Taffy Sinclair 008 - Taffy Sinclair and the Melanie Make-Over (4 page)

It
was the same old story on the playground Monday morning—Mona Vaughn trying to get Taffy
'
s
attention, and Taffy ignoring her. I felt sorry for Mona.

"
. . . and Laura said that I have the natural grace and poise to become a top fashion model,
"
Taffy was bragging. She was talking to Alexis Duvall and Kim Baxter, but she was talking so loudly that everyone on the school ground could hear her.

"
Gee, Taffy, I
'
d love to watch you practice sometime,
"
said Mona.
"
I
'
ll bet you
'
re really good.
"

Taffy gave Mona a snooty look and turned back to Alexis and Kim, not even bothering to answer.

"
Laura will probably use her influence to get me all sorts of modeling jobs just as soon as the class is over,
"
she went on.
"
I can hardly wait. It
'
s going to be fun, and with my TV experience, who knows how far I
'
ll go. I
'
ll probably make lots of money, even get rich!
"

"
Taffy is disgusting,
"
complained Christie. We were standing far enough away from her that she couldn
'
t hear what we were saying.

"
And such a snob,
"
I added.
"
Poor Mona. Taffy is treating her like dirt. She doesn
'
t even care how badly she hurts Mona
'
s feelings.
"

"
That
'
s typical of Taffy,
"
mused Beth.
"
She only cares about herself.
"

"
But Mona doesn
'
t do much to help the situation either,
"
said Katie.
"
I mean, she wouldn
'
t be half so bad looking if she
'
d j
ust do something with her hair.
"

We all looked at Mona again. Katie was right. Mona
'
s hair was limp and straight, hanging almost to her shoulders, and her bangs completely hid her eyebrows.

"
Did you ever see anything so stringy?
"
Katie went on.
"
And she slouches all the time instead of standing up straight.
"

"
What she really needs is to go to modeling class,
"
said Christie. We all laughed at that. I almost doubled over at the thought of homely Mona Vaughn standing next to gorgeous Laura MacLeod and learning to walk across a room with her head up, her shoulders down, her tummy tucked in, and all that other business. And then, when I thought about her coming down the runway during a fashion show at Tanninger
'
s, I really broke up. Poor Mona, I thought. She was nice, but she really needed to do something with her looks. I felt a little guilty about laughing, even though I had laughed to myself.

At noon we gathered at our regular table in the cafeteria. I emptied my lunch bag onto the table and looked at the contents. One apple, one hard-boiled egg, and four carrot sticks. It was disgusting. Beth
'
s and Melanie
'
s lunches were practically the same, except that Beth had a nectarine instead of an apple, and Melanie had six carrot sticks instead of four. Christie had a carton of strawberry yogurt that was getting watery on top from being out of the refrigerator for so long. Only Katie had a decent lunch, a tuna sandwich on whole wheat bread.

Beth must have seen the look on my face and read my mind because she said,
"
Jana, think about it. Have you ever seen a model who wasn
'
t thin? And remember how great they look in their clothes.
"

"
Well, at least nobody
'
s having lettuce leaves and mineral water,
"
Katie said as she took a bite of her tuna sandwich. We all watched her chew it and then swallow as if we were starving street urchins with our noses pressed against a candy store window.
"
And you don
'
t have to live on
that
stuff,
"
she said, pointing to our lunches.
"
If you just stick to nutritional things, you
'
ll be thin naturally.
"

Leave it to Katie to rub it in, I thought. Then I took a noisy bite of my apple to show my disgust. I was shaking salt onto my hard-boiled egg a couple of minutes later when I heard someone giggle. I knew that giggle. I would recognize it anywhere, even in the dark.

"
What
'
s so funny?
"
I mumbled to Taffy Sinclair, who was standing by our table with a smirk on her face.

"
You are,
"
she said.
"
Just look at those
delicious
lunches. I suppose you are all on diets to get thin like Laura.
"
She threw back her head and laughed as if it were the funniest idea she had heard in a long time.
"
Well, I don
'
t have to do that because I know all the tricks that models use to get thin and stay that way. See,
"
she said, leaning forward so that we could all see what was on her hot-lunch tray. She had a hot dog, french fries, and
chocolate cake
!
The chocolate cake looked so delicious I thought I
'
d die.

Katie, Beth, Chris
tie, and I all gave her poison-
dart looks, but I couldn
'
t help noticing that Melanie looked interested.
"
Tricks?
"
she whispered after Taffy left our table.
"
What kind of tricks?
"

"
Forget it,
"
I said, but even though Melanie went back to her own lunch, I had the feeling that she wasn
'
t going to forget it. It hadn
'
t been very long ago that she was terribly overweight, and even though she was a lot thinner now, she could still stand to take off a few pounds.

"
I don
'
t believe there are any tricks,
"
grumbled Katie.
"
She was just making that up for our benefit.
"

"
I agree,
"
I said.

Beth was quiet for a minute. Then she said,
"
Taffy must know some tricks. You know how concerned she is about her looks. You don
'
t seriously think she
'
d eat a hot dog, french fries, and
chocolate cake,
and take a chance on being too fat to become a model, do you?
"

"
Maybe she just bought it to wave under our noses and now she
'
s going to dump it into the trash,
"
I offered. Nobody believed that any more than I did. Besides, we could see her sitting three tables away taking a big bite of her hot dog.

"
She must know some tricks,
"
insisted Melanie in a voice filled with admiration.

As the week went by, I started to agree with Melanie. On Tuesday, Taffy got Italian spaghetti and apple crisp for hot lunch and totally cleaned her plate. On Wednesday, she had meat loaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and chocolate pudding. And on Thurs
day, she had pizza! By then I wa
s bonkers. I would have gladly given up apples, hard-boiled eggs, and carrot sticks forever.

