Taffy Sinclair 009 - The Truth About Taffy Sinclair by Betsy Haynes Read Free Book Online Page B

actually taken the money from Miss Wiggins ' s wallet. Besides that, she had more to gain than anybody from reading my diary. Wasn ' t she always following me around and trying to be friends? Wasn ' t she the homeliest girl in the sixth grade? It made sense that she might want my diary to try to find out my secrets. Not my personal secrets, like everyone else, but my beauty secrets !
    I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. Maybe that ' s why she was so sure that I was going to get it back. I remembered her words: I' ll bet someone else has it and is planning to give it back. She ' s only going to keep it for a little while. Just long enough to read it. Oh, my gosh, I thought. If she has it, she won ' t find what she expects to find in it.
    I stood there for another couple of minutes, thinking over the situation. In some ways Mona was the obvious one, since she had stolen something before. But on the other hand, if Mona had it, she would have opened it by now, and she certainly wouldn ' t be acting so friendly to me if she had read it. Jana and her friends had to be the ones. They have my diary, I thought. That ' s all there is to it.
    Even though recess was almost over, I sauntered out onto the playground. The weather had turned warm and most kids were just sitting around in groups talking instead of running and playing. Even the sixth-grade boys were standing quietly beside the ball diamond. I looked at Randy. He was so handsome standing there talking to his friends. I wondered if he would tell any of them that he was walking me home after school to protect me from Clarence Marshall. Probably not. He never bragged about himself, but the thought made me tingle with anticipation, anyway. It was hours and hours until school was out for the day. How could I stand it until then?
    So what if I had stretched the truth about Clarence a little bit? No one would ever know the difference and . . .
    " Hey, Taffy. Are you going to kiss me at Curtis ' s party Friday night? "
    My mouth dropped open as Clarence came skidding up and stopped in front of me. I couldn ' t help wondering for an instant if he had some sort of ESP and knew that I was thinking about him and that was why he had rushed up to me just now.
    " Don ' t be weird , " I said in an icy voice. " I ' ve already told you. I wouldn ' t kiss you if you were the last boy on earth. Now leave me alone. "
    Clarence laughed and then went bounding off in the direction of a group of girls. He ' s probably going to bug them about kissing him, too, I thought angrily as I turned my back on him. He was such a jerk.
    I was still grumbling to myself about Clarence when I got back to the room after recess, and I was almost to my seat when I noticed that someone had left a note on my desk. Terrific, I thought excitedly. Maybe it ' s from Mona and she has some news about my diary.
    I grabbed the note and practically tore the paper in my excitement to get it open. Then, spreading it out on my desk, I swallowed hard. It wasn ' t good news from Mona. It wasn ' t good news from anybody. It was a picture. The skin on the back of my neck began to crawl as I stared at the crude drawing of a book with a strap connecting the front to the back. And stared at the word " Diary " written across the cover. Beneath the drawing was a message scrawled in large capital letters.
    FRIDAY NIGHT
    Oh, no! I gasped. My worst fears were coming true.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    I c rumpled the paper in my hand and stuffed it into a pocket, and I tried to figure out what to do. Jana was out to get me, all right. If I ever had any doubts, they were gone now. Friday Night, the note said. Zero hour. Doomsday. The end of Taffy Sinclair.
    There had to be something I could do to stop her. But what? It had been a mistake to rely on Mona. She had tried, but there wasn ' t anything she could do. Besides, Jana hated me too much to miss a golden opportunity such as this.
    I had to find the diary, and suddenly as I sat there thinking the