhaps,
that Hester fairly bullied her father at luncheon time into allowing
her mother and herself to try out an automobile that an agent had
wanted to sell the wholesale butcher for some time. If automobiles had
been uncommon on the Hill Henry Grimes would have had one long before
for his family, for he loved display, just as Hester did. But nearly
every family at their end of Whiffle Street had a car.
However, Mrs. Grimes woke up enough to show interest in the matter,
too, for she really liked riding in a car that ran smoothly and
rapidly over the macadamized roads about Centerport; so she added her
complaint to Hester's and finally the butcher telephoned for the car
to be sent up. But he would not give any time to it himself. Therefore
it was that Hester and her mother appeared on the Hill road just above
the Four Corners in season to extricate Laura Belding and Eve Sitz
from their very uncomfortable session with Hebe Pocock and his crowd.
"We ought to have gone along and left those girls to get out of it as
best they could," snapped Hester, when the car rolled on and Laura and
Eve, with the mare and colt, were out of sight.
"Why, I declare for't!" ejaculated Mrs. Grimes. "You certainly do hate
that Belding girl--and I don't see a living thing the matter with her.
She's smart an' bright--remember how she found my auto veil that you
lost last spring?"
Hester had very good reason for remembering that occasion. She had
always been afraid that Laura would circulate the story connected with
that veil; and because Laura had kept silence Hester hated her all the
more.
And now Hester allowed bitter thoughts against Mother Wit and the
other members of the basketball team to fester in her mind, until she
was actually insanely angry with and jealous of them.
When her mother that evening at dinner told Mr. Grimes about the
actions of Hebron Pocock, who sometimes worked for the butcher at the
slaughtering plant near the Four Corners, Hester tried to smooth the
matter over and suggest that Hebe was "only in fun" and was just
scaring two silly girls.
"Well, I suggested him for watchman at the gymnasium," said Mr.
Grimes. "But he isn't likely to get it. The Board has every confidence
in this Bill Jackway, despite the fact that somebody seems to get into
the gym. and damage things without his knowing how they do it. Bill is
an easy-going fellow. That's why I suggested Hebe Pocock. If Hebe was
on the job, he'd eat a fellow up who tried to monkey around the gym."
Hester was silent thereafter until the subject of conversation was
changed.
The following week she found herself "out of it" with a vengeance. If
Lily Pendleton had been absenting herself from Hester's side more than
usual since the fall term opened, now she was still more away. Lily
did not wish to lose her membership in the basketball team. To be a
member of the champion nine of Central High gave her a certain
prestige that that young lady did not wish to lose.
Besides, Lily was one of the largest girls in the Junior class, was
vigorous physically, and loved the game. So Hester was thrown back
upon her own resources more than ever. And her own company did not
please Miss Hester Grimes.
She could, of course, have found associates among some of the younger
girls, or among those who are always willing to play the courtier to a
girl who spends her money freely. Yet there were few of these latter
at Central High, and not many of the younger girls--the sophs and
freshies--liked Hester well enough to chum with her.
And now that the whispered accusations against the wholesale butcher's
daughter had gone about the school regarding the gymnasium mystery,
many girls looked askance at Hester when she passed by, and some even
ignored her and refused to speak to her.
Ordinarily this would have troubled her but little. She was often "not
on speaking terms" with dozens of girls--especially with those of her
own class. But this was different, and she began to notice it. Girls
who had heretofore nodded to her on the street or in the yard of the
school, at least, walked right by and did not turn their eyes upon
her.
Furthermore, when Hester approached a group of her classmates they
often hushed their animated discussions and broke up the group
quickly. They were speaking of her. She could not imagine what they
said, but her heart burned with anger against them.
Hester kept away from the gym. She told herself she did not care what
happened to the "old place." She hated it. She would not go there and
see another girl practice in her place on the basketball team.
A game with the West High girls was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
It was not until after that that her mother learned that she no longer
played on the Central High team. And Mrs. Grimes wanted to know _why_.
"Never you mind!" snapped Hester, who was not above being saucy to her
mother at times. "It doesn't concern you."
"Don't you _want_ to play any more?" insisted Mrs. Grimes.
"No, I don't! Now, that's finished!" cried Hester, and flounced out of
the room.
Her father had agreed to buy the new auto, and she telephoned for the
man at the garage to bring it up. Nobody ever crossed Hester, if he
could help it, and when she said to the man that she wanted to learn
to run the car he supposed that her father was willing.
He did not ask her age, although the Centerport Board of Aldermen had
established a rule that no person under sixteen should be given a
license or be allowed to run a motor car. At any rate, he did not
expect to be requested to let her run the car without his guidance.
But this is exactly what Hester demanded when they were out of town.
It was a warm, smoky fall day. There were brush fires somewhere over
the ridge to the south of Centerport; or else some spark from a
railroad locomotive had set the leaves in the ditches afire. It had
been dry for a week and the woods were like tinder.
They had run far out the road past the entrance to Robinson's Picnic
Grounds, and there Hester demanded to manage the car alone, while the
man sat in back.
"You make me nervous!" she exclaimed. "I'll never learn anything with
you nudging my elbow all the time. There! get along with you."
She really was a very capable girl, and she was not unfamiliar with
motor cars; but the chauffeur doubted.
"I don't believe I can do it, Miss," he said. "I'll sit here----"
Suddenly the car stopped. The engine was still running, but the car
did not move.
"_Now_ what's the matter?" snapped Hester. "Hop out and see, Joseph."
The man did so and immediately she turned the switch again and the
machine darted ahead, leaving the chauffeur in the middle of the road.
"I'll be back after a little!" she called to him, coolly, over her
shoulder, and the next moment rounded a turn safely and shut the
amazed and angry chauffeur out of view.