Secret Admirer (14 page)

Amy tried to put thoughts of her secret admirer note completely out of her mind on Monday. She still thought there was a chance it might be Tyler. But at the same time she told herself that she simply did not care. Despite Miss McPhearson’s encouragement, Amy still felt she was finished with caring about whether or not some stupid boy liked her. And her plan was to completely ignore the boy. Well, as much as she could anyway. She still had English to contend with, but fortunately their group project would be turned in today and that would be the end of it.

“Oh, Amy,” said Chelsea when they met in front of the cafeteria before lunch. “I am so totally bummed!”

Amy looked at Chelsea and could see that something serious was wrong. “What is it?” Amy asked urgently. “Is it someone in your family? Is someone sick? Has there been a car wreck?”

“No.” Chelsea was actually blinking back tears now. “Nothing like that.”

“What is it then?” demanded Amy. “What happened?”

“Brett broke up with me.”

Amy frowned.
Was that all?
“Oh …”

“I know you don’t care, Amy. You’re probably glad he broke up. But I am totally devastated. I’m brokenhearted.”

Amy knew that she should be kinder to her friend, but the truth was she really didn’t care. The sooner Chelsea figured out that boys were stupid and mean and selfish, the better off everyone would be.

“I can’t believe he did this to me,” continued Chelsea. “And the day before the Valentine’s Day dance too.”

“So?” Amy just shrugged. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Maybe not to you …” Now Chelsea really did start to cry, and Amy felt a little guilty for being so insensitive.

“I’m sorry,” she told Chelsea. “I know it hurts when a boy you like doesn’t like you back.” Although, she wanted to add that she thought they both had invited these troubles — just by allowing themselves to be boy crazy. Still, she managed to keep those thoughts to herself. Maybe she could explain this to Chelsea later.

“I just can’t believe he did it,” continued Chelsea. “I mean, I went up to say hi and he just gave me the meanest look. And then he said he didn’t like me anymore. Just like that.”

“Well, Brett is stupid,” said Amy.

“No, he’s not.”

Amy blinked. “Do you mean you still like him?”

“Of course!”

Amy rolled her eyes now. “Whatever.”

“Will you talk to him for me, Amy?”

Now Amy laughed. “Sorry, Chelsea. But I am done with that kind of thing.”

“Please, Amy.” Chelsea looked desperate now. “I did it for you.”

“And look where it got me. Look where it got you too.”

Chelsea frowned.

“I’m sorry, Chelsea,” said Amy in a gentler voice. “If I thought it was a good idea, I would talk to him. But, really, I’m so sick of the whole boy-crazy thing.” Amy hadn’t even told Chelsea about Tyler coming to the restaurant or her latest mystery note. Mostly Amy just wanted to forget the whole thing.

“Fine,” said Chelsea.

“Come on,” urged Amy. “Let’s get lunch.”

“But I might see him in there,” said Chelsea.

“So?” Amy tugged on Chelsea’s arm. “Just do like I do, Chelsea. Hold your head up and act like everything is fine.”

Chelsea studied Amy for a moment then nodded. “Okay. I will.”

Together the two of them marched into the cafeteria. And, walking right past the group of seventh grade boys, including both Tyler and Brett, they went and got into the lunch line. So there!

“See,” said Amy. “That wasn’t too bad, was it?”

“No … it wasn’t.”

“And don’t look back,” warned Amy.

They got their food, and Amy was relieved to join their other friends. Chelsea told them about her recent heartbreak.

“See,” said Carlie. “That’s what happens.”

“You don’t have to be happy about it,” said Chelsea.

“I think everyone gets their heart broken at some time in her life,” said Emily. “I’ve read enough poetry to believe this is true.”

“But you shouldn’t go out there looking for it,” said Morgan.

“Probably not,” said Emily. “But I’m sure it will happen to all of us eventually.”

“It sounds horrible,” said Carlie.

“It is,” admitted Chelsea.

Then Amy told them about what Miss McPhearson had said to her yesterday. “I think she had her heart broken too,” she said finally.

“I knew it,” said Emily. “Remember I thought she’d had some romantic tragedy.”

“But you know what she said,” continued Amy.

“What?” they all asked.

“She said that you shouldn’t become bitter. She said not to allow pride to keep you from trying again … or something like that.”

“Well, maybe when you’re older,” said Morgan.

“Like eighteen,” added Carlie. “My dad doesn’t want me to have a boyfriend until I’m eighteen.”

