Petey slips the note intended for Kate Faber between the tape recorder and the magnifying glass. Who knows—it might come in handy someday. He has thought about showing it to Gretchen Humboldt, his science partner, to see if she can explain it to him. Petey knows what the note says, but he has no idea why Marylin and Mazie thought it would be funny to give it to Kate. Fooling with the human heart is no laughing matter, he might say to Gretchen.
After Petey finishes checking his backpack, he leans down next to the heating duct and presses his ear against it. Usually when he does this in the morning, all he hears is the wheeze and shudder of the coffee maker. But today the voices of Marylin and his mom flow up through the vent.
“I’m really not in the mood for school today, Mom,” Marylin says. “I just can’t go.”
“Are you sick?”
Marylin sniffles. “No, I just feel lousy after what we talked about Saturday.”
Petey leans back on his haunches. What did Marylin and his mom talk about? How in the world did he miss out on this conversation?
“It’s understandable you feel bad,” his mom says. “But maybe you’ll feel better if you go to school.”
Feel bad about what? Petey wishes Marylin and his mom would quit circling around the subject and say what they mean.
“Going to school would just make me feel worse.”
It comes to Petey in a flash. Marylin must have told his mom about the note on Saturday. He can’t believe it. Marylin actually feels bad about playing such a rotten trick on Kate. Petey is impressed.
Petey stands up and turns to look at his Albert Einstein poster. Einstein looks back at him with his gentle eyes. Be kind, he seems to be telling Petey. Take pity on your sister.
Rounding the corner into the kitchen, Petey grabs Marylin by the shoulder.
“Come here a second,” he says to her, nodding toward the dining room. “I want to show you something.”
“I’m not in the mood, Petey,” Marylin says.
“It’s important! It’ll just take a second,” Petey tells her.
Marylin follows Petey into the dining room, where Petey unzips his backpack pocket and takes out the note.
“She never got it,” he whispers. “I grabbed it out of her mailbox before anyone found it.”
Marylin’s expression is a tangle of confusion. “What? But how? Who told you?”
Petey shrugs. “I know about a lot of things,” he says, trying to sound mysterious.
Marylin takes the note from his hand. “She never saw it?”
“Nope,” Petey says proudly.
“I don’t know whether to thank you or sock you in the nose.”
Petey puts his hands in front of his face. “Whatever you do, just don’t kiss me,” he says.
“Marylin,” his mom calls, “I really think you should go to school.”
“I told you, Mom, I feel too horrible about everything to go to school,” Marylin calls back.
“But Kate didn’t get the note,” Petey whispers at her. “Remember?”
Marylin gives him a strange look. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Petey shakes his head.
Women.
Robbie Ballard has been hanging around Kate’s desk all morning, throwing her hundred-watt smiles every time Kate looks in his direction. Given that Robbie Ballard has not spoken two words to her since third grade except to insult her, Kate finds these smiles of his a little unnerving.
Mazie Calloway has been smiling at her a lot too, Kate realizes. She looks down at her shirt. Did she spill grape juice on it this morning at breakfast? No, her shirt is stain free. It must be her fat knees, Kate decides. They can see her fat knees through her jeans.
When Mrs. Watson leaves the room to run an errand, Robbie Ballard pulls his desk closer to Kate’s.
“So?” he asks, raising his eyebrows.
“So what?” Kate replies uneasily.
Robbie lets out a little laugh. “You know!”
Kate stares at him. This has got to be the weirdest moment of her life. She is apparently having a conversation with Robbie Ballard, but she has no idea what they’re talking about.
“Come on, Kate!” Robbie exclaims. “What do you say?”
Tell her it’s a joke, Marylin had told Kate’s mom. Tell her not to say anything Monday.
Kate raises her eyebrows at Robbie but doesn’t say a word.
“You know what I mean, Kate!” Robbie says. “The movies? Didn’t you read the note?”
What note? Kate almost asks, but she stops herself. “What about it?”
Robbie shakes his head. “What do you mean, ‘What about it?’ Do you want to go to the movies or what?”
Kate smiles her own hundred-watt smile. “Nope,” she says pleasantly.
“You don’t want to go to the movies with me?” Robbie’s mouth hangs open like he has just been socked in the guts.
“No thanks,” Kate says, opening her math book and pretending to be absorbed in her fractions homework.
A buzz seems to follow Kate for the rest of the day. Everywhere she turns, people are looking at her as though they’ve never seen her before. At lunch Caitlin Moore hands her a slam book. “Sign this, okay, Kate? I just started it today.”
Kate nods. As soon as Caitlin walks away, she turns to her page. She expects to find the usual column of “She’s okay” beneath her name, but to Kate’s surprise someone has written “Cute,” and beneath that, in different handwriting, “Mysterious. Wish I knew her better.”
Kate leans back in her chair and looks around the cafeteria. Smiles sparkle at her like flashbulbs from all over the room.
This is definitely the weirdest day of my life, Kate decides. She wishes someone would explain why she’s such a star all of a sudden. She wishes she could still talk to Marylin. But what would she say?
When the phone rings that afternoon, Kate answers, “Hello?”
And then, “Hey, Marylin.”
As it turns out, she knows exactly what to say.
Also by Frances O’Roark Dowell
Chicken Boy
Dovey Coe
Falling In
The Secret Language of Girls
Shooting the Moon
Where I’d Like to Be
The Phineas L. MacGuire books
(Illustrated by Preston McDaniels)
Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Erupts
Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Gets Slimed!
Phineas L. MacGuire . . . Blasts Off!
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2004 by Frances O’Roark Dowell
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
ATHENEUM BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Also available in an Atheneum Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.
Designed by Kristin Smith
First Aladdin Paperbacks edition October 2005
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Dowell, Frances O’Roark.
The secret language of girls / France O’Roark Dowell.
p.cm.
Summary: Marylin and Kate have been friends since nursery school, but when Marylin becomes a middle school cheerleader and Kate begins to develop other interests, their relationship is put to the test.
ISBN 978-0-689-84421-8 (hc)
[1. Best friends—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D75455S
e 2004
[Fic]—dc22 2003012026
ISBN 978-1-4169-0717-6 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-9029-1 (eBook)
The Secret Language of Girls Page 12
