Taffy Sinclair 007 - Taffy Sinclair and the Secret Admirer Epidemic (6 page)

I
grabbed my notebook and went racing off to Mark Twain Elementary. I took my notebook along because I didn
'
t know how many pieces of paper I would have to use before I got the note typed without any mistakes. I couldn
'
t just run a slash mark through wrong letters the way Keith had done my notes. Mom
'
s note would have to be perfect.

When I got to the Media Center, Mrs. Birney, the librarian, was shelving books. She looked surprised to see me, but she smiled and waved for me to come in.

"
Would it be all right if I used the typewriter for a few minutes?
"
I hoped she wouldn
'
t ask me what I was going to type.

Fortunately, she didn
'
t. She just nodded and smiled again.

As soon as I rolled a sheet of paper into the typewriter, I had a terrible thought. It was regular, lined notebook paper. Grown men who wrote secret admirer notes to beautiful women wouldn
'
t use lined notebook paper. They would use expensive stationery. Maybe even stationery that smelled like perfume. I sighed and looked at the paper in the machine. It was all I had. Not only that, I couldn
'
t afford to go out and buy expensive stationery that smelled like perfume. My own stationery at home had kittens on it. Grown men would never write secret admirer notes to beautiful women on stationery with kittens on it, either.

I sighed and started to type. The first mistake I made was forgetting to capitalize
D
and
P
in
"
Dear Pat.
"
I wrote
"
dear pat.
"
I made a face and pulled the paper out of the machine. Then I rolled a second sheet in and started again. This time I got all the way to
"
noticing
"
before I made a mistake. I was glad Wiggins wasn
'
t there to see that I forgot to drop the
e
off
"
notice
"
before adding the
"
ing.
"

By the time I finally finished, I had used six sheets of paper. Typing was pretty hard. I didn
'
t know how Mom did it all day long. I put the note into my notebook and thanked Mrs. Birney as I left. It was getting late. I would have to hurry to get home and plant the note in the mailbox before Mom got there. I wished that I could mail it, but I didn
'
t have a stamp. Plus, I was too anxious for Mom to get it. I couldn
'
t stand to wait a day or two for it to go through the mail.

I was almost to the front door of the school when I heard someone call my name. It was Mrs. Winchell, the school principal, and when I turned toward her, she was smiling.
"
Hi, Jana. What are you doing at school so late?
"

"
I just needed to use the typewriter in the Media Center.
"
I liked Mrs. Winchell. For a principal she was pretty nice. Besides that, she was Christie
'
s mother, and Christie was one of my best friends.

"
I hear that you go
t a note from a secret admirer.
"

My heart stopped.
"
How did you hear about that?
"

"
Miss Wiggins told me. News such as that travels around the school pretty fast.
"

"
Oh,
"
I said, relaxing a little. I had thought at first that maybe she knew who my secret admirer was.
"
Actually, I
'
ve gotten three notes. The last one was stuck in my locker door after school.
"

"
Well, that
'
s pretty exciting.
"

I nodded, and a big grin spread across my face.

"
Have you figured out who he is yet?
"

I nodded again.
"
I think so, anyway. There
'
s one boy in class that looked at me five times today. I think it
'
s him.
"

"
That sounds like a good possibility to me. By the way, do you have the notes with you?
"

"
No, they
'
re at home.
"

Mrs. Winchell
'
s smile faded and she looked thoughtful for a moment.
"
Would you bring them into the office in the morning and let me look at them? It seems that you aren
'
t the only one at Mark Twain Elementary who has gotten a note from a secret admirer.
"

My mouth must have dropped open at the news because Mrs. Winchell laughed nervously and added,
"
There is probably no connection between this other person
'
s secret admirer and yours, but I would like to compare the notes just to make sure. I hope you won
'
t mind.
"

I said that I would bring them and then headed for home. I was totally stunned. Another secret admirer sending notes to someone in our school? The closer I got to our apartment, the more worried I became. What if someone was playing a trick? Sending secret admirer notes to lots of people and then watching to see what they did?
But if lots of kids were getting secret admirer notes, why hadn
'
t I heard about them?

A block from home I stopped and leaned against a tree. I had just had another terrible thought. My secret admirer had said to wear red to school tomorrow if I like movies. I had planned to wear my red jumpsuit and red socks and maybe even red barrettes in my hair. What if my secret admirer was the same one who had been sending notes to other kids? And what if a bunch of us showed up tomorrow wearing red? Then whoever was playing a trick on us would have a big laugh.

That settled it. I would
not
wear red to school tomorrow. Not even if everything else I owned was dirty. I would never wear red to school again for as long as I lived. But instead of being angry, I wanted to cry. I had been so sure that Keith Masterson was my secret admirer.

