And the Winner Is...#18

by Melissa J Morgan

  “Do you see Michael around anywhere?” Natalie said, ignoring Reed’s question.

  “Michael? Why would Michael be here?” Reed raised his eyebrows.

  “I asked him to try and get Tori here,” Natalie admitted. “She and I had a massive fight yesterday. I didn’t tell you about it because I didn’t want to spoil our fun together, but now I just can’t get the whole thing off my mind, so I figured she and I had to talk. But there’s no way she would have agreed to meet me or even take my calls, probably. So I got Michael in on my plan.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me your big plan?” Reed started looking around the rooftop, too.

  “Do you ever have a thing that you think will get spoiled if you talk about it?” Natalie answered. “This felt like one of those things.” She grabbed Reed’s arm. “There they are. They haven’t seen us yet.” Michael was clearly looking for them, though.

  “Well, we want them to see us, don’t we?” Reed asked.

  “Yeah, but let’s get a little closer. I don’t want to give Tori a chance to bolt before I can talk to her,” Natalie answered.

  “So she doesn’t know why she’s here?” Reed asked as they wove through the crowd toward Tori and Michael.

  “Michael said there was no way she’d come if he told her. He also said if Tori kills him for tricking her into seeing me, that he’ll come back and haunt me for the rest of my life,” Natalie said. “Let’s try and pretend that it’s just a bizarre coincidence we’re here at the same time.”

  “We can give it a shot,” Reed told her. “You ready?”

  Natalie nodded. She wasn’t really ready. But she needed to do this. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Tori.

  “Michael, hey!” Reed called out.

  Here we go, Natalie thought.

  “Reed! What are you doing here?” Michael asked. He definitely should never try to go into acting. His voice came out way too loud and way too phony.

  “Let’s go,” Tori said to Michael. “It suddenly stinks up here.”

  “Tor, don’t leave,” Natalie begged. “I know I got mad when we talked on the phone. But I really am sorry about what happened when we were supposed to meet up in Malibu. And the time I completely forgot we had decided to get together if my dad was busy.”

  “We’ll be over there,” Michael said, pointing to the opposite end of the rooftop. He and Reed walked off, like they couldn’t wait to get away from Natalie and Tori and all their drama. Natalie didn’t blame them.

  “Come on, Tori. Talk to me,” Natalie said.

  “We were supposed to spend tons of time together while you were here. I canceled all my other plans. We were going to go to shopping at the Grove, and to Pink’s for hot dogs, and that karaoke place in Koreatown. I told Michael I couldn’t hang with him. And then you completely ignored me!” Tori cried. “Why should I want to talk to you? Go talk to Reed. You care more about him than you do me. Even though you just met him a few days ago. I guess you think boys are just more important than friends.”

  “I don’t care more about Reed,” Natalie protested. “He’s not more important. At all.”

  “You’ve been spending every second with him. I saw the pictures of the two of you at the Ivy. And I’m sure you were with him earlier today. Am I right?” Tori demanded.

  “Yeah,” Natalie admitted.

  “So you just drop your friends if a boy seems like he maybe likes you?” Tori asked.

  “It’s not like that. I swear,” Natalie answered. “The day I went out with Reed when I was supposed to meet up with you, I was really upset. I’d hardly seen my dad at all, and I thought we were going to finally get to hang out together. Then he ended up having all this publicity stuff to do.”

  “You told me all that already. So you were upset. That’s when you’re supposed to be with your friends,” Tori said. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Reed had left me a text message, and so I decided to call him up,” Natalie said. “I just really wanted to talk to somebody who’d know how I was feeling. Your parents aren’t divorced. You don’t have to think about when you’ll see one of them. You don’t have to try and fit yourself into one of their schedules.”

  “I would have understood,” Tori insisted.

  “It’s not the same as actually experiencing it yourself, though,” Natalie said. “So Reed and I were talking, and that was cheering me up, so I asked him to hang out without even considering what you and I had talked about. I guess I was too upset by my dad to really think things through.”

