Read Online Dorinda's Secret by Deborah Gregory - Free Book Online

doesn’t know where our mother is either. I guess
that
wasn’t in the files—or Tiffany would have already told me the whole story.
    â€œWell,” Mrs. Tattle says, “according to the records, she went to California, and became involved in, um, some sort of social organization. But that was several years ago, and we’ve lost track of her since that time.”
    I secretly wonder if Mrs. Tattle is telling a fiberoni. Maybe she doesn’t
want
to tell me—I mean us,—the truth. Tiffany looks at me as if she’s thinking the same thing. What kind of organization is Mrs. Tattle talking about? Why doesn’t she just come out and say it?
    Instead of asking Mrs. Tattle, I turn to Tiffany. “How did you find me?”
    â€œI told my parents I found the records,” Tiffany says proudly. “Then I told them I wanted to meet my sister.”
    â€œYou didn’t get in trouble?” I ask, surprised.
    â€œNo way—they felt bad for not telling me everything in the first place,” Tiffany explains, cracking that mischievous grin again.
    I find myself smiling back. Tiffany is kinda funny. And she’s got some serious mojo, too, to stand up to her parents like that!
    â€œThey know I’m here, and everything,” she tells me. “They even wanted to come and meet you, but I told them, ‘No way!’”
    Now Mrs. Tattle is smiling too. “Tiffany’s parents contacted us, and told us that Tiffany wanted to meet her sister. Then we contacted Mrs. Bosco. She gave her consent, as long as it was okay with you.”
    Now I feel bad that I got mad at Mrs. Bosco. She probably thought all this would be good for me. And I guess it
is
—except now I can feel this stabbing pain in my chest. It’s this achy feeling, like my heart is broken. Somebody isn’t telling the truth about something—
that’s
what I’m talking about.
    â€œWould you girls like to go skating together while I sit here?” Mrs. Tattle asks, concerned.
    â€œOkay,” I mumble, then get up and start dragging my back foot on the deck of my skateboard. Tiffany skates alongside me. “You don’t look the way I imagined,” she says smiling.
    â€œYeah, I guess not,” I chuckle. I bet she didn’t know I was black.
    â€œNo, I mean I thought you’d be chubby like me,” Tiffany says, giggling.
    â€œI’m getting skinnier, though,” she goes on. “I’ve been on a diet. I already lost five pounds! Of course, I’ll probably never be as thin as you.”
    That makes me chuckle. I can’t imagine Tiffany without her cute, chubby cheeks. They kinda fit her. “It must be your dad’s genes,” I say.
    â€œMy dad’s what?”
    â€œGenes. You’ll learn all about it in biology when you get to high school,” I tell her.
    Wait till Tiffany meets Ms. Dorothea, I say to myself with a smile. Then she won’t worry about dieting anymore.
    Suddenly, I shriek inside. Tiffany can’t meet Ms. Dorothea—she can’t meet my crew! No way, José—not yet, anyway! They wouldn’t understand about me having a white sister. I had a hard enough time understanding it myself!
    I look over at Tiffany, who is happily and clumsily skating along. “Did you just learn how to skate?” I ask.
    â€œNo. I’ve been skating for a long time,” Tiffany says proudly.
    I’m surprised. Maybe she doesn’t have good coordination or something. Secretly, I can’t help thinking, I don’t believe she’s my sister. We don’t look alike, and she isn’t anything like me.
    Then the big bulb from above goes off in my head. Tomorrow I have biology. I’m gonna ask my teacher, Mr. Roundworm, about it. Maybe he can tell me if this whole thing is a hoax-arama.
    â€œWhere do you live?” Tiffany asks me.
    â€œHarlem,” I shoot back. “One hundred sixteenth