Taffy Sinclair 002 - Taffy Sinclair Strikes Again Read Online Free
Author: Betsy Haynes
was no telling what Wiggins planned to do.
"And SOOOOOOOO," she shouted, "we will start with a little fresh air."
Wiggins has the southeast corner room on the second floor of the school, and there are exactly eight windows along the side of the room and exactly six across the back. That makes exactly fourteen windows in one small room, and she opened them all, but not just an inch or two. Not Wiggins. With a flourish, she flung each one of them all the way to the top.
The cold wind swept in like a giant paintbrush coloring every pair of lips blue in a matter of seconds. The temperature must have dropped fifty degrees. The perspiration inside my jacket was turning to ice. But Wiggins wasn't finished yet.
"Now, class," she said triumphantly, raising her arms into the air, "we've got to pump some blood up to those poor sleepy brains. Arms up! Follow me. Touch your toes ten times. One! Two! . . ."
Some kids grunted. Others giggled, but everyone touched their toes ten times. How else could we get warm? All except Melanie. She was lucky to see her toes, let alone touch them. But I had to admit the exercise did wake me up. With a shiver, I sat back in my seat, wondering what frostbite would do to the brain.
By the time the bell rang at the end of the day, I had warmed up again, but I felt like a soggy mess. Maybe being one of The Fabulous Five wasn't going to be so fabulous after all .
CHAPTER FOUR
Saturday afternoon, which was the time for our meeting, I had finished the four lists of my friends' faults. By then, too, I had almost forgotten about The Fabulous Five T-shirt disaster. But one thing I had not forgotten was how Randy Kirwan had been looking at Taffy Sinclair. I could hardly wait to get my lists of faults so I could start improving myself, and pretty soon he'd be looking at me that way, too. Actually I had already started improving. All week long I had practiced not being a klutz.
Just before the meeting, I got out my Fabulous Five notebook and made copies of the lists to give out to my friends. I had worked hard on those lists, and I was pretty proud of the way they had turned out.
The first one was for Katie. Beside number one I had originally written "feminist," but I had crossed that out. There was certainly nothing wrong with being for women's rights. In fact, I was for them myself. Somewhere I had read that women who took part in demonstrations and made a lot of noise about the ERA were called "radical feminists," so I put that on line one. But I knew that wasn't right, either. Whenever I heard the word radical, I thought of those people I saw on TV with long hair and sandals who were always being carted off to jail for blocking traffic during a protest. Katie Shannon was certainly not like that. She didn't even have long hair, so I had to scratch out "radical feminist," too. What I finally decided on took a little more space. I wrote, "Gets carried away with the women's movement and lectures too much."
Next was Christie. I knew she couldn't help being a brain any more than I could help being a klutz. It was just something we were born with, and it was awfully hard to tell someone that something really not her fault had become a problem. But since I was willing to work on my problem, I was sure she would be, too. Besides, she didn't have to show how smart she was all the time. So for Christie's fault I wrote, "Shows how smart she is all the time."
Beth Barry was the easiest, probably because she was my best friend and I had been thinking about her fault for years. Unde r her name I wrote, "Overdrama tizes every little thing and upstages everybody." I was sure she would be grateful to me for pointing that out. She would probably even ask me why I hadn't mentioned it before.
If Beth was the easiest, Melanie was certainly the hardest. How do you tell someone diplomatically that she's fat? I worried about that for a couple of days. I certainly didn't want any of my friends to get mad at me. I thought about
"And SOOOOOOOO," she shouted, "we will start with a little fresh air."
Wiggins has the southeast corner room on the second floor of the school, and there are exactly eight windows along the side of the room and exactly six across the back. That makes exactly fourteen windows in one small room, and she opened them all, but not just an inch or two. Not Wiggins. With a flourish, she flung each one of them all the way to the top.
The cold wind swept in like a giant paintbrush coloring every pair of lips blue in a matter of seconds. The temperature must have dropped fifty degrees. The perspiration inside my jacket was turning to ice. But Wiggins wasn't finished yet.
"Now, class," she said triumphantly, raising her arms into the air, "we've got to pump some blood up to those poor sleepy brains. Arms up! Follow me. Touch your toes ten times. One! Two! . . ."
Some kids grunted. Others giggled, but everyone touched their toes ten times. How else could we get warm? All except Melanie. She was lucky to see her toes, let alone touch them. But I had to admit the exercise did wake me up. With a shiver, I sat back in my seat, wondering what frostbite would do to the brain.
By the time the bell rang at the end of the day, I had warmed up again, but I felt like a soggy mess. Maybe being one of The Fabulous Five wasn't going to be so fabulous after all .
CHAPTER FOUR
Saturday afternoon, which was the time for our meeting, I had finished the four lists of my friends' faults. By then, too, I had almost forgotten about The Fabulous Five T-shirt disaster. But one thing I had not forgotten was how Randy Kirwan had been looking at Taffy Sinclair. I could hardly wait to get my lists of faults so I could start improving myself, and pretty soon he'd be looking at me that way, too. Actually I had already started improving. All week long I had practiced not being a klutz.
Just before the meeting, I got out my Fabulous Five notebook and made copies of the lists to give out to my friends. I had worked hard on those lists, and I was pretty proud of the way they had turned out.
The first one was for Katie. Beside number one I had originally written "feminist," but I had crossed that out. There was certainly nothing wrong with being for women's rights. In fact, I was for them myself. Somewhere I had read that women who took part in demonstrations and made a lot of noise about the ERA were called "radical feminists," so I put that on line one. But I knew that wasn't right, either. Whenever I heard the word radical, I thought of those people I saw on TV with long hair and sandals who were always being carted off to jail for blocking traffic during a protest. Katie Shannon was certainly not like that. She didn't even have long hair, so I had to scratch out "radical feminist," too. What I finally decided on took a little more space. I wrote, "Gets carried away with the women's movement and lectures too much."
Next was Christie. I knew she couldn't help being a brain any more than I could help being a klutz. It was just something we were born with, and it was awfully hard to tell someone that something really not her fault had become a problem. But since I was willing to work on my problem, I was sure she would be, too. Besides, she didn't have to show how smart she was all the time. So for Christie's fault I wrote, "Shows how smart she is all the time."
Beth Barry was the easiest, probably because she was my best friend and I had been thinking about her fault for years. Unde r her name I wrote, "Overdrama tizes every little thing and upstages everybody." I was sure she would be grateful to me for pointing that out. She would probably even ask me why I hadn't mentioned it before.
If Beth was the easiest, Melanie was certainly the hardest. How do you tell someone diplomatically that she's fat? I worried about that for a couple of days. I certainly didn't want any of my friends to get mad at me. I thought about
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