Nancy Clancy, Secret Admirer

by Jane O'Connor

  Nancy’s mother was smiling. “It means that in college your father never missed a party and spent way too much time playing Hacky Sack.”

  “Team captain,” her dad said proudly. “Undefeated our final season. Let’s not forget that!”

  “Thanks to me, you passed that history exam.”

  “And the rest is history!” Dad said. He wrapped his arms around Nancy’s mom and kissed her. “I never looked at another girl!”

  Nancy went upstairs to her room, flopped on her bed, and pondered. Yes, her parents had found true love. But it wasn’t a very romantic story. It would have been so much better if her dad had been secretly admiring her mother and then finally declared his love.

  That was definitely the way Annie and Andy had to fall in love, Nancy decided. There was only one problem. How could Andy be Annie’s secret admirer when he didn’t even know her?

  Bree came up with the answer during recess on Monday. It was while she was hanging upside down on the jungle gym. Bree claimed to do her best thinking upside down. “All the blood from my heart goes straight to my brain,” she said, “and makes it work better.”

  That didn’t sound scientific. But maybe it was true. Because Bree’s plan was superb. She swung right side up and explained it to Nancy.

  “Every day we’ll leave something for Annie at her front door. Like candy. Or a rose. And each time the note will say ‘From your secret admirer.’”

  Nancy was straddling a bar on the jungle gym. Hanging upside down didn’t make her any smarter. It just made her dizzy. “Oh! So we’re pretending to be Andy!”

  “Who’s Andy?” Grace asked. She was swinging from a rung above Bree and Nancy.

  “This is a private conversation,” Bree informed Grace.

  Nancy inched closer to Bree. “Let’s leave a poem for Annie, too. A love poem!” she whispered.

  Grace climbed down a rung. “Have you done an Appreciation Heart about me yet?”

  “No,” Bree said.

  Nancy just shook her head. She’d finished a couple more hearts last night. But she still had a lot to go.

  “I did both of yours.” Then in a singsong voice, Grace said, “Want me to tell what I wrote?”

  Secretly Nancy did. But right away, Bree shook her head. “No. Mr. D said it’s supposed to be a surprise.” Bree was much stricter about rules than Nancy.

  A moment later, Mr. Dudeny called out that recess was over. That meant that Bree and Nancy had to wait until lunchtime to plan out more of Operation Eternal Love.

  Bree and Nancy sat at their usual table under a poster about the four food groups.

  “What if we drop clues for Annie?” Bree said as she unfolded a napkin and spread it carefully on top of her tray.

  “Clues?” Nancy watched Bree arrange her sandwich, milk box, apple slices, and bag of trail mix on the tray. Bree was very neat about lunch.

  “Like in the first love note we say, ‘My first name starts with an ‘A,’ just like yours,’” Bree explained. “It’ll make it even more mysterious.”

  “Oh!” This was such a superb idea. Nancy wished she had thought of it herself. “And in another one, we say, ‘I play guitar. Soon I will serenade you, my darling!’”

  Bree giggled. “That’s really good!”

  Yoko and Clara came and sat at their table.

  “Let’s tell them! Please, please!” Nancy begged Bree. Operation Eternal Love was too good to keep just to themselves.

  “Tell us what?” Clara asked.

  As soon as Clara and Yoko locked their lips and threw away the key, Nancy said, “We’re going to make two teenagers fall in love!”

  “Wow! It’s like something out of a movie!” Yoko said once she heard their plan.

  “I know!” said Nancy. It was like a movie. In the last scene, Annie and Andy would be walking down a street holding hands. . . . No, no. They wouldn’t be on a street. They’d be on a beach holding hands. At sunset. Then suddenly the words “The End” would pop up over their heads.

  “I don’t understand.” Clara had pulled apart an Oreo cookie and was licking off the filling. “How can they fall in love if they don’t know each other?”

  “Simple.” Nancy held up the granola bar in her lunch box to see if anybody wanted it. Nobody did. “They are going to meet on Valentine’s Day.”

  “How?” Clara wanted to know. “Where?”

