Read Best Kept Secret for Free Online Page A

cupped his hand to his mouth and stage-whispered, “The note you left on my pillow.”
    After a long pause, I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders as if to say, “Heck if I know!”
    Trevor, a guitar is sometimes called an ax—something I hope you never figure out.
    I turned and grabbed my top locker shelf to steady myself. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid, I said to myself as I banged my head on an imaginary wall.
    It all made sense now, just a little too late. Forrest’s room looked a little young because it wasn’t Forrest’s room. I schemed and planned and got my courage up, all to profess my love to a sixth-grader!
    â€œHow many people has he told?” I asked Kate after I found her in the hall and explained the whole twisted tale.
    â€œI don’t know, but I guess it’s a good sign that this is the first I’ve heard of it,” she said.
    â€œOh, my gosh!” I said as the worst of it hit me. “There is totally no chance he hasn’t told Forrest.”
    â€œI would like to say he hasn’t,” Kate said, giving me one of her break-it-to-me-gently looks. “But wouldn’t you tell your older brother if a cute eighth-grader invited you to the dance?”
    I sighed into my armload of books, the bell rang, and I wondered what would happen next. Taylor Mayweather would happen next, that’s what.
    â€œHey Jem,” she cooed. “How’s your new little boyfriend?”

Twelve
    That afternoon, I thanked God that Taylor no longer had her own MSTV show. Otherwise, her old show, Gotcha!, would have certainly featured me and my pip-squeak of a sixth-grade “boyfriend.” Thankfully, I was watching my appearance on You Bet! instead. Sitting there outside the school at sunset, my skin looked all rosy and healthy. Bet opened the segment with a snippet of what I said.
    My last-period class—art with Ms. Russo—listened to her whole report (almost) without interrupting. (At one point, Gabe Greene did say “loser,” trying to make it sound like a cough, when his friend Vince was on camera.)
    â€œWomen are from Venus and men are from Mars. That’s what an old book says, but is it true?” Bet asked the camera. “Are we so different that different rules should apply?”
    She went on to interview Ms. Russo, who clarified her point about the Backward Dance.
    â€œIt’s not that I want to cancel the dance, but I’m asking girls, and boys, to think about the terms. What are the rules that boys and girls follow, and do they make sense in the twenty-first century?”
    I stole a look at Ms. R. as her segment played. She winked at me. What a funny teacher she was. She got in trouble once because she told us we could call her Jane. Later, she said not to do it in front of Principal Finklestein. She also had a sign in her room that said “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” I have to confess I didn’t know what it meant. Did I need a boy to make me happy? Maybe one particular boy.
    That sign on the wall also made me wonder if Ms. Russo had a boyfriend and how he felt about that saying. I heard rumors that she and Mr. Ford were spotted looking pretty cozy at the Tuscan Oven restaurant. That was just too weird to believe.
    On camera, Jeff “Fitzy” Fitzgerald said he didn’t know what to say about the dance. He was fine going with Tia, who had already asked him.
    â€œPeople are saying the dance makes fun of girls or something, so I don’t know if people are boycotting it or whatever.”
    In a clever move, Bet then interviewed Tia. The video was obviously shot at the ice rink. Aside from being Taylor’s best friend, she was a really good ice-skater.
    â€œI want to go, but I feel silly now that I asked someone to it. I agree with Ms. Russo that we shouldn’t make fun of girls as boy-crazy idiots. Fitzy is cool, though. I like to dance, and he can actually dance, which