Taffy Sinclair 009 - The Truth About Taffy Sinclair (6 page)

"J
ana and the others say they don
'
t have your diary,
"
said Mona when I met her in the girls
'
bathroom during morning recess.

"
Ha!
"
I scoffed.
"
What did I tell you? They won
'
t admit it to you because they know you and I are friends.
"

"
Are you really sure they have it? What if they
'
re telling the truth? I
'
ll bet someone else has it and is planning to give it back.
"

"
Of course I
'
m sure they have it,
"
I insisted.
"
Who else would keep it hidden all this time? Anyone else would have given it back a long time ago.
"

Mona shrugged and looked dejected.

"
That
'
s okay, Mona. You tried.
"
I made my voice sound as sad as possible.
"
I
'
ll just have to think of
something
before it
'
s too late.
"

"
What do you mean,
'
before it
'
s too late
'
?
"

"
Oh, I was just thinking that they are probably planning something. Something awful . . . like reading my diary out loud at Curtis
'
s party Friday night.
"

I could see from the look on Mona
'
s face that she was surprised.
"
They wouldn
'
t do a thing like that. Would they?
"

"
Not to you,
"
I said.
"
Or to anybody else except me. You know how much they hate me. They always have. And now that I
'
m probably going to get that part in the television commercial, they hate me more than ever.
"

Mona was quiet for a moment.
"
Let me talk to them again. If they have your diary, I
'
ll find out this time. I promise.
"

After Mona left, I put my elbows on the shelf above the sinks and stared at myself in the mirror. Was it possible that Jana and her friends really didn
'
t have my diary? It would have been a lucky break for them if it had landed in one o
f their lockers during the mix-
up. But there were twenty-one other kids in Miss
Wiggins
'
s sixth-grade class, twenty if I didn
'
t count myself, who could have gotten that diary just as easily as one of The Fabulous Five.

In my mind I went down each row in the classroom looking for possibilities. Kids who would have a reason to keep my diary. Matt Zeboski—no. Gloria Drexler—no. Sara Sawyer—probably not. We weren
'
t great friends, but we weren
'
t big enemies, either. Keith Masterson—no. Wait a minute, I thought. Keith and Joel and Richie were the ones who messed up the lockers. Maybe one of them had it. They were always playing jokes on people. I made a mental note that the three of them were suspects, and then went on down the rows. Of course every one of The Fabulous Five had to be counted. Alexis and Kim and Lisa were maybe
'
s along with Sara.

Suddenly I thought about Mona. She was the one who had actually taken the money from Miss Wiggins
'
s wallet. Besides that, she had more to gain than anybody from reading my diary. Wasn
'
t she always following me around and trying to be friends? Wasn
'
t she the homeliest girl in the sixth grade? It made sense that she might want my diary to try to find out my secrets. Not my personal secrets, like everyone else, but my
beauty secrets
!

I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. Maybe that
'
s why she was so sure that I was going to get it back. I remembered her words:
I'
ll bet someone else has it and is planning to give it back.
She
'
s only going to keep it for a little while. Just long enough to read it. Oh, my gosh, I thought. If she has it, she won
'
t find what she expects to find in it.

I stood there for another couple of minutes, thinking over the situation. In some ways Mona was the obvious one, since she had stolen something before. But on the other hand, if Mona had it, she would have opened it by now, and she certainly wouldn
'
t be acting so friendly to me if she had read it. Jana and her friends had to be the ones. They have my diary, I thought. That
'
s all there is to it.

Even though recess was almost over, I sauntered out onto the playground. The weather had turned warm and most kids were just sitting around in groups talking instead of running and playing. Even the sixth-grade boys were standing quietly beside the ball diamond. I looked at Randy. He was so handsome standing there talking to his friends. I wondered if he would tell any of them that he was walking me home after school to protect me from Clarence Marshall. Probably not. He never bragged about himself, but the thought made me tingle with anticipation, anyway. It was hours and hours until school was out for the day. How could I stand it until then?

So what if I had stretched the truth about Clarence a little bit? No one would ever know the difference and . . .

"
Hey, Taffy. Are you going to kiss me at Curtis
'
s party Friday night?
"

My mouth dropped open as Clarence came skidding up and stopped in front of me. I couldn
'
t help wondering for an instant if he had some sort of ESP and knew that I was thinking about him and that was why he had rushed up to me just now.

"
Don
'
t be
weird
,
" I said in an icy voice. "
I
'
ve already told you. I wouldn
'
t kiss you if you were the last boy on earth. Now leave me alone.
"

Clarence laughed and then went bounding off in the direction of a group of girls. He
'
s probably going to bug them about kissing him, too, I thought angrily as I turned my back on him. He was such a jerk.

I was still grumbling to myself about Clarence when I got back to the room after recess, and I was almost to my seat when I noticed that someone had left a note on my desk. Terrific, I thought excitedly.
Maybe it
'
s from Mona and she has some news about my diary.

I grabbed the note and practically tore the paper in my excitement to get it open. Then, spreading it out on my desk, I swallowed hard. It wasn
'
t good news from Mona. It wasn
'
t good news from anybody. It was a picture. The skin on the back of my neck began to crawl as I stared at the crude drawing of a book with a strap connecting the front to the back. And stared at the word
"
Diary
"
written across the cover. Beneath the drawing was a message scrawled in large capital letters.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Oh, no! I gasped. My worst fears were coming true.

I c
rumpled the paper in my hand and stuffed it into a pocket, and I tried to figure out what to do. Jana was out to get me, all right. If I ever had any doubts, they were gone now.
Friday Night,
the note said. Zero hour. Doomsday. The end of Taffy Sinclair.

