Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Author:Jerry Spinelli [Spinelli, Jerry]
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780375890819
Publisher: RH Childrens Books
Published: 2007-06-15T05:00:00+00:00

Everyone’s eyes were on me.

“Think about what?” I said.

“About joining Perry’s harem?”

I don’t know how long I sat there looking like a doofus before Dootsie finally rescued me. “What’s a harem?” she said.

Ponytail, the only one left standing, reached down and button-pressed Dootsie’s nose. “A harem is when a bunch of girls all like the same guy.”

Zombie stuck her finger in Perry’s ear. “Even if the guy’s a wing nut.”

Ponytail laid a hand on my shoulder. “Little Perry over there doesn’t want to get serious about anybody—”

“—so he’s semi-serious about a bunch of us,” said Stephanie.

“Perry’s a rolling stone,” said Zombie. “He belongs to nobody. Right, Per?”

Perry kept his usual stone face, but I could tell he was enjoying all this. The winky looks I was getting from the girls made me wonder if he had told them about our night on the roof. I hoped not.

Zombie poked him. “Tell her your nickname, Per.”

Perry sniffed. “You tell her.”

She grinned. “Dandy.”

I looked at Perry. “Dandy?”

“As in dandelion,” said Zombie.

“As in flower,” said Ponytail. “As in a flower that attracts lots of honeybees.” She looked at the others, grinning. “And we are—ta-da!” Each of the three girls hoisted a leg onto the table to show nickel-size black and yellow tattoos of honeybees on their ankles. They looked fake, the wash-off type. I hoped they were.

“And Dandy”—Zombie pinched his cheek—“is the flower.”

Ponytail snapped her fingers. “Hey—” She pointed at me. “Stargirl—” She pointed at herself and the others. “We could be…Perry girls!”

Stephanie and Zombie did a drumroll on the tabletop. “Yes!”

Stephanie was staring at me. “She thinks we’re kidding.”

Ponytail studied me. “She thinks we’re lying.”

Zombie poked Perry. “Are we lying, Dandy?”

Perry looked at me. He nodded. “They’re lying.”

“I lie,” said Dootsie, but her confession was lost in the laughter and playful battering Perry took from the three girls.

“There’s only one thing about Perry Delloplane that’s a lie,” said Stephanie.

I took the bait. “What’s that?”

“He didn’t really go to boot camp. He went to—” She looked at the others and swept her arms like an orchestra conductor, and on the downbeat they all belted out, “BOOTY CAMP!” and laughed and slapped hands.

Dootsie was fed up with being ignored, and now she saw her opening. She climbed onto the table and stood on the empty aluminum pizza platter. “I got a booty!” she proclaimed to everyone, and she hiked up her toga and started to wiggle and a dozen tiny gray Babars shimmied in our faces. Whistles and catcalls flew across the restaurant.

I stood. “Okay. That’s it.” I lifted her from the table. She protested. So did the girls. “It’s past your bedtime,” I told her. “Your parents are going to kill me.”

Patrons applauded as I carried her off. As we went out the door, she called back over my shoulder: “I won!”

On our way up Bridge Street we passed a Laundromat. A lady was sitting inside, reading a magazine. In front of her, two dryers were running. Behind the portholes clothes were tumbling…tumbling…

Like me.

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