They laughed.

“I’m guessing your dad is in for a big surprise,” said Chelsea.

“Maybe sixteen,” said Carlie.

“I don’t want a boyfriend until God tells me I’m old enough,” proclaimed Morgan.

“Me too,” said Emily.

“Ditto,” added Amy.

“I’m with you guys,” said Carlie.

“I don’t know …” Chelsea frowned. “Do you think God will actually do that? I mean, what’s he going to do — write it in the sky?”

“He has his ways,” said Morgan.

Then the bell rang, and it was time to head for class. As the afternoon wore on, Amy began to dread the idea of English class. She didn’t want to sit in the small group with Tyler again. It was actually making her stomach hurt, and she wondered if she wasn’t getting an ulcer. It wouldn’t have been that bad if she hadn’t gotten that last note — the one at the restaurant. Still, as she went to English she reminded herself of what she’d said to Chelsea. Hold your head high and just act perfectly normal.

“Here are the copies of the play,” she told her group as
soon as they sat down. “Maybe we should just read them to ourselves.”

“But Mrs. Hilliard said we’re supposed to practice,” said Myrna.

Amy glanced at the clock. “Well, let’s skim them and then we can practice. Okay?”

At least this bought Amy enough time to calm down. Because the first thing she’d noticed was that Tyler was still using the pen that was the same color as the one that had written her mystery notes. She wished she could get another peek at his handwriting. But, at the same time, she didn’t want to think about it. She just wanted to move on.

Finally they had skimmed the play, read their parts, and Amy turned in their project just before the bell rang. It was all she could do to control herself from cheering. The project was over. Well, other than the competition part tomorrow. But Amy felt fairly certain that their play, which in her opinion wasn’t very good, could not possibly win.

“Time to go make decorations,” announced Morgan as the girls gathered in the locker bay.

“I don’t even want to now,” complained Chelsea. She still looked pretty bummed, and her eyes were puffy from crying.

“This was your idea in the first place,” pointed out Carlie.

“And Amy’s too,” added Chelsea in a sharp tone.

“No, it wasn’t,” protested Amy.

Naturally, this resulted in a big argument about who had wanted to go to the dance, who had been boy crazy, and who wanted to be in Honor Society. And, of course, no one could remember it quite right. And, sure, maybe Amy had originally wanted to go to the dance, but that had all changed. Now, as they headed to the room where they were supposed to help with decorations, she couldn’t care less about some stupid dance, and the last thing she wanted was to actually go out on the dance floor and dance.

“Hey, there’s Second Chair and her friends,” said Oliver Fitzgerald when the girls went to the classroom that was filled with what were obviously the materials for decorations. It was like a sea of red, pink, and white paper and balloons.

“You’re here,” said Vanessa Price. “Great.” Then she immediately assigned them to the boring task of cutting out what seemed like hundreds of various-sized paper hearts. “Any questions?” she said.

“Do we really have to do this?” asked Carlie.

Vanessa smiled in a slightly smug way. “No one is making you. But someday you will be thankful that you did. We all did it at one time.”

“We’re fine,” Emily assured her as she picked up a pair of scissors.

“Good.” Vanessa nodded. “Then I’ll leave you to
it. And when you’re done, just stack everything in that office.”

“How about the balloons?” asked Oliver.

“Fill those garbage bags and then put them on the stage until tomorrow. We’ll start decorating the cafeteria after lunch.” She grinned. “We get the whole afternoon off. And then you guys will take over for us right after seventh. That gives us time to clean up.”

“How do we know what to do?” asked Chelsea.

“Oliver will still be there to supervise. The dance starts at three thirty, so you’ll have to work fast.”

“And then we can go home?” asked Amy hopefully.

Vanessa frowned. “No, of course not. You’ll also be doing the teardown afterward.
And
we do expect you to attend the dance — any future Honor Society members must be there.”

Chelsea let out a groan.

“Attitude check,” said Vanessa brightly. Then she waved good-bye and left the room.

“You girls are really paying your dues,” said Oliver as they settled into cutting out hearts.

“What ab out you?” asked Amy suddenly. “Why are you here?”

Oliver grinned sheepishly. “I guess I’m paying my dues too.”

“Why?” asked Emily. “I thought you were an eighth grader.”

“I missed the planning meeting.” He chuckled. “And so I was appointed head balloon blower.”

“Lucky you,” said Morgan.