There had to be something I could do to stop her. But what? It had been a mistake to rely on Mona. She had tried, but there wasn
'
t anything she could do. Besides, Jana hated me too much to miss a golden opportunity such as this.

I had to find the diary, and suddenly as I sat there thinking the situation over, I knew the first place to look. My hand shot into the air.

"
Yes, Taffy,
"
said Miss Wiggins.

"
May I leave the room, please?
"

Miss Wiggins frowned.
"
But you just came in from recess.
"

"
I know, but . . .
"
I stammered. I could feel my face turning pink. Why hadn
'
t I waited a few more minutes?

"
Well, if you
'
re certain it
'
s an emergency,
"
Miss Wiggins warned.

"
Oh, yes, Miss Wiggins. It
'
s an emergency.
"

As I slid out of my seat I heard Joel Murphy whisper in a singsong voice,
"
We know where you
'
re going.
"
A bunch of other kids giggled.

I headed for the sixth-grade lockers the instant I got into the hall. Why had it taken me so long to figure it out? Jana wouldn
'
t dare carry my diary into the classroom even if she hid it among her other books. It was a bright shade of blue, and it would be impossible to hide. No, I thought happily, it was probably in her locker where she and her friends could sneak it out to the fence during recess or at noon and read it and have a good laugh. Well, I thought, I
'
ll put a stop to that. I could get inside her locker easily now that all the locks had been turned in to Miss
Wiggins, and I would fix her for stealing my property. I would steal it back.

The hinges on her locker door squealed loudly as I pulled it open in the silent corridor. I froze and darted quick glances out of the corner of each eye to see if anyone had heard. They hadn
'
t. I waited a few more seconds just to be sure and then eased the door the rest of the way open without making any more noise. After one more check of the hall in each direction, I looked inside Jana
'
s locker. School books. A mirror hanging on the vent. A few papers. That was it. No diary. Not even anything blue.

My heart sank. What if she was keeping it at home? I would never be able to get it back then. Or else, I thought slyly, or else what if one of her friends has it for safekeeping? Then it could still be in one of the lockers, and I could still get it back.

I closed Jana
'
s locker door very carefully and tiptoed up the hall to Beth
'
s locker. Beth was Jana
'
s best friend and the logical one to keep it for her. I would have bet almost anything that I was about to find it there. But the diary wasn
'
t in Beth
'
s locker, either. Or in Melanie
'
s. Or Katie
'
s. Or Christie
'
s.

It isn
'
t anywhere! I thought desperately. What am I going to do?

I leaned against the bank of lockers and rested my head against the cool metal. I tried not to think about what was going to happen Friday night, but I couldn
'
t help it. I knew what everyone would think of me when they heard the things I had written in that diary. I knew they wouldn
'
t understand.

In fact, nobody had ever understood me. They had always listened to Jana because she was so popular. Still, I had to admit, there were some things I didn
'
t want people to understand. Some of my feelings were just too personal and too private. That
'
s why I had written about them in my diary. Writing them down usually made me feel better. It helped me sort things out, and it was a little like talking things over with a friend, the kind of friend who never laughed and always understood. For instance, there was the time when I was appearing in
Interns and Lovers
on television and Jana wrote that awful article about me for the
Mark Twain Sentinel.
In it she said terrible things about me and called me the
"
queen of the soaps.
"
I was so humiliated that I stayed home from school for days . . . writing in my diary.

Dear Dia
ry:

Today was the most embarrassing day of my life.

Right there, on the front page of the school paper, was an article about me. Jana Morgan wrote
it, and it was full of lies. I'll
never go back to school. Nobody can make me face those kids again.

Dear Diary:

I didn't go to school again today. How can I when everyone acts so mean? My mother says it's because they're jealous of my looks. Well, I've got news for them. They think I like being pretty, but I don't. Not all the time, anyway.

And what's more, they probably think that I really want to be a model or a television star. Boy, would they be shocked if they knew that I don't want that, either. I'd give anything if I could stop being different and just be like everybody else.

Dear Diary:

I'm home again today. It's lonely, but it's better than being at school. I can't quit thinking about Jana Morgan. I can't stop wondering why she is jealous of me. She has
everything!
She is popular and has tons of
friends. And even more than that, she has Randy Kirwan
,
the boy of my dreams.

And then there was the time I took the modeling class at Tanninger
'
s Department Store. Jana and her friends took it, too. Melanie was so excited about becoming a model that she actually wanted to be friends with me to find out all my secrets. She knew I was the only other person in the class who stood a chance of getting a modeling job.

Anyway
, at first I was friendly with Melanie
because I knew it would drive the rest of The Fabulous Five wild to see us together and might even split up their gossipy club. But the more time I spent with Melanie, the more I liked being with her. I wrote about that in my diary, too.

Dear Diary:

I know it sounds crazy, but I
'
m beginning to think Melanie is a super person and a neat friend. We
'
ve started walking to school together and talking about modeling and clothes. It
'
s great to have someone to talk with about those things.

Dear Diary:

I'
m getting worried. Jana and her
friends are trying to get Melanie back. I
'
ll die if she goes back to being friends with them. I have to do something fast. Something that will convince Melanie that she needs me for a friend. But what?

I sighed. I had thought of something, all right, but it had backfired in my face the same way things had always backfired whenever I had tried to make friends. What
'
s the use, anyway, I thought.

Suddenly I realized that I had been gone from the classroom for an awfully long time. Any minute now Miss Wiggins might come looking for me. As I hurried back up the hall I thought about Jana Morgan and my diary again. One thing was certain, I had to get it back. I couldn
'
t let her read it out loud to the whole sixth grade. I had written too many things in it that
nobody
could ever know.