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

  Next I eliminated Clarence, Curtis, and Gregory. I would die if it turned out to be any of them. I was down to four. Ranking them on the cute scale, Keith was first, Richie was second, Eric was third, and Matt, fourth. Now, I wondered, where do I go from here?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  When the bell rang and I slid into my seat a few minutes later, I thought about Mom. She was probably sitting at her desk at the Bridgeport Post doing her boring job, and here I was at my desk at Mark Twain Elementary trying to figure out which boy in my class was my secret admirer. I couldn't help feeling sorry for her, and I promised myself that I would think of something to make her life as exciting as mine.

  While Wiggins took roll and made the morning announcements, I checked my sweater pocket to make sure my secret admirer note was still there. Then I took the chart with the names of the eleven sixth-grade boys out of my notebook and slid it under my math book, where I could get to it in a hurry as soon as boys started looking at me. I glanced around quickly to see if any were yet, but they weren't.

  Randy was drawing something on a sheet of paper, and when I looked at him, I had a hard time looking away. He was so kind and sensitive, so sincere, the most wonderful boy in the world. What had I done? Why had he changed his mind about me? Surely if he still liked me, he would be taking me to the movie on Saturday.

  Just then I had the feeling that someone was looking at me. I sucked in my breath, but I didn't dare move. It might be my secret admirer. Sitting perfectly rigid, I walked two fingers over to the chart sticking out from under my math book and gradually drew it out until all the names were showing. Then, with my other hand, I rolled my pencil down my desk into my lap and grabbed hold of it. Finally, I moved my head very slowly to first the right and then the left until I spotted him. Keith Masterson! My heart did a flip-flop. He was the cutest boy in the class—next to Randy Kirwan, of course—and he was looking straight at me.

  I didn't know if I should smile or what I should do, but before I could make up my mind, Keith looked away. Oh, well, I thought. He'll probably look at me again if he's my secret admirer. Then I found the line beside Keith's name on the chart and made an X in the box for first period.

  I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Jana, I need to borrow a pencil," Clarence Marshall whispered, so loudly that I'm sure Wiggins heard it all the way up at her desk.

  I turned around and glared at him. I didn't want to get into trouble, so I made the words with my lips but didn't make a sound. "I didn't bring any extras."

  Of course, Clarence couldn't read lips. "What?" he whispered even louder.

  In desperation I handed him my pencil. I could write with my ballpoint pen. Then a terrible thought occurred to me. Should I make an X by Clarence's name? He had not only looked at me, he had gotten my attention. Isn't that what you do when you like someone? Rats! I thought. Looking around, I could see that my four best friends were all concentrating on their math problems. Probably none of them had noticed Clarence bugging me. I smiled slyly to myself. No one would ever have to know.

  Just then I caught another pair of eyes looking in my direction. Scott Daly. Yipes, I thought. He was staring straight at me and he didn't look away when I stared back. I knew I had to make an X by his name, but what would Melanie say? She was already mad about Scott's name being on the list. Well, I thought indignantly, she would just have to understand. We were doing this in a very scientific manner, and naturally my secret admirer wouldn't be the only person in the entire universe who ever looked at me.

  I kept my head down and peeked at Randy again. He was still drawing. It seemed as if everyone were looking at me except him. I glanced at the clock above the blackboard. It had only been ten minutes since the bell, and I had already been looked at by two boys, three if you counted Clarence Marshall. I couldn't help feeling pleased. I had never realized before just how popular I really was. Probably boys looked at me all the time, and I just didn't know it. Randy Kirwan wasn't the only boy in the world.

  By morning recess, I had four X's on my chart. Scott Daly had looked at me once, Richie Corrierro once, Matt Zeboski once, and Keith Masterson. Unfortunately Keith had only looked at me once, also, but I hadn't given up hope that he was my secret admirer.

  My friends and I all raced to our special spot by the fence to compare charts. Everyone wanted to talk first.

  "Matt Zeboski has looked at you three times!" cried Katie.

  "Three times?" I said in disbelief. Matt was okay, but he was pretty far down on the cute scale. "I only saw him look at me once."

