Taffy Sinclair 007 - Taffy Sinclair and the Secret Admirer Epidemic Read online

  TAFFY SINCLAIR AND THE SECRET ADMIRER EPIDEMIC

  Betsy Haynes

  A BANTAM SKYLARK BOOK®

  TORONTO · NEW YORK · LONDON · SYDNEY · AUCKLAND

  RL 5, 009-012

  TAFFY SINCLAIR AND THE SECRET ADMIRER EPIDEMIC

  A Bantam Skylark Book / March 1988

  5 printings through September 1988

  Skylark Books is a registered trademark of Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and elsewhere.

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1988 by Betsy Haynes.

  Cover art copyright © 1988 by Lino Saffiotti.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For information address: Bantam Books.

  ISBN 0-553-15714-0

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

  Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10103.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  O 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5

  CHAPTER ONE

  Some people think that if you have a boyfriend, all your troubles are over. Especially when that boyfriend is someone such as Randy Kirwan, the handsomest, kindest, and most sincere boy in the sixth grade at Mark Twain Elementary, not to mention the most popular. Well, Randy is my boyfriend, and I thought that all my troubles were over, too, until Monday after school. That's when one of my best friends, Melanie Edwards, came rushing up to my locker with her big news.

  "Jana! Guess what! I've got a date!"

  "WHAT!" I shouted over the sound of banging lockers and kids yelling in the hall. "What did you just say?"

  "I said I have a date," Melanie gushed. Her face was pink from excitement, and her blue eyes were sparkling. "It's true. Scott Daly asked me to go to a movie with him on Saturday. His father is driving us. He says some of the other boys are going to get dates, too. There will be a bunch of kids going. I can't wait. It's going to be so romantic! You're going with Randy, aren't you?"

  My other three best friends, Beth Barry, Katie Shannon, and Christie Winchell, had come up to us and were standing there, listening. It was like a slow-motion movie the way they turned to look at me. But I hardly noticed. My heart had thudded to the floor.

  I shook my head. "He hasn't asked me . . . yet," I murmured.

  "You're kidding," said Melanie with a shocked look on her face. "Scott passed me a note right under Wiggins's nose and asked me to go. I told him yes in the hall just now, right after the dismissal bell rang. He said Joel Murphy is taking Sara Sawyer, and Mark Peters asked Alexis Duvall before school this morning. Scott and Mark are Randy's two best friends, so you know if they're going, he is, too."

  I didn't say anything. I couldn't. Why hadn't Randy asked me to go? It didn't make sense.

  "Come on, Morgan. Brighten up," said Beth. "You know he'll ask you. He'll probably call you after he gets home from school. After all, he is your boyfriend."

  I shrugged and tried to smile. Beth was right. He was my boyfriend, all right. I have had a mega-crush on him practically forever. For a while I even kept his picture hidden behind a poster of Miss Piggy on the wall beside my bed so that I could look at him in the glow of my night-light while I fell asleep. After ages and ages he finally noticed me, too, and asked me to go to his football game one Saturday and then to Mama Mia's for pizza afterward. A couple of weeks later, he walked me home from Mama Mia's, and then he kissed me. It was fantastic, and even though we haven't had another date, he always gave me his 1,000-watt smile every time he looked at me. He would surely ask me to the movie if his best friends were going. I was starting to feel better. I was certain he would call the minute I got home.

  "I wonder why the boys want to take girls to a movie all of a sudden," said Katie.

  I shrugged. I didn't care. I just wanted Randy to ask me.

  "I don't have to be home until four-thirty," said Beth. "Do you want me to come over and help you wait for him to call?"

  As soon as I nodded, Katie piped up, "I'll come, too."

  "Me, too," said Melanie.

  "Me, too," echoed Christie. "After all, we're The Fabulous Five. We stick together."

