Taffy Sinclair 004 - Taffy Sinclair and the Romance Machine Disaster (4 page)

"If
I don
'
t match up with Scott Daly I
'
ll just die!
"
said Melanie.
"
I know he likes me. You should see how he acts when no one is looking, and he
'
s always borrowing notebook paper and pencils.
"

We were sitting in the cafeteria having lunch, and all anyone could talk about was the computer matchup.

"
If only Mr. Scott had filled out a questionnaire,
"
Christie murmured.
"
I just know we would match up.
"
Christie
'
s mother, Mrs. Winchell, is principal of Mark Twain Elementary, and Mr. Scott is the new assistant principal this year. Christie has had a crush on him ever since the beginning of school.

"
It wouldn
'
t make any difference if he had filled out a questionnaire,
"
said Katie.
"
It
'
s all very scientific. The
computer matches up people according to what they have in common. What could you and Mr. Scott possibly have in common?
"

Christie looked positively stricken. Katie ignored the expression on her face and went right on talking, making things worse with every word she said.

"
Just because you like someone doesn
'
t mean that you have anything in common. It might just be a physical attraction. And don
'
t forget. Wiggins said that there would be lots of surprises. Who knows, maybe all of us have picked the wrong friends. Maybe we don
'
t even know that there is someone else in our class that we should be hanging out with.
"

"
There won
'
t be any surprises for me,
"
I said confidently.
"
At least not when it comes to boys. Randy and I talked about all the things we like and don
'
t like at Mama Mia
'
s before we even knew there would be any questionnaires. You would never believe how much
we
have in common.
"

Nobody said anything for the next few minutes. I couldn
'
t help thinking about my four best friends as I finished my lunch. Melanie might match up with Scott since she watches every move he makes and probably knows everything he likes and dislikes. But what about the other three? Beth never acts as if she knows boys are alive, and Christie only thinks about Mr. Scott. But Katie is the worst. She practically hates boys.

I also couldn
'
t help thinking about my parents. If there had been computers in those days and my mother
and father had done a matchup, maybe they would never have gotten together. I was sure my father wasn
'
t an alcoholic when my mother first met him—she would never have gone out with someone like that—but still, for things to turn out the way they did with the divorce and everything, there must have been a lot of differences between them. In fact, from what I knew about both of them, I couldn
'
t think of a single thing they had in common. Except for me, of course.
Good grief!
I thought. If they had done a computer matchup, I might never have been born.

I decided not to think about that anymore. It was too depressing. Besides, I could hardly wait to get to class. I wondered if Wiggins planned to torture us by making us wait half the afternoon to give out our computer printouts. Still, she had said after lunch.

Sure enough, she called the class to order and then read practically a million announcements. I tapped the eraser of my pencil on the edge of my desk and tried to listen, but all I could think about was the Romance Machine and the matchup. I could hardly wait to get the results. I needed them to prove to Joel and Keith and everybody else that Randy and I were meant for each other and that our romance was nothing to joke about. I wasn
'
t the only one who was antsy, though. All over the room kids were squirming in their seats.

"
Attention please!
"
said Wiggins. She was using her general
'
s voice, which meant that she had noticed how antsy everyone was, and she had picked up a stack of green and white striped papers off of her desk.

She cleared her throat.
"
All right, boys and girls. The moment has arrived for each of you to find out which boy and which girl in this class you have the most in common with. I will give you exactly five minutes to talk among yourselves and compare results. BUT,
"
she raised her finger into the air like an exclamation point,
"
remember that these answers are completely confidential, and it is entirely up to you to decide whether you want to tell
anyone who you matched up with.
"

Everybody was squirming again. I looked at my four best friends, exchanging nervous looks with each one of them and thinking that a person would have to match up with someone pretty drippy to keep it a secret from everyone.

Wiggins was walking up and down the rows handing out folded papers with names on the front of them. Twice she stopped near me, and both times I almost grabbed the paper out of her hand as it shot by me and went to someone sitting close by. I could hear kids giggling and whispering as more and more of them read their matchups. I was beginning to worry. Where was mine? Had my questionnaire gotten lost?

Finally Wiggins handed me a folded paper with my name on it. I held my breath. What if I didn
'
t get Randy
'
s name? What if I got someone weird like Curtis Trowbridge or Clarence Marshall? My hands were shaking as I opened the paper. I squinted my eyes almost shut and looked out through the slits at the two names:

BETH BARRY AND RANDY KIRWAN

I nearl
y collapsed with relief. I had b
een right all along. I knew that Randy and I had a lot of things in common. Now the Romance Machine had proved it. And best of all, now everybody would know it.