“Oh, that’s okay,” said Amy quickly. “Oliver is just full of hot air.”

They all laughed. And for the next few hours they continued to tease and joke and really, it wasn’t too terrible. Although Amy’s hands were seriously tired by the time they stacked the hearts in the office.

“Oliver’s kind of nice,” said Morgan as they walked home.

“Yeah,” said Emily. “You always make him sound so terrible, Amy. He’s actually pretty funny.”

“You mean
funny
looking,” joked Amy. And when her friends laughed, she felt bad and almost told them about how Oliver had actually come to her defense that day when Tyler had publicly humiliated her. But she didn’t. Most of all she just wanted to forget that it had ever happened.

“You girls sure made a lot of folks happy this morning,” said Morgan’s grandmother as she pulled up at the school. They’d just finished delivering the last of their Lonely Hearts Club valentines, and Amy had been worried that they would be late, but now it looked like they were just fine.

“And this one is for you, Mrs. Evans,” said Amy as she handed the last heart to her from the backseat.

“Why, thank you very much,” said Morgan’s grandma. “And you girls tell all your friends thank you for me, won’t you?”

“You’re not supposed to know that it’s from us,” pointed out Morgan as she got her backpack.

“Oh, that’s right.” Her grandma nodded and placed a finger to her lips. “I’ll pretend that I found it on my doorstep.”

“Just like the one we left at Mom’s shop,” said Morgan.

“And for Mr. Greeley and the others,” said Amy happily. It had been such fun to sneak up to houses and plant their surprises in front of the doors. They had considered
ringing doorbells, but worried they might wake someone up.

“Have a good day, girls!” called Grandma.

Amy and Morgan thanked her and waved, then walked up to the school. Amy noticed that a lot of the other girls were kind of dressed up. Probably in anticipation of the “big” Valentine’s Day dance that would be right after school. And, to be honest, at this same time last week, Amy thought that she’d have been dressed up too. But considering how things had gone, Amy had no big expectations for the dance. And besides jeans and a pink sweater, which really weren’t very festive, Amy looked pretty much like normal.

Thoughts of the dance were just an irritation now. Mostly she just wanted to get the decorating done, the dance over with, the decorations stripped down, and then she would be perfectly happy to go work at the restaurant tonight. An said there were lots of reservations. And the plan was to put a red rose and a candle on each table. That was An’s idea and something new for them. Still, it would be fun. More fun than this stupid old dance!

“We got them all sent,” said Emily when Amy and Morgan found her and Carlie.

“Did anyone see you?” asked Amy.

“I don’t think so,” said Emily.

“We took turns watching for each other,” explained Carlie.

“How did your deliveries go?” asked Emily.

“Great,” said Morgan.

“Hey, there’s Chelsea,” said Carlie.

Amy was slightly surprised to see that even Chelsea hadn’t dressed up for Valentine’s Day. But then Chelsea had just had her heart broken — why would she want to dress up?

“How did the deliveries go?” asked Amy.

“Pretty good,” said Chelsea. Then she smiled. “Except that Mrs. Drimmel sort of caught me.”

“Sort of?” Emily frowned. Amy knew that Mrs. Drimmel was Emily’s special friend. It had been her idea to give the librarian a valentine.

“Well, I just played dumb,” said Chelsea. “I said someone had handed this to me and asked me to deliver it to the library. I pretended not to even know who she was. I think it worked.”

“Oh, good!” Emily sighed in relief.

They all shared various interesting stories, and soon it was time to get to class. Amy hurried to band, but then wondered if Oliver had possibly gotten his valentine yet. Surely he would never guess that she’d had anything to do with it. At least she hoped not. She also hoped that he wouldn’t have it with him in band. But, just in case, she prepared herself to act innocent and nonchalant.

“Hey, Second Chair,” he said as she went in and hung up her coat.

“Hey, Hot Air,” she shot back at him, pleased with her quick comeback.

He laughed. “That’s a good one.”

“Do you have any hot air left after yesterday?” she asked.

“I have enough to keep my chair,” he said as he picked up his clarinet and played a perfect stanza without even warming up.

She frowned. “You’re really going to make this hard on me, aren’t you?”

“You’ll get your chance, Second Chair.” He laughed. “When I go to high school, that is.”

She scowled at him and shook her fist. But, to her surprise, she no longer felt angry. And that felt good!

