On the Back Burner (17 page)

“Right,” Shawn agreed, nodding her head. Together, Shawn and Amanda dragged Molly over to the curling iron.

“Oh, come on,” Molly whined. But it was too late. Shawn and Amanda were already at work—Shawn adding a bit of blush to Molly’s cheeks, Amanda curling the ends of her hair. When they were finished, Molly dressed quickly. She hated to admit it, but the loose ponytail Amanda had carefully arranged her hair in
did
look nice—though she still thought the blush looked dumb. She rubbed it off when Amanda and Shawn weren’t looking. Soon all the girls were downstairs, putting on their coats. The phone rang and, as usual, Amanda grabbed it first. It was Natasha. “My parents said I could go!” she shouted excitedly.

“Great!” Amanda squealed. “Do you need a ride?”

“No, thanks. They have to drop me off and pick me up themselves, that’s part of the agreement. But I’ll see you there!”

Amanda returned with the good news.

“Awesome!” Molly cheered.

“This dance is so exciting,” Amanda said with a little shiver. “I just have the feeling that something really
wonderful
is going to happen tonight.”

“
I
can’t believe this is the gym,” Shawn said as the girls walked into the beautifully decorated dance. Red and white streamers hung from the ceilings. The lights had been dimmed and a disco ball hanging in the middle of the room sent little circles of light dancing over everything. The tables were covered in either red, white, or pink paper tablecloths. A DJ in the far corner by the locker rooms played loud, pulsing rock music.

“Look at this place!” Molly said with a laugh. “All the boys are on one side of the gym, and all the girls are on the other.”

“Look, there’s Natasha,” Amanda said. “She’s over by the food table. She looks so cute tonight!”

“I can’t believe I’m here,” Natasha said when they joined her. “Ever since Amanda gave my dad that homemade mandelbrodt at Hanukkah, he thinks you guys are the greatest and that if you’re all doing something, it must be okay!” Shawn and Amanda looked at each other and laughed.

“Well, he has excellent taste,” Amanda joked. “You look pretty.”

“Thanks.” Natasha grabbed Amanda’s wrist. “There’s Justin.”

“Go thank him for helping us cook last week,” Shawn suggested. “That’s a perfect excuse to talk to him.”

With a nod, Amanda walked quickly over to Justin, who stood alone by the beverage area. “Hi, Justin. I wanted to say thanks for helping us last week. I felt so bad that I was sick and couldn’t cook.”

“Hey, it’s cool. I was glad to help,” he replied. A slow song came up. Amanda looked up into his face, waiting for him to ask her to dance. She felt
certain
he was just about to!

“I have to go talk to that guy over there about Monday’s English assignment,” he said instead. “See ya around. And if you need me for any more cooking jobs, let me know. Bye.”

He walked away, leaving Amanda feeling completely let down. When she returned to Molly and Natasha, Shawn wasn’t there. “Did someone ask her to dance?” she asked.

“No, she’s over there talking to Angie, Stephanie, and Jen from the cheerleading team,” Molly told her as she pointed across the cafeteria.

“That’s the last we’ll see of her tonight,” Amanda grumbled, feeling her good mood fading fast.

Connor came up to join them and, for once, he wasn’t with Omar. “Hi,” he said. “Um...Natasha, feel like dancing?”

The three girls exchanged quick, darting glances. Who knew that
Connor
had a crush on
Natasha?
They had been totally clueless!

Oh, no! Don’t blush,
Amanda thought as Natasha turned bright red.
That’s not cool.

“Okay,” Natasha agreed. She’d never been asked to dance before. The song was fast, which made it all easier. If it had been a slow song, she didn’t know
what
she would have done!

The twins tried not to watch while Natasha and Connor danced. As soon as the song ended, Natasha thanked Connor and scurried back to Molly and Amanda. She was still blushing, but she had a big, goofy smile on her face.

“Ohmygosh! Connor
asked you to
dance!”
Amanda whispered excitedly to Natasha.

Natasha giggled. “I
know!
Isn’t that so funny? I’m, like, totally shocked!” She took a deep breath. “
Whew!
That made me really nervous. I’m kind of glad it’s over!”

Amanda kept hoping that Justin would ask her to dance for the next slow song, but as the night passed, her hope started to fade. “This dance isn’t turning out the way I’d hoped,” Amanda said softly as they stood against the wall. “Shawn’s off with those cheerleaders again. Justin hasn’t asked me to dance even once, and the dance is nearly over.”

“And this music stinks,” Molly grumbled. “Even if you
wanted
to dance, it’s hard to dance to!”

Suddenly Tessa bounded up to Amanda. “
Ohmygosh,
Amanda!” she squealed. “
Please
come with me to the bathroom. I have
got
to tell you something.”

Amanda looked at Molly and Natasha. “Wanna come?” she said.

“Sure,” Natasha replied, standing up.

“That’s okay,” Molly said. “I’ll wait here.” Checking her watch, Molly swallowed back a yawn.
At least this boring dance will probably be over soon,
she thought. Natasha and Amanda followed Tessa off toward the girls’ room. Molly kept watching the dancing.

“Hey, Molly.” She turned and found Justin standing beside her.

“Hey, Justin,” she replied. “Thanks for helping last week. Are you having fun?”

“Uh, not exactly,” he said. “You look like you’re having just about as much fun as I’m having.”

