A Spy Among the Girls by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

strange. We're not supposed to cross the river, and nobody ever told us before where we could and couldn't go in this town.
    By the time you guys get back here, if you ever do,
Josh and Beth will probably be married, and Jake and I will have joined the marines. I will probably have to run off to get away from Caroline, but then she'd only go after Peter instead.
    COME BACK! NOW!!!!!
    Wally
    On Monday, Valentine's Day, Wally took an old shoe box without any decorations whatsoever on it, and with a Magic Marker, simply wrote his name on the side of the box. He cut a slit in the top for valentines. He wished he were in sixth grade and didn't have to go to any stupid Valentine's party. He would much rather have a Halloween party, where everyone got to roam around the room in masks and gulp handfuls of candy corn.
    When he got to school, he walked into the classroom to find Caroline Malloy sitting primly in her seat, wearing a red velvet dress with a white lace collar, and smiling a smile as wide as a banana.
    “
Hello,
Wally,” she purred as he took his seat, and she leaned forward so far that he could feel her breath on his neck.
    “Hi,” said Wally without turning around, and leaned forward so that she couldn't possibly touch him. Caroline Malloy as herself was bad enough, but Caroline in a red velvet dress meant trouble.
    “Happy Valentine's Day,” came the voice behind him again.
    Wally got up and crossed the room to sharpen hispencil and stayed there until Miss Applebaum took the roll. When he finally sat down again, he realized that Caroline was using the edge of her ruler to trace a large heart on the back of his shirt.
    All day Wally did his best not even to look at Caroline Malloy. He tried his best not to listen to her. He wished it were three o'clock and he could go home, but there had to be a party, and at two o'clock, Miss Applebaum said to put their books away and go collect the valentine shoe boxes from the windowsill, where friends had been slipping valentines all day.
    Then the teacher sent a boy around with a tray of paper cups filled with pink punch, and a girl followed carrying a tray of cupcakes with red-and-white frosting, and somebody else passed out little paper cups filled with heart-shaped candies that said things like HEY KID and HOT MAMA, BLUE EYES and IDIGU.
    Wally took a bite of his cupcake with the red-andwhite icing and opened the lid of his shoe box. There were just a handful of valentines, the silly kind, from his buddies, and that was just fine with Wally. He didn't want any dumb valentines from girls that would make Jake tease him.
    He had just taken another bite of his cupcake when something flew over his left shoulder and landed on his desk. Wally picked up an orange candy heart and looked at it.
    NEW LOVE, it said on the heart.
    Wally popped it in his mouth and stared straight ahead.
    Ping!
    Another candy came flying over his right shoulder and hit his hand. Wally didn't move, but the candy was resting against his thumb, so he finally reached over with his other hand and picked it up.
    SWEET DREAMS, it said.
    Wally popped that in his mouth too.
    This time Wally felt fingers on the back of his neck and a candy tucked under his collar.
    Wally grabbed at the candy and tossed it behind him, but it came flying back again, and he could not help noticing that the writing said SWEETHEART. Wally's ears turned as red as the frosting on his cupcake.
    The class played a few word games next. Miss Applebaum wrote
Valentine
on the blackboard, and the class was supposed to see who could make the most words out of the letters by mixing them up. They sang songs and did relay races with shiny red apples. Wally stayed as far away from Caroline as he could.
    When the bell rang at three, Wally was the first one out of his seat. He threw his cupcake wrapper and paper cup in the trash and hurried out to the coatrack. He tossed on his jacket and had just turned to leave when he found himself face-to-face with