"
Maybe I
should talk to her and see if I
can find out about the tricks,
"
Melanie offered as soon as Taffy put her d
irty dishes on the tray return a
nd left the cafeteria.

"
Wh
o needs them
, anyway?
"
blurted Beth.

"
Yeah,
"
I said.
"
Just because I
'
m turning into a rabbit from eating all those carrots.
"
With that I began twitching my nose and making fun
ny ears with my hands until I ha
d my friends in stitches.

Melanie jumped to her
feet and angr
i
ly put her hands on her hips. H
er face was a bright shade of red.
"
Well, it may not be important to you, but it certainly is to me! I
really do want to be a model. Ta
ffy says I
'
m talented and pretty, and that I can get lots
of modeling jobs.
But how can I
get them if I
'
m
fat?
"

She stormed out of the cafeteria, leaving us all staring after her open-mouthed.
"
Maybe we ought to go after her,
"
I said
.

"
Yeah,
"
said Christie,
"
and
try to talk some sense into her.
"

"
Don
'
t be
silly,
"
s
aid Beth.
"
Did you see how fast she ran out of here?
I
think she was just lo
o
king for an
excuse to get away from us and spend more time with Taffy Sinclair. If you a
sk me, they deserve each other.
"

We all looked blankly at each
other, not knowing what to do.

E
ven though it was supposed to be spring, it was cloudy and snowing lightly when Melanie and Taffy came to school together the next morning, and my friends and I
could tell by the way they were
prancing around and giggling that they were up to something.

"
Would you look at that,
"
said Katie, frowning in their direction. She stamped her feet to warm them.

Beth smirked.
"
I hate to say I told you so, but I was right yesterday in the cafeteria when I said that Melanie was just looking for an excuse to be with Taffy again.
"

I was checking them out carefully, trying to figure out what was going on.
"
Something
'
s fishy,
"
I said.
"
Look. They both have on raincoats instead of the down jackets they usually wear to school, and Taffy has on heels even though the weatherman on the radio this morning said we could g
et two or three inches of snow.
"

"
You
'
re right,
"
said Beth.
"
Melanie is wearing her best shoes, too, and they both have on skirts. I suppose they have spring fever, but it
'
s
dumb
in this weather, if you ask me.
"

Shivering, we all agreed. I plunged my hands into my jacket pockets to warm them. Even though I was wearing mittens, my fingers were getting numb. How could anyone be dumb enough to wear a skirt and a raincoat on a day such as this?

Just then the first bell rang, and the bigger kids started piling through the double front doors to go to their lockers. Most of the little kids were hanging back, faces upturned, laughing and catching snowflakes on their tongues. Taffy and Melanie were ignoring the snow. They were heading toward the door, still together and still giggling, and they had completely ignored us ever since they got to the school ground. That made me even more suspicious.

"
Let
'
s follow them and see what
'
s going on,
"
I said.

We lost them in the crowded hallway, and by the time we got to the section where the sixth graders
'
lockers stood, they had probably already been there and left.

"
Do you think they
'
ve gone on to class?
"
asked Christie.

"
Probably,
"
said Beth.
"
Let
'
s go!
"

She reminded me of a general leading a battle charge, and I hurriedly hung up my coat and grabbed my books and raced after her. Katie and Christie did, too, but when we got to Wiggins
'
s classroom and looked inside, they weren
'
t there either.

There was nothing to do but go in and sit down. Almost everyone had come in by then, and Wiggins was sitting at her desk looking at her grade book. Just then Randy strolled in. I forgot all about Melanie and Taffy as I watched him head for his seat. His dark hair was windblown, probably from running on the playground, and his face was pink from the cold. I couldn
'
t help thinking how handsome he looked, and then, just when I was staring at him as hard as I could, his eyes met
mine and he gave me his 1,000-
watt smile. Who cares about Taffy Sinclair and Melanie Edwards, anyway? I thought as I waved at him.

"
Jana. Look!
"

The hoarse whisper had come from Beth. I tore my gaze away from Randy and looked toward the door. My mouth dropped open. I couldn
'
t believe my eyes.

Taffy and Melanie were standing in the doorway so that it surrounded them like a picture frame. Anyone could see that they thought so, too, because they were posing with icky sweet smiles on their faces. Taffy was wearing a gorgeous electric blue dress. Melanie was in a short dress with a black top and a full pink skirt, which made her took terrific. Not only that, I could almost swear that they had on makeup! I thought I
'
d die.

When the last bell rang, the room got quiet as kids looked up and saw them standing there. Even Wiggins had a surprised expression on her face. It was obvious that Taffy and Melanie were waiting for the right moment to make their grand entrance. I still didn
'
t completely understand what they were doing until I watched in horror as they both held their heads high, lowered their shoulders, pulled in their tummies, relaxed their arms by their sides, took deep breaths, and walked into the room looking perfect. When they got to their desks, instead of sitting down, they glanced around. Melanie looked straight at Scott Daly, the boy of her dreams, and smiled. I shot a look at Taffy. She was doing the same thing, only the boy she was smiling at was my boyfriend, Randy Kirwan. My heart dropped like a rock—because Randy was smiling back!

Suddenly I understood it all. I knew why they had worn their raincoats on such a cold day. The raincoats were longer than their jackets, so that no one could see how they were dressed. And they had probably hurried to their lockers and then ducked into the girls
'
bathroom to put on makeup before coming to class. But worst of all, they had walked across the room like models, just the way Laura had taught us, and everyone was looking at them and thinking about how beautiful they were. Why hadn
'
t I done that? I remembered how I had believed that modeling school would make me so poised and so beautiful that Randy Kirwan would never look at Taffy Sinclair again. But he
had
looked at her. He had even smiled, and now she was beating me at my own game.