Best Kept Secret by Debra Moffitt Page B

time. I stood in my kitchen imagining Forrest sitting there at our breakfast bar, Forrest leaning against our dishwasher, Forrest reaching into our refrigerator, looking for a snack. It did not seem possible. All at once, I couldn’t decide if I wanted next Saturday to arrive immediately or have it wait the eight days the calendar normally required. It was only Friday.
    Typically, I would have called Kate first, but my phone rang and it was Bet.
    â€œIs this a secure line?” Bet asked in a quiet voice.
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    â€œDo you think anyone else is listening?”
    â€œIt’s my cell, and I’m alone in my kitchen.”
    â€œOkay, then. Something has gone terribly awry,” Bet whispered.
    â€œR.I. what? What does this have to do with Rhode Island?”
    â€œNo, no, no,” Bet said. “Awry, as in all wrong,”
    â€œOkay, what’s wrong?”
    â€œI’m being censored. Principal Finklestein says I can’t broadcast part two of my report until he approves it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they cancel my entire show.”
    â€œCalm down,” I said. “What exactly happened?”
    â€œPrincipal F. met me at my bus and took me to his office,” she told me. “I had to promise that I wouldn’t air the next episode until he reviewed it for ‘appropriateness.’ ”
    â€œYou didn’t give it to him, did you?”
    â€œNo, it wasn’t like I just had the DVD in my bag. It’s at home with all my production equipment.”
    â€œDid he ask you about the current Pink Locker Society?”
    â€œNo, and if he had, I would have had nothing to say.”
    OK, I would have liked to believe her, but she was the one who spilled the beans last time.
    â€œWhat’s in part two, Bet? You’ve got to tell me.”
    â€œIf I tell you, you have to promise that you won’t tell a soul.”
    â€œPinky promise,” I said.
    But then I remembered what I wanted to tell her and every other friend in a hundred-mile radius.
    â€œWait. Before you answer my question,” I said, “you won’t believe who’s coming over to my house for dinner.”

Twenty-two
    It was hard for me to keep a secret, any secret. But it was especially hard to keep a secret from Kate. It was a good thing I had this whole Forrest dinner situation to occupy my mind and our conversation. As for the PLS, Bet didn’t tell me everything, but she told me enough that I was pretty sure Principal F. would never let her show part 2 on MSTV. Since he couldn’t promise when he’d be able to review part 2, Bet decided to record a replacement program for that Friday’s You Bet!
    She chose something that was also controversial—the school’s unofficial pastime, the Catch-It-in-Your-Mouth Olympics. When I asked her if Principal F. was really OK with that topic, she said, “He said I could report on anything except the Pink Locker Ladies, so I’m taking him at his word.”
    Bet had recorded some mouth-catching footage during the Backward Dance. (Remember how good Piper was at it?) But Bet also had been recording little bits of video during lunch, where a crowd of kids usually played it, if only for a few minutes until caught. Someone even kept a logbook of who had the best stats.
    Principals and teachers try to forbid stuff, and they can have some success. For instance, some people used to like to toss tennis balls to each other in the hallways. It was kind of a tennis ball version of hot potato. But the teachers just started taking the tennis ball anytime they saw one being thrown. That ended that.
    But to stop the CIIYM Olympics, they’d have to remove all mouth-catchable foods from the cafeteria and elsewhere. There are grapes, of course, olives, M&M’s, Tic Tacs, Cheerios, cheese puffs, gummy bears … The list goes on.
    To plump out her report, Bet needed to record a little more