Ann Martin - Kristy's Mystery Admirer

war was over. I didn't mind being ignored by Cokie. Anyway, a lot of kids at school were mad at her for sending the notes. I felt satisfied.

Bart and I took a break after awhile, had some more punch, and then returned to the dance floor. The first slow dance began. Yikes! A slow dance. Bart put his arms around my neck and we swayed back and forth, back and forth, in time to the music. Somehow, though, I had a feeling that I wasn't getting the full effect of things, what with those layers of foam between us. It didn't matter, though. A slow dance felt pretty nice.

When the band stopped for a break of their own, one of the teachers (Ms. Mandel, who was dressed as Snow White), stepped up to a microphone. "While the members of the band are taking a rest," she began, "I would like to present the prizes for the best costumes."

Bart and I glanced at each other, hopeful.

"Scariest costume prizes," said Ms. Mandel, "go to Danny Olssen and Tara Valentine, our space monsters. Funniest costume prizes go to Danielle Pitchard and Marcus Brown, the surfing dinosaurs. The prizes for the most unusual costumes go to our lobsters, Kristy Thomas and ..."

I didn't even hear the rest of what Ms. Man-133

del had to say. "We won!" I exclaimed to Bart. "I wonder what we won." And then I added, "You don't think most unusual really means strangest, do you?"

"No," Bart assured me. "Besides, who cares? We won a coupon for a free large pizza at Pizza Express."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope. That teacher just announced it. Come on. We're supposed to go and collect our prize."

So Bart and I joined the other winners, who were surrounding Ms. Mandel. As our pizza coupons were handed out, everyone clapped.

Then the band members returned and the dancing began again. Bart and I danced until Bart looked at the clock on the wall and said, "Kristy, it's ten-fifteen. We better find your friends and get going."

"Oh," I said in disappointment, but I knew he was right. "Let's just finish this dance first, though." (It was a slow dance.)

So we did. And when the music ended, Bart leaned toward me and kissed me very gently on the cheek.

Ooh, I thought. So this is what it's like to be in love.

Chapter 15.

All right, I want to know everything," said Shannon.

She and I, and Jessi, Stacey, Mary Anne, Mallory, Dawn, and Claudia were sitting around my bedroom. The dance was over. Scattered about the room were pieces of our costumes — Dawn's Alice in Wonderland dress, Mal's clown feet (she'd had a lot of trouble dancing at the Hop, and had had to take the shoes off and dance barefoot) Mary Anne's witch hat, and my lobster suit. The suit was huge and was standing in a corner, the tentacles waving ever so slightly.

My friends and I had all changed into our nightgowns. Shannon, Stacey, and I were lying on my bed on our stomachs with our feet in the air. Mallory, Dawn, Mary Anne, and Jessi were propped up in various places on the floor of my room. Dawn, in fact, was leaning against the bed, and Shannon was

braiding her hair from above. Claudia was sitting at my desk, painting her nails.

"Why are you painting your nails now?" I asked her, looking at my watch.

"So I won't have to do it tomorrow," she replied simply.

"Come on, I want to hear about the dance," said Shannon again.

"All right," said Jessi. "I'll start. The gym was beautifully decorated. There were streamers and balloons everywhere — "

"Not that kind of stuff!" Shannon interrupted her. "The good stuff."

"The good stuff?" repeated Jessi. She and Mallory hadn't been to too many dances. They weren't sure what sort of information Shannon wanted.

"How about this?" said Stacey. "Cokie Gray was all dressed up. I mean, not in a costume, just really dressed up. She was wearing a lot of makeup, too, including false eyelashes." (I began to laugh. I knew what Stacey was going to say. I'd seen what had happened.) "And she leaned over the punch bowl and one of her lashes fell off and landed right in the punch."

"And Miranda Shillaber was standing there and she made the teacher who was in charge of the refreshments get a fresh bowl of punch

because she said the first bowl had been contaminated by the eyelashes. I thought Cokie was going to kill her. She,,gave her a Look," I finished.

Shannon laughed. "So what else? Did you all dance?"

"Yup," answered Dawn. "No wallflowers here."

"Ben is a great dancer," said Mal dreamily.

"I danced with about eight different boys and they were all clods," announced Jessi, with disgust.

"That's because you're used to dancing with boys who take ballet," said Mal. "They're graceful."

"No, Jessi's right. Sixth-grade boys are clods," said Shannon knowingly. "Trust me. I remember. Half of them are all gangly, kind of like spiders, and the other half are so short you can hardly see them."

"When does it change?" asked Jessi.

"It's slow. A — a sort of — What's the word?" said Claudia, without looking up from her nail polish pursuits.

"A metamorphosis?" suggested Mary Anne.

"Yeah, that's it. A metamorphosis," said Claud. She held out one hand, examining her fingertips critically. "Not bad," she murmured. "Some day I'm going to go to the nail

salon and get a French manicure." I was about to ask what that was when

Shannon said, "Come on. More details! More

details! I can't stand not knowing what happened."

"Kristy and Bart won the prize for the most

unusual costumes," said Dawn. She reached

up to pat her head and see how the braiding

was coming.

"Great," said Shannon. "What'd you win?" "A coupon for a FREE LARGE pizza with

everything," I answered. "Ew," said Jessi. "Even anchovies?" "Bart and I happen to like anchovies," I

replied. "We have a lot in common." "Yeah," said Stacey slyly. Shannon peered across Stacey's back and

over at me. "What does she mean?" she asked

with interest.

"I — I — " (I couldn't get the words out.) "Bart kissed her!" exclaimed Mal, unable to

contain herself. "He kissed her at the dance

right in front of everyone!"

"He kissed you?" cried Shannon. She

dropped the braid she was working on. "How

did he kiss you?"

"It was just a kiss on the cheek," I said.

"And how did you know about that, Mal?" I

asked.

Mary Anne giggled. "We all know," she said. "Everybody saw. He kissed you in the middle of the gym."

I tried to be embarrassed, but I don't think I even worked up a red face. I was sort of proud that my friends had seen Bart kiss me.

Mary Anne began to giggle.

"What?" I said.

"Bart is better than Alan Gray with M&M's in his eyes, isn't he?" she said.

We all laughed, except for Shannon, who didn't understand the true extent of Alan's pestiness.

"Alan," I began explaining to Shannon, "will do anything for attention. Once we gave Mary Anne a party" (I said that part quickly because Mary Anne had hated the party; we should have known better than to surprise her) "and Alan walked around with yellow M&M's squinted between his eyes, telling everyone he was Little Orphan Annie."

"I can assure you," said Shannon, "that Bart will never do that. At least not in public." She returned to Dawn's hair.

"Kristy?" Jessi spoke up softly. "Are you in love?"

I hesitated, knowing that by hesitating I was giving myself away. If any of my brothers had been in the room they would have teased me

for about a year. But my friends wouldn't do that. They all just glanced at me and let the subject drop.

"Well," said Dawn, "tomorrow's Hallow-een."

"No . . . it's today," said Mal in a low voice, looking at her watch. "The time is twelve-oh-three."

"I'm taking Karen, Andrew, David Michael, Emily, and some of their friends trick-or-treat-ing tomorrow," I said. "They're going to dress up as characters from The Wizard of Oz." I hoped I'd be able to keep my mind on the task. At the moment, all I could think of was Bart's kiss.