30 Days of No Gossip (10 page)

“She wants to redo the language arts wing,” Kimberly enthused. She looked over at Chelsea. “You don’t think—?”

“I do,” Chelsea said. They both turned to look at me, and Chelsea said, “She’s here from one of those makeover TV shows, isn’t she? They wouldn’t just make over the school for no reason.”

“They wouldn’t make over the school for a TV show, either,” I added. “That’s silly.”

I felt a little panic growing deep in the pit of my belly. They’d figured it out. They’d guessed it. Now all that would have to happen was that they’d tell some people, it would be
all over the school, and I’d be the one blamed for it. I had to throw them off the scent somehow.

“She works for the school board,” I lied. It might be starting a rumor, but was it gossip if I was trying to fix a problem?

“You just said you didn’t know who she was,” Chelsea reminded me with a frown. She gave me a challenging look. “I think you’re making stuff up now.”

“Why would I make it up? She works for the school board. I’d make up something more exciting than that if I were making up things.”

I paused to let that one sink in. Thank goodness it seemed to work. Chelsea still looked like she wasn’t sure, but Kimberly was nodding. She bought it.

“It
is
a bad story,” Kimberly agreed. “Like telling someone you spent the weekend cleaning your room.”

“I guess,” Chelsea said. “I don’t know why the school board would be looking at the school, though.”

“Have you looked around?” Kimberly asked. “This place is falling apart.”

I turned around in my seat and faced the front of the room. If I waited for class to start, they couldn’t talk about this with me anymore. As the final bell rang, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find Chelsea leaning in.

“You can tell me,” she whispered. “I won’t tell anyone.”

She sat back in her seat as class started, leaving me to think about what she’d said. It would be nice to tell someone what I knew. Just one person I could confide in. I wanted to tell Vi, but she was the one person I couldn’t tell. If I told Jessica or Sydney, they’d tell Vi, so that wasn’t an option either. It had to be someone who never talked to Vi. Someone who probably didn’t even know Vi’s name. Chelsea would be perfect.

Plus, if I told Chelsea, she’d be impressed that the producer for a TV show had asked me to show her around the school, for sure. And because I knew about
24-Hour Makeover
before anyone else, they’d think I was smarter than most of the other kids around here.

I’d tell her, just not yet. I’d wait until gym, our next class together, and tell her everything that had happened.

Chapter Ten

The Troy Tattler

By Maddie Evans

Who is the woman seen wandering the halls of Troy Middle School with our very own Madison Evans? Rumor has it she is the producer for a major TV show. If a TV producer is spending this much time at our school, that can mean only one thing.

Troy Middle School, get ready for your makeover.

Since I already got in trouble for playing with my phone in class, I was writing the
Troy Tattler
in my head. It
couldn’t be written, published, and handed out, so that was good enough anyway. Maybe if I wrote it here, I wouldn’t tell Chelsea about it when we had our second class together in fifteen minutes. I could just get it out of my system now.

The bell rang. Time to go.

I stood slowly, clutching my books in front of me protectively. I wasn’t ready yet. I wouldn’t tell her. I wouldn’t tell anyone anything. I’d decided that by the time I reached the door, and with every step, I was surer of it. If I had this many bad thoughts about it, it couldn’t be right.

I held my head high, telling myself that nobody else could bully me into gossiping. Nobody could make me say anything I didn’t want to say. I was in charge here, and if they didn’t like me, tough.

For a second—a very brief, fleeting second—I thought I might have a glimpse of what Vi was trying to get me to see.

But before I could dwell on that long, Jessica called out to me. “Maddie, over here.”

That was odd. Jessica, Sydney, and Sarah were all lined up in front of Jessica’s locker. They were staring at me expectantly, but Sydney wasn’t smiling. She looked like she was expecting me to say I didn’t know anything.

“Chelsea says you know something,” Sydney said as
I drew closer. She didn’t keep her voice down, and both Sarah and Jessica gave her a look.