  “Um, we’re still planning that part,” Bree said.

  “You only have till Friday,” Yoko pointed out.

  That was true. Time was of the essence. That was something Mr. Dudeny often said. It meant there wasn’t a minute to waste.

  After school, Nancy and Bree set Operation Eternal Love into motion. They rode over to Annie’s house. No car was in the driveway. And nobody was out walking a dog.

  “It looks like the coast is clear!” Nancy said. A shiver of excitement wiggled through her. This was almost like sleuthing! They parked their bikes a few houses down from Annie’s. Then Nancy grabbed the love note and the granola bar from her bike basket. Nancy wished they had a fancy box of candy, the kind where each piece sat in a little pleated paper cup. But Bree kept insisting, “It’s the thought that counts.”

  Lickety-split they dashed down to Annie’s house. As they reached the porch, a dog inside started yapping like mad. They left the note and granola bar right by the front door. Then they made a quick getaway.

  On the ride back home, Nancy imagined the look on Annie’s face when she read the note. It was written on a rose-pink index card and said:

  At the bottom, in silver gel-pen ink, Nancy had drawn a fancy key. Bree had written all the words because her script looked more grown-up than Nancy’s.

  As Nancy turned the corner onto their street, she was filled with a sense of satisfaction. Andy and Annie were one step closer to falling in love!

  Step two did not go as smoothly. First it started pouring almost the minute school let out. Nancy and Bree had to run the whole way home.

  Nancy was out of breath by the time they reached Bree’s house. She flung herself on the sofa, panting.

  Bree pointed to a vase on the hall table. “There are the roses.”

  “Oh.” Nancy was disappointed. “They look so droopy.”

  “What do you expect? My mom’s birthday was last week.” Nancy went over and picked out the ones that still had most of their petals.

  “I don’t know,” Bree said, watching Nancy. “Mom might get mad.”

  “Don’t be silly.” Nancy tied her hair ribbon around the roses. “Your mom has plenty left. They’re going to get tossed soon anyway.”

  “I guess.” Bree didn’t look convinced.

  Then Nancy raced home and brought back the Valentine’s Day card that her dad had bought. “Here. Read this,” she said, handing Bree the silver secret admirer card.

  Bree read it aloud:

  “No other eyes shine like your eyes.

  They sparkle like stars in the night skies.

  And your smile is like the morning sun,

  Spreading warmth on everyone.

  It’s you I’m always thinking of.

  To you I pledge eternal love.”

  “Doesn’t that say it all?” Nancy smiled and sighed. “I’ll get a pink index card so you can write it down.”

  “Oh, no! No way!” Bree shoved the card back at Nancy. “That’s copying!”

  Nancy sighed. “Okay, okay.”

  Together they came up with another love poem.

  Roses are red,

  Violets are blue.

  My eternal love is all

  Pledged to you.

  “This isn’t nearly as good,” Nancy grumbled.

  Bree said exactly what Nancy knew she would say: “It’s the thought that counts.”

  Nancy returned Dad’s valentine, then got her raincoat, helmet, and bike. Biking to Annie’s in the rain was no fun. By the time they got there, Bree and Nancy were soaking wet.

  Once again, the house looked desert
ed, which meant nobody was home.

  They ran up the porch steps.

  Once again, the dog started yipping.

  “Aw, some of the ink ran,” Bree said as they put the card and flowers on the mat by the front door. “It looks like it says ‘For Amie.’”

  The roses had also lost more petals.

  “Nancy? Nancy Clancy?” they suddenly heard someone shouting.

  Nancy and Bree spun around.

  A truck had pulled to a stop right in front of Annie’s house. It was Andy’s old pickup truck. Inside it was Andy!

  “Hey!” Andy rolled down the window. “I thought it was you!”

  Nancy’s brain froze. She gulped. “H-hi, Andy!”

  “That’s Andy?” Bree whispered. When Nancy nodded, Bree let out a squeak like a mouse. “What do we say?”

  Nancy didn’t know. Her brain was still frozen.

  “What are you doing over here?” Andy asked. Then he pointed to their bikes. “Those yours?”

