Margalo could see that Angie wanted to explain himself, so, “Do you close in August?” she asked.
Angie grinned, another point for him when she asked. “You kidding? That’s our best month.” Then, as if he couldn’t stop himself, he told them, “I’ve got a couple of nephews, they fly in from Milan to get the American experience, language. They work here Augusts, where I can keep an eye on them, keep them out of trouble. You know how kids are. Teenagers. Magnets for trouble. Keep ’em busy, keep ’em working, that’s my technique with teenagers.”
Mikey and Margalo waited, saying nothing.
“So get out of here, the both of you,” Angie said. “See you Friday at the usual?” he said to Margalo, then, “And you come in with her Saturday afternoon. What’s your name?”
“Mikey. Elsinger.”
“Mikey. Be here by noon, Mikey. The rule in my kitchen is, on time or early if you want to still have a job when you get here.” He lit another cigarette, and they left.
Back out on the sidewalk, they passed the restaurant window on their way to meet Steven at his office. A few more tables had been occupied while they were out back. Two waiters were visible, taking orders, serving water and wine. Everybody at the three original tables was eating. Mikey and Margalo did not linger to watch all this. They walked quickly along, their shadows stretched out on the sidewalk ahead of them.
“Do you think we could wait tables?” Mikey asked. “Eventually, I mean.”
“Waiters make good money, although I thought you’d rather be a sous chef. That was my idea,” Margalo said. “That I’d wait tables and you’d cook.”
“You’ve got it all worked out,” Mikey observed. “Do you think it’ll turn out the way you plan?”
Margalo shrugged. “It could. And why not try?”
“Absolutely,” Mikey agreed. “You know . . . ,” she said hesitantly. Then stopped speaking.
Margalo waited for a few steps, until, “Know what?” she asked, irritated—and curious, too, about whatever it was that could make Mikey hesitate.
“He’s not like a teacher. Angie.”
“Of course not. He’s a boss.”
“This could be fun,” Mikey said.
Margalo thought about that. “This could be work.”
“Work can be fun,” Mikey said, going for the last word.
“Non sequitur.”
“Latin.”
That closed the subject.
Mikey opened a new one. “I should have asked you to Katherine’s birthday. Next year I will. Do you want to be asked to the little boys’ parties too?”
“You know,” Margalo said, “you could take Latin, too. Next year.”
“I’m happy with Spanish. You could take Spanish.”
“Maybe I will,” Margalo decided. “Maybe I’ll take two languages.”
“First we have to finish getting through this year,” Mikey reminded her.
“We practically already have. I think we’re going to be all right in high school, don’t you?”
“Why shouldn’t we?” Mikey asked, and answered herself, “No reason. I’m sort of looking forward to college.”
“And after that our whole lives,” Margalo agreed. “Do you think we’ll stay friends our whole lives?”
“It would be smart of us if we do.”
“They could put it on our tombstones, ‘Friends From Fifth Grade to Death.’ ”
“You’re having a tombstone? You’re not being cremated?”
“Actually, I was thinking of never dying.” Margalo had never admitted that to anyone before, not even Mikey, so she added, “Is that weird, or what?”
“It’s normal,” Mikey declared. “Absolutely normal, just like us.”
They walked on together.
Also by Cynthia Voigt
The Bad Girls Series
Bad Girls
Bad, Badder, Baddest
It’s Not Easy Being Bad
Bad Girls In Love
The Tillerman Series
Homecoming
The Runner
Come a Stranger
Songs from Afar
Seventeen Against the Dealer
The Kingdom Series
Jackaroo
On Fortune’s Wheel
The Wings of a Falcon
Elske
Other Books
Building Blocks
The Callender Papers
David and Jonathan
Izzy Willy-Nilly
Orfe
Tell Me if the Lovers Are Losers
Tree by Leaf
The Vandemark Mummy
When She Hollers
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2006 by Cynthia Voigt
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Book design by Ann Zeak
The text for this book is set in Janson Text.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Voigt, Cynthia.
Bad girls, bad girls, whatcha gonna do? / Cynthia Voigt.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: As new ninth graders eager only to survive high school, Mikey and Margalo must deal creatively with stolen money and cheating on the tennis courts.
ISBN 978-0-689-82474-6
ISBN 978-1-4424-8922-6 (eBook)
[1. High schools—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Bullies-Fiction. 4. Tennis—Fiction. 5. Sports—Corrupt practices—Fiction.] I. Titles.
PZ7.V874Wgm 2006
[Fic]—dc22 2005005547