Throughout the day, Amy noticed that a number of kids had exchanged valentines — and she felt sort of badly that she hadn’t thought to send her very best friends valentines. But they’d been so busy making ones for the Lonely Hearts Club that it hadn’t even occurred to her. She laughed to think of this now. Maybe they should’ve included themselves on that list since they were, in a way, lonely hearts too. No, she decided they were not. They had each other! But as Amy continued through her day, she was also pleased to see some of the less-popular kids — the loners — carrying around the valentines that she and her friends had made. That made her feel good inside.

“This is so cool,” said Emily as they sat together for lunch.

“I know,” gushed Amy. “I saw Myrna Shaft, the girl in my English class, clutching her valentine like it was made of gold or contained chocolate.”

“And you won’t believe it,” said Morgan, “but I actually witnessed Derrick opening his this morning.”

“No way!” shrieked Emily. “Tell us! What happened?”

“Well, I was trying to be really discrete. I was squatting down by my locker, trying to find something buried down on the bottom. Then I noticed what he was doing, so I just stayed there and pretended to be looking at something inside my notebook, but the whole time I was watching him. He got this suspicious look as he opened the envelope and he read it really quickly, and then he glanced all around like he was trying to see who sent it. Then he looked at the card again and he just kept staring at it. Seriously, it was like he stared at it for several minutes. My knees were actually getting stiff. Then he kind of smiled and just slipped it into his backpack and walked away. It seemed like he actually had a little spring in his step too. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it was really sort of sweet.”

“That’s awesome,” said Amy.

Chelsea nodded. “That’s so cool that you thought to send it to him, Emily.”

“Well, you guys know how his home life is pretty harsh,” said Emily.

“Yeah,” said Carlie. “He probably really needed something like that.”

Amy patted Emily on the back. “Good for you for remembering him.”

They shared a few more good lonely hearts stories and then it was time to go to class. Amy felt happy as she went to Algebra Two. And even though Tyler was in that class, she told herself that it didn’t matter. Of course, when it was time for English she wasn’t too sure. But at least they didn’t have to sit in their small groups.

Of course, as it turned out, their play won first prize! Go figure. Now, normally there was nothing that pleased Amy more than being first, best, or smartest in the class. But not today.

“And now,” said Mrs. Hilliard, “If our winners will please come up and read their play.” She began clapping, and the rest of the class obediently followed.

Still, it wasn’t as bad as Amy expected as she and Tyler and Myrna and Bruce read their play. And to her surprise, it seemed the class liked it too. Their prizes for winning first place were heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Amy planned to share hers with her friends while they decorated for the dance.

“Good job on the play,” Tyler said as Amy was just heading for the door.

She was stunned that he had actually spoken to her. She just blinked then said, “Thanks, you too.” Then she took off. Hopefully that would be the last conversation they would ever share. Now Amy hurried to the cafeteria. When she got there, Oliver seemed a little distraught.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He waved his hand to piles of hearts, crepe paper, balloons … all over the place. “They didn’t do hardly anything,” he told her. “The committee just sort of played around, and now we have thirty minutes to get this all up.”

“Tell us what to do,” said Morgan, who had come in right behind Amy. Soon all five girls were working, scurrying around climbing ladders and taping up hearts and hearts and more hearts — stringing crepe paper and balloons haphazardly about. Talk about a decorating frenzy!

“Hey, this doesn’t look half bad,” said Morgan as she stepped back to survey their work.

“We have four more minutes,” yelled Amy. “Keep working!”

The DJ in charge of music laughed from up in front where he was sitting with his machines. “You girls are fun to watch,” he called out as he put on a song with an upbeat tempo. Thanks to the music, they seemed to actually work faster.

“Time!” yelled Oliver. Just then he dumped what was left of a bag of balloons, spilling a pool of red, pink, and white across the floor. “This is as good as it gets, girls.”

“Whew!” said Emily, actually wiping sweat from her brow.

“Now, can we get out of here?” begged Carlie.

“Not if you’re serious about Honor Society,” said Oliver. “Vanessa was not kidding yesterday.”

“Can we at least have a bathroom break?” demanded Morgan.

Oliver grinned. “Yeah. But don’t forget to come back.”

As the five of them left, feeling frazzled and messy, they saw kids starting to trickle in. And, naturally, everyone else looked clean and stylish and ready for the big event.

“Did you bring anything to change into for the dance?” Amy asked Chelsea as they went into the girls’ restroom.

“Are you kidding?” Chelsea frowned into the mirror above the sink as she washed her hands. “What would be the point?”

