Best Kept Secret Read Online Free Page A

pretending to be a girl,” Piper said.
    â€œI think we need to shut down,” I said.
    That turned everyone’s heads.
    â€œGive up? Shut down again? Just like that?” Piper said.
    â€œMaybe I should ask my mom?” Kate asked. Her mom was a former Pinky and had given us some advice the first time around.
    â€œNo way,” I said. “I want to stay out of trouble, not get our parents all involved again.”
    Kate and Piper didn’t want to take the safest possible route by shutting down. So we did what lots of people do when something scary happens. We ignored it.

Seven
    â€œI’m actually going to the open house,” Piper told Bet.
    â€œWhat open house?” I asked, having just joined their conversation in the lobby before school.
    Piper looked uncomfortable.
    â€œPiper was just saying she was going to help her mom out at the McCanns’ open house on Sunday.”
    Of course. Mrs. Pinsky, the real estate agent, was the one selling Forrest’s house.
    â€œSo the house really is for sale?” I asked.
    â€œThat’s usually what a For Sale sign means,” Piper said.
    â€œTrue,” I said, “Well, can I come with you? I bet there will be good snacks.”
    Piper didn’t answer right away. When she did, she said something about having to work at the open house, to help her mom with brochures and tours and stuff.
    â€œForrest won’t even be there,” Piper said abruptly.
    â€œWhere are they moving? Does your mom know?”
    â€œMy mom said it depends on some sort of job thing and if their house sells or not.”
    Real estate was so confusing.
    â€œBut I can come to the open house, right? Anybody can come. It’s an open house.”
    â€œYeah,” Piper said. “Anyone who’s looking to buy a house.”
    â€œIt will be fun,” I said. “You can give me a tour. I’ll ride my bike over.”
    â€œOK, Jem. I guess so,” Piper said.
    My mind started buzzing with a plan. I would write Forrest a note and I could slip it into his room, into his backpack. No! Under his pillow!
    In this note, I could finally spell out my feelings and even ask him to the Backward Dance. It was finally time, especially now that Taylor was out of the picture.
    As soon as I got home from school, I started writing. I played a fair amount of trash-can basketball until I got it down in a way that didn’t make me cringe or collapse in a fit of giggles. Here’s what I wrote:
    Hey Ax-man,
    I hope you were not too startled to find this note in your room. Piper let me in during the open house. I hope you don’t move! It would be weird going to school without you. I mean, we’ve known each other a loooooog time. Remember Miss June in preschool and how she always wore a silly hat when she read books? Anyway, the reason I’m writing this is because I’m too shy to ask you to the Backward Dance in person. I know you’ll be busy with the band, but I could help you set stuff up. I am very organized! Please let me know (yes or no) by next Friday.
    â€”Buzzy
    P.S. I hope you like the nickname I gave YOU. Do you get it?
    I had read the note over and over at home. Earlier versions went into more detail about the fact that I liked him. There was also a version where I said we could go just as friends. But in the end, I kept it simple.
    Mrs. Pinsky looked a little annoyed when I arrived on my bike for the open house. But then she said that any activity was better than none and that potential buyers would probably imagine I was the kid of someone looking at the house.
    â€œIt’s all psychology in selling houses,” she said. “A house looks better if you know someone else is interested.”
    Piper was there, but her mom told her to get some glass cleaner and un-smudge the patio doors. I wandered the clean-smelling, neat-as-a-pin house alone. It looked tidier than it had the last time I was there, during the