  “Um, yeah. We were—uh, we were riding our bikes.” Nancy licked her lips and blinked. “Then it started raining really hard. So . . . so we ducked under this porch for a minute.” The words just seemed to pop out of her mouth all on their own. But they made sense. Kind of. “I have no idea who lives here,” she added.

  “Come on. I’ll give you girls a ride home.”

  Oh no! Andy was getting out of the truck. What if Annie came home now? It would mess up everything!

  Andy picked up both bikes and put them in the back of the truck. Nancy and Bree scrambled into the front seat. Nancy peered down the street. So far, there was no sign of Annie.

  Before Andy started the engine, he turned to Nancy. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

  “Sorry. This is Bree,” Nancy said hurriedly.

  “Hi.” Bree smiled a nervous smile. Too many of her teeth were showing.

  “Okay, away we go.” Andy took out his key and started the engine. At least, he tried to. Each time, the truck made a funny noise.

  “This happens all the time,” he said. “It’ll just take a second to fix. Don’t look so worried, Nancy.”

  Worried? Nancy wasn’t worried. She was frazzled. She was frantic! She was panic-stricken! Everything was going wrong! While Andy got under the hood of his truck, Nancy and Bree scrunched way down in front so maybe Annie wouldn’t see them if she came by.

  Hurry, Andy. Hurry, Andy! Nancy was shouting in her head. Nancy was almost 100 percent positive that she and Bree could send thoughts to each other. But they were best friends. Andy was only her guitar teacher.

  At last Andy returned and—ooh la la!—this time the engine sprang to life. The truck took off down the street. At the corner, a red station wagon was waiting to make a turn.

  “That’s Annie’s car!” Bree whispered to Nancy.

  They had gotten away in the nick of time!

  “Merci beaucoup!” Nancy said to Andy when they reached her house. She and Bree hopped down from the truck. “See you Friday. Same time. Same place.”

  “’Fraid not,” Andy said as he got their bikes down. “I need to call your mom. I got a gig late Friday afternoon.” Andy was going to play guitar at the Candy Café for some little kid’s birthday party.

  “Oh! JoJo’s going to that party!” Nancy exclaimed.

  “So is Freddy—he’s my little brother,” Bree added.

  “Maybe we can switch your guitar lesson to Saturday.” Andy got back in the truck, tipped his baseball cap to Bree and Nancy, and drove off.

  “Talk about a close call!” Nancy said once Andy’s truck was out of sight.

  Bree’s hand was pressed against her chest. “My heart is pounding so hard. I have to sit down.”

  In the kitchen, Nancy poured two big glasses of apple juice. While she gulped hers down, Nancy thought about what Andy had just told them. “Bree, maybe running into Andy was a stroke of luck.”

  “It was?”

  “Think about it!” Nancy paused. “Now we know where Andy and Annie can meet Friday!”

  A smile began to break out on Bree’s face. She jumped up and started doing her little victory dance. “Yessss! The Candy Café!”

  The birthday party invitation was on the fridge. The party ended at five o’clock.

  “They always have cake at the end,” Bree said. “Andy’s gig will be over right before then.”

  Nancy nodded. “So around a quarter to five is when Annie has to show up. Oh, Bree, this is all working out!”

  Bree said, “We can go to the Candy Café when it’s time to pick up JoJo and Freddy.” A dreamy look came over her face. “We can spy on Annie and Andy and watch them fall in love!”

  Nancy poured herself more juice. “Maybe it wasn’t just luck that Andy drove by!” she said, squinting her eyes in deep thought. “Of all the streets in town, why did Andy pick Annie’s street to drive down? Maybe he was drawn to her house like a magnet.”

  “Ooooh.” Bree sat back and let this sink in. “It’s like their love is meant to be!”

  “Exactly!” Then Nancy clinked her glass against Bree’s and they both said at the same time, “To eternal love!”

  On Wednesday, the letter that Nancy and Bree left on Annie’s porch said:

  My darling,

  I cannot keep my eternal love a secret any longer. Please meet me on Friday at the Candy Café. Be there at twilight. (That is 4:45.) I am tall, dark, and handsome. I will be wearing a Red Sox baseball cap.

