Secrets by Francine Pascal

Author:Francine Pascal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Seven

Elizabeth arrived at school Monday morning to find her problem with Enid overshadowed by an item of gossip that had taken off and, in the last week, spread rapidly.

Practically everyone at Sweet Valley High was buzzing about The Affair—the one supposedly going on between Ms. Dalton and Ken Matthews.

“I don’t buy it for one minute,” Elizabeth told Caroline Pearce, a member of Pi Beta Alpha sorority, after first period as they stood outside the French classroom.

They were waiting for Ms. Dalton to arrive and unlock the door. Elizabeth couldn’t remember her ever having been late before. But then everything about Ms. Dalton had seemed not quite right this past week. In class she was nervous and distracted. Elizabeth had noticed dark circles under her eyes, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well.

“I refuse to believe she’s fooling around with Ken,” Elizabeth went on. “It just doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone as together as Ms. Dalton be interested in a kid?”

“Ken Matthews isn’t exactly a kid,” Caroline countered, primly tossing her impossibly neat red hair. Aside from Cara, she was probably the biggest gossip around—and the one person Jessica and Elizabeth could agree on disliking. “Besides, everyone knows she’s tutoring him. The question is, what is she tutoring him in?”

“It’s the law of human nature,” put in Olivia Davidson, who worked with Elizabeth on the paper and was known for her liberal views on every subject from nuclear war to organic food. She was especially big these days on women’s rights. “A woman doesn’t reach her peak until she’s in her thirties. Men are practically burned out by then. So it makes sense, really, when you think about it. Though I still can’t imagine Ms. Dalton and Ken.”

“What makes sense?” asked Lois Waller.

“For an older woman to be attracted to a younger man.” Caroline filled her in.

“Maybe,” said Elizabeth, “but I still don’t think it’s true in this case. Ms. Dalton is our teacher. She wouldn’t do something as unprincipled as that, even if she wanted to.”

“God, Liz, you are soooo naive,” Caroline drawled. “Anyway, that’s what makes it so perfect. It’s so disgustingly tacky.”

“I talked to someone in Ms. Dalton’s first-period French class who told me Ms. Dalton seemed upset, like she was on the verge of tears or something.”

“Maybe someone in her family just died,” suggested Lois, a shaggy-haired girl with oversized glasses which kept slipping down her nose as she talked.

“Or maybe someone’s about to get fired,” sneered Caroline. “My father plays golf with old Chrome Dome and says he’s practically Billy Graham when it comes to stuff like teachers’ morals.”

“I’m with Liz,” Olivia argued. “Ms. Dalton just doesn’t seem like the type.”

Guy Chesney, keyboard player for The Droids, skidded to a stop before them, whipping out a grubby pad and a pencil stub that looked as if it had been chewed by a pack of rats. His impish brown eyes were lit up with mischief. “I’m taking a poll,” he said. “So far it’s only one out of three in Ms.

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