Meanwhile, my friends and I stood off to the side—not one of us dancing or even swaying.
“We can’t be wallflowers all night,” Rachel said finally. “Someone do something.” She turned to Claire. “Where’s Oliver?”
“Over there.” Claire pointed to the corner of the room, where Oliver, Tobias, Sanjay, and Jonathan were playing freeze tag.
“Aren’t you gonna ask him to dance?” asked Rachel.
“Shouldn’t he ask me?” Claire wondered.
“He’s probably too shy,” said Yumi.
“I say ask him. Since he is your date.”
Claire looked at me, surprised that those words came from my mouth, and I didn’t blame her. I surprised myself.
“Go ahead,” I said.
She ran her fingers through her bangs, took a deep breath, and walked across the room. It was too loud to hear what they were saying, but things must’ve gone well because moments later they walked to the middle of the dance floor and danced.
And watching them wasn’t so bad.
Well, it wasn’t torture.
Meaning I’ve definitely experienced worse things.
Like getting a cavity filled, or being swept underwater by a massive wave, or falling off my bike and twisting my ankle, or scraping my knee—or this one time when I tumbled off my ten-speed and twisted my ankle and scraped my knee.
My point is, those things are all worse than—
On second thought, never mind.
It turns out that actually I’d rather be doing any of those things if it meant I wouldn’t have to watch one of my best friends dance with my crush.
The song seemed to last forever, too, but it did end, eventually. And I survived.
Then a fast song came on and Rachel said, “I’m sick of standing around. Let’s dance.”
So we all started swaying and then full-on dancing—swinging our arms and stomping our feet and spinning around, and by the time the next song came on we were having a blast.
Ten minutes later, the DJ played a slow song, so we moved off the dance floor. “Hey, want me to take your picture so you can text it to Nathan?” I asked Yumi. “You look so great.”
“That’s okay,” she said.
“Hey, how come you’re not on your phone now?” asked Emma. “Are you guys fighting?”
“Nope,” said Yumi. “But his parents got their long-distance bill and flipped out. They took away his phone and he’s grounded, so now we’re only allowed to IM on weekends and only for ten minutes at a time.”
“That stinks!” I said.
Yumi shrugged. “It seemed bad at first, but it’s okay. Turns out it’s more fun hanging out with friends who actually live in the same time zone.”
When the next fast song came on, we headed back to the dance floor.
And before I knew it, I forgot to check on Claire and Oliver every two minutes.
In fact, she totally surprised me when she showed up later that night with her blue eyes sparkling and her cheeks flushed.
“Where’s your date?” Emma asked.
Claire shrugged. “A bunch of guys are playing touch football outside. I think he’s with them.”
“But he’s your date,” said Rachel. “That’s so immature! Do you want me to go get him?”
Claire shook her head. “No, I’d rather hang out with you guys, anyway.”
Rachel and Yumi did a tango while Emma clapped. Claire grinned and grabbed my hands and we both started spinning until we were dizzy, and once we stopped we stumbled and laughed and then started dancing again.
Which is when I realized something. All this time I’d been so worried about not having a date. But I totally missed the most obvious thing.
I wasn’t dateless at all.
I had the four best dates in the entire school.
chapter twenty-four
are pancake allergies real? and other questions i’m not yet qualified to answer.
I got to science so early on Monday Ms. Roberts wasn’t even there yet. Plenty of students were, though. A bunch of them goofed around in the back of the room, but Oliver was already at our table.
I sat down next to him and said hi.
Rather than answer me, he slid over a cookie.
“Your mom made them?” I asked.
“Nope. I did.”
I took a bite. “These are the best!”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“And it’s good that you’re not modest about it,” I joked.
“It’s important to be straightforward about cookies,” he replied. “And speaking of that—or of food, at least—have you used your gift certificate yet? For the pancake house, I mean.”
“I knew what you meant. And no. Not yet. You?”
He shook his head, then clicked his pen open and shut a few times, fast. Staring at it hard, like he was trying to see through the plastic to the inner spring mechanism. “Want to go next weekend?”
“Really?” I asked, thinking—wait. Did Oliver just ask me out on a date?
“Yeah. We can celebrate our victory.”
Oh, right. Of course he didn’t just suggest a date—just a science fair team reunion. Rats!
“Cool,” I said. “You mean all three of us, right?” I glanced toward the back of the room, where Tobias had Jonathan in a headlock. He yelled at him to scream uncle, but Jonathan, red-faced and sputtering, refused.
Oliver looked too and cringed. “Um, maybe just the two of us could go?”
“Okay, sure!” I said, perhaps too quickly.
“Yeah, Tobias is allergic to pancakes.” Oliver turned back around and clicked his pen a few more times.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yup. But, uh, don’t tell him I told you because he’s embarrassed about it.”
Just then Ms. Roberts walked into the room and everyone hurried to their seats. After congratulating me and Oliver and Tobias on our science fair victory, she began her lecture.
I opened up my notebook and tried to take notes. Honestly, I did. But no way could I concentrate. Not with so many questions racing through my mind.
Was Tobias really allergic to pancakes? Or was Oliver just kidding? Pancake allergies aren’t even that funny, when you think about it. And Oliver has a pretty good sense of humor. So was it true? Or did he make it up because he didn’t want Tobias tagging along? And if so, was that because he’s sick of hanging out with Tobias or because our pancake outing is supposed to be our big first date? Not that it had to be big. And not that pancakes are so romantic. Maybe we were just going as friends. Or maybe Oliver really did like me. I mean, obviously he liked me, but did he like me like me or just like me?
I sneaked a sideways glance at him. And a second later, he caught me staring.
I turned away fast, but not before I noticed his small grin. The kind that told me this: The answers to all my questions? They may not come for a while, but once they did, they were going to be good.
acknowledgments
Yay Bloomsbury! Thanks very much to Michelle Nagler, Caroline Abbey, Melanie Cecka, Jennifer Healey, Melissa Kavonic, Nicole Gastonguay, Donna Mark, Vanessa Nuttry, Rebecca Mancini, Deb Shapiro, Beth Eller, and Diana Blough.
Thank you, Laura Langlie, Bill Contardi, and Coe Booth.
And mega-thanks to Jim, Leo, and Lucy, who showed up just in time.
Copyright © 2011 by Leslie Margolis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in the United States of America in May 2011
by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
E-book edition published in May 2011
www.bloomsburykids.com
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
The Library of
Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Margolis, Leslie.
Everybody bugs out / by Leslie Margolis. — 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Sixth-grader Annabelle realizes that she has a crush on Oliver, with whom she is doing a science fair project, just before the Valentine’s Day dance—and just before her friend Claire announces her crush on him.
ISBN 978-1-59990-526-6 (hardcover)
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Middle schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Family life-California—Fiction. 6. California—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M33568Eve 2011 [Fic]—dc22 2010035628
ISBN 978-1-59990-637-9 (e-book)
Everybody Bugs Out Page 14