  "That's because you don't sit as close to him as I do," said Katie. "I can see every move he makes."

  "I saw him look at you twice," said Beth. "And I have to twist around to see him."

  "Okay," I conceded. "Three for Matt Zeboski. How many times did anyone see Keith Masterson looking at me?"

  "None," said Christie.

  "Nope. None for me, either," said Beth.

  Katie and Melanie were shaking their heads, also. Then Beth shook her head without looking at me. She wasn't smiling.

  "Well, he looked at me at least once," I blurted. "You guys should keep your eyes open."

  "This is fun," said Christie. "Maybe I'll make a chart to keep track of how many times Mr. Scott looks at me." She laughed.

  Melanie didn't say anything when I mentioned that Scott Daly had looked at me, but I had the feeling that she didn't like it. Christie suggested that we copy each other's charts so that we all had the same X's in the same blanks. When we finished there were a total of six: one for Scott Daly, one for Keith Masterson, one for Richie Corrierro, and THREE for Matt Zeboski. Fortunately, no one had seen Clarence talking to me, but then no one had seen Randy Kirwan looking at me, either, and that was the pits.

  I was leaning against the fence gazing into space and thinking about all the attention I was getting from boys when my eyes suddenly came sharply into focus. "Hey, guys, look," I said. "Do you see what I see? Randy is talking to Taffy Sinclair."

  Everybody followed my gaze. "Oh, no!" said Melanie in a whiny voice. "Oh, Jana. That's awful."

  It was awful. Taffy was smiling her icky sweet smile at him and talking a mile a minute. Randy wasn't saying anything, but he was looking at her and giving her his 1,000-watt smile.

  "I wonder what they're talking about?" asked Beth.

  The rest of us shrugged, but I knew that they were all thinking the same thing I was. Taffy knew that Randy hadn't asked me to go to the movie on Saturday, and she was flirting with him so he would ask her!

  I sucked in my breath. Now Randy was talking, and Taffy was smiling bigger than ever and nodding. Nodding?! That was the same as saying yes! Oh, no, I thought, closing my eyes. My worst fears had come true.

  "Are you sure you don't want me to ask Scott what's going on?" asked Melanie. "You know, if Randy still likes you, if he's taking Taffy to the movie, stuff like that?"

  "No," I said sharply. I couldn't let on that I'd be too embarrassed for Scott to tell her things such as that. What if he told her that Randy thinks I'm a jerk and that he adores Taffy? What would I do then?

  "I have a better idea," I said, as one suddenly popped into my mind. "I'm going to tell everybody about my secret admirer."

  "What good is that going to do?" asked Katie.

  "Think about it. I'll bet if Randy knew I have a secret admirer he would be jealous. He is too conceited. He wouldn't be able to stand it if he knew he was losing me to another boy."

  "Hey, you're right," shouted Beth. "Besides, it will be fun to tell the other girls and see the looks on their faces."

  There was another reason I wanted to tell everybody about my secret admirer, too, but I didn't say it out loud. It would help me face all the other kids if Randy really did dump me for Taffy Sinclair.

  "Come on," I said. "There's Alexis over there, and she's talking to Lisa and Sara. Once we tell them, every kid in Mark Twain Elementary will know about it by noon."

  CHAPTER SIX

  I
was right. By lunch period every girl in sixth grade knew about my secret admirer. I was passing the note around on the playground when Kim Baxter looked at me with admiration and said, "Wow! You've got two boys that like you, Randy Kirwan and now—HIM!"

  It was obvious that most of the other girls were thinking that, too. Marcie Bee rolled her eyes toward the sky and acted as if she were going to faint. She probably would have fallen if her two best friends, Gloria Drexler and Mary Sweeney, hadn't caught her. Lisa and Sara and Alexis were grinning at me as if I were someone special, and I heard Stephanie Holgrem ask Melanie when I had gotten the note. Only Taffy Sinclair, who was standing near the edge of the crowd with Mona, looked unimpressed. Naturally, she was jealous. It served her right after the way she had flirted with Randy. But suddenly she shot a poison-dart look in my direction and announced loudly, "If you ask me, Jana's secret admirer is probably some creep!" Then she whirled around and went stomping off with Mona trailing along behind her. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. She had just proved to everyone how jealous she really was.

