Secrets Are No Fun

Chapter 9

 Sam was confused. We already explained the plan to him and even though people called him the smarter twin, he couldn’t seem to understand Mission DJ.

“Let me get this straight,” he yawned. “You want to IM Jordan that you like him, but you don’t really like him? And no one can know that you don’t really like him?” He raised one of his eyebrows up like he always did when he was concentrating. “Then why do you want to IM him that you like him?”

            Jamie and I looked at each other. We were exhausted and Donna was getting antsy. I let Jamie try to explain it to him this time. “See that’s the part that we can’t tell you.” She was leaning against his desk with her arms crossed. She was ready to give in and tell Sam about our bet but I wasn’t going to break that easily, especially if it meant giving Tali any satisfaction.

So I said, “No. Raquel said that we can’t tell anyone and Sam counts as an “anyone”. I don’t get why we are even explaining this to him.”

            “Fine.” Jamie threw her hands up in the air. “Let’s do this already. I’m getting nervous.”

            Sam just stared at us like we were animals in a cage and mumbled, “I just don’t get girls sometimes.” I chose to ignore him.

            “You’re getting nervous. I have never talked to the kid in my life. Only Tali has! He’s not even going to know who I am.” Donna was sitting on the corner of Sam’s couch like a little girl who was afraid of her mom. I bet she wondered what would’ve happened if she had just yelled “spit” a little louder and little faster.

            “Okay, do whatever you want.” Sam gave in. He went to his desk, turned his computer on and signed onto his account.

“But what if Jordan isn’t online?” Donna asked. She seemed really excited about that.

“He’s always online, Donna. We just don’t know who he could be IMing for like ten hours straight every night.” Jamie said as she sat down on the desk next to the computer. Didn’t she ever want to sit on a chair?

            We all looked at each other, thinking the same thing out loud: “Tali.”

            “What are you talking about?” Then he shook his head. “Whatever. Just call me when you’re done. I’m going to watch TV.” And Sam left us alone in his room with his account open, with every boy our ages screen name out there for us to take. It was a girls dream come true.

            We huddled around the computer. Donna and I shared the chair that was directly in front of the screen. “Ready?” I asked her.

            “No!” She turned to face me. “Can’t we just say that I did it and not actually do it? Does this bet really even matter? It was a game of spit!”  

            “It’s not just a game,” I said under my breath.

Jamie jumped off the desk and yelled at Donna, “We have to do it now! If we don’t, Tali will make fun of you for the rest of the year! Do you understand how long a year actually is? IM him, Donna! He’s just a boy.”

            “He’s not just a boy! He’s Jordan.” She got up and circled around the room.

And that’s when it hit me: Donna liked Jordan! She actually liked him. I never knew anyone my age that had a crush on a boy before. This made complete sense though. She really didn’t want to do it because she liked him. If she didn’t like him, she would have done it already and made it really funny like it was all a big joke. But she was seriously about to cry and there was only one possible explanation, which was that DONNA LIKED JORDAN!

            I looked at Jamie who was steaming mad. She was really nervous about Tali. I could tell. She was probably just fed up with the fact that Tali always talked to boys and she didn’t and this was the perfect chance to talk to one. But Jamie didn’t see what I saw: THAT DONNA LIKED JORDAN!

I knew I had to stop this from happening. I’d be horrified if I had to tell a boy that I actually liked that I liked him, even if it was a joke.

            “You know what, Donna?” I said as I twisted Sam’s chair around to face my two friends who were freaking out, “I think we should do this a different night. We can tell everyone that we did it and then just say that my printer was broken. It’s fine. There will be another spit game tomorrow and everyone will forget about this.”

            “But… the bet. We can’t.” Donna was shocked that I had given in. 

            “Exactly, Bex! THE BET! We made a deal and we can’t break it.” Jamie looked so mad she was going to explode. She was overreacting.

“Uch,” Jamie stomped out of Sam’s room and into my room. Donna said “thank you” and then she walked to the bathroom that was in the hallway. She looked like she was about to burst into tears, but not because she was sad. She looked really happy, actually.

            Once they were both gone, I slumped down in the chair. I was glad that it was over. I was about to sign off Sam’s AOL and go and see if Jamie was still steaming mad, when I realized what was right in front of me. I was logged onto Sam’s account and I could make a status on his Instant Messaging account that every boy and girl our age could see. I thought about not doing it for a second but I quickly shook that thought away. I had nothing to lose.

I cleared away his status that read: “Available.” I wrote: Tali loves Mason Harmony. Then I signed off and ran to my room as quickly as if I had just escaped prison. I was too excited.

            I told Donna and Jamie what I had done and we laughed so hard I thought my appendix was going to explode. I think it made them forget about what had happened earlier.

            “Do you think Tali is going to find out about the status?” Donna asked.

            “You need to stop being so afraid everything, Donna,” Jamie snapped at her. I quickly squeezed Jamie’s leg telling her to be nicer to Donna. “But… you know it would be extra funny if she did find out about it,” Jamie added.

            “She would freak out!” I put my hair up in a ponytail and then changed my mind about it and let my hair back down.

            “Either way Tali’s going to freak out tomorrow. Mission DJ was not completed.” Jamie said and she put her jacket on. Both of them called their mom’s to pick them up.

            “But we’re going to make our entire grade think that Tali likes Mason.” I started to say as we went downstairs to wait for their mom’s to come.

            “Mason is so funny. I bet when he finds out that she likes him he pretends to ask her out.” Donna started to giggle at the thought.

            “Oh no!” I smacked my hand to my face. “What did I start?” Donna and Jamie both looked at me and then we burst into laughter again. We didn’t know what was coming for us the next day but the thought of Mason and Tali pretend going out was hilarious.

“Wait. Seriously guys… What are we going to tell everyone tomorrow?” Donna asked.

            I saw through the window that two cars were waiting outside so I said, “We’re just going to pretend that we completed the mission.” I faked a smile as I opened the door to my house and waved goodbye. Jamie looked at me one last time before I closed the door. She saw straight through my face, but I didn’t want either of them to know that I was just as worried as they were. I just wanted them to leave already.