The Class Menagerie

suddenly looked embarrassed about having talked about herself.
    “Tell me about the others. What about Beth?“
    Mimi thought for a moment. “I don’t know much about her now. The others say she’s a big deal, but I wasn’t aware of it. She was sure an interesting person. Her mother was an over-the-hill hooker when they moved here. At least, that was the gossip. I think Beth was in about seventh grade then. Her mom had been reduced to taking in ironing to make a living.“
    “I thought Ewe Lambs were top drawer,“ Jane said.
    “I guess she was the exception that proved the rule. Beth managed to disassociate herself from her mother even better than I did. Something must have clicked in her brain when she was very little. She decided to make herself Perfect, with a capital P. She was always immaculately well-groomed, a brilliant student, manners so good the rest of us looked like Neanderthals—I suppose we were, really. Somehow she managed to avoid ever being the subject of gossip. People snickered about her mother, but never about her. She had no really close friends that-I know of, but no enemies. She was nice to everybody, even the geeks. She baby-sat, gave piano lessons, had a paper route before girls did such things, and, in spite of all that, had the best grades in the school. It was really amazing and admirable. Besides all that, she dated the most popular guy. Ted Francisco. Dating Ted was probably the deciding factor in her selection for the Ewe Lambs. It would have made them look silly if Judge Francisco’s son’s girlfriend wasn’t one of us.“
    “Dead Ted? Oh, dear. It must be very hard for her to stay here. Were they still dating when he died?“
    Mimi nodded. “Until that night.“
    “What do you mean?“
    “She broke up with him on Prom Night. He killed himself later that evening.“
    “Oh, my God!“
    “It must have been unspeakably horrible for her,“ Mimi said. “She was right, of course. She’d gotten into Stanford on a full scholarship and had already decided to be an attorney. Poor Ted barely squeaked into being accepted at a local junior college. Her mother was going to California with her. Beth and Ted were never going to cross paths again and she was sensible enough to realize they ought to make a clean break.“
    “And he killed himself over it! The bastard!“ Mimi nodded again. “It wasn’t the popular thing to think, but it’s how I felt at the time, too. What’s really ironic is that he hadn’t exactly been ‘true’ to her anyway. He’d dated Pooky before he started going with Beth and he still flirted with her like mad. She was a stunning beauty at the time, but too stupid to realize he was making a fool of her. And he was great chums with Crispy, who was a neighbor and lifelong friend of the family. Crispy was a mess of a girl then and worshiped him. There were even rumors that he was seeing a girl from another school, so nobody expected that he’d take getting dumped so badly. But then, who can tell what’s in anybody else’s mind? Just yesterday Lila told me that Ted’s father, who was a highly respected judge, had written a great recommendation letter for Beth and helped her get into Stanford, even though I very much doubt that the Franciscos thought she was good enough for their precious son. Meanwhile poor old Ted himself couldn’t even get out of town.“
    “It sounds like you didn’t like him very well.“
    “Oh, I had a crush on him like everybody else at the time, even though he paid no attention to me. But no, I don’t think in retrospect that I ever really liked him. He was spoiled and... well, somehow meanspirited. But that’s an adult view. As a teenager, all I could see was his spectacular facade. Even Avalon—well, you saw the drawing. She hung around making little sketches of him, his car, anything to do with him.“
    Jane took a sip of her drink and sat back, thinking. “Shelley originally said this place would have bad associations for the Ewe Lambs. I had no idea how bad. Was anybody not in love with Ted Francisco?“
    “Of this group? Probably not. Lila went out with him once or twice between Pooky’s and Beth’s reigns and later claimed she’d refused any more dates with him, but he told everybody how dull she was, so I imagine it was his choice, not hers. I think she came to actively dislike him, but it was a love-hate thing. Oh, there’s Kathy. I don’t think Kathy ever gave him much of a thought except to consider