Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Exclusive exclusive (n) a story that is reported by only one newspaper because that newspaper is the only one with the information Jessie walked home alone that afternoon. It was hard work being around other people, particularly kids in her grade. There were so many things to figure out. She had to watch their faces closely and listen hard to the way they talked. Did their eyes open wide? Did they look down at the ground? Did they whisper? Or get loud? It was like trying to solve a math problem that never ended. Take, for example, what had happened on the playground after lunch. After promising Evan to find out who drew

the heart on the bathroom wall, Jessie had wandered outside in search of Megan. She found her at the swings, but when Jessie came close, Megan walked away. Jessie tried to follow her, but Megan kept moving, first to the monkey bars and then the slide and then the picnic tables. Finally, Salley came up to Jessie and said, "Megan told me to tell you that she doesn't want to talk to you right now because she's really mad and she doesn't want to say something she'll regret later." "Why is she mad?" asked Jessie. "I just asked a question." Salley shook her head and said, "You're not supposed to ask about stuff like that. Not out loud where everyone can hear you. No one says that stuff out loud. Obviously. You only talk about it late at night at a slumber party after all the lights are out and everyone's half asleep." But Jessie had never been to a slumber party,

so she didn't know about that. "Why? Is it some kind of secret?" Salley looked at her sideways, clearly puzzled. "Well, yeah. That's why everyone's so interested. Everyone wants to know who likes who." "Everyone?" said Jessie. "Does everyone like someone?" "Pretty much," said Salley. "I mean, it's fourth grade. We're not little kids anymore." But Jessie didn't understand what it meant to like someone in that way. And when she tried to smile and wave at Megan from across the playground—which she knew was the right way to tell someone "I want to be friends with you"— Megan wouldn't look at her. Walking home after school, Jessie got to thinking. If what Salley said was true—that everyone liked someone and it was all a big secret—then here was a hot topic that 4-O was interested in. She would need to collect data, of course. In just four days! But when she did, she

would have a newspaper article that everyone would want to read. Jessie imagined the headline of her front-page story: Who Likes Who—A 4-O Forum Exclusive!