Taffy Sinclair 009 - The Truth About Taffy Sinclair (2 page)

M
iss Wiggins came steaming up the hall like a battleship with her red corkscrew curls sticking out in all directions like warning flags.

"
What is going on here?
"
she demanded as she came to a halt.
"
Kim Baxter has just informed me that
someone
has invaded the lockers and switched all the contents around.
"

Keith, Joel, and Richie magically faded from the center of the hallway. Seconds later their faces, looking properly solemn and concerned, reappeared between the heads of other sixth-graders.

"
That
'
s right, Miss Wiggins,
"
Joel said with amazing innocence.
"
Things are a real mess.
"

"
You can say that again,
"
shouted Katie Shannon.
"
Nobody has any business getting into our lockers and mes
sing with our private property.
"

"
Somebody took my new pink sweater,
"
complained Lisa Snow.
"
I just go
t it for my birthday last week.
"

"
My Billy Joel poster is gone, too,
"
added Kim Baxter.
"
I
'
ll
die
if anything happens to it.
"

All through the hall kids were grumbling about things that were missing from their lockers. I thought about going straight to Miss Wiggins and telling her about my diary and about Jana and her friends having it. It would serve them right to get in trouble for not giving it back immediately! Even though my name wasn
'
t on it, I could identify it easily. The cover was softly padded with fabric that was the same shade of blue as my eyes, and there was a strap made out of the blue fabric that reached around from the back cover and slipped into the lock on the front.

Still, I thought, there
'
s a million-to-one chance that what they were looking at
wasn't
my diary. In that case, someone else might have it and not realize what they had. It was locked, of course, and I had the key in my purse. And it didn
'
t have my name on the outside. But at the same time, it was pretty obvious
that it was a diary, and a lot of kids would give nearly anything to get their hands on it if they knew it was mine. Besides that, there were things written in it that no one on the face of this earth should ever see, I thought with a shiver. I didn
'
t dare call attention to the fact that my diary was missing. Whoever had it would be certain to break it open and read it.

"
I want to know this instant who is responsible,
"
said Miss Wiggins.

Nearly twenty pairs of eyes zeroed in on Keith and Joel and Richie.

"
We didn
'
t do it,
"
insisted Keith, throwing up his arms in a giant shrug.

"
Who are you trying to kid, Masterson?
"
said Katie Shannon. She took a menacing step toward the boys.
"
You guys were really breaking up when the rest of us opened our lockers and saw what had happened.
"

"
So?
"
said Richie, thrusting his face forward so that his nose almost touched Katie
'
s.
"
Since when is it a crime to laugh? We got here first, that
'
s all.
"

"
Yeah,
"
said Joel.
"
You should have seen how all of you looked. It was a riot.
"

Miss Wiggins frowned thoughtfully at the boys.
"
All right, boys and girls. That
'
s enough,
"
she said.
"
We
'
ll settle this later. Right now, I want you to go through the contents of your lockers and return everything you can to its proper owner. Bring whatever you have left over to the classroom.
"

The instant Miss Wiggins was gone, pandemonium broke out again as kids began digging through the messes in their lockers and pitching things through the air to each other. I stared into my locker for a moment, ducking once as a lavender sneaker whizzed past my ear, but I didn
'
t touch anything. I had something else to do first. Something that was much more important than returning Matt Zeboski
'
s math book or Marcie Bee
'
s spelling paper.

I whirled around and marched straight to Jana Morgan
'
s locker.
"
I think you have something of mine, and I want it back right now!
"
I demanded.

Jana looked at me, first with surprise and then with disgust.
"
I don
'
t have anything of yours. If I did, I
'
d give it to you.
"

Jana
'
s friends gathered around us.
"
What do you think we have?
"
asked Christie.
"
Something important?
"

"
I know you have it,
"
I insisted.
"
I saw you all bunched up and giggling over something one of you had found. You can
'
t fool me.
"

"
Did it have your name on it?
"
asked Melanie with a sly smile.

I glared at her without answering.

"
Because if it did,
"
Melanie went on,
"
you
'
ll get it back. Wiggins said we had to give everything back that we could identify.
"

"
Then give it back to me now,
"
I challenged. There was still the nagging thought that they might not have it, but I couldn
'
t back down.

