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question: ‘I’m too shy to invite anyone to the Backward Dance. Can you help?’ ”
    Kate took those two and we moved on with business as usual. Piper took a question from someone—a boy (shocker!). This one was upset that he had been given an unkind nickname, Iron Mouth, after he got braces.
    I wasn’t sure Piper was the best person to get that one. She was always gifted with the cutest nicknames. In fact, Forrest gave her the latest one. It was “Peas”—the sweet little green vegetable. She’s Piper Pinsky, so it started out as “Ps,” as in two Ps. But then Piper said she didn’t want anyone to think her nickname was “P.P.,” like pee your pants, so Forrest changed it to Peas, like peas and carrots.
    Peas was a much cuter nickname than Buzzy. For that and other reasons, I was becoming fed up with Piper, and more than a little bit jealous. By the end of the meeting, I was steaming. Why did she ignore my Forrest celebration? Why didn’t she want me to be happy? When the bell rang, she quickly snapped the laptop closed and bounded up the staircase, not waiting for anyone. I tore after her and called her name, but in the noise of the crowded hallway, I guess she didn’t hear me.

Five
    On Friday afternoons at two thirty, every class takes a break to watch Margaret Simon TV’s only show (besides the morning announcements in homeroom). You Bet! stars Bet Hirujadanpholdoi, who is my sorta friend. She’s from Thailand and is both shy and not shy. Meet her for the first time and she’ll hardly say a peep. But give her a reporter’s notebook and a microphone and she’s a tornado. Bet is actually in the PLS: She was invited in just like we were when school started. Being the new girl at school, she was sort of only half involved in the PLS, mostly because I didn’t really welcome her with open arms.
    But she floored me, and everyone else, when she investigated the PLS hacker, who turned out to be Taylor Mayweather. Has anyone ever heard of anything more rude? These girls wrote into us, putting their worries on display, and Taylor slammed them. Nice … real nice!
    Since Bet’s big exposé about Taylor, she’s done shows about how so many products are made in China and India, where working conditions are often poor. (She asked everyone to look at their sneakers and the labels inside their shirts, which proved her point.) She also convinced the whole school to start using reusable water bottles instead of buying one from the vending machine every time you’re thirsty. And she did another good deed today when she covered what was on everyone’s mind—the Backward Dance.
    â€œHey girls, before you ask a guy to the Backward Dance, consider its origin,” Bet told the camera, microphone in hand. As usual, she was wearing a conservative suit and a little smack of lipstick. Her hair was smoothed down anchorwoman-style.
    â€œThe Backward Dance used to be called the Sadie Hawkins Dance,” she continued. “But who was Sadie Hawkins?” The camera zoomed in on an old comic strip, featuring hillbilly-looking people. “Ms. Hawkins was a cartoon strip character from the 1930s who was so unattractive, her father created Sadie Hawkins Day so she could finally get a husband.”
    I gave Kate a perplexed look. I had no idea. Does that make me a Sadie Hawkins if I chase Forrest?
    â€œThat’s right. Sadie Hawkins Day was actually a race. If a single girl caught a guy, he would have to marry her.”
    â€œWatch out for the girls on the track team then,” Forrest’s friend Luke Zubin said.
    All the guys in class started laughing. The girls who had already asked guys to the dance looked a little concerned. Bet went on to interview a variety of people: An old-timer who remembered the Li’l Abner comic strip said the Sadie Hawkins tradition “was all in good fun.” Most students said