  I couldn't help smiling at that. The Fabulous Five is a self-improvement club, and we meet every Saturday in my bedroom to try to find ways to become the most gorgeous and most popular girls in school. We even saved our dues for a while and had blue T-shirts made that say The Fabulous Five across the front in white letters, and we wear them to our meetings. We really are best friends, and we do stick together.

  "Come on," I said. "Let's get going. My phone may be ringing off the wall."

  The first thing I did when we got to my apartment was take the telephone off the end table by the sofa and set it squarely in the middle of the kitchen table where I could grab it the instant it rang. That was no problem because Mom had had an extra-long cord put on it so that she could talk on the phone while she worked in the kitchen. Then I pulled a bottle of soda out of the fridge and scrounged through the cupboards until I found a bag of chips. Since there were only four chairs at the table, Christie dragged in the desk chair from my bedroom, and then we all sat down at the table and stared at the phone.

  "Come on, telephone. Hurry up and ring," I groaned.

  Katie rolled her eyes in disgust. "It will never ring if you just sit here and wait for it. Don't you know that?"

  I stuck out my tongue at her. Then I put an index finger at each of my temples, closed my eyes, and said, "I am sending an ESP message to Randy Kirwan. Come in, Randy Kirwan. Jana Morgan is home from school now. Pick up the telephone. Dial her number. Ask her to go to the movie with you Saturday. Over and out." I opened my eyes and grinned at my friends. "That should do it."

  But the phone didn't ring. We finished the chips and drank our sodas and even ate all the ice cubes, but there wasn't so much as a peep from the telephone. It just sat there in the middle of the table, refusing to ring.

  "What time is it? I have to be home at four-thirty," said Beth, as she put her empty glass in the sink.

  I looked at my watch. "It's only five minutes until four. You still have lots of time."

  "What are you going to do if he doesn't call?" asked Melanie.

  "Why don't you call him?" asked Beth, as she dropped back into her chair. "Girls do that all the time, you know."

  "I know," I murmured. I could feel my face turning red as I remembered the time I called Randy and disguised my voice by stuffing cotton balls into my cheeks. They made me gag so much that I almost threw up in the middle of our conversation. "I'd be embarrassed to call him. Besides, maybe he had to go somewhere after school. You know. Do an errand for his mom or something."

  Christie was shaking her head slowly and on her face was a worried expression. "I don't know," she said softly. "Maybe I shouldn't mention this, but I saw Randy in the hall after lunch, and he was talking to Taffy Sinclair."

  "What!" I shrieked. "Talking to Taffy Sinclair!? Why didn't you tell me before?"

  "You don't really think he'd ask Taffy out instead of you, do you?" asked Katie. "Just because s
he flirts with him all the time. Everybody knows he's your boyfriend."

  I didn't answer. All I could think of was Taffy Sinclair. Taffy is the most gorgeous girl in school, and she is my worst enemy in the world. We have hated each other practically forever, and she's always trying to take Randy Kirwan away from me. Taffy and I have had clubs against each other, and she even blackmailed me when I found our teacher's wallet after somebody else had stolen it and hidden it in the girls' bathroom. The only time we weren't enemies was when we found baby Ashley abandoned on the front steps of Mark Twain Elementary, but that special feeling between us only lasted a few days.

  I closed my eyes and saw a picture in my mind of Randy talking to Taffy Sinclair in the hall after lunch. She was twirling a strand of her long blond hair and gazing at him with her big blue eyes. It made me want to die to see him pushing his dark wavy hair off his forehead and giving her the 1,000-watt smile he always gave to me. Just as he was starting to ask her to the movie, the phone rang, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  "Oh, my gosh!" shrieked Melanie. "That's probably him!"

  I swallowed hard and shot a hopeful glance at each of my friends. It had to be Randy. It just had to be. I started to reach for the receiver, but my hand was shaking so hard that I was afraid I'd drop it.

  "Go ahead," urged Beth.

  "What are you waiting for?" asked Katie. "It's probably him."

  I nodded and grabbed the phone before I could chicken out again. "Hello?"

