MARK

"Oops, sorry!" A female voice cried suddenly.

I jumped to attention as I realized I'd run into someone outside of the cafeteria.

"No, no, my fault! Sorry," I said quickly, mad at myself for not paying more attention. I quickly picked up the books that the person had dropped and straightened up again, looking around to see who I'd run into. I gulped as I realized it was Jana Morgan! I'd had kind of a silent crush on her since kindergarten and she was one of the last people I wanted to crash into and make myself look like a klutz.

"Thanks, Mark," she said, taking the books and smiling at me. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"That's ok, me neither," I replied, shooting her my best smile.

"Jana! Come on!" a voice called from down the hall.

"Coming!" She called back, then rolled her eyes at me with a grin. "Beth. See ya around, Mark."

"Bye," I said quickly, aware that she probably hadn't heard me in her rush to join her best friends on the playground. Oh well. I was used to being invisible to Jana. I mean, we'd been friends a long time, but I was sure she'd never think of me as, like, anything more than that. She was nice to me and everything, but she just didnt seem interested in any sense except that I was a member of her 6th grade class. She never really payed much attention to me unless we, say, bumped into each other like to today. But then, I thought as I made my way outside, Jana was the most popular girl at Mark Twain- why would she be interested in someone like me?

"THERE you are," someone said from behind, making me jump. I turned around to see Randy Kirwan, one of my best friends, walking towards me from the water fountain next to the bike rack. He was casually tossing a baseball in one hand as he came over, a pleasant smile on his face. Not a surprise though- about him smiling I mean. Randy's one of those people that ALWAYS seems to be smiling. He's just a really friendly person I guess. Not that I would say *I'm* not friendly, but I would feel weird walking around grinning all the time. But on Randy, it seems totally natural.

"Oh, hey," I replied, as we slapped palms. "I got held up by the cafeteria."

"You got held up by the cafeteria?" Randy laughed. "What'd it do, pull a gun on you?"

"Oh, very hilarious," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "I mean, I got held up near the cafeteria. I ran into someone."

"I see," Randy nodded. "Did you happen to run into Daly while you were at it?"

Daly is our other best friend, Scott Daly. The three of us have been inseperable for years. I shook my head.

"Not since lunch." I grinned. "I know what we can do, though- just look for a group of girls and we'll find him." Scott's turned into quite the lady's man this past year.

Randy groaned. "You're probably right." He shook his head with a grin. "I think we're losing him, man."

I laughed, then punched him in the arm. "So I guess that means YOU'RE totally against girls, right?"

He grinned at me. "Well, not ALL girls, I guess. SOME are ok..."

"Oh, like Taffy Sinclair, you mean? Your girlfriend?" I teased. Taffy Sinclair is the probably the best looking girl in our class and she has the biggest crush on Randy, it's really kinda funny. It wouldn't be so bad for Randy, actually, if Taffy wasn't such a snot. But there's no denying that no matter how good looking she is, she's really stuck on herself and that's a big turn-off.

"Get real!" Randy cried, giving me a disgusted look. "Don't even say that! I guess Taffy's *ok*, but there's no way I'd EVER go out with her." Randy paused. "She's not very nice to some people."

I bit back a smile. Another thing you have to know about Randy: he's one of those genuinely nice people who can't understand why anyone would ever dislike someone else. I'm waiting for the day when he finds someone who isn't nice to him and he ends up disliking that person and sees what it feels like. Right now I can almost safely say I've never seen Randy meet a person that he hasn't become friends with.

"Yeah, I know, I was just kiddin' you, man." I replied as we started across the playground towards the baseball diamond where a bunch of guys in our class were situated. "But seriously, ARE there any girls you think are ok?" I added, just for fun.

Randy gave me a look. "Of course! There are a lot of nice girls in our class."

I rolled my eyes. "Humor me, Randy. I mean someone who's, like, NICER than everyone else."

He shrugged and didn't say anything in return, just started turning the baseball around in his hands. I figured that meant I wasn't going to get an answer and was starting to change the subject when he nudged me in the elbow.