I thought about the notes again and all the times that Keith had looked at me today. He had to be my secret admirer. He just had to! Maybe someone had heard about my secret admirer and decided to write a note to someone they liked. Surely that was it. I tried to remember what Mrs. Winchell had said. She had said that I wasn
'
t the only one who had a secret admirer. She didn
'
t say that lots of people had them. In fact I remembered her saying something about
"
this other person
'
s secret admirer.
"
And what if I didn
'
t wear red tomorrow? And my secret admirer really was Keith? And he thought I didn
'
t like movies? He wouldn
'
t ask me to go with him Saturday!

I couldn
'
t help wondering who the other person with a secret admirer was. I knew that if it were any of my four best friends I would know about it. And it wouldn
'
t be Alexis Duvall or Sara Sawyer. They both had dates for Saturday. Taffy Sinclair! It had to be her. Boys were always looking at her and saying how pretty she was. Probably some boy who was too shy to talk to her had heard about my secret admirer and decided to send her a note. Maybe her secret admirer was Gregory Harper, the shy kid who Katie felt certain was sending my notes. I had to giggle at that. It would serve Taffy right. But what if it wasn
'
t? And what if it wasn
'
t someone playing tricks, either? What if it turned out to be Randy Kirwan and he was planning to ask her to the movie on Saturday?

I trudged on home, feeling more confused than ever. There was only one thing I felt certain of. I had to leave the secret admirer note I had just typed in the mailbox where Mom would find it. Since I was the one who wrote it, I knew that no one was playing a trick o
n her. Well, not really, anyway.

I
opened the mailbox and slipped Mom
'
s secret admirer note in between an envelope with a window in it that was probably a bill and a magazine and hurried upstairs to wait for her. I couldn
'
t sit still, even though she was due home any minute. I spread my homework out on my desk, but I couldn
'
t get started on it. I checked twice to see if my red jumpsuit was clean. It was. My red socks were, too. I checked them three times.

Finally I heard her key turning in the lock. I hurried into the kitchen before she got inside and leaned against the counter, trying to look casual.

"
Hi, sweetheart,
"
she called as she came in, and pitched the mail onto the sofa without looking at it.
"
How was your day?
"

Rats!
I thought, but I gave her a big smile and said,
"
Great. How was yours?
"

"
Okay, but busy.
"

She still didn
'
t look at the mail. I had to think of something.

"
Any interesting mail?
"
I asked, still trying to appear casual.

"
I don
'
t know. I haven
'
t looked at it yet. You can check it if you want to, but it
'
s probably all bills. That
'
s all we ever get around this time of month.
"
I looked down at the assortment of junk mail and other stuff fanned out across the sofa cushion. I could see one corner of the folded sheet of lined notebook paper peeking out, and I got a tingly feeling. I wanted
her
to pick up the mail and thumb through it and find the secret-admirer note herself.

Mom hung up her coat and headed for the kitchen. When she passed the sofa she gave the mail a disgusted look and said,
"
All bills, right?
"
Then she walked on by.

I knew I
had to take action. I scooped up the letters and followed her into the kitchen.
"
I haven
'
t looked yet. Hey, look at this. It
'
s the phone bill.
"

Mom turned a
round and gave me a quizzical
look. At that instant I pulled the secret-admirer note out and waved it toward her.
"
I wonder what this is?
"
Before she could answer, I pushed it into her hand.

Shrugging, Mom unfolded the lined notebook paper and frowned as she read.
"
My secret admirer?
"
she whispered.
"
This has to be some kind of joke.
"

"
Secret admirer?
"
I asked, trying to fake surprise.

My heart was racing as she handed me the note. I cleared my throat and read the message out loud.
"'
Dear Pat, I am writing to tell you that I have been noticing you for a long time. I think you are very nice and very pretty. I know that you like Wallace Pinkerton, but I will keep hoping that someday you will like me instead.
'
Signed,
'
Your Secret Admirer.
'
Wow! Mom, you have a secret admirer! Isn
'
t it exciting?
"

Mom rolled her eyes toward the ceiling and took the note back, only instead of reading it again, she pitched it into the wastebasket.
"
It
'
s probably some kook,
"
she said angrily.
"
Just look at it. It
'
s typed and on notebook paper at that. There
'
s no envelope. No stamp. It
has
to be a kook. Jana,
"
she said, putting both hands on my shoulders and looking me straight in the eye,
"
I want you to be
very careful
walking back and forth to school. Don
'
t talk to strangers. And be alert for anyone loitering in the hallway of this apartment building. There are a lot of crazies out there in the world, and we
'
ve apparently gotten the attention of one of them.
"

I blinked hard.
"
But Mom—
"
I started to protest.

Mom cut me off.
"
There are no buts about it, Jana. I
'
ve lived longer than you have, and I know that this could be dangerous. I want you to do exactly what I
'
ve told you. That
'
s all there is to it.
"

I scuffed off to my room with my heart in my throat. I was only trying to put some excitement into Mom
'
s life. Some romance. But I had goofed it up, and now she was scared half to death that we were being stalked by some kind of creep
.