  Check one of the boxes below:

  YES, I will be there.

  NO, I am not coming.

  Leave your answer at the bench by the swings at the playground.

  P.S. Maybe use some tape so it won’t blow away.

  Thursday was the longest school day ever. Nancy couldn’t wait until three o’clock when she and Bree could bike to the playground. What if Annie’s answer was no? Then all their hard work would have been a waste. It was too heartbreaking to think about!

  Even during creative writing, Nancy’s mind kept wandering. All she did was fill her paper with doodles. Little hearts. Big hearts. Hearts with frills around the edges. Inside each one were two script “A”s.

  “Daydreaming, Nancy?”

  Nancy looked up. “Yes. Sorry, Mr. D.”

  “I’m eager to find out what Lucette is up to next.”

  Lucette Fromage was a nine-year-old girl that Nancy had made up. In the last story, Lucette Fromage had caught a gang of jewel thieves. Now Lucette was trying to reunite a prince and the poor village girl he loved. One reason why Mr. D liked Nancy’s stories was that she used vivid, interesting words, like “reunite,” which meant get back together.

  Mr. Dude said, “Sometimes a writer needs to daydream. Writers can get superb ideas from daydreaming.”

  Nancy smiled. She loved Mr. D so much. Not in an eternal-love kind of way. But because he was so wise and understanding.

  At last, the minute hand crept up to the twelve and the hour hand reached the three. The bell on the wall in their classroom rang.

  School was out!

  Nancy and Bree jumped from their seats, raced down the hall, and burst outside. While they were stashing stuff in their bike baskets, Grace came over to them.

  “Bree, your mom is parked around the corner. She told me to tell you that she’s driving you and Nancy home.”

  “What?!” Bree and Nancy cried. “Why?”

  Grace shrugged. “How should I know?”

  Bree turned to Nancy. “This ruins everything.”

  “Ruins what?” Grace asked eagerly. “Ruins what?” she repeated, tagging along as they wheeled their bikes over to Bree’s mother’s car.

  “Why can’t we bike home?” Bree asked her mom. “We don’t need you to drive us.”

  It turned out that Nancy’s mom was working late. Bree’s mom was picking up JoJo and Freddy from preschool and then doing some errands. “I don’t want you girls staying in the house alone. I’ve got the trunk open. Put your bikes in ba
ck and jump in.” Bree’s mom had a “don’t argue” look on her face. Still, Bree gave it a try.

  “We have to bike over to the playground,” Bree said. “It’s very important. Pleeeeeeeease.” She strung the word out forever.

  It didn’t work.

  “What’s so important?” Grace wanted to know. “Why do you have to go to the playground?”

  “None of . . .” Nancy was starting to say “None of your beeswax.” Then she remembered something. Grace lived across the street from the playground.

  “Grace, will you do something for us?” Nancy asked.

  “Maybe. But not for free. You’ll have to pay me back. Deal?”

  Nancy rolled her eyes, then nodded. “Deal.”

  “Nancy, hurry up,” Bree’s mother called. Bree was already in the backseat, pouting.

  Quickly Nancy told Grace what she had to do.

  “Call right after!” Nancy said as she buckled up the seat belt. “I’ll be at Bree’s.”

  Every time the phone rang, Nancy and Bree jumped.

  At last Bree’s mom said, “Bree, Nancy. It’s Grace on the phone.”

  Bree got right down to business. “Did you find the note, Grace?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, does it say yes or no?” Nancy asked. It was hard sharing one phone.

  “First you have to tell me what going’s on.”

  Nancy groaned. So did Bree. But they told Grace.

  “That’s, like, the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Grace told them.

  Nancy was about to say there was no such word as “stupidest.” Instead she shouted, “Just tell us what Annie said!”

  “She said no, she isn’t coming!”

  Bree and Nancy looked at each other. Nancy’s lips trembled. Bree already had tears in her eyes.

  “Ha! I’m only kidding!” Grace was laughing into the phone. “The box for yes is checked.”