Grace Harlowe's Junior Year at High School

  CHAPTER XIV

  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 hadagreed to play them on Saturday, December 12, at two o'clock, in thegymnasium. Only two weeks remained in which to practise. Their sororityenthusiasm had so completely run away with them that they had evenneglected basketball until now. Therefore Grace Harlowe lost no timein getting Miss Thompson's permission to use the gymnasium, and promptlynotified 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 theirlockers, and fifteen minutes later the first team and the subs. weremoving toward the gymnasium deep in the discussion of the coming gameand their chances for success over their opponents.

  A brief meeting was held, and the girls were assigned to theirpositions. Grace had fully intended that Miriam should play center, butwhen she proposed it, Miriam flatly refused to do so, and asked for herold position of right forward.

  "You are our captain," she declared to Grace, "and the best centerI ever saw on a girls' team. It would be folly to change now. Don'tyou agree with me, girls?"

  Nora was detailed as left forward, while Marian Barber and Eva Allenplayed right and left guards. The substitutes were also assigned theirpositions and practice began.

  Before they had been on the floor twenty minutes the girls werethoroughly alive to the joy of the game and worked with the old-timedash and spirit that had won them the championship the previous year.Now that they were in harmony with each other, they played withremarkable unity, and after an hour's practice Grace decided that theywere 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 sorryday for the seniors when we line up on the twelfth."

  "There'll be a great gnashing of senior teeth after the game," remarkedNora confidently.

  "Do you know, girls," said Grace, as they left the gymnasium thatafternoon, "I am sorry that Eleanor won't be peaceable. I wanted her tolike every bit of our school life and thought she'd surely be interestedin basketball. I suppose she will stay away from the game merelybecause we are on the team. It is really a shame for her to be sounreasonable."

  "Grace Harlowe, are you ever going to stop mourning over Eleanor?" criedMiriam impatiently. "She doesn't deserve your regret and is too selfishto appreciate it. I know what I am talking about because I used to bejust 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 trivialto be taken seriously."

  "You're a dear, Miriam!" exclaimed Nora impulsively.

  It was the first time that the once haughty Miriam had ever referredpublicly to past shortcomings, although from the time she and Grace hadsettled their difficulties at the close of the sophomore year, she hadbeen a changed girl.

  "Where are Anne and Jessica to-day?" asked Eva Allen.

  "Anne and Jessica have refused point blank to honor us with theirpresence during practice," announced Nora. "I asked Jessica to-day, andshe said that they didn't want to know how we intended to play, for thenthey could wax enthusiastic and make a great deal more noise. It istheir ambition to become loud and loyal fans."

  "What a worthy ambition," said Marian Barber, with a giggle. "They aresuch noisy creatures already."

  There was more laughing at this, as Anne and Jessica were by far thequietest members of the sorority.

  "Remember, we practise to-morrow after school," called Grace as sheseparated from her team at her street.

  As she walked slowly down the quiet street, deep in thought, her earcaught the sound of an approaching automobile, and she looked up just intime to see Eleanor drive by in her machine. Grace nodded to her, buther salutation met with a chilly stare.

  "How childish she is," thought Grace. "I suppose she thinks that hurtsme. Of course it isn't exactly pleasant, but I'm going to keep onspeaking to her, just the same. I am not angry, even if she is; althoughI have far greater cause to be."

  But before the close of the week Grace was destined to cross swords withEleanor in earnest, and the toleration she had felt was swallowed up inrighteous indignation.

  During the winter, theatrical companies sometimes visited Oakdale for aweek at a time, presenting, at popular prices, old worn-out plays andcheap melodramas. These companies gave daily matinees as well asevening performances, and the more frivolous element of High Schoolgirls had in time past occasionally "skipped school" to spend theafternoon in the theatre. By the girls, this form of truancy wasconsidered a "lark," but Miss Thompson did not look at the matter in thesame light, and disciplined the culprit so severely whenever she foundthis to be the cause of an afternoon's absence that the girls were slowto offend in this respect.

  All this Eleanor had heard, among other things, from Edna Wright, buthad paid little attention to it when Edna had told her. Directly aftercutting Grace Harlowe, she had turned her runabout into Main Street,where a billboard had caught her eye, displaying in glaring red and bluelettering the fact that the "Peerless Dramatic Company" would open aweek's engagement in Oakdale with daily matinees.

  Eleanor's eyes sparkled. She halted her machine, scanning curiously thelist of plays on the billboard. "The Nihilist's Daughter" was scheduledfor Thursday afternoon, and Eleanor decided to go. She wasn't afraid ofMiss Thompson. Then, possessed with a sudden idea, she laughedgleefully. At last she had found a way to effectually annoy theprincipal.