Taffy Sinclair 002 - Taffy Sinclair Strikes Again (7 page)

Mom
had a big grin on her face as I went streaking toward the phone. "It's Beth," she said.

I slowed to a walk. Beth! I couldn't figure out why Beth Barry was calling me, and I reached for the telephone receiver as if it were a snake. Then I remembered those awful T-shirts that said The Fabulous Four and how snotty Beth had been in the Halloween party committee meeting that day, and I snatched that phone off the table and growled, "Hello."

"Jana Morgan. You have to tell me right now what Taffy Sinclair has been saying about me!" Beth was practically shrieking into my ear. It was obvious that pointing out the fact that she was overdramatic hadn't done much good. "If you heard something, it has to have been from her. She's the only friend you've got."

It really made me mad when she said that. "I don't have to tell you anything. Besides, when Taffy says something, it's the
truth.
If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't know how jealous you are of me and how you've been telling everybody in school that I'm boy crazy just to get revenge."

I smiled to myself. I knew I had told her a thing or two.

"Well, Miss Smarty Pants, then it must be true what Taffy says about you."

"About me?" I said in disbelief, but at the same time an icy feeling was creeping into my heart.

"About
you
,
"
said Beth. "I saw her in the girls' bathroom after school today, and she was laughing like crazy. I asked her what was so funny, and she said, 'Jana Morgan is trying to talk to boys in body language, but the way she does it looks like baby talk.'" My heart froze into a solid lump and dropped down into my stomach.

"She didn't say anything like that. You're making it up!" I screamed.

"Oh, no, I'm not. And that's not all she said, either. She said
you
think that Randy Kirwan likes you, but he doesn't. The only boy who likes you is Curtis Trowbridge."

I slammed the telephone receiver down as hard as I
could and marched back toward my room. Just then I realized that Mom and Pink were looking at me and that they had heard the whole thing.

I slipped into my room and flopped on the bed. I was glad it was dark
because all I wanted to do was
hide. Beth's words echoed in my mind.
She said you think Randy Kirwan likes you, but he doesn't. The only boy who likes you is Curtis Trowbridge.
It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. But deep down, I knew it probably was. Taffy Sinclair still hated me as much as she had back in the days when we had the club against her, and she had seen the chance to make me look like an idiot in front of my friends and Randy Kirwan and the rest of the sixth grade.

I remembered the first morning at school after The Fabulous Five meeting when we had told each other our faults. That was the morning Beth had called me Randy Kirwan's lover girl on the playground in fr
ont of everybody. Everybody incl
uding Taffy Sinclair. It had been the very next day when Taffy had wanted to walk with me and had told me that pack of lies about my friends saying awful things about me behind my back. That was also the morning she had told me Randy Kirwan liked me. She had lied! But then I thought back to the times we had talked about him, and I realized she hadn't really lied. She had never once said his name. All she had said was that a really cute boy liked me. She knew I'd think it was Randy Kirwan. And I had even called him on the phone to ask him how he felt about me. Thank goodness I had disguised my voice. I had believed that Taffy was just lonely and didn't know how to make friends. My FORMER friends had said I was immature, but I felt stupid. I couldn't help wondering if "stupid" and "immature" weren't just about the same thing.

After a while I got up and turned on my light. Another thing I couldn't get out of my mind was that Taffy had said my body language looked like baby talk. That proved what a really snotty person she was. I walked to my mirror. Of course, I didn't look like Taffy Sinclair. Nobody did. But I had done everything she had told me to do, and I had practiced it every day. Probably she was just jealous. She was afraid I'd get so good at it that I'd be competition.

I stuck out my hip and tossed my imaginary long hair, watching myself out of the corner of my eye. I was pretty pleased with what I saw. I would know baby talk if I saw it, I thought, and this definitely wasn't it. I began prancing around the room swinging my hips and tossing my hair. I didn't need Taffy Sinclair. I didn't even need my FORMER friends.

Just then I looked in the mirror and saw another face. It was Mom and she was standing inside the door watching me. I was so embarrassed I thought I'd die.

"I'm sorry, Jana," she said, fumbling. I knew she was trying to explain what she was doing in my room. "You were so upset—and Pink just left—and, well, your door was open a little bit."

I tried to look casual as I straightened up but another lump was growing in my throat. "That's okay, Mom. I wasn't doing anything special. Just goofing around." Mom looked relieved that I wasn't mad. "Well, if there had been a boy in here, I would have sworn you were flirting," she said with a nervous laugh.

My heart jumped inside my chest. "That wasn't flirting," I said quickly. "That was body language. We're learning all about it in school."

