The next day all the girls a.s.sembled in the gym, a round building about a hundred feet from the school. A basket ball court took up most of the floor s.p.a.ce. A balcony for spectators ran around three sides of the room. Every possible device hung from the ceiling, rings, ladders, trapezes and horizontal bars, but for the most part, these were dusty and disused.
Seddon Hall centered all its faculty on basket ball. Twice a year, in February and June, the team played outside schools and almost always came out victorious.
To-day, because it was raining still, most of the girls entered for the first try out. The Seniors sat in the balcony and watched, while every girl had a chance to pa.s.s the basket ball and try for a basket.
"Not a very likely crowd," Polly mused, "hardly a decent play."
"It"s too early to tell, in all this mob," Lois answered.
"I"m dizzy watching them. I see that little imp of a Jane with Phylis Guile over in the corner. Let"s go and thank them for the flowers?" she suggested.
Polly groaned--"All right, come on; you know we"ve got to put our foot--I mean feet down now hard, and I suppose we should talk to them about being so rude to f.a.n.n.y. What do you suppose they really said?"
Jane and Phylis were sitting in front of the lockers. They saw the two Seniors coming towards them, but, because they were very much embarra.s.sed, they pretended they didn"t.
Lois started the conversation, rather abruptly. She was afraid to let Polly say much. Polly was a little bit too frank in her opinion, and Lois dreaded hurt feelings above all things.
"We found your flowers in our room Sat.u.r.day night," she said, smiling.
"They were very pretty, and we want to thank you for them."
"But you mustn"t send any more," Polly put in, quite gently for her. "We really appreciate the thought, but-- Well, you both know how easy it is for all the rest of the girls to cry-- Crush-- Crush."
"Oh, but we didn"t, haven"t," Jane and Phylis blurted out, "really, Polly."
"Of course you haven"t a crush," Lois said, soothingly. "We know that you don"t believe in them, or you would never have lectured f.a.n.n.y so about sentimentality, yesterday."
Polly gasped; was Lois really sarcastic--personally--she preferred the direct attack.
"You know," she began firmly, "you had no right to talk that way to a Junior--it was disrespectful, and f.a.n.n.y had a right to be angry."
Jane and Phylis hung their heads.
"I know it; we didn"t really mean to be fresh," Jane said, apologetically. "We just thought maybe f.a.n.n.y was homesick, and we"d cheer her up."
"We were going in to advise her who to vote for as captain, really,"
Phylis took up the tale, "but she wouldn"t give us a chance. After we hinted that she shouldn"t be boy crazy she sent us out. It doesn"t really matter; she"ll vote for you--" Phylis stopped. Tears of mortification came to her eyes. "Anyway," she finished, hastily, "we won"t send you any more flowers, if you don"t want us to, and, honestly, we won"t have a crush."
Polly laughed good naturedly and put her arm around Phylis" shoulder.
"That"s all right; we don"t want you to; but, I"ll tell you something.
If you would really like to do something we would like--learn to play a good game of basket ball. You might be needed some day."
"Poll, what made you hold out hopes to those children?" Lois asked later, as they waited for their tubs to fill. They had played basket ball with some of the old girls after they had left Jane and Phylis.
"Because I thought they needed something to think about besides hurt feelings; I don"t think they"ll get their hopes up for the team."
"Well, you may have been right," Lois agreed slowly. "Anyway our little lecture did them good. f.a.n.n.y stopped me after practice and told me they had apologized."
Polly said: "Oh, did they?" indifferently, and went to her tub to turn off the water.
Her head was in a whirl, and, suddenly, tempting hopes ran riot. She stood looking at the water a minute and shivered in antic.i.p.ation of the plunge.
"Captain of the basket ball team," she whispered. "I wonder--"
CHAPTER IV
BASKET BALL ELECTION
As Senior President, Lois was a decided failure. It was not through any lack of interest on her part in the cla.s.s and its affairs, but rather because the fairies at her christening had failed to bestow upon her the gift of leadership with which Polly was so richly endowed.
She just couldn"t think of the hundred and one practical things that needed attending to. Perhaps Miss Crosby was partly to blame. She had taken a decided interest in Lois from their meeting on the stairs, and had given her permission to use the studio at any time. She had criticized her work and gave her helpful points not infrequently in her own room, where Lois often dropped in at tea time.
But progress in art, though beneficial to Lois, was of no use to the Senior cla.s.s. Polly was at her wit"s end. Lois had called a cla.s.s meeting the day before and forgotten to come to it. School had been running smoothly for over a month by now, and all the strangeness of the first few weeks had worn off. With Thanksgiving in sight, the girls felt that they were well into the year.
To-day was Friday. After dinner the election for the basket ball captain was scheduled and nothing was arranged.
Polly, after looking in the gym and some of the cla.s.srooms for Lois, returned to Senior Alley. She was excited about the election, but she was more deeply concerned about Lois. She was thinking and she walked slowly in consequence. As she entered the corridor Dot Mead"s voice, high pitched and angry, made her stop abruptly.
"Not a thing planned, the slips not ready, and here it is Friday afternoon. Lois wasn"t like this last year. If she accepted the office of president why doesn"t she act up to it! Why, even the Freshmen are criticizing." Her voice subsided into a grumble of displeasure.
Polly shook her head slowly and went quietly into her own room. The Dorothys were growling as usual. She had to admit that this time there was a little cause, too.
What had come over Lois. Polly realized with a sudden drawing together of her eyebrows, that she was seeing less and less of her all the time.
"Art!" she said, aloud, and laughed. Then she went out to find Betty.
"Something"s got to be done," she announced, when she found her with Angela, "and we"ve got to do it. Ange, you print the notice of the election in red ink, and put it on the bulletin board. And, Bet, you make the ballot box. There"s a big square wooden box under my bed--you can cut a hole in it. I"ll go and find Phylis and Jane and get them to help me tear up paper slips. They"ll love it, and they"ll keep quiet about it."
"What"ll we tell the rest?" Angela asked. "They ought to appreciate our saving them this trouble, but they won"t," she added dryly.
Polly hesitated a moment.
"We"ll post a notice on the board for a meeting to be held at two fifteen," she said boldly.
"But it"s three o"clock," Angela protested, but Betty understood.
"I"m ashamed of your deceit, Polly," she said with pretended scorn, adding: "It"s a bully idea."
"No, it"s not; I hate it; it"s really a written fib, but-- Well, I"d do a lot more than that for Lo," Polly answered.
"Do you mean put up the sign so that the other girls will think we had a meeting, and they didn"t come?"
Angela was flabbergasted at the idea.
"Exactly."