Best Kept Secret Read Online Free PDF Page B

Bet, I said OK.
    â€œSplendid! After school, meet me in the video room. I think we’ll film outside. It’s such a crisp, autumn day. My father can take you home after.”
    Fwap!
    Just then, Piper was hit smack in the forehead by a flying grape. I almost enjoyed her embarrassment until I saw Forrest from across the row of lunch tables. He stood up and said, “My bad, Peas. Sorry!” Then he sat down and the guys at his table laughed uproariously.
    Our school forbids throwing food, but Forrest and his friends were always breaking this rule. They ran the Catch-It-in-Your-Mouth Olympics, an unofficial, unauthorized competition that happened whenever the cafeteria served something that was catch-in-your-mouth-able. Grapes were naturals, as were olives and berries of any kind.
    There it was before my eyes—Piper and Forrest’s connection. It followed along the invisible flight line of an airborne grape, but no one could deny it. Not even me.
    â€œSee you after school, Bet,” I said quickly, gathering my stuff and getting out of there.
    *   *   *
    I envied Bet a little. She had been at the school only a few months and already had her thing. That was even more obvious when I saw her in the video room after school, focused intently on a video screen. I cleared my throat and made noise on my way in, but she didn’t look up until I called her name.
    â€œOh, Jemma! There you are,” she said.
    She explained that she was editing her piece on the dance and there were so many sides and so much to consider that she was getting herself mixed up.
    â€œI mean, on one hand, Ms. Russo makes a great point. Aren’t we just continuing traditions that tell girls that guys are in charge of everything?”
    I hadn’t really thought of it that way. I was just a girl who liked a boy and wanted to go to the dance with him.
    â€œI don’t know Bet,” I said. “Maybe the Backward Dance helps girls because it shows them they can go after boys they like?”
    â€œThat’s an important angle,” Bet said. “I wish I had the camera on for that.”
    Yeah, but that didn’t prevent Piper from getting to Forrest first.
    â€œI’m not sure that’s what I really think,” I said.
    â€œWell, what do you think? The camera’s on now.”
    I looked into the big eye of the video camera lens, and my true feelings bubbled up. I couldn’t answer any questions. First, I bit my lip, and in a minute, I was crying—on camera.
    Bet dropped the camera to the table.
    â€œWhat happened? Are you okay?”
    That’s when I told Bet the whole story about Piper and Forrest. As I told it, Bet herself started crying.
    â€œI’m sorry Jem. I’m one of those people who starts [sob] crying when other people cry. I also [sob] throw up when other people throw up.”
    Something about that struck me so funny that what was left of my tears turned to nearly pee-your-pants laughter. Bet started laughing, too. My stomach was hurting by the time she told me the story of how, back in Thailand, she threw up at school during a health movie. The movie was about alcoholism, and it showed someone throwing up after drinking too much.
    â€œOur teacher said, ‘Bet, what did you drink with lunch?’ ” she told me, wiping the last, giggly tear from her eye.
    After all the crying and laugh-crying, I felt better. Bet was a good listener. It also probably helped that she hadn’t heard all this stuff a zillion times before like poor Kate had. After I exhausted the Forrest topic, Bet told me about a boy she left behind in Thailand.
    â€œNot much chance he’d be able to make it to the Backward Dance,” she said.
    Then Bet told me about some upcoming reports she was working on. She was looking into all this nickname business and how nicknames can be fun but sometimes hurtful. (Just ask “Iron Mouth” and Mark Sheehan aka