“You have to tell us,” Jessica said. “Are we going to be on
24-Hour Makeover
?”

My jaw dropped. How on earth had they figured that out?

“I—I don’t know,” I stammered. “Where did you hear that?”

“Everyone was talking about it in second period,” Sarah answered. “They said you know all about it.”

I was doomed. I felt a little sick. This was far bigger than Vi finding out and being mad at me. This could ruin our school’s chances. If it was supposed to be top secret and I was responsible for it getting out, I could mess it up for everyone.

“That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said, stepping away from them. I’d just turn and head off to my locker and that would be that. They’d tell people. . . .

What?

That it was true? That I’d run off, so I had to be hiding something?

I froze. Nothing I could do would make this any better. But there had to be something I could say that would change it all. I thought for a second, looking at each of the three friends in front of me. The truth. It was all I could do at this point.

“If it gets out, it might not happen,” I warned. “It’s supposed to be secret.”

“So it’s true?” Jessica said, her eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s awesome.”

“But you can’t tell anyone,” I said. “Seriously. It has to be kept under wraps until it’s announced.”

“We can do that.” Jessica looked at Sarah and Sydney. “Right?”

“Right,” Sarah said.

Sydney narrowed her eyes at me. “Why do you know and nobody else does?”

“I don’t know,” I said. More truth. “I just know she’s been hanging around here a lot lately and I looked her up online. It could be completely wrong. She could be another Ashley Golden—”

I stopped myself from saying more as I realized I could be saying way too much. Giving them her name and all. They’d of course search for her online and find out everything I’d discovered. Then they’d start their own rumors. I couldn’t be blamed for that, though, could I?

“We’ll keep it secret,” Jessica promised. “Come on.”

“I’ll walk with Maddie,” Sarah offered, sliding out from in between the two girls. Sydney still didn’t believe anything I said and I wasn’t sure why. She’d always questioned
me a little more than anyone else, but this was worse than ever.

It still was bugging me as Sarah and I started walking. It would bother me the rest of the day, along with everything else. What was bugging me most of all, though, was what Vi had said. It was still with me. Was I really all that concerned about what other people thought about me?

“I wanted to talk to you about Aiden Lewis.” Sarah’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. “You told people he likes me.”

“He used to,” I said with a shrug. “It was kind of common knowledge.”

Warning bells were going off in my head. Just because the entire school thought I’d spread the rumor about
24-Hour Makeover
didn’t mean I had a free pass to break my promise to Vi. I thought about what she’d said. Saying bad things about people was bad? But what if it was something good? What if I was helping Sarah by doing this?

I spotted Aiden up ahead, rushing toward class, and got an idea. “Come with me,” I told Sarah.

“Where are you going?” Sarah called after me as I rushed toward Aiden. I could feel her falling behind, which probably meant she didn’t want me to do this, but this was the only alternative to gossiping. It was all I could think to do.

“Aiden!” I called out as I drew closer. He slowed to a stop and turned to face me. “I want you to meet someone.”

I turned, but Sarah had stopped. She was looking around like she was thinking about running in the other direction. Who would have thought Sarah Dooley would be shy? She was the first person in our class to get a real boyfriend, so I would have thought she had more courage than any of us.

“Sarah, this is Aiden. Aiden, Sarah.”

Yes, I introduced them anyway. If they were going to stand there like that, someone had to do something. They nodded at each other, which was weird since you probably could have lined up three cars between them.

“Great. Now you know each other. I’m going to class.”

No gossip. No rumors. They now knew each other, so there was no excuse for them to do all this talking back and forth.

Still, as I headed toward the gym, I couldn’t help but worry that I’d made Sarah mad. If I’d just told her about Aiden liking her, she might have been happier. It made no sense. Wasn’t meeting a boy you might like better than talking about it to all your friends for months and never getting to even talk to him? Maybe that was just me.

I thought back to Vi.
This
was exactly what she’d been talking about, wasn’t it? My footsteps slowed and
I turned around to look back at Sarah and Aiden. They were standing there, talking to each other, looking very uncomfortable.

