Goodbye, Amanda the Good

Chapter One Amanda Bates stood at the bathroom sink on the Monday after Thanksgiving, looking in the mirror at her hair, which was the color of purple grapes. On the floor were two of her mother's yellow terry cloth bath towels, now striped purple, and a box of hair dye labeled ink with a picture on it of a woman whose long, shiny hair was black. Not purple. Ink was the color Fern had dyed her hair two days before Thanksgiving. Fern was the most powerful member of the Club at Alice Deal Junior High, where Amanda was in the seventh grade. She and Amanda were not friends. In fact, until that morning in the girls' room, after social studies class, Fern had never even spoken to Amanda. But that day, while Amanda was washing her hands, glancing in the mirror to check her own hair, Fern had said, "Hi" and asked if Amanda had a spare cigarette. "Not right now," Amanda had replied, although she had never smoked a cigarette in her life. But it was exactly the right answer to give Fern, suggesting that at some other time she might have a cigarette. "I like your hair color," Amanda added, hoping to initiate a friendship, since there was no girl in all of Alice Deal Junior High that she would have liked to have as a friend more than Fern, formerly Barbara Adams, president of the Club. "Thanks." Fern examined herself in the mirror. "Ink is the name on the hair dye box." Now it was late afternoon, and Amanda's house was empty except for her younger brother, Joshua, who had just been promoted to the fourth grade in the middle of the year, after flunking third grade. When Amanda walked without knocking into his bedroom, he was lying faceup on his bed with Plutarch, the family cat, unhappily locked under his arm. Joshua's eyes widened. "Don't say anything," she said. "I know already. It's a disaster." She reached up and touched her purple bangs. "I dyed it, in case you wondered." She sat down on the end of Joshua's bed. "It was supposed to turn out black." "I think you better do something about it before Mom gets home from the grocery store with Georgie," Joshua said, making a face. "It looks pretty disgusting." "Like what should I do?" She checked herself in the full-length mirror on Joshua's closet door. "Shave it?" "Like dye it back to your own color." "Brown is boring. That's why I dyed it in the first place," Amanda said. "Then dye it a normal color like blond." "Maybe Sable. They had a color called Sable in the hair products department at CVS." "So let's go to CVS, pronto," Joshua said, putting on his coat. Amanda wrote Getting school supplies, A and J on the blackboard in the kitchen underneath her mother's message: At the grocery store with Georgianna. Back at six. Love, M She put on her ski jacket, pulled up the hood to cover her purple hair, and followed Joshua out the back door. "I hate Alice Deal," Amanda said as they headed up Lowell Street in the dark. "If you're not in a group, it's miserable." "I know," Joshua said sadly. "My first day in the fourth grade was miserable." "But at least you have friends," Amanda said. "I have none. Zero. Everyone in the whole seventh grade belongs to some group or another." The only group Amanda could imagine joining was the Club, even though she was sure they were not about to invite her. The Club was the fringe group at Alice Deal. They were known for their loyalty to one another and their contempt for authority figures, particularly teachers and parents and police. They were recognized by their manner of dress--tattoos, real ones that didn't wash off in the shower, and pierced ears orShreve, Susan Richards is the author of 'Goodbye, Amanda the Good' with ISBN 9780440416463 and ISBN 0440416469.