"Promise you won't tell anyone," he said quickly, in a low tone. I looked at him with interest. Did he actually like someone? That would be something if he did- Randy wasn't one of those people who are real obvious about their feelings, so I could understand it if I hadn't noticed him crushing on someone.

"Of course I promise," I replied indignantly. "I'm your best friend, aren't I?"

"I know that," he sighed. "But I just don't want too many people to know. That's when things get spilled, you know?"

I nodded. I could definitely see his reasoning. "Well?" I prodded. "Who is it?"

He glanced around the playground as if looking for someone and suddenly smiled. "Over there," he said, nodding his head discreetly. I followed his line of sight towards the far side of the schoolyard fence where a small group of girls were standing, talking and laughing together. There were five of them, and anyone who saw them would know right away that they were all best friends. Actually, they even had a name for themselves- The Fabulous Five... and Jana Morgan was kinda like their leader. That's another reason she's so popular, I guess. Everyone knows who The Fabulous Five are.

"Well, which one?" I asked. Then I grinned. "No wait, let me guess- you like ALL of them, right?"

He gave me a withering look. "Nooo, just one of them. Well, I mean, I think I like her. You know, like like her... not just as a, you know, as a friend."

"Well, WHO?" I demanded loudly, and he glared at me as if afraid someone would overhear.

"Shh," he snapped, glancing around nervously. Then he looked back at the girls and got that smile on his face again. Then he looked back at me, a concerned look on his face. "Promise you won't make fun of me."

"You know I won't do that." I hesitated, then added, "and if you tell me who YOU like, I'll tell you who I like." I instantly regretted saying that- there's no way I wanted to admit to liking Jana... nice as Randy was, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually laughed at me for it. But hey... if it got Randy to fess up....

"Really?" he said, looking surprised. "I didn't know you liked anyone."

"Well, I didn't know you did either," I pointed out. "And I STILL don't..."

He kinda laughed, then coughed, then said quickly, "Jana."

It so took me by surprise that I almost fell backward. Did he read my mind? Or no, wait... that's who HE liked. I almost couldn't believe it! Of ALL the girls in the class...!

"Jana Morgan?" I managed.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Well, duh. There's only one Jana I know of, at least at Mark Twain." Then he looked at me worriedly. "You don't think I'm nuts, do you? I know she's really popular and everything and probably never thinks twice about me, but I dunno..." his voice trailed off and he gazed back in her direction.

I tried not to sigh too loudly. Well, at least I wasn't the only one on that line of thought. Truthfully, I wanted to tell Randy that I DID think he was crazy, that Jana probably barely knew who he was- but I couldn't do that to my friend... one of my BEST friends. He technically had called Jana first, (WHY hadn't I spoken up?!), so I couldn't do much now. And besides, of all the guys in the class, Randy was the best known (I'd say), so if Jana thought twice about anyone...

"No, I don't think you're nuts," I said trying to sound as upbeat as possible. "No, you're not nuts at all. I mean, yeah, she's really popular, but so are you, man. I'd say you're about the most popular guy here... so I guess you guys would really, like, go together really well."

He looked at me hopefully. "You think?" he shook his head. "I don't know about that for sure, but... well, that would be so cool. I've kinda been like, watching her lately and stuff," he said quieter, and I thought his face looked a little red. "And she seems so nice. She says 'hi' to me sometimes, too." He paused a minute then gave me kind of a silly smile. "She's really cute, isn't she?"

I looked over at Jana. She was kind of sideways to us, but I didn't really have to see her right now to answer that question. I knew her looks so well that I could almost see her in my mind perfectly. And she WAS definitely pretty. She's petite, with short, kinda curly brown hair, big brown eyes and long dark eyelashes.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, she is cute." Then I grinned at Randy. "But not as cute as Taffy, right?"

Randy made a face at me, then said quite seriously, "Actually, I think she's prettier than Taffy. I mean, she's so much nicer..."

"Mm hm, right..." I teased, trying to keep the mood light. I didn't even care if Randy got mad at me for teasing him about Taffy, I just didn't want to keep talking about Jana anymore. Because I knew if we did, I'd have to keep encouraging him about it... and frankly, that was pretty hard for me to do.