I was always interfering in people’s lives. Why? Why couldn’t I just let people do things for themselves? Was Vi right about me?

Realizing I was standing there staring at the two of them, I turned and headed toward the gym. Whether my heart was in the right place didn’t matter. That was what Vi tried to tell me. I think I was finally getting it, but could I change?
That
was the real question.

•  •  •

Chelsea was waiting for me in the locker room.

Not
waiting
, exactly. She was standing in front of one of the lockers, changing into her shorts and T-shirt, but the second I walked in, she stopped everything and looked at me.

“Here she is,” Chelsea said loudly. Everyone turned to look at me. An entire row of girls I played volleyball and basketball and soccer with every day in this class. Most of the time they paid no attention to me at all, but today I was the star.

“Chelsea said you know that TV producer,” Wynona Jennings said. “How do we get on the show?”

“Look.” I held up my hand to stop any more questions. Then I saw them all looking at me and froze.

This was where I was supposed to tell them this had all gotten way,
way
out of hand. I’d say that I knew nothing about any TV show and that they should just wait until they heard something and stop talking about things they knew nothing about. I could even imitate Vi’s mature way of saying things like that.

But what would probably happen? I could see it now. I’d give my little speech and everyone’s expressions would harden. They’d turn back to their lockers and not speak to me as we all got dressed with tension in the air between us. They’d then head out to the gym floor, leaving me in here all alone. By the time I joined them, nobody would be speaking to me. Nobody would speak to me ever again.

“It’s supposed to be top secret,” I said.

“We won’t tell anyone,” Chelsea said. They all moved in closer. Lockers clicked closed and everything in the locker room got very, very quiet.

And this is what made it so hard to stop gossiping. That was the best feeling ever. Everyone was hanging on my every word, anxious to hear what I’d say next. They couldn’t wait to hear it. I was important. People
liked
me.

“Okay.” I lowered my voice to barely above a whisper.
“Her name is Ashley Golden and she’s a producer for
24-Hour Makeover
. She’s here to do a show on the school. I showed her around and she asked about the language arts wing and the cafeteria. She wants to create a break area for us.”

“A break area?” Amie Mondale asked. “Like, with TV screens and video games?”

“No, silly.” Chelsea shot a glare in her direction. “A place with vending machines and seats, I’m sure.”

“And somewhere to talk on our cell phones if we have to call our parents,” I said. “Maybe even with chargers so we can keep our batteries going all day.”

“That would be so cool,” Dawes Adams said, her eyes wide. “I wonder if they’d let us bring our laptops in.”

“I’m sure they would, as long as we only used them on break,” Wynona added. “Plus, there will be chargers, so it’s perfect.”

As they all started discussing all the things they could do with their laptops during our fifteen-minute break, I was having major second thoughts. I changed into my shorts and headed out to the gym, letting them talk it out. It wasn’t like telling them had suddenly made me the most popular person ever. It had just given them all something to talk about without me.

Now that I thought about it, this was how it had always been. I handed out gossip while everyone stared at me, eating up every word I said. As long as the information kept coming, I was the gossip queen. But the second I ran out of information, people went on to something else and I was no more interesting than anyone else in school.

I sat down on the front row of bleachers and looked out across the empty gym. Had I just totally destroyed my friendship with Vi for thirty seconds of popularity?

Chapter Eleven

EVERYTHING WAS OKAY. FOR NOW
, at least. VI seemed to have no idea what was going on, and Jessica and Sydney weren’t talking about it, just as I’d requested.

“Vi and I are going shopping Saturday,” Sarah told me when I sat down at our table at lunch. “We’re picking out curtains.”

“Can I come?” I asked. I looked from Vi to Sarah. Not that I was all that excited to spend all day looking at curtains, but it would make Vi happy. Besides, by then she’d be supermad at me, so maybe if we had plans to go look at curtains, she’d have to forgive me. It was worth a try, anyway.