"
Psst. Jana. Who did you get?
"

It was Beth. I didn
'
t even try to control the smile that spread over my face.
"
You,
"
I said,
"
and you know who.
"
I nodded toward Randy. I didn
'
t have the nerve to look at him yet.
"
Who did you get?
"

Instead of Beth, I heard another voice coming from the other side of me.
"
I got Randy Kirwan,
"
gushed Alexis Duvall.

"
Me, too.
"

"
I got Randy
'
s name.
"

It was as if there were an echo in the room. A few girls, like Melanie, were saying other boys
'
names, but girls all over the room were saying that they got Randy Kirwan. I sat there in shock. How could a thing like that happen? There must be a mistake. I had Randy
'
s name, and surely he had mine. I sneaked a look at him out of the corner of my eye. His face was as red as fire.

"
Hey, Jana. I got your name. Whose name did you get?
"

It was Curtis Trowbridge. I pretended that I hadn
'
t heard him. It was bad enough that he got my name, but why did he have to say it out loud in front of the whole sixth grade?

"
Hey, Jana. I said that I got your name,
"
said Curtis.

Taffy Sinclair turned around and gave me an icy smile. I could tell she was glad that Curtis was making an idiot of me.
"
I got Randy Kirwan, too,
"
she said.

I felt hot all over. I wouldn
'
t have been surprised if I had started breathing fire and smoke. How dare Taffy Sinclair say that she had Randy
'
s name. She couldn
'
t. Randy didn
'
t care about her. He cared about me. Well, I would show her a thing or two. I
'
d show everybody.

"
Whose name did you get, Randy?
"
I challenged, still ignoring Curtis Trowbridge.

"
He probably got Jana Banana
'
s name,
"
said Joel Murphy. He was looking at me and laughing as if he thought getting my name was some kind of joke.

"
Yeah. Jana Banana,
"
taunted Keith Masterson.
"
She
'
s his girlfriend.
"

Randy looked down at the paper in his hand. It was easy to see that he was still embarrassed, and I knew Taffy Sinclair had a lot to do with it. He started to say something, but then he stopped.

Come on, I thought. Tell her. Tell everybody that you got my name.

"
Oh, come on, Randy,
"
pleaded Beth.
"
Tell us who you got.
"

There was a chorus of
"
Yeah,
"
"
Come on!
"
and
"
Tell us whose name you got.
"

Kids were milling around talking and laughing and a few were whispering
"
Jana Banana.
"
My ears were getting so hot that they felt as if they would melt any minute. Why didn
'
t Randy just say whose name he got and get it over with?

The room got quiet as Randy started folding his green and white striped paper. He did it slowly, and you could tell that he was thinking the situation over. He folded the paper into smaller and smaller squares until it was just about the size of a grape.

Then he looked up and said in a quiet voice,
"
Miss Wiggins said that nobody has to tell.
"
With that he stuffed the grape-size paper into the pocket of his jeans.

"
I
'
m not going to tell either,
"
shouted Scott Daly.

"
Me, either,
"
said Mark Peters.
"
If Randy won
'
t tell, I
'
m not going to either.
"

"
I got Jana Morgan,
"
offered Curtis.

"
Well, I
'
m not going to tell whose name I got,
"
said Clarence Marshall.
"
Girls. Yuk!
"
He put his hands around his neck and faked throwing up.
"
Who needs them?
"

Suddenly every boy in the whole class, except Curtis Trowbridge and Randy, was shouting that he wasn
'
t going to tell whose name he got in the girl matchup and faking throwing up like Clarence. And every girl in the class was glaring at me as if it were all my fault
.

At
that moment I felt as if a trap door had opened up under my feet and I had dropped into the pits. The dismal pits. I couldn
'
t believe that Randy would let me down like that. But the looks on all the girls
'
faces had me convinced that I had more than just Randy Kirwan to worry about.

Melanie dropped to one knee beside my desk. She was frowning and she said in a loud whisper,
"
Now look what you did, Jana. I may never find out if Scott got my name.
"
I threw her a poison-dart look.
"
Don
'
t blame me. I had nothing to do with it.
"

"
Oh, yeah? You had a date with Randy Saturday, didn
'
t you? And you w
ere the one Joel and Keith were
teasing him about, aren
'
t you?
"

"
So?
"

"
Figure it out,
"
she said.
"
If they were teasing him about you after the date, just
think how they would tease him
if he got your name.
"

I didn
'
t answer. If Randy really liked me, it shouldn
'
t matter if they teased him. Sixth-grade boys were always teasing somebody about something. It was a dumb conversation anyway. I couldn
'
t see how anybody could think it was my fault that Randy Kirwan wouldn
'
t tell whose name he got for the girl matchup. And I certainly didn
'
t have anything to do with all the other boys deciding not to tell either. But that didn
'
t stop the girls from being mad at me.