Read All About It! (9 page)

Chapter 10

MURDER ON THE
SOCCER FIELD

I stomped down to the bleachers by the soccer field. Michael Lawrence
was a jerk! Why was he always ragging on me? I didn't stand a chance with him. He
thought I was a klutzy, overeating idiot!

I slammed my messenger bag down on the bench and sat down heavily next
to it. Hailey looked over and waved. Thank goodness for Hailey. Boys were too confusing,
and friends were the only people you could count on in life.
Girl
friends!

“Hey!” called Hailey from the field. I guess I was reading
more than watching and hadn't noticed practice was over. I jump-stepped down from
the bleachers and over to Hailey. She was all sweaty.

“Hi. How was practice?” I asked, not really interested.

“Awesome! Our coach went to a training camp
this summer and she has all these new drills and . . .” I hate to say it but I
tuned Hailey out and just let her talk. I could never be a sportswriter (my soccer
tryouts article focused on the human element and the numbers, not the moves). In the
end, who really cares? It's just a game.

The football team was coming in and they caught my eye as they crossed
the soccer field to hit the locker room. I quickly looked away and averted my eyes from
number fifteen. Let him think I didn't see him. I had nothing to say to Michael
Lawrence right now.

But apparently Hailey did. “Hey, fifteen!” she called.
Michael broke from the line and walked over to us.

Ugh. “Hailey!” I whispered in my meanest whisper. But she
ignored me.

“How was practice?” she asked as he drew near.

“Hey, Hailey. What's up, Trippy?” he said.

I rolled my eyes and didn't reply.

Those two got chatting about drills and new kinds of stretching while I
busied myself with
checking my to-do list in my notebook.

I looked up, and Hailey had found a soccer ball and was doing this thing
where she tries to see how many times she can bounce it off her foot and head and knee
without it touching the ground. “Juggling,” she was calling it. I was a
little bit proud of her because she is very, very good at it. She could do it so many
times in a row.

Michael clapped. “Way to go!” he said. “Here, let me
try!”

Hailey booted it over to him and he caught it with his foot, then he
started doing the juggling thing. He got to fourteen and lost the ball. Then Hailey
said, “I can beat that!” and gave it another try.

I sighed in irritation. This was boring and I hated Michael.
“Hailey, let's
go
,” I said.

Michael looked over at me. “In a rush?”

I shrugged.

“No,” said Hailey.

Murder on the Soccer Field
, I thought.
Couldn't she tell I wanted to get out of here?

Hailey got to twenty-seven juggles, or whatever they were called, and
Michael whistled with his
fingers in his mouth. I love when guys
can do that, even though I hate Michael.

“Hey, Pasty, you try,” he said. Oh great, now we're
back to the original.

“No, I . . .” But Hailey had already booted me the ball. I
tried to reach it but I slid and went kind of sprawling. My bag swung forward and I
tipped over. My face burned as I stood up and those two were laughing.

“Does she do this all the time?” Michael asked Hailey.

“That's why we love her!” replied Hailey.

I picked myself up and adjusted my bag, which had flopped open. Fine. I
can play at this game. I pulled the ball over with my toe and gave it a few little
kicks. It kind of hurt. I bent down to lift it and start it off in the air, but they
both hollered, “No hands!”

I dropped it like a hot potato. “Chillax!” I said.
Sheesh.

I wiggled the ball around and got it in the air. I managed two juggles a
few times and once even three, but there was no way I was getting as many as those
two.

They called out tips and encouragement, and I
wasn't sure if it would be worse to quit or keep trying and failing. Finally, I
booted the ball back to Hailey.

“We have our work cut out for us tonight,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said, even crankier. As if I was going to spend
quality sleepover time learning soccer moves!

“Well, let me know if you ever need some extra help
coaching,” said Michael.

Hailey laughed. “I need all the help I can get!”

“That's not what it looked like yesterday!”

“Well, that was just a casual scrimmage,” said Hailey.
“Next time I'll really take you down!”

Michael laughed. “I dare you!”

Wait, were these guys flirting? I looked at Hailey and she was flushed.
She fluffed her hair and smiled at Michael really big. He smiled back.

“What was yesterday?” I asked, as casually as I could
manage.

“Oh, we just had a friendly shoot-out after practice,” said
Hailey.

“It wasn't so friendly, actually,” Michael said with a
laugh.

“Well that's your own fault,
trash-talking me like that.” Hailey wagged her finger at him.

“Yo, Lawrence! Chalk talk!” A coach shouted from the locker
room door. Michael looked at him and waved.

“Gotta go,” Michael said.

“See ya!” said Hailey, really energetically.

“Bye!” replied Michael. “Later, Paste,” he said
to me, and gave me a salute before he jogged off.

Paste?
Now my nickname had a nickname?

I looked at Hailey. She was laughing to herself and shaking her head as
she scooped up the ball with her toe.

“Are you laughing at my nickname?” I asked. I felt really
annoyed with her but I couldn't exactly say why. If I had to break it down, I
guess it was because they had kind of left me out of that whole conversation in a way,
even though they were talking to me. It was weird.

“What? No! I just . . . He's funny.”

“Humph,” I said crankily.

I was thinking about them having a scrimmage and how neither of them had
mentioned it before.
And it had been yesterday. Which meant that
while I had been waiting at the PTA meeting for Michael to come meet me, he was playing
soccer with Hailey! Now I was even madder at him than before!

“Let's hit it. I can shower at home,” said Hailey.

