The Forever Crush by Debra Moffitt Read Free Book Online

that and stay anonymous and in business,” Ms. Russo said. “But please keep me apprised of these threats and what they say.”
    â€œCould it be a grown-up?” I asked, scared at the thought.
    â€œWe don’t know. I guess the person could be trying to look like a kid, with the chicken-scratch writing and the misspellings,” Ms. Russo said.
    â€œSo is Mrs. Kelbrock the former Pink Locker Lady who you’ve been talking to?” I asked.
    â€œAren’t you a probing thinker, Jemma? No, it’s not her. My contact is older and she wants to stay anonymous,” Ms. Russo said.
    Ms. Russo added that she would ask her about the threats and for any help she might provide on that.
    â€œI say we just keep doing what we’re doing and ignore it all,” Piper said.
    Easy for Piper to say.
    â€œDon’t be intimidated, that’s the spirit!” Ms. Russo said, in her best “positive teacher” tone.
    Piper was ready to change the subject, having plucked a wedding magazine from the edge of Ms. Russo’s desk.
    â€œLet’s talk wedding!” Piper said.
    Ms. Russo smiled and seemed happy to shift gears.
    â€œWell, we are in a dilemma right now over the cake. White chocolate mousse or raspberry filling?”
    â€œBoth,” we all agreed.

Sixteen
    I decided to think hard about who could be the mysterious bookmark-maker. It could be someone like Taylor Mayweather. She was always causing a stir and had once before hacked into the PLS site. (She was caught, but went unpunished.) But Taylor would never have fashioned such a crude bookmark. She would have used sparkles and ostrich feathers, not plain old paper and blue ink.
    A boy could have done this. I mean, a boy probably wouldn’t care about the prettiness of his bookmark. And I know boys can be grossed out by girl stuff, like periods. I had seen that in sixth grade when they split us up for “the talk” about puberty and stuff. Some boys annoyed us girls by saying gross stuff afterward. But what boy would be so bothered by a girls-only Web site?
    It could be someone thousands of miles away. This was the Internet, after all. There was nothing stopping someone in Australia from visiting www.pinklockersociety.org, but this argument fell apart at the bookmarks. How would this devious Aussie get bookmarks into our school library? It seemed like a huge stretch.
    We all went to the library at least once a week with our classes, but no one would have enough time to work an operation like this during class.
    But wait a minute. If you were in Library Club, you’d have plenty of opportunity.
    Eureka! Library club members were in the library every day at study hall, and they were often doing stuff like shelving books.
    I had been a library club member in sixth grade. It’s a little nerdy, I know, and I am almost embarrassed by how much I enjoyed the solitary task. At first, I thought: How can this be a club when you can only whisper to the other club members? But then I came to enjoy the quiet, orderly activity. You followed the alphabet or the Dewey Decimal System and put things where they belonged. Simple and calming, kind of like running is for me now. I secretly wanted to return to the library club as a member, but I was worried people would make fun of me.
    So back to our suspects: the entire library club. I needed to get the members’ names and eliminate them one by one.
    I texted Kate and Piper without thinking, so proud of my detective work and possible lead. Kate texted back immediately.
    KATE : Where u been?
    ME : Phone dead
    KATE : Lib club? Shazam!
    KATE : How’s Forrest? Good night?
    ME : Yep. GTG
    Piper wasn’t far behind with the text response. She utterly ignored my library club insight.
    PIPER : Answer the smoochie?
    ME : Privacy, pls!
    PIPER : THAT MEANS HE KISSED YOU!
    No, Piper. It doesn’t.
    My cell phone sprang to life in my hand. It was Piper, calling.
    â€œOkay,”