Free Taffy Sinclair 011 - Nobody Likes Taffy Sinclair by Betsy Haynes Page A

Shawnie, rolling her eyes. " I ' d have a crush on him even if it wasn ' t in the script. "
    " Do you mean to say that you didn ' t have a crush on Raven Blaine while you were in Hollywood? " asked Cory, and Taffy couldn ' t tell if he was joking or serious. Eeeek, she thought. What do I say now?
    She was still searching for the right answer when the doorbell rang.
    " Don ' t anyone move. I ' ll get it, " her mother called out as she hurried to open the door before the commercial ended and the movie resumed.
    " Flowers for Miss Taffy Sinclair, " said a man holding a long, white box.
    Taffy looked at the box in surprise. " Who would be sending those? " she wondered softly.
    " They must be from Jerry Lowenthal, your wonderful director, " her mother said breathlessly.
    Taffy took the box from her mother and opened it. Inside were a dozen beautiful long-stemmed red roses.
    " There ' s a card! " shrieked Shawnie. " Hurry up, Taffy. Open it. "
    Taffy picked up the small white envelope while everyone looked on. Slipping the card out, she took a deep breath before reading the message.
    For Taffy—the brightest star in Hollywood. Congratulations on a great performance. I miss you. Please come back soon.
    Love ,
Raven
    Taffy ' s first instinct was to hide the card before Cory could see it, but when she glanced at him, she could tell by his expression that it was too late.
    Taffy handed the roses to her mother, who bustled off into the kitchen to put them in water. She tried to think of something to say to Cory, but she couldn ' t. He had slumped back into his chair and was staring at the actors on the screen as if he weren ' t really seeing them. Shawnie and Craig were quiet, too.
    Taffy turned her attention back to the television set. Here it is, she thought, my big debut. But somehow all the fun had gone out of it. She could hardly wait to see the words the end flash across the screen .

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    W hen Taffy got to school the next morning, she found Marge Whitworth, the anchorwoman for the local TV station, waiting on the front steps with her camera crew. Power cables crisscrossed the sidewalk to the station ' s van, parked nearby.
    " Taffy! " called out Ms. Whitworth. " We ' d like to interview you for the six-o ' clock news. "
    " Sure, " said Taffy. She put her books down on a step and whipped a brush and a small mirror out of her purse. " Just a minute while I fix my hair. " An instant later she approached the anchorwoman and asked, " Do I look okay? "
    " You look terrific, " Marge Whitworth said.
    A small crowd of students was beginning to gather. Taffy could see Jana Morgan and Melanie Edwards among the faces. Taffy smiled to herself, remembering the last time she had been interviewed on TV by Marge Whitworth. It was last year, in sixth grade. She and Jana had found a baby girl named Ashley on the front steps of Mark Twain Elementary. That time Jana had been interviewed, too. But this time it was just Taffy in front of the camera.
    I ' m the star, she thought with satisfaction.
    Marge Whitworth positioned Taffy on the steps and did a quick sound check. Then she signaled the cameraman and began the interview.
    " Ladies and gentlemen, it ' s my pleasure to present to you our own local movie star, Taffy Sinclair, whose first movie, Nobody Likes Tiffany Stafford, was shown on network television last night. Taffy, can you tell us how it felt to see yourself on TV and to know that boys and girls all across America were watching, too? " asked Ms. Whitworth.
    Taffy took a deep breath and looked straight into the camera. " It was a wonderful feeling, " she said calmly. " I hope that everyone enjoyed watching the film as much as I enjoyed making it. "
    Taffy ' s heart swelled with pride when she heard a small ripple of applause somewhere in the crowd and saw out of the corner of her eye that it came from Shawnie and, surprisingly, from Kimm. Cory was standing with them, and Taffy saw with a stab of sadness that he wasn ' t