  "Hi, honey." I slumped against the table. It was only Mom. "Just calling to tell you that I'm going to be a little late getting home from work. I'm going to stop by the cleaners and the grocery store."

  "Sure, Mom," I mumbled, and hung up.

  I put my elbows on the table and cupped my chin in my hands. Why didn't Randy call? Surely he would be home by this time. Was it possible that he had asked Taffy instead of me? I sat there watching the hands move slowly around the clock above the refrigerator. The later it got, the more worried I became. Finally it got so late that my friends started getting ready to go home.

  "I still think you should call him yourself," grumbled Beth, as she began gathering her books and putting on her jacket.

  "Me, too," said Christie.

  "I'm not going to call him, and that's final."

  "Okay, then I'll call him," challenged Beth.

  "Don't you dare," I cried, feeling panicky. "Besides, he probably wouldn't tell you anything anyway. He knows you would tell me."

  Melanie was standing by the door with her hand on the knob. Suddenly she let go of it and rushed to me. "I've got a great idea, Jana," she cried. "I'll have Scott find out what's going on. I'll have him ask Randy if he's going to take you to the movie, and I'll make Scott promise not to tell Randy who wants to know. "

  I didn't say anything for a moment. I wanted to find out what Randy was going to do more than anything in the world, but I was nervous, too.

  "Well," I said slowly. "It might work, but you've got to make Scott swear he won't tell Randy that I'm the one who wants to know. If Randy ever found that out, I'd be so embarrassed that I'd die."

  "Don't worry," said Melanie, giving me a confident smile. "Leave everything to me."

  CHAPTER TWO

  The first thing I saw when I got to school the next morning made my heart start thumping like crazy. Melanie was by the bike racks, and she was talking to Scott.

  I looked away fast. I would die if Scott saw me watching and figured out what was going on. Maybe it had been a mistake to let Melanie talk to him. Maybe Randy just hadn't gotten around to asking me, and if Scott started bugging him about it, he would change his mind. Good grief, I thought. Why had I let Melanie talk me into this?

  Keeping my face turned straight ahead so that they wouldn't know I was watching, I looked at them out of the corner of my eye. They were still talking. Why was it taking so long? I tried to read their lips, but I couldn't, and they were definitely too far away to hear.

  I turned halfway toward them so that I could get a better look. Scott was smiling. In fact, he was laughing. What could Melanie possibly have said to make him laugh like that? Oh, my gosh, I thought. Did he think it was a big joke that Randy might ask me out again?

  I wanted to die. That was probably it. Scott knew something that I didn't know. I closed my eyes and leaned against a tree, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow me. When I opened them again, Melanie was rushing toward me, grinning like crazy. My other three best friends had just gotten to school and were walking toward me, too.

  "What did he say?" I demanded before Melanie could get a word out. "Does he know why Randy hasn't asked me out yet? And why was he laughing? Tell me every single word you said."

  "Wow," Melanie said proudly. "Did I ever fake him out. He never suspected a thing."

  "So?" I insisted. "What did you say?"

  "Come on, Mel," groaned Katie. "Quit stalling."

  "All I said was that I thought Saturday was going to be a lot of fun and I was glad so many kids were going. Then," Melanie paused and got a mysterious look on her face, "I very casually said, 'I suppose Randy is going, too. Is he taking Jana?'"

  "Oh, my gosh!" I blurted. "What did he say?"

  "He just shrugged and said he didn't know. And then I said, 'Would you ask him and let me know?' and he shrugged again and said, 'Sure.' That's all there was to it. As I said before, he didn't suspect a thing."

  "So what was he laughing about?" I challenged. "Are you sure it wasn't about me?"

  "Of course not, silly. We were just talking. It had nothing to do with you."

  "Then why won't you tell us?"

  "It was private. Did you tell everything that you and Randy talked about when he kissed you?" she teased.

  My friends were grinning at me, and I could feel my ears getting hot and my face turning a brilliant shade of red. Naturally, I hadn't told them everything. Some things are just too personal to tell even your very best friends.