  “Thinking about me,” Tori cut in.

  Natalie nodded. “I’m sorry, Tori. I really am. I just sort of forgot how sorry I was when I read what you wrote about me on the blog.”

  “You were right about that,” Tori admitted. “I shouldn’t have said all that in a blog post. I should have said it to your face if I was going to say it at all.” She looked away from Natalie. “I’m sorry about that,” she mumbled.

  “And you get why I called Reed that day?” Natalie asked.

  “I get why you called him. I still can’t believe you forgot we had plans, though,” Tori said.

  “I can’t, either. I was so psyched about all our plans. I went to Pink’s today—”

  “You went to Pink’s without me?” Tori exclaimed.

  “Well, you weren’t speaking to me. And I wasn’t speaking to you,” Natalie reminded her. “Anyway, you know how much I love those hot dogs. But I couldn’t even finish one. My stomach was all knotted up because we’d had that horrible fight.”

  “It was pretty horrible, wasn’t it?” Tori asked.

  “Yeah,” Natalie said. “Is it over?”

  “It’s over,” Tori said, giving Natalie a quick hug.

  “I still have a day and a half left. We can spend every second together!” Natalie told her.

  “Including the Oscars!” Tori exclaimed. “I can’t wait!”

  The Oscars. Natalie’s stomach started twisting itself into knots again. She’d given away Tori’s ticket to the Academy Awards!

  chapter

  TWELVE

  Natalie stepped over the tangle of cables in the hallway. “Dad?” she called.

  “In here,” he answered from his bedroom.

  Natalie walked in and saw three camera people, a tall woman in a teal blue suit, a woman touching up everyone’s makeup, and a guy doing a sound check. Who she didn’t see was her father. “Um, Dad?” she called again.

  “In the bathroom,” he answered.

  The bathroom door was open, so Natalie headed inside. “Madness, huh?” he asked. “The film crew is about to come in here and get some footage of me doing my pre-Oscar preparation. Good thing the bathroom holds twelve, right? The woman from ABC wants to interview me while I’m in a bubble bath. What do you think?”

  “The guys who watch your macho action movies would probably faint,” Natalie answered. “But your female fans would love it.”

  “So you vote yes?” her dad asked.

  “As long as you make sure there are lots of bubbles,” Natalie said.

  Her father laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll wear a bathing suit just in case there aren’t.”

  The woman in the suit stuck her head in the bathroom. “Tad, do you think we could get some footage of you and your daughter? Maybe getting pedicures together?”

  Natalie smirked. “You’re getting a pedicure?”

  “It’s my special, special night,” her dad joked. “You can get one, too, just not on camera.” He turned to the anchorwoman. “I try to keep Natalie out of the public eye. Some paparazzi grabbed pictures of her the other night and they showed up all over the Net. I don’t think she needs another dose of that right now.”

  “I guess that’s my cue to leave,” Natalie said.

  “I’ll send the manicurist down to you when I’m done,” her father promised.

  Natalie went to the kitchen and grabbed herself a bagel, then she returned to her room and logged on to the camp blog. He
r friends had made her promise she’d give a moment-by-moment description of the whole Oscar day. She might as well post the first installment. But first she wanted to check the new messages.

  Posted by: Brynn

  Subject: My big bad

  Well, you’ve all heard I broke up with Jordan. There’s no such thing as a secret between the Camp Lakeview girls, right? So, I’m sure you also heard that I broke up with him by e-mail.

  That was a bad, bad, stupid, stupid, mean, mean thing to do. And I am hugely sorry. I hereby publicly apologize to Jordan, Camp Lakeview’s best guy. I also apologize to Priya. (Although by apologizing to Jordan, I sort of did apologize to Priya. If you do something to Jordan, you do it to Priya. And vice-versa. That’s how strong their friendship is. Which is pretty cool.)

  In fact, I apologize to all of you. I messed up. I hurt people I care about. And I’m sorry.

  Thanks for listening.