“And what’s the point of going back in there?” asked Carlie. “All we’ll do is stand around like a bunch of misfits.”

“We’re going back there because we said we would,” said Emily as she attempted to scrub red crepe paper stains from her fingers.

“At least they have refreshments,” said Morgan. “I’m hungry.”

“That’s right,” said Carlie. “We better get back there before they’re all gone.”

So they finished cleaning up and went back and got refreshments. Then they stood along the sidelines and watched as kids, mostly the eighth graders, started to dance.

“They look so silly,” said Emily as she took a bite of a heart-shaped cookie.

“Some of those boys could use dancing lessons,” added Morgan.

“You’ll never catch me out there,” said Carlie.

Amy nodded like she agreed, but the truth was, a tiny part of her still wanted to be out there. Okay, it was a very teeny tiny part. But she couldn’t deny that it was there. And maybe that’s what Miss McPhearson had been talking about the other day, that willingness to get back on a horse that had dumped you. Still, Amy knew it wouldn’t be today. Today would be way too soon. And that was just fine.

The girls continued to cluster together, talking and joking like it was no big deal. But all of them wished that this dance would end so they could tear down the decorations and go home. And then, more than midway through the dance, a surprising thing happened. Well, at least it shocked Amy. She couldn’t tell if her friends were surprised or not.

It started when Jeff Sanders and Enrico Valdez came over to their group. The guys kind of joked around a little and finally Jeff asked Emily to dance with him and then Enrico asked Carlie. Well, it was plain that both girls
were embarrassed and didn’t know what to do. Especially Carlie! Her cheeks turned bright pink. But Amy and Chelsea and Morgan all encouraged them to go out there and dance.

“Have fun,” said Chelsea.

“Show them how it’s done,” Morgan teased.

“Go for it,” said Amy. The truth was she was actually feeling a little sorry for the guys. Jeff and Enrico looked totally uncomfortable, like they wished they hadn’t taken such a risk. But soon the two couples were out there dancing with the others.

And then the strangest thing imaginable happened. At least Amy thought so. She had no idea what Morgan thought just then. But Amy could’ve fallen over from shock when Derrick Smith came over to their group. All three remaining girls looked totally stunned to see him. But Derrick went directly to Morgan. He smiled shyly and asked, “So, Morgan, do ya’wanna dance?”

Morgan turned and looked at Amy and Chelsea with wide eyes, like she didn’t know what to do.

“Go for it,” said Amy for the second time. She was trying not to giggle at the absurdity of their one-time enemy actually asking one of them to dance. Who would’ve guessed?

Then Morgan actually grinned as she poked Derrick in the arm and said, “Hey, why not?” And then she went
out to the dance floor and, once out there, she even did her Electric Porcupine dance. And then all three of their friends went on to dance to the next song as well. It was only Chelsea and Amy watching from the sidelines now. But Amy was thankful that at least she wasn’t standing there alone.

“Looks like we’re the wallflowers today,” said Chelsea in a glum tone.

“Welcome to the Lonely Hearts Club.” Amy kind of laughed.

“Maybe we should get ourselves membership pins,” said Chelsea.

“Or maybe not …” said Amy as she noticed that Brett Woods seemed to be slowly coming their way. But Chelsea had her back to him and no idea what was about to happen. Brett tapped Chelsea on the shoulder, and the next thing Amy knew, those two were out on the dance floor.

Okay, suddenly this wasn’t so funny, and it sure wasn’t fun. Amy was all alone. Queen of the Lonely Hearts Club. A wallflower that no one wanted to pick. She was about to turn and make a quick exit when she saw, of all people, Tyler Epperson walking straight toward her! But at the same time she saw Oliver coming from the other direction. She figured Oliver was probably going to remind her that they had to stay for teardown. And she had no idea what Tyler wanted, but her heart pounded madly as both boys stood before her.

Oliver glanced at Tyler. “So, are you going to ask Amy to dance?” he asked. And Amy felt her cheeks getting flushed. This was way too embarrassing.

“Yeah, I guess so …” Tyler nodded nervously.

“Well, so was I,” announced Oliver. Now he turned to Amy. “So, there you have it, Second Chair — two guys asking you to dance. Who do you choose?”

Amy looked at Tyler now, remembering her crush and then how she’d been crushed. Next she looked at Oliver, remembering all the teasing — and then how he’d stood up and defended her against Tyler.