  "Did you ask why all the boys are getting dates?" asked Katie.

  Melanie frowned at her. "You don't really think I would ask Scott why he wants to take me to the movie, do you?"

  Katie shrugged. Leave it to Katie, I thought, always putting a damper on things.

  Just then Randy came screeching up to the bike racks.

  "Look, Jana," cried Beth. "There he is."

  I nodded and knelt down, pretending to be fixing my shoelace so that I could watch as he pushed his bike into a slot in the rack and locked it. Then he went racing over to Scott, and the two of them started horsing around.

  "Rats!" I muttered. "That was a perfect opportunity for Scott to talk to him, but he blew it."

  "Don't worry," Melanie insisted. "He'll do it. He said he would, didn't he?"

  I shot her a dubious look and scuffed toward the school building. Sure, Melanie was convinced that Scott would talk to Randy, I thought miserably. But what if he didn't? Or what if he did—and found out that Randy didn't like me anymore? And wasn't going to ask me to the movie on Saturday? And was going to take Taffy Sinclair instead? What would I do then?

  When I got to my locker, I opened the door and stared inside, thinking about that question. What would I do then? How would I face my friends? How would I face my number one enemy, Taffy Sinclair? I'd be so embarrassed that I'd die.

  I got to our classroom ahead of Randy and was already in my seat when he came in. I was waiting for him to look at me and give me his 1,000-watt smile, but he didn't. He didn't turn around to look at me the way he sometimes did while Wiggins wrote the morning's math assignment on the board, either. I tried to tell myself that it was nothing to worry about. That just because he missed smiling at me one time, it wasn't the end of the world. But the truth is, that's how it felt.

  During morning recess all the sixth-grade girls were talking about their dates for the movie. Alexis Duvall kept saying that Mark Peters was the cutest boy in the whole world and how she hoped that he would kiss her.


  "Has Randy asked you yet?" Sara Sawyer asked. Everybody looked at me, including Taffy Sinclair, who was standing with Mona Vaughn at the edge of the group of girls.

  I wanted to die. "Not yet," I mumbled.

  "I wonder what he's waiting for?" asked Alexis. "Mark asked me yesterday."

  "That's when Joel asked me, too," said Sara.

  Taffy Sinclair got a nasty smile on her face. "Maybe Randy's going to ask someone else," she said.

  I shrugged, trying to act as if it didn't matter, and moved away from the crowd. I didn't want to talk about it anymore. Especially to Taffy Sinclair. It was bad enough that he hadn't asked me yet. Did everybody have to make a big deal out of it, too?

  I sat down on the front steps and gazed out across the playground, wishing recess would hurry up and be over. Just as Beth sat down beside me, I looked sharply at two boys by the drinking fountain. "Look," I whispered to Beth. "There are Scott and Randy over by the fountain. It looks as if they're talking about something serious."

  "I'll bet it's you," said Beth.

  I clutched Beth's arm. "Oh, my gosh. What will I do if Randy says he isn't going to ask me?"

  "Relax. He's your boyfriend, isn't he? Of course he's going to ask you."

  I exhaled a deep breath that I didn't realize I had been holding. "Sure," I murmured. "You're probably right."

  I passed a note to Melanie the moment we were back inside and told her what I had seen. A few minutes later she passed one back that said she would talk to Scott at lunchtime and find out what Randy had said. I glanced at the clock over the blackboard. Fifty-seven minutes until the lunch bell. More like fifty-seven years, I thought.

  Wiggins marched us to the Media Center for free-reading period, which was the longest free-reading period I had ever lived through. I couldn't stand to sit at the reading tables or the typewriter or computer tables, where other kids could see how antsy I was, so I hid in the biography section and pretended to look for a book.

  When I finally got to the cafeteria, I couldn't eat one single bite of my lunch. I kept pulling apart the halves of my cream cheese and jelly sandwich and sticking them back together. It was a dumb thing to do, but I was so nervous that I had to do something.