Taffy Sinclair 004 - Taffy Sinclair and the Romance Machine Disaster (11 page)

A couple of minutes later a cheer went up as the football team came in. I knew they had to walk right past Taffy Sinclair to get to their regular table. I couldn
'
t stand to look.

"
I
'
m going to sit with Scott now,
"
chirped Melanie.
"
I
'
ll see you later.
"

She jumped up and ran over to the table where the boys were sitting. I stole a glance at Randy. He was a little pale and his nose was red, but otherwise he looked as handsome as ever. Lots of kids were congratulating him and telling him how sorry they were about his nose. He just kept shrugging and saying that it was no big deal.

Suddenly my heart felt as if it would explode. I had been so worried when he was hurt, and now he was acting as if it were nothing at all. Maybe Randy wasn
'
t quite as conceited as I had thought. Maybe I was being stubborn because I was hurt when he played hard to get and wouldn
'
t tell who he got for his matchup. I thought about Mom and Pink. They had both been stubborn, but everything had turned out super when Mom decided to forgive him and not to be so stubborn herself anymore. Maybe Randy and I had both been a little bit stubborn too.

I sat there for a long time, shredding the paper napkin in my lap and thinking about Randy. I knew he was looking at me. When I finally looked back at him, not only was he smiling his 1,000-watt smile, but there was an empty chair beside him and a large deep-dish pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom pizza on the table. I checked my tongue, but it wasn
'
t the least bit numb, so I took a deep breath and slowly stood up.

"
Where are you going?
"
asked Katie.

"
To sit with Randy,
"
I said, and when she got a puzzled look on her face, I added,
"
I
'
ve decided to forgive him.
"

We had a super time at Mama Mia
'
s. I was so happy to be with Randy again that I almost forgot to look at Taffy Sinclair, but of course I did. It was just a little look. More of a peek. But she was certainly looking at me, and from the awful expression on her face you would have thought she had just swallowed a swarm of wasps. The next time I peeked, she and Mona were gone.

On the way home Randy admitted that he had been mad at first when I called him
"
conceited
"
but that it had started him thinking. Of course there were several things that he didn
'
t admit. Like how he had been playing hard to get and how much he liked the attention he got from all the other girls, but that was all right. If there was one thing I had learned, it was that he wasn
'
t perfect. Well, not
totally
perfect anyway. Just wonderful.

"
Do you know what else?
"
he asked as we stood on my front step to say good-bye.

"
What?
"

"
Remember how Wiggins said that the name we got was the one we really wanted?
"

I nodded.

Randy grinned.
"
I had your name all along.
"
Then before I could answer, he leaned forward and kissed me on the lips.

I stood there for a long time after he left. I could still feel that kiss. I hugged myself and thought about how I had sneaked Randy
'
s straw as a souvenir of our first
date. I didn
'
t need souvenirs anymore. I had the real thing. I had Randy Kirwan, the most wonderful boy in the world.