Taffy Sinclair 007 - Taffy Sinclair and the Secret Admirer Epidemic (5 page)

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. I
t 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 ye
s?

F
or 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 doesn
'
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.

Your Secret Admirer

Wow! I thought. That was great. But if I wrote it, even printed it, she would recognize my handwriting. I would have to type it. We didn
'
t have a typewriter at home, but there was one in the Media Center at school. Kids could use it anytime they wanted to. I looked at my watch. It was only five after three. The school would still be open for after
-
school activities such as Girl Scouts and for teachers getting their rooms ready for tomorrow. If I hurried, I could get there, type the note, and leave it in our mailbox—all before Mom got home from work.