  "Does Randy know about the secret admirer note yet?" asked Sara.

  "Not that I know of," I said, as casually as I could. "But he'll probably hear about it."

  "I'll bet he'll be jealous," said Lisa.

  "I'll bet he will, too," said Kim.

  He'd better be jealous! I thought, but I didn't say it out loud. I wondered how long it would be before he got the news. Not long, I hoped. This was already Wednesday, and the movie was only three days away. He had to hear about it pretty soon or else he wouldn't have time to get jealous enough to ask me to go.

  The afternoon dragged by. I didn't see anyone talking to Randy, and he didn't turn around and look at me or anything so he probably didn't know yet. I did make some more X's on my chart, though. Curtis Trowbridge looked at me twice. Mark Peters and Joel Murphy each looked at me once. And Keith Masterson looked at me four whole times!

  Keith was definitely ahead. He had five X's. The only other boy coming close was Matt Zeboski with three. Keith was probably my secret admirer. That was why he couldn't keep his eyes off me. The idea made me tingly. He was awfully cute. He had blond hair and a really neat smile. I would rather have Keith for a boyfriend than anyone, except Randy, of course.

  I wondered if Keith would ask me to the movie. Surely he wasn't too shy. He probably just didn't want to hurt Randy's feelings. Well, I thought, Randy had better just watch out. I might decide that I liked Keith better anyway.

  I was daydreaming about Keith and me at the movie when the recess bell rang. I grabbed my chart as I headed for the playground. I wanted to be sure my friends knew that Keith had looked at me five times today.

  "I only saw him looking at you twice," said Katie. "But Eric Silverman was looking at you. I saw him once and a half."

  "Once and a half?" I shrieked. "How can somebody look at you one and a half times?"

  "He started to look at you, and then Joel poked him to borrow a sheet of paper," Katie explained.

  "Oh, brother," I muttered.

  "I only saw Keith look at you once," said Beth. "I also saw Matt Zeboski looking at you again. That makes four times for him. Matt must be your secret admirer."

  I sighed. I didn't want to talk about Matt. "Didn't anybody else see Keith look at me four times?" I pleaded.

  My friends all shook their heads.

  Before we went in, we totaled up each boy. Even though I was the only one who had seen him looking at me so much, I made sure they all knew that Keith led with five times. Next was Matt with four. Curtis Trowbridge was third with two. Eric Silverman was fourth with one and a half, and Scott, Mark, Joel, and Richie each had one. I was dying to grin or dance in circles or do something silly, even though Randy hadn't looked at me once. That was a grand total of sixteen and a half times a boy had looked at me today, and the day wasn't even over. I had never realized that I was so popular.

  The moment I got back into the classroom from recess, I saw another note on my desk. I swallowed hard and hurried over to pick it up. It's probably just a note from one of my friends, I reasoned. But I knew that all of my best friends had been with me on the playground, and none of them had said anything about passing me a note.

  I glanced around to see if anyone was watching me. Randy was looking out the window, and Keith was still coming in the door. I didn't dare look at Matt Zeboski or any of the other boys. If one of them were looking at me, I'd die.

  I could tell the minute I started unfolding it that it was from my secret admirer because it was typed. I practically tore it getting it open. It said:

  Dear Jana,

  Roses are red,

  Violets are blue.

  Wow! Have I got

  A crush on you!!!

  Your Secret Admirer

  P.S. Do you like movies?

  Oh, my gosh! I thought. It was too wonderful to be true. Keith was thinking about asking me to the movie on Saturday. What could I do to let him know that the answer to his question was yes?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  For the rest of the afternoon I racked my brain, trying to come up with a way to let Keith know that I liked movies. I thought about asking Melanie to talk to Scott again, but that would be embarrassing. He'd think I was some kind of nut, first wanting to know if Randy was going to take me to the movie and then asking him to tell Keith that I like movies. There had to be a better way.