  Brynn

  P.S. Nat and Grace were there for me when I was trying to decide whether or not to break up with Jordan. I needed friends to help me think things through. But they didn’t tell me what to do. And they definitely didn’t tell me to do the breaking up through e-mail.

  Posted by: Grace

  Subject: Apology accepted

  I forgive you, Brynn! (Not that you really need my forgiveness, but I forgive you anyway. Friends should always accept apologies. That’s my philosophy. And you didn’t even know I had a philosophy, did you?)

  So how was the first performance of your play? I bet you rocked.

  Grace

  Posted by: Priya

  Subject: Blame

  Sorry I was throwing blame around about the breakup. Only one person sent that e-mail to Jordan.

  P.

  Posted by: Jenna

  Subject: Apologies

  My philosophy (hey, I have one, too!) is never apologize. It just makes you look guilty. Not that I ever need to apologize, anyway. As you all know, I am perfect in every way and never make mistakes.

  Jenna

  Joke of the day: Why don’t wild dogs eat clowns? Because they taste funny.

  Posted by: Valerie

  Subject: Apologies

  Jenna, you owe us all an apology for that clown joke!

  Brynn, all of us mess up sometimes. You apologized, that’s the important thing. (A-hem, Jenna.)

  Now, B, tell us about your play!

  Posted by: Brynn

  Subject: The Tempest

  The play went pretty well last night. There were a couple of technical difficulties. The lightning never lighteninged, for one thing. Plus the curtain got stuck halfway down at intermission and Prospero forgot to take his mic off, which led to the audience hearing some non-Shakespearean conversation from backstage for a minute. But I think I was pretty good. I didn’t forget any of my lines, at least! And I didn’t do anything I need to apologize for. (Anything new, I mean.)

  I’ll post the review of the play when it comes out. The theater critic for the Boston Globe is coming next weekend!

  Posted by: Tori

  Subject: More apologies

  I have to give a mass apology, too. (And I hate to apologize. But I do it when I have to. Yes, I’m looking at you, Miss Jenna.)

  I hereby apologize for my post screaming all that crud about Natalie. I was angry at her. And I had reason to be. But I should have shouted the crud at her face-to-face instead of on the group blog.

  Nat—tell your dad good luck for me! I’ll be watching at a friend’s Oscar party with my fingers and toes crossed. Wait, I don’t think I’ll be able to cross my toes in the shoes I’m planning to wear. They are very pointy. The shoes, not my toes.

  Natalie smiled as she read Tori’s post. Tori was being so incredibly cool about the Academy Awards. She understood that Natalie couldn’t just uninvite Reed because Tori and Nat had made up.

  Natalie knew she’d have fun with Reed. But she also knew she’d have more fun with Tori. Reed wasn’t going to be able to do a fashion evaluation of every celeb that walked down the red carpet. And the fashion was almost as big a part of the Oscars as the nominees.

  Speaking of fashion…Natalie stood up. She had to look at her dress one more time. She’d decided to go with one from Lulu’s Dreamy line, pale blue tulle, fitted to the knees then flaring out, with feathers all around the bottom.

  Whoops. She turned away from the closet and sat back down. She’d forgotten the whole reason she’d logged on to the blog. She was supposed to be describing Oscar Day.

  Posted by: Natalie

  Subject: bubbles

  right this minute, my father is being interviewed while taking a bubble bath. this interview is for a news show! my father taking a bath is news. because it’s part of his preparation for the oscar ceremony, and in hollywood everything about the oscars is newsworthy.

  i will post again when the next oscar-related grooming and/or interview event occurs.

  brynn, can’t wait to read the review. you’re going to be interviewed from your bathtub someday. i know it!

  and priya, sometimes breaking up is the right thing to do, even with a really amazing guy. for example, logan’s great, but i think we’re better apart.

  “The door was wide open and there were people coming in and out, so I just came on in myself.”

  Natalie jerked her head up and saw Tori standing in the doorway holding a garment bag.

  “I’m so glad you came over! Are you going to help me get ready? I could use help. I’m more nervous about tonight than my dad is,” Natalie said.

