Taffy Sinclair 007 - Taffy Sinclair and the Secret Admirer Epidemic (4 page)

A couple of minutes later the rest of our friends walked up, and I read over the list of boys while she explained her plan to them.

1.
Randy Kirwan
2.
Scott Daly
3.
Mark Peters
4.
Clarence Marshall
5.
Curtis Trowbridge
6.
Joel Murphy
7.
Keith Masterson
8.
Richie Corrierro
9.
Gregory Harper
10.
Eric Silverman
11.
Matt Zeboski

"
Of course, Randy Kirwan can be eliminated immediately,
"
I huffed.
"
I
'
m going to cross him off the list as soon as I get to my desk.
"

"
Well, what about Scott?
"
Melanie asked indignantly.
"
Surely nobody thinks he
'
s the secret admirer.
"

"
And Joel has already asked Sara, and Mark asked Alexis,
"
added Beth.

"
Come on, you guys,
"
Christie pleaded.
"
I wrote down every boy in the class just to make sure I didn
'
t leave anybody out. It isn
'
t going to hurt anything.
"

Melanie gave Christie a frosty look
and then made a big ceremony of
folding her sheet and sticking it into her social studies book. It was obvious that her feelings were hurt, and I crossed my fingers behind my back that we wouldn
'
t all be mad at each other before this mystery was solved.

I stopped off in the girls
'
bathroom to brush my hair before I went to class. I wanted to make sure that I looked my v
ery best for my secret admirer—
whoever he was. I was also thinking about the eleven boys in my class. Four of them had been eliminated right aw
ay—Randy, Scott, Mark, and Joel
—so that left only seven. In my mind I went down the list of the ones who were left. Clarence Marshall, jerk. Curtis Trowbridge, nerd. Keith Masterson, cute! Richie Corrierro, cute! Gregory Harper, too quiet. Eric Silverman, semicute. Matt Zeboski, almost semicute. One of those seven had to be my secret admirer.

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
?

W
hen 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 Cor
rierro 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 a
t me, either, and that was the
pits.

I was leaning against the fence gazing into space and thinking about all t
he 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, J
ana. 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.
"