I looked at her long and hard. Was there something up with her and
Michael?

No. No way.

But it was annoying that they had that whole sporty, jokey thing going.
Really annoying.

It wasn't until much later that night that I realized I'd
lost my notebook. I couldn't believe it. I went to my bag to write down an idea I
had for the curriculum article, and the notebook wasn't there. It must've
fallen out of my messenger bag back when I wiped out at the field.

I felt sick.

Hailey and I were already in our pj's and had mud masks on our
faces. I couldn't even scream because my face would crack.

“I ost i ote-ook,” I said to Hailey
desperately.

“Ut?” she asked. She looked at me in confusion.

“I
ost
i
ote
-ook!”

There was a pause. Then Hailey figured it out.

“Ait! Ur
OTE
-ook?” She mimed
writing on a pad of paper.

“Ess!” I nodded emphatically.

We only had a little more time left on the masks so it did seem like a
shame after having that stuff on for twenty minutes to wash it off with only a few
minutes more to go. But Hailey is a good friend and she understands how much I rely on
my notebook for everything.

“Et's awsh ih ah,” she said generously.

After we were all clean, Hailey got her dad and some flashlights, and
the three of us went back to the soccer field where I had wiped out and my bag had
opened. We looked all around there and then expanded our search to the bleachers and
everything, and it was just plain gone.

I probably would have kept looking all night, as if the looking would
magically make it appear, but I felt bad for Hailey and her dad, so I told them it
was okay and that we could leave.

“I'm sorry, Sammy,” said Hailey when we got back to
the car.

I shrugged hopelessly. Everything was in there. My story ideas, quotes
from the PTA meeting, to-do lists, homework assignments, everything. I was pretty
devastated. The only silver lining was that I didn't have anything incriminating
about my crush on Michael or my Know-It-All column. Thank goodness! As much as writing
is my life, it's always important to know what you
shouldn't
put in writing.

Hailey suggested we go on her page on Buddybook and post a notice that I
had lost my notebook at school and if anyone finds it, to please return it to us. I
thought that was really nice of her.

Once she was logged in and had her page up, I sat beside her while she
typed the notice.

“Want to go look at some pages while we're on here?”
she asked, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

“Oh, what the heck. Sure.” I didn't want to be a total
stick in the mud, especially when
Hailey was being so nice.

“Hmmm . . . How about Jeff Perry's? He usually has some
hilarious photo up there,” offered Hailey.

But Jeff didn't have much up. I think he'd been properly
scolded by Trigger and it would take a while before he'd post anything mean
again.

We looked at some girls' pages—leaving notes for the girls
we were friends with and laughing at the pages of girls we don't like.

It was actually really fun.

“Thanks, Hailey,” I said, feeling a warm glow of friendship
love. “You're the best friend ever.”

“I try,” said Hailey, fluffing her hair in a kind of joking,
modest way.

There was one page we hadn't visited, and I was still so sick of
him that I didn't want to ask to go there. But I wouldn't say no if Hailey
offered. Which, of course, being the good friend that she is, she did.

“Want to see Michael Lawrence's page?” she asked,
giggling.

I shrugged. “Eh . . . whatever. I'm so over him right
now.”

“Really,”
said Hailey in more of a statement than a question.

“He's just been a bit of a pain lately,” I said. But I
was still glued to his page when Hailey navigated to it. I couldn't help it. The
boy was cute.

“Do you still like him?” Hailey asked. She was peering
closely at his photo but her voice was kind of weird.

“Yeah! Duh!”

She looked at me and smiled, but it was kind of a sad smile, like she
understood that you could be into someone in general but also not be into him right at
that very moment.

“Wait, can I just slide over here and get a little closer
look?” I asked, nudging Hailey off her desk chair.

“You know what? Sit here and I'll go downstairs and get some
more snacks. Okay?”

“Okay, best friend. Thanks,” I said, and she left.

I looked at his cute picture on his home page and noted his
status—single! I wanted to click on his wall but Hailey has a tracking pad, which
I'm not used to, so my finger kind of slipped and I
wound up
clicking on a document on her desktop.

“Ack! Cancel, cancel!” I tried to stop the computer from
opening Word, but I was stuck in the process. It was too late. I sighed and sat back,
waiting until it was completely open so I could close it and quit the application. Only
what appeared before me made my mouth drop open and my heart stop beating.

It couldn't be!

Chapter 11

GIRL LEAVES BEST
FRIEND'S HOUSE—FOREVER!

There it was, right in front of me. At first, I wondered how Hailey
had gotten a copy of it.

I was that confused.

Then I realized the truth.

Hey Mr. Know-It-All,

What do you do when you and your best friend have a crush on the same
person?

Signed,

Unlucky Taste

Hailey was Unlucky Taste.

I sat there dumbstruck for a second. I think my jaw even dropped. But
then I heard Hailey saying
something to her dad and I knew she must
be at the foot of the stairs. I scrambled to close the document and quit the
application.
Why are computers so slow?!

“Close, close, close! Hurry!” I whispered hard at the
computer. I even blew on it, as if that would help.
Computer Hacker
Caught in the Act.

Just as I heard Hailey's footsteps at the top of the stairs, the
application closed, and I was able to click back onto Michael's Buddybook page. I
adjusted my features. All I felt was shock, but I couldn't let Hailey see it on my
face. Especially because I hadn't begun to process all that her letter meant.

“Here we go!” Hailey sang, coming into the room with a plate
of cookies and two milks.