  I also thought about getting my four best friends to help me. We could stand near Keith on the playground tomorrow, and as soon as I thought he was listening to our conversation, I could say in a really loud voice, "I just love movies!" But that would be dumb, too. There had to be something else I could do. But what?

  I didn't have to wonder long. When I got to my locker after school, there was another note sticking in the door. It was folded, just like the other two, and the minute I started opening it I could see it was typed. I was so excited that my hands were shaky, and I held my breath, hoping that Keith had signed his name this time. He hadn't, but it didn't matter. The instant I read that note I knew he was going to ask me out.

  Dear Jana,

  If you like movies, wear something red tomorrow.

  Your Secret Admirer

  I jerked the locker door open, pitched my social studies book in, grabbed my math book since I had math homework, slammed the door, and danced off down the hall to find my friends. I could hardly wait to show them this latest development in the secret admirer case. I chuckled to myself. That was what a detective would say. I felt like a detective and a pretty good one at that. I was sure I knew who my secret admirer was, and now I was certain that he was going to ask me to the movie on Saturday. All I had to do was wear something red to school tomorrow.

  My friends were excited, too. All except Katie, of course.

  "Wow! This is really terrific," said Melanie. "Maybe we can double. Wouldn't that be fun? Scott and me, and you and your secret admirer."

  "Me and Keith," I corrected.

  "You still don't know for sure that it's Keith," insisted Katie.

  "He's the one who looks at me the most," I said. "That proves he likes me, and I'm going to wear my red jumpsuit tomorrow to let him know that I like movies."

  Katie sighed and looked at me as if I were the dumbest person alive. "If he's shy enough to send you notes signed 'Your Secret Admirer' instead of talking to you in person, then he's probably too shy to look at you in class, too. If you ask me, it's probably Gregory Harper."

  "Gregory Harper!" I shrieked. "He's the quietest boy in our class. He's probably the quietest boy in the universe. He never looks at girls."

  "That's why I think he's your secret admirer," Katie said smugly. "He likes you and he's trying to get up his courage to ask you out."

  Christie made a face at Katie. "I agree with you, Jana. I think it's Keith, and he's just testing you with all this secret admirer stuff to see if you and Randy still like each other. After all, they are friends, and he probably do
esn't want to hurt Randy's feelings."

  "That's what I think, too," said Melanie.

  I headed home, feeling like the luckiest and most popular girl in the world. So what if Randy didn't like me anymore? Taffy could flirt with him if she wanted to. I had Keith Masterson now.

  I could hardly wait for Mom to get home. I was definitely going to show her my notes this time. I knew she would be just as excited as I was. I spread them out on the kitchen counter where she would be sure to see them. Then I thought about her situation again. Poor Mom. Why didn't Pink ever take her to a movie instead of bowling every Saturday night? It had to be the most boring thing in the world. She never complained, but then she never said she really liked to bowl, either.

  Pink was awfully nice, but it was a shame that Mom didn't have any other boyfriends. I couldn't remember her ever going out with anyone else since she and my father were divorced when I was three. And she was engaged to marry Pink! Maybe he wasn't the right one for her at all, but how would she ever know that if she never went out with anyone else?

  Then I got this great idea. Mom needed a secret admirer to put a little excitement in her life. I thought about that for a moment. I didn't know any single guys except Pink. If I did, maybe I could talk them into writing her notes. Eeek! I thought. I could never do a thing such as that. But there was one thing that I could do. I could send her secret admirer notes myself. It would only be sort of cheating. They wouldn't be from a real secret admirer, but they might make her life more fun and convince her that she ought to look around a little before she married Pink.

  The more I thought about my great idea, the better I liked it. I could start by copying the first note I had gotten. That would be easy. I scooped up my notes from the kitchen counter and raced to my desk.

  Dear Patricia,

  No, I thought. That was too formal.

  Dear Pat,

  I am writing to tell you that I have been noticing you for a long time. I think you are very nice and very pretty.

  I know that you like Wallace Pinkerton, but I will keep hoping that someday you will like me instead.