"
What we were giggling over was a dirty magazine,
"
said Christie in an exasperated voice.
"
We
thought
it belonged to one of the boys. Gosh, Taffy! Was it yours?
"

With that, they all started laughing like crazy. Just as my face started turning red at the insinuation that the dirty magazine belonged to me, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder.
"
Taffy, does this belong to you?
"
It was Randy
'
s voice. I fought down the blush and turned toward him, opening my eyes wide and giving him my best smile. I couldn
'
t believe my good luck.

Randy was holding out a social studies book and smiling back at me. He had such a gorgeous smile that my knees got weak. Jana must be just about to die, I thought. What does he see in her anyway?

"
Let me look at it,
"
I said. Then I moved away from the girls so that Randy would have to turn his back on them and follow me.

My heart was pounding as I took the book out of his hand and pretended to look at it. I wanted him to like me so much! Here was my chance to talk to him and maybe make a good impression. I smiled at him again and tossed my head so that my long blond hair would fall over one shoulder. I had seen a beautiful girl in a movie do that once, and the guy who was watching fell madly in love with her in that very scene.

My name was right inside the front cover of the social studies book, so I couldn
'
t stall any longer.
"
Thanks,
"
I said as sweetly as I could.
"
I REALLY appreciate it.
"

"
Sure,
"
he said. Then he turned back to his own locker and started rummaging through it again.

I tossed a triumphant look toward Jana and her friends, who were pretending not to notice that I had been talking to Randy, and went back to my locker. They could pretend all they wanted, I thought with satisfaction, but Randy had been talking to
me
instead of Jana, and they knew it. Then suddenly it dawned on me. I had the perfect chance to ask him about Curtis
'
s party, and I blew it. Of course I knew whose fault it was, I thought angrily. Jana
'
s and her snobby friends
'
. How could I possibly think straight when they had my diary?

The final bell had already rung by the time we finished giving back possessions, and the last of our class trooped through the hall carrying the odds and ends we still couldn
'
t identify. Someone
'
s high-
topped gym shoe. An open bag of potato chips. Things like that. A couple of teachers peered out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was about, and Mr. Mullins shushed us, making more noise himself than we were making.

Miss Wiggins was waiting for us inside the classroom door, directing us to put our leftovers, as she called them, on the table in the reading corner at the back of the room. I dumped a pair of wrinkled boy
'
s gym shorts and an overdue library book onto the table, hoping to see my diary, but it wasn
'
t there. At least not so far. Other kids were still straggling into the room, including Jana and Melanie. They had to put my diary on that table.
They just had to.

"
All right, boys and girls,
"
Miss Wiggins called out when everyone had finally settled into their desks.
"
Now you may go back to the table and claim what
'
s yours. We
'
ll go by
rows
,
"
she cautioned, as Mark Peters bolted from his seat. Pointing her finger as if she were controlling a puppet, she directed him back into a sitting position.
"
Now,
"
she said in a calmer voice.
"
Row one. You may go.
"

I kept on craning my neck to try to see if my diary was lying on the table. I couldn
'
t. But by the time Miss Wiggins called the fourth row, which is mine Jana Morgan
'
s, there was hardly anything left. I shoved aside a brown banana, a spiral notebook with all the sheets torn out, and at least four more library books, hoping to uncover the book I was looking for.

Then I saw something. Something at the bottom of the pile. My heart skipped a beat. It wasn
'
t my diary. It wasn
'
t even blue. What I had found was a dirty magazine.

"
B
ack to your seats, please,
"
Miss Wiggins commanded as three kids from the last row of desks lingered over the table, poking through the odds and ends from the lockers.
"
You
'
ll have other chances to look the things over during both recesses and lunch period.
"

Sinking a little lower in my seat, I tried to concentrate as she started the math lesson, but my mind was still on my diary. Since no one had given it to me or put it on the table with the other leftovers, that could only mean one thing. It was pretty obvious that whoever had it realized what they had found. They knew it was a diary, and what was worse, they
undoubtedly knew that it was mine. Who could possibly care what any of the other girls in this class would write in a diary? They were all too immature to have anything interesting going on in their lives as I do. Not one of them had ever been on television. And even though Jana and her snobby friends had been in the same modeling class with me, not one of them could ever get a job as a model. That was why the person—or
people
—who found my diary were keeping it. They were planning to break it open and read it and try to find out all my secrets. Of course, I had written other things, too.

