Luckily, Parker Donovan had the good graces not to say anything about his date with Jana around me the next day. I don't know what I'd have said or done if he would've. Instead, I chose not to worry about it and threw myself into my studies that day and really hung with my friends between classes, doing everything I could not to think about the previous night. I was proud of myself for keeping my mind off the whole experiment. I just wished I could do that for the next 3 weeks.
At lunch I sat with my two best friends, Scott Daly and Mark Peters, along with Shane Arrington, Bill Soliday and Brad Cochran. We talked and ate until about 15 minutes till the bell when Brad suggested we go out to the basketball court for the remaining lunch period. I definitely was up to that, and so was everyone else, so we all started out. Then I realized we'd probably be playing until almost the last minute before class and I might not have time to get my books out and make it to French class on time, so I told the guys I had to run to my locker and then I'd meet them outside. I was walking very quickly (no running allowed in the halls) to my locker when I noticed a new bulliton on the board in the front hall. I stopped to look at it, as I had just checked the board this morning and this paper hadn't been on it then- obviously, it had just been put up. Apparently, it was some sort of sign-up for a Read-a-Thon at the library on Saturday night. Second graders who read a certain amount of books could go to the library and participate in games and read alouds and then stay overnight. Jr. high school students from our school were asked to come and help the kids have fun and read aloud to them.
"Fun if you're a second grader," I said to myself with a laugh. I would have moved on, except I happened to glance at the signup sheet. There were already quite a few kids names on it but only one caught my attention. At the very top was Jana's familiar signature. What, no date with Parker that night? I thought sarcastically. But still.... even though I was a bit mad at her, this might be a great chance to talk to her. Or at least keep an eye on her. I looked over the names of the boys on the list. I wasn't sure if any were competition, but you never knew, so I figured I might as well go too. I didn't have anything planned for Saturday, and my parents would be thrilled. Plus there might be some kids from Mark Twain Elemantary that I knew. I scribbled my name down and then hurried to my locker. The guys would be wondering what had happened to me.