"Well, it sure looked like flirting to me," she said. "And if you learned it in school, I'd be willing to bet it wasn't from Miss Wiggins." She turned to leave but then turned back again. "There's nothing wrong with flirting, Jana, or with body language or whatever you want to call it," she said quietly.

I let out a big sigh of boredom and looked at her, wanting to tell her I already knew that, but she wasn't finished talking yet.

"Flirting is on
ly good for one thing, though."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Attracting someone's attention. After that, you have to let that person see you for what you really are."

Her words hit me like a ton of bricks, and I looked back at myself in the mirror. I stood there staring for such a long time that I didn't notice when Mom left the room.

I thought a lot about what she had just said. Nobody in the whole world saw me for what I really was, and that was my biggest problem. Then I thought about Mom again and how I had watched her with Pink to see if she would talk to him in body language. Of course, she hadn't. She had already attracted his attention, and it was plain to see that he saw her for what she really was.

Finally I put on my pajamas and crawled into bed. I was so tired I didn't do my bust-developing exercises or my secret poster ritual. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, but for the life of me, I couldn't go to sleep. I kept thinking about how nobody saw my good points because they were always looking for my faults. Mostly I was thinking about my FORMER friends.

Deep down I knew that I had started it all since I had been the one to say that The Fabulous Five should tell each other their faults. How could I know they would get so carried away? Later, I had planned for my former friends to die of jealousy when they saw me and Taffy Sinclair hanging around with a lot of cute boys. Then they would know how wrong they had been about me. And they had been wrong, too. If I were boy crazy as they thought, I'd even be crazy about that nerd Curtis Trowbridge. But maybe I had been as wrong about them as they had been about me.

As mad as I was at my FORMER friends, I had to admit that it gave me a really funny feeling to see them going around together again. It was plain to see that they didn't hate each other anymore. I couldn't help wondering if something had happened to make them want to be friends with each other again or if they had just decided to gang up on me and Taffy Sinclair. I wondered if they were talking on the phone to one another that very minute. For a long time I tried to think of a way to change their minds about me, something that would make them see me for what I really was.

I buried my head in my pillow and thought about how much I missed them. I remembered once Mom had said that when people wanted to apologize, one person always had to say it first. I thought about being the one to say it first, but I knew I just couldn't. My FORMER friends probably didn't ever want to hang around with me again, now that they thought I was such a terrible person.

After a while I couldn't lie there any more, so I got up and turned on my desk light. Then I got my Fabulous Five notebook out of my boot box and opened it to a blank page. First, I put a heading, Jana Morgan, and then a subheading, My Good Points, and then I numbered down to twenty-five. I wasn't sure I'd be able to think of twenty-five good points, but I hoped I'd be able to come up with at least a dozen.

I sat there for a while, staring at that blank page, and I had to admit that thinking up my faults had been a lot easier. Finally, I put "kind to animals" next to number one. It wasn't that I had really had that much experience with animals since none of the apartments we had ever lived in had allowed pets, but all my life I had wanted a dog and a horse. Also, I had always petted Christie Winchell's poodle when I played at her house.

I thought awhile and then wrote "healthy" next to number two. Wasn't Mom always going on about how great it was that I was hardly ever sick?

Finally, I thought of a really super good point, and on line three I wrote "friendly."

I couldn't help remembering that my FORMER friends had good points, too, and I had to admit I hadn't thought about them for an awfully long time. But what was the point in thinking about their good points when they certainly weren't thinking about mine?

I put my notebook away and climbed into bed again. My heart felt like it had tumbled off a cliff. I was all alone. I didn't have a single friend. Not Randy. Not my four FORMER friends. Not even Taffy Sinclair
.

I
have this brand new theory about Halloween: it's the dumbest holiday of the year. Since getting people to see each other for what they really are is supposed to be so important, why does everybody get dressed up like somebody else? Take me, for instance. Me and my Jolly Green Giant costume. The only vegetables I like are peas and corn, but when I show up dressed like th
e Jolly Green Giant, people are
just naturally going to assume that I like cauliflower and brussels sprouts, too.

It was when that thought hit me that I made my big decision. It was time to quit moping around and do something about my situation. The first thing was to
quit going around with Taffy Sinclair. In fact, I stuck my nose in the air every time she looked at me. She didn't even act surprised, and she started eating lunch with Mona Vaughn. I didn't care. I had something else to do, and it was something I should have done a long time ago.

My biggest problem was Mom. When Halloween night rolled around, all she could talk about was my costume. She was so excited about it that I didn't dare tell her how I felt about making the wrong impression. Anyway, I had to admit she had done a super job on the costume. It looked just like the pictures on boxes of frozen food. Right after supper she helped me get the costume on, and then she double-checked each leaf to make sure none of them was loose.

