Taffy Sinclair 007 - Taffy Sinclair and the Secret Admirer Epidemic by Betsy Haynes

CHAPTER ONE
    S ome people think that if you have a boyfriend, all your troubles are over. Especially when that boyfriend is someone such as Randy Kirwan, the handsomest, kindest, and most sincere boy in the sixth grade at Mark Twain Elementary, not to mention the most popular. Well, Randy is my boyfriend, and I thought that all my troubles were over, too, until Monday after school. That ' s when on e of my best friends, Melanie Edwards, came rushing up to my locker with her big news.
    " Jana! Guess what! I ' ve got a date! "
    " WHAT! " I shouted over the sound of banging lockers and kids yelling in the hall. " What did you just say? "
    " I said I have a date ," Melanie gushed. Her face was pink from excitement, and her blue eyes were sparkling. " It ' s true. Scott Daly asked me to go to a movie with him on Saturday. His father is driving us. He says some of the other boys are going to get dates, too. There will be a bunch of kids going. I can ' t wait. It ' s going to be so romantic! You ' re going with Randy, aren ' t you? "
    My other three best friends, Beth Barry, Katie Shannon, and Christie Winchell, had come up to us and were standing there, listening. It was like a slow-motion movie the way they turned to look at me. But I hardly noticed. My heart had thudded to the floor.
    I shook my head. " He hasn ' t asked me . . . yet, " I murmured.
    " You ' re kidding, " said Melanie with a shocked look on her face. " Scott passed me a note right under Wiggins ' s nose and asked me to go. I told him yes in the hall just now, right after the dismissal bell rang. He said Joel Murphy is taking Sara Sawyer, and Mark Peters asked Alexis Duvall before school this morning. Scott and Mark are Randy ' s two best friends, so you know if they ' re going, he is, too. "
    I didn ' t say anything. I couldn ' t. Why hadn ' t Randy asked me to go? It didn ' t make sense.
    " Come on, Morgan. Brighten up, " said Beth. " You know he ' ll ask you. He ' ll probably call you after he gets home from school. After all, he is your boyfriend. "
    I shrugged and tried to smile. Beth was right. He was my boyfriend, all right. I have had a mega - crush on him practically forever. For a while I even kept his picture hidden behind a poster of Miss Piggy on the wall beside my bed so that I could look at him in the glow of my night-light while I fell asleep. After ages and ages he finally noticed me, too, and asked me to go to his football game one Saturday and then to Mama Mia ' s for pizza afterward. A couple of weeks later, he walked me home from Mama Mia ' s, and then he kissed me. It was fantastic, and even though we haven ' t had another date, he always gave me his 1,000-watt smile every time he looked at me. He would surely ask me to the movie if his best friends were going. I was starting to feel better. I was certain he would call the minute I got home.
    " I wonder why the boys want to take g irls to a movie all of a sudden," said Katie.
    I shrugged. I didn ' t care. I just wanted Randy to ask me.
    " I don ' t have to be home until four-thirty, " said Beth. " Do you want me to come over and help you wait for him to call? "
    As soon as I nodded, Katie piped up, " I ' ll come, too. "
    " Me, too, " said Melanie.
    " Me, too, " echoed Christie. " After all, we ' re The Fabulous Five. We stick together. "
    I couldn ' t help smiling at that. The Fabulous Five is a self-improvement club, and we meet every Saturday in my bedroom to try to find ways to become the most gorgeous and most popular girls in school. We even saved our dues for a while and had blue T-shirts made that say The Fabulous Five across the front in white letters, and we wear them to our meetings. We really are best friends, and we do stick together.
    " Come on, " I said. " Let ' s get going. My phone may be ringing off the wall. "
    The first thing I did when we got to my apartment was take the telephone off the end table by the sofa and set it squarely in the middle of the kitchen table where I