A Spy Among the Girls by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page B

though it were a mosquito.
    “That's okay, Wally,” she whispered, leaning forward so that she was breathing on his neck again. “I know you really like me.”
    “I do not!”
Wally said aloud, and the whole class looked up. So did the teacher.
    “Yes, Wally?” she said.
    “I
don't
!” said Wally, his ears as red as his sweater.
    “You don't what?”
    “Really like Caroline,” said Wally, and now the red was spreading to his face and neck.
    Miss Applebaum looked puzzled. “Did someone say you did?”
    “Caroline did, and I
don't
!” Wally's words shot from his mouth like bullets.
    Caroline was surprised to find that her own cheeks and ears seemed to be getting feverish, and when the other kids giggled, her skin grew warmer still.
    “Caroline, perhaps you could save your personal conversation with Wally till after school,” the teacher said.
    “No!” said Wally again. “Not then, not ever!”
    “Oh,” said the teacher. “Well, if you have anything to say to Wally, Caroline, please write him a note and give it to him after class.”
    “No!”
Wally yelped again. “She already did, and I
don't
really like her.”
    Caroline had never heard Wally talk up like this in class. Usually he was on the quiet side, rather dreamy and somewhat polite—to the teacher, anyway. But now his voice was too loud, his face too red, and it could mean only one thing: that he really,
really
liked her, because he had to try so hard to convince everyone that he didn't. She smiled to herself and leaned over her map again, exchanging winks with the friend she'd talked to at lunch.
    After school, the Hatford boys were far down the sidewalk before Caroline and her sisters came out. Caroline hadn't told Beth and Eddie about the valentine she'd given Wally because she knew Beth thought
she
was the only one who could be in love, and Eddie would call her ridiculous. So she couldn't very well tell them what Wally had said in class. Thoughtfully, she followed along behind her sisters while they talked of school and this and that, and wondered how in the world to make a boy fall in love with her just long enough for her to experience romance.
    When they came to the swinging bridge, however, Eddie went first, and Beth hung back, so Caroline stepped onto the bridge. When she had taken only a few steps, she glanced over her shoulder in time to see Beth taping a small piece of paper to the cable handrail.
    Caroline quickly faced forward again as Beth came up behind her.
    A note!
Beth was taping a secret message to Josh, Caroline was sure of it. This was wonderful! It was wonderful because it was full of mystery and romance and intrigue. And it was awful because it was happening to Beth instead of her.
    The girls gathered in the kitchen for corn chips and pop. Mrs. Malloy was ironing shirts in the dining room and listening to a symphony on a CD. Caroline and her sisters talked for a few minutes, and then Beth and Eddie took their books upstairs. As soon as Beth was out of the kitchen, Caroline put on her coat again and slipped out the back door. Darting from bush to bush,she made her way down the hill until she found a spot where she was sure she could not be seen from either Beth's window or the other side of the bridge. Then she waited.
    She didn't have to wait long. Almost no time at all, in fact, because thirty seconds later, she saw Josh Hat-ford saunter down the bank, hands in his pockets. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, he stopped on the bridge, resting his arms on the cable handrail as though just thoughtfully looking out over the river. But ever so stealthily, he reached over, peeled off the note Beth had taped there, thrust it into his pocket, and then ambled back up the bank.
    Tears rolled down Caroline's cheeks.
She
wanted a note.
She
wanted romance. She didn't especially want Wally Hatford as a boyfriend, but if she had to have one to experience love, she'd do anything.
    She went back to the house and lay facedown on the