"I'll bet you're going to win first prize for the best costume," she said as she pinned a cluster of felt leaves into my hair. "I'll be so proud of you."

The closer it got to the time to leave for the party, the more nervous I got. I checked my goody bag three times to make sure I had everything stashed inside that I would need. Finally it was time to go. Mom always walked me to school events when they were at night, and we put on our coats and left the apartment together.

"Try not to spill anything on your costume, honey. I didn't have time to take your picture tonight so I want to do it in the morning," she said as we got to school.
"I'll be waiting right here at nine o'clock when the party's over. Have fun."

"Sure, Mom. See you at nine." As I headed for the gym, I was thinking how easily I could guarantee that I'd keep my costume clean. Several other kids were arriving at the same time and waving goodbye to their parents as they went inside.

I forgot about my big decision for a minute when I stepped inside the gym. It looked prettier than I had ever seen it. The whole class had stayed inside during afternoon recess to string crepe paper streamers, and at night the electric lights made it look spooky, with shadows on the walls and in the corners. In the center of the refreshment table sat a jack-o'-lantern with a flame flickering away, lighting up bowls of potato chips, paper cups of cider, and plates of square pieces of chocolate cake.

"Come on, little spooks and goblins. Take off your coats and have something to eat." It was Wiggins, and she was sweeping into the room on a broomstick. She wasn't actually flying, but from the way she was sliding along and holding out her long black skirt, it looked as if she were. She had on a tall, pointy hat and big gold earrings. She made a really super witch.

Just about everybody headed for the food except me. I sort of hung around the edge of the bleachers in the shadows. I looked at all the costumes as they came in, and I knew Mom had been right about me winning the prize. There were a lot of ghosts, wearing sheets, and bums in their fathers' old clothes. There were two gypsies and a robot wrapped in aluminum foil.

Pretty soon Taffy Sinclair came in. I gulped hard. It was plain to see that her costume would be my only competition. She was the tooth fairy, just as she had said that she would be. She was wearing a white leotard and tutu like ballerinas wear. Every point of her cardboard crown was in the shape of a tooth and was covered in gold sparkles. She was carrying a wand with a sparkly gold tooth on it, too. I had to admit that she looked more beautiful than ever.

My heart sank. What was I going to do? I couldn't let a snotty person like Taffy Sinclair win the contest without a fight. I looked down at my Jolly Green Giant costume. Mom had worked so hard on it, and she would be so proud of me if I won the prize.

Then I saw three boys come in. They all had on rubber masks that made them look like horrible monsters. They wore ragged clothes, and one of them was limping and leaning on a stick. The ugliest one of all had a big lump on his back that was probably a pillow inside his shirt, and it made him look like a hunchback. They were sneaking up behind kids and making monster noises, and they looked so awful that I couldn't help but giggle.

"Hey, Jana. What are you doing over here all by yourself?" I looked around to see a funny little man in a black suit standing beside me. I knew from the painted-on black mustache and the way he was tipping his hat that he was supposed to be Charlie Chaplin, but I also knew right away that he was Curtis Trowbridge. I had to admit his costume was pretty good.

"Oh, hi, Curtis," I said. "I just felt like standing here and watching everybody for a while."

"You'd better not stand here too long. The food is almost gone already. Hey, take off your coat so I can see your costume. What are you, anyway? Kermit the Frog?"

I looked down and had to laugh. I hadn't realized that all you could see of my costume were my green tights sticking out below my coat.

"No," I said. "You'd never guess it in a million years."

"Well, you'd better hurry up." Curtis was off again, shuffling around the room taking little bitty steps like Charlie Chaplin and tipping his hat to everybody.

"AAARGH!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Something was right behind me. It was the hunchback, and he was making horrible monster noises and acting as if he were going to capture me. He hung around for ages, circling me. He was probably hoping I'd scream or faint or something. Finally he saw that I wasn't going to and he lumbered off to attack somebody else.

Suddenly I wanted to take off my coat and run up to the refreshment table so everybody could see how great I looked. I knew I had the best costume in the whole sixth grade. I was just starting to unbutton the top button of my coat when my former friends came in and my heart went crashing to the floor. They were all dressed like scarecrows with their faces painted funny and pieces of straw sticking out all over. I thought that the straw must be pretty itchy, but they didn't seem to notice. It was plain to see that they were having too much fun together to care.

They were tearing all over the place, but they never once looked at me. Why should they? They thought I was a terrible person. They thought I was like Taffy Sinclair. Even though I tried not to, I couldn't help thinking about all my friends' good points and my good points, too. That cinched it. There was only one thing to do.