I glanced over my shoulder at Jana Morgan. She was following the math lesson in her book. I cringed as I imagined her reading all the things I had written about her and the other members of The Fabulous Five. In my mind I could see them holding a meeting of their club in Jana
'
s bedroom and huddling together to read my diary. Or maybe they would pass it around and take turns reading it out loud.

Dear Diary:

Jana Morgan is my worst enemy in the world. What I can't understand is why she is so popular. She isn't pretty at all! She has a rotten personality. And she's
never done anything special such as being on TV the way I have. She probably bribes people to be her friends!

Dear Diary
:

Today Beth Barry looked like a clown. She's always acting dramatic and theatrical and trying to show off by wearing loud clothes, but today was the worst. She had on a fuchsia outfit that made me want to throw up!

She thinks she's going to be a great actress some day
,
but I'
m the one who has already had an acting role on TV. Ha!!

Dear Diary
:

Christie Winchell is so boring that she wouldn't have any friends if her mother weren't principal of the school and people didn't want to butter her up. I mean
,
let's face it. She's such a math genius that all she thinks about are numbers and equations. How much fun is it to be friends with a computer?

Dear Diary
:

Today I saw Christie Winchell flirting with Mr. Scott, the assistant principal. She thinks nobody notices that she has a humongous crush on him, but everybody does. She
'
s so obvious about it that I'll bet even Mr. Scott notices and is laughing at her behind her back.

Dear Diary:

Katie Shannon acts so disgusting. She is always saying that being pretty isn't important and that she can't stand boys. How could anyone be so dumb!?!

Dear Diary:

Melanie Edwards should go on a diet! She has started to lose weight and looks a lot better than she did when she stuffed herself with brownies all the time
,
but she still has a long way to go.

In my imagination I could see all of their faces turn purple with rage as they read what I had said about them.

"
Who does she think she is to write stuff like that?
"
Beth would probably yell, and everybody else would nod, except for Christie, who would curl up in a corner of Jana
'
s bedroom wondering how she would ever face Mr. Scott again and wishing that she were dead.

Well, the truth hurts!
I thought contemptuously. I was remembering all the times those five had done mean things to me. There was the time in fifth grade when I got a card in the mail that said
"
You must have been a beautiful baby, but baby, look at you now
"
on the front, and had a picture of King Kong on the inside. Nobody had signed it, but I knew it was from them.

But then I remembered the dirty magazine left on the table. Wasn
'
t that what Christie had said they were looking at when I thought they were giggling over my diary? What if they didn
'
t have it, after all? Then, who did?

Randy? I thought with a panic.
Could Randy Kirwan
possibly have it?
Of course, he was too polite to break it open and read what I had written about
him.
But what if he forgot to put it on the table with the other things people couldn
'
t identify? And what if he remembered it after he got home? And he had it with him? And he broke it open? Just so he could find out whom it belonged to, of course. And what if he read what I had written about him? On practically every page.

Dear Diary:

I am so much in love with Randy Kirwan that I can
hardly stand it.

Today I
. . .

"
Taffy Sinclair!
"

Miss Wiggins
'
s voice cut through my nightmare.
"
I know that this is the last week of school and that everybody is having a hard time keeping his mind on the work. But would it be too much trouble to ask you to join our social studies lesson this morning?
"

I blinked. Social studies less
on? What had happened to math? I
locked my jaws to keep my mouth from quivering and tried to smile at her. I would die if anyone guessed how embarrassed I was.

"
Sorry, Miss Wiggins,
"
I mumbled as I shoved my math book into my desk and pulled out my social studies book.

Just then I heard Jana Morgan clear her throat. I stiffened like a poker and listened. I knew what was
coming next, and I was right. An instant later Melanie Edwards cleared her throat. Then one by one, Beth Barry, Christie Winchell, and Katie Shannon all cleared their throats, too.

It was a signal. It had to be. It meant that they knew how embarrassed I was, and they were glad. Not only that, they were out to get me. I had to get that diary back if it was the
last thing I ever did.