  “You’ll have to get yourself ready. I’ll be busy getting myself beautiful,” Tori teased.

  “Huh?” It was all Natalie could think to say.

  “Reed told me that I should go to the Oscars with you. Because I was your first choice and everything,” Tori said. “Is that okay? Because if you want to go with Reed, I get it. Most people bring dates.”

  Natalie jumped up and gave Tori a hug. “You just made the best night so much bester!” Natalie exclaimed. “I’ve been wishing and wishing there was a way you could come with me. But I couldn’t just disinvite Reed.”

  “Don’t worry about Reed. He and Michael have an Oscar party to go to,” Tori said.

  “Perfect. I’m just writing a post for the camp blog. Give me one sec,” Natalie told her. She started for the computer, then turned back toward Tori. “I am sooo psyched you’re here.”

  guess what? tori just came in as i was typing this. she’s going to be able to come to the oscars with me after all!! yay!!!

  reed, the super nice and super cute boy i told you about, offered to give the ticket back to her. tickets to the oscars are like gold. reed’s dad is alexander garrett, the big-deal director, and even he couldn’t get tickets this year since he didn’t have a movie nominated.

  okay, more oscar-day news to come. tori and i are about to get our nails done. (pix to come.)

  lawrence is going to do our hair. yep, that lawrence, the one who did cameron diaz’s hair in a beehive, complete with bees. i’m hoping there will be no insects involved in my ‘do. but i guess you don’t say no to lawrence, so…

  bye for now.

  natalie (and tori)

  Just as Natalie was about to log off the computer, and IM popped up on her screen.

  : Hey, Nat. Did you get my surprise yet?

  : yes! reed, that was so great of you. are you sure you’re okay with missing the ceremony?

  : I’m okay with missing the Oscars. Just wish I didn’t have to miss your last night in town. You and Tori have fun.

  : you and i are going to see each other again. in ny or next time i’m here. or maybe our dads will do that movie together and we can meet on the set.

  : We’ll definitely see each other again sometime and someplace. Gotta go. Bye.

  : bye! i wish i could be in two places at once tonight. with you and with tori.

  chapter


  THIRTEEN

  “I didn’t know they closed this much of Hollywood Boulevard,” Natalie said as she, her dad, and Tori headed for the Academy Awards ceremony. Bingley wasn’t driving tonight. They were using one of the official limos hired for the Oscars. The traffic was crazy enough without trying to bring your own car.

  “It’s not just closed for tonight, either,” her dad answered. “It’s been closed for two weeks.”

  “Two weeks,” Natalie repeated. “Why?”

  “They have to put in the stadium seating for the fans. And they also do it for security,” her father said. He looked out the window. “Okay, girls, it’s almost go time. We’re getting up to the red carpet. Stay close. I’m going to try to avoid most of the reporters. I’m talked out.”

  The limo pulled to a stop. The driver opened the door. Natalie’s father stepped out first, and a huge cheer went up from the people who had been waiting for hours—or days—to get a spot where they could see the celebs arrive.

  Natalie got out next, moving slowly to keep her long dress where she wanted it to be. Not that anyone was watching her. The people in the crowd had figured out that she wasn’t anybody they needed to look at, and were already trying to get a glimpse of the star who was in the next limo.

  “This is insanely cool,” Tori said as she and Natalie followed Nat’s father up the red carpet. It was five hundred feet long. And every few feet there was somebody with a camera or a microphone.

  Natalie’s dad managed to avoid a lot of the interviewers—he only talked to about twenty on the way into the theater. But he didn’t try to avoid his fans. He gave autographs to the people in the stands as he passed by them. Watching him made Natalie so proud.

  “Look at the guy sweeping up trash,” Tori said. “Even he’s wearing a tux.”

  “Everyone who works the show has to wear a tux or an approved evening gown,” Natalie told her.

  “It almost seems like diamonds are required, too. Try and find a female star without a few,” Tori said.

  Natalie obediently glanced around. “I don’t think Meryl Streep is wearing any.”