That made her smile. “What, you mean you’re not loving this?”

“It’s so dumb,” he commented. “Whoever heard of a holiday about being in love? Every year it comes along and ruins my birthday.”

“Your birthday is on Valentine’s Day? Thaf’s funny,” Molly said.

“I don’t think so. I think it’s pretty lame. But, you know, whatever,” he replied.

Molly laughed, understanding how he felt. “So how’s the paper going?”

“Pretty good. I’m getting better at taking pictures. This spring I want to cover a lot of the school sports—baseball, track and field, all of that.”

“I like sports a lot,” Molly said. “On Monday I’m going to try out for the girls’ softball team. That’s one good thing about being in middle school. At least there are some teams for girls.”

“That’s great,” he said. “You should definitely try out.” Justin began talking about baseball, comparing the Yankees to the Mets. Then Molly noticed Amanda coming out of the girls’ room with Tessa and Natasha. She suddenly felt guilty for sitting there having such a great conversation with Justin when all Amanda wanted from this evening was for Justin to pay attention to her. Molly felt very uneasy. But she couldn’t just run away from him.

“Justin, do you want to dance with Amanda?” she blurted out.

Justin looked confused. “Um...sure, I guess.”

Still wearing his bewildered expression, Justin walked over to Amanda and asked her to dance. As he spoke, a fast dance ended and a slow one began. Soon the two were swaying to the music together. Amanda looked over Justin’s shoulder at Molly and her eyes sparkled happily.

After the dance, Justin smiled at Amanda and said, “Thanks for the dance.” He walked back over to the big clump of boys standing around the food table.

Amanda joined Molly and Natasha, exploding with excitement. “Did you see that? He finally asked me!”

“Yay, Manda!” squealed Natasha.

“That’s so great!” Molly said. She wasn’t about to tell her twin that it had been her idea. Amanda was so happy, and she didn’t want to do anything to spoil it.

“I saw you two talking,” Amanda went on. “What did you talk about? Was he asking about me?”

“No, we mostly talked about sports,” Molly replied.

“Sports?” Amanda asked, sounding surprised. “Oh. Anyway, I was starting to think I didn’t have a chance with him, that he thought of me as just, you know, a friend. But now that he asked me to dance, that changes
everything.
He
does
like me, after all!”

For the rest of the night, Amanda couldn’t stop smiling, not after the dance had ended, not while she told Mom all about dancing with Justin, not even while she brushed her teeth. As she drifted off to sleep, she thought to herself,
I knew this dance was going to be amazing. First everything works out with Shawn, and now Justin! This is the best day of sixth grade yet.

M
olly leaned over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Softball tryouts had just ended, and she’d spent the last two hours fielding balls, batting, and running. Her first time at bat she’d struck out, which was majorly embarrassing, but she had hit the ball every time after that.
I hope I make the team,
she thought to herself as she took a drink of water from the bottle she’d brought to the tryouts. She hadn’t realized before how much it meant to her. Just then, the coach posted the new team roster.
Ugh,
Molly thought.
I almost don’t want to go check! What if my name’s not there? I wish Amanda were here to look with me.

Just then, Athena raced over to Molly and thumped her on the back happily. “You made it! Way to go, Molly!”

“Awesome!” Molly cheered.

“Practices will begin in two weeks, on Mondays and Wednesdays after school,” the couch announced. “See you then.”

Molly walked home with Athena. “We could do tutoring sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Athena suggested. “I’m so glad you made it. You’re a great batter and with practice, you’ll be even better.”

Molly smiled at Athena. During their tutoring sessions, she’d started to feel that they could become friends. Now that they would be on the same team, maybe it really would happen. When they got to Taft Street, Molly waved and hurried across the street. She began to run toward her house, excited to tell everyone the great news. When she was inside her house she called out, “Hey, everybody, I’m home. I have big news!”

Amanda rushed down the stairs. “You made the team!” she shrieked.

“Yes!” Molly shouted.

Amanda hugged her and together they did a victory dance in the hallway, hopping in circles and cheering.

“I have some good news, too,” Amanda said. “Justin sent me an e-mail!”

“Really?” Molly asked.

“I’ll show you,” Amanda said. “I printed it out.” She pulled a folded paper from her pocket and handed it to Molly.

 

To:
mooretimes2

From:
Justmac

Re:
Hi

“Isn’t that great?” Amanda asked. “He wants me to call him to be a fill-in chef. It’s just an excuse to get me to call him. Don’t you think so?”

“Could be,” Molly answered. She didn’t mention to Amanda that Justin had written the e-mail to
both
of them—not just Amanda.
Why bum her out when she’s so excited?
Molly thought.

“And don’t you think that hint he dropped about the softball games is cute?” Amanda added. “He’s letting me know that he’ll be there because he figures I’ll be there, too, watching your games.” Amanda closed her eyes, imagining sitting with Justin at Molly’s games, borrowing his jacket when it was windy or cold...

Oh
,
boy,
Molly thought.
Did I create a monster when I asked him to dance with her?

“We also got an e-mail from Peichi,” Amanda continued. “She’s feeling much better and will be back at school tomorrow. And guess what? Her mom dropped off her video for Mr. D. last week. He called Peichi at home today to tell her how great it was! He really loved it and she’s getting an A! So she’s officially not grounded anymore!”