I grabbed my goody bag and headed toward the door, but the hunchback was after me again. Oh, no, I thought. This is all I need. I tried to ignore him, but he followed me around, beating on his chest like King Kong. He was a pretty good monster. Anyway, when I didn't pay any attention to him, he finally went away and I was able to sneak out of the gym.

I was glad the girls' bathroom was empty. I stripped off my Jolly Green Giant suit and put on the stuff I wanted to wear in just about half a second. Then I put my coat back on and headed for the gym. When I got there, Wiggins was lining everybody up for the grand march.

"Okay, all you spooks and goblins. Line up in single file behind me. We are going to march around the gym one time so we can see one another's costumes. When we stop, I'll stand behind each of you one at a time, and we'll vote by applause for the best costumes."

Kids were scrambling all over the place to get in line. Of course Taffy Sinclair stood right behind Wiggins, and I could see four scarecrows standing together about halfway down the line. I knew it was now or never. If I was going to let my friends see me for what I really was, I would have to take off my coat and get in that line. My hands were shaking like crazy when I unbuttoned it and took it off. I stood there for a minute looking down at
my jeans and blue T-shirt—my T-
shirt that said The Fabulous Five. Then I went charging up to that line as fast as I could.

I stomped around that gym without looking at anybody, but I knew everybody had seen me. They probably all thought I'd lost my mind. Maybe they were right. What if it didn't work? What if my four friends laughed at me in front of the whole sixth grade? I'd be so embarrassed I'd die.

"All right, everybody. Make a circle," Wiggins said in a screechy voice. "It's time for the judging to begin."

When I turned around, I was right across the circle from my friends, and I could tell they were staring straight at me. I could feel my ears getting hot, and I looked down at the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Wiggins hopping around and holding a handkerchief over each kid's head until the applause died down.

Then she got to me, and the gym got as quiet as a tomb. I wanted to die. At the very least I wanted to faint so I would be unconscious, but I couldn't. All of a sudden somebody started to applaud. I looked up, and I couldn't believe my eyes. My four friends were clapping like crazy and grinning at me. They were the only ones applauding, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that they had finally seen that I was their friend.

"First prize goes to Taffy Sinclair for her tooth fairy costume," Wiggins announced a few minutes later. Taffy looked at me with poison dart eyes, and I stuck my tongue out at her. Let her win, I thought. Who cares? Then I nearly burst out laughing because Beth was grinning at me and imitating the prissy way Taffy was walking up to get her prize.

"Second prize goes to Curtis Trowbridge for dressing as Charlie Chaplin."

After we finished applauding, we all headed back for the refreshment table where Wiggins had put out wrapped candy for us to stuff in our goody bags. My friends and I didn't go to the refreshment table. We just sort of stood there looking at each other and feeling really self-conscious. Then Beth ran up and gave me a big hug.

"Oh, Jana. I'm so glad we're friends again."

"Me, too," I said, hugging her back.

Then Melanie and Christie and Katie were crowding around me, too, and everybody was talking at once.

"How could you
stand
to be friends with Taffy Sinclair?" asked Melanie, holding her nose.

"The way she flirts all the time drives me crazy," said Christie.

"Don't worry about that," I said. "All flirting does is attract attention."

Just then I realized there was one person I hadn't seen at the party. "Is Randy Kirwan here?" I asked looking around.

"Sure," said Christie. "He's the hunchback. He came with Mark and Scott."

I had to laugh. I remembered how I had thought he might come as Romeo and I'd be Juliet.

"You know, Jana, you really are boy crazy," said Katie. She had an awfully serious look on her face, and my heart skipped a beat. "But that doesn't matter. We all like you anyway."

All my friends started nodding their heads and laughing like crazy again, and I couldn't help laughing, too
.

On the way home from the party I explained to Mom about my Jolly Green Giant costume, and she understood. She said I could wear it next year if I wanted to and even offered to make one just like it for each of my friends.

When we got home, I said good night and went straight to my room. I took down the picture of Miss Piggy and looked at Randy Kirwan for a long time. I had been so sure he liked me. He had smiled at me and talked to me on the school ground and sat down at my table in the lunchroom. I sighed. Randy was a genuinely nice person, that was all. And that was probably why I liked him so much.

My friends were right, though, I thought. I was boy crazy. Of course I liked Randy best, but I liked other cute boys, too. In fact, I even liked Curtis Trowbridge a little bit. He was still a nerd, but he had been my friend all along.

Taffy Sinclair could have her body language, I thought. I didn't need it anymore. I had a new plan. After all, hadn't Randy followed me around the gym making monster noises during practically the entire Halloween party? He was probably starting to be just a little bit crazy about me now that he could see me for what I really was. I gave him a big wink. "I'll get you yet," I said and snuggled into bed.