Free Taffy Sinclair 004 - Taffy Sinclair and the Romance Machine Disaster by Betsy Haynes

else, but at that same moment Beth came running up. She was out of breath and grinning like crazy.
    " I did it. I said everything you told me to say. "
    I collapsed against the tree with relief. " Great! " I said. " What did he say? Tell me everything. "
    Beth got a funny look on her face. " Well . . . he didn ' t actually say anything. He just sort of shrugged. "
    " That ' s probably because he didn ' t want you to see how jealous he is, " I said. " Just wait. You ' ll see. "
    I avoided looking at Katie. I knew what she was probably thinking. It didn ' t matter. Nothing did, except getting Randy back.
    Christie was waiting for him by the lockers just the way I had told her to do. I was so excited that my hands were shaking when I opened my own locker and got out my books. Once Christie got through with him, Randy would never speak to Taffy Sinclair again. And then at recess Melanie would convince him that I was kind to animals, especially small, helpless ones that were stuck in traffic. He would be so impressed that it wouldn ' t matter even if I couldn ' t think of a speech for Katie.
    I didn ' t get a chance to talk to Christie before the bell rang so I slipped her a note during class. It said:
    DEAR CHRISTIE:
    WHAT DID YOU SAY TO RANDY AND WHAT DID HE SAY BACK?
    LOVE,
JANA
    A few minutes later she passed a note back to me. It said:
    DEAR JANA:
    I SAID WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO SAY ABOUT TAFFY SINCLAIR AND HE DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING. HE JUST SHRUGGED.
    LOVE,
CHRISTIE
    I read that note over and over, thinking about how Randy must be feeling. He had to realize that Taffy was a terrible person and that he had better ask me to go for pizza Saturday if he didn ' t want some other boy to ask me. I sighed. I almost wished that Melanie wasn ' t going to talk to him at morning recess. That would be a perfect time for him to come up and start talking to me. Of course there was still lunchtime, and we would have more time then.
    At recess, I tried not to stare at Randy and Melanie, but I could see that they were deep in conversation. Melanie was doing all the talking and Randy was listening with a serious look on his face. It was working. I could tell, and when Randy arid I were back together, I would have my best friends to thank.
    I told my friends to go ahead to the cafeteria and get a table at lunchtime, and I stopped in the girls ' bathroom to comb my hair and make sure I looked okay. I sighed, wishing I had sneaked some of Mom ' s lip gloss into my knapsack before I left home this morning. Then I combed my hair a second time and hurried toward the lunchroom. I knew that Randy was probably wondering where I was. My hands were so sweaty that the top of my lunchbag was getting damp as I went inside.
    My friends were at our usual table, and I headed toward them trying to act casual and look for Randy at the same time. At first I didn ' t see him. All I saw was my friends. All four of them were frowning, and Beth was nodding toward the back of the room. I looked in that direction to see what they were all so upset about. I stopped cold. There was Randy Kirwan, and he was the only boy at a table full of girls.
    My knees buckled, and I sat down beside Katie with a thud. I didn ' t look at my friends. I knew they would all be feeling sorry for me and have sympathetic looks on their faces. All I could see was Randy and that table full of girls. Lisa Snow. Alexis Duvall. Sara Sawyer. Kim Baxter. Mona Vaughn. And, of course, Taffy Sinclair. Randy was grinning like crazy and talking to those girls as if he were the biggest deal in the world. Taffy was sitting across from him and she was hanging on every word.
    Suddenly I realized that I didn ' t really know Randy as well as I thought I did. In fact, I had been wrong about him all along. All of a sudden, I wanted to tell him so. I stood up and marched over to the table where he sat with all those girls.
    Randy glanced up. Boy, did he look surprised when he saw me standing there. All the girls looked