Best Kept Secret Read Free

dance if I can’t dance?
    I suggested we put up a notice that said “Only Girls Allowed.” But Piper and Kate said we should try to help boys, too, when possible. So the vote was two to one. We have a fourth member, Bet, but she wasn’t there to vote.
    We hadn’t told Bet what we were up to yet, but I knew she had suspicions. In my opinion, she didn’t have time for the PLS after she won the honor of hosting a show on Margaret Simon Middle School TV. Bet’s show was broadcast on our school’s in-house channel, MSTV, every Friday afternoon.
    Her first show revealed Forrest McCann’s girlfriend, Taylor Mayweather, as a hacker. She’s the one who made all those mean comments about the girls who wrote in to the PLS site looking for answers. Taylor called the girls “la-ha-losers” and told them to give up if they, let’s say, had too many freckles or liked their older brother’s best friend. Ugh! She made me so angry. Let me count the reasons:
    1. Because she liked to embarrass people (especially me!);
    2. Because she never got punished for hacking into our site;
    3. Because after all that, she was still Forrest’s girlfriend.
    Now that we were up and running again, I wasn’t worried about Taylor hacking in again. She said she’d “been there, done that.” But I was worried instead about other unknowns.
    Like, would Principal Finklestein discover us? He had sent a letter home to our parents saying we should “put this whole business behind us.” His letter, which he told us to destroy after reading, also said that the PLS Web site contained “potentially offensive material.”
    Other than Principal F., I worried that just operating the PLS put us in potential danger. The PLS closed down in 1976 under suspicious circumstances. No one seemed to know why. Was someone out to get the PLS, and would they come after us, too?
    I also stressed about Edith. Would we ever talk to her again, and would she be angry with us? We could have issued a PLS-SOS, but I once heard that it’s easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission. What if we told her what we’re doing and she said no? What if she was really mad at us for getting caught in the first place?
    OK, I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I was also worried my mom and dad would find out. They were not exactly pleased when the principal came to our house. They gave me a million different reasons why I shouldn’t have done what I did. But now we were out there on our own, dancing on a thin pink wire.

Four
    News flash: Forrest McCann broke up with Taylor Mayweather!
    The news flew in my ears, my brain, and then up and down every nerve in my body. I overflowed with emotion. I could barely speak, but at the same time I couldn’t wait to talk about it. One problem: I was inside a bathroom stall.
    Outside by the sinks, Taylor was talking to Tia. I heard her say, “Yeah, he broke up with me, but it was kind of like he was cheating on me.”
    â€œForrest was two-timing you?” Tia asked, as if that was so impossible to imagine.
    â€œNot exactly,” Taylor said, “Music is his other girlfriend. That stupid guitar—it’s all he wants to talk about or do. Now, who am I going to ask to the Backward Dance?”
    First, Piper. Now, Taylor. It seemed like everyone knew about Forrest’s guitar playing except for me. (His band is another thing I should have asked him about that day in the car after the bee attack.) I wondered if I should quickly pick up some easy-to-learn instrument, like the triangle, and ask if I could join his band. The Backward Dance was another question. I also wondered if I should ask Forrest to go with me before someone else got to him first.
    Here’s what’s backward about the Backward Dance: Girls have to ask the boys. Of course, technically, girls can always ask boys, but hardly anyone does. Why is that? And why didn’t