Your Life, but Better

by Crystal Velasquez

  A minute later she texts back.

  LOL. :) I don’t think so.

  Comic-book geek + sprmodel

  sitting in a tree …

  You don’t have the heart to tell her you won’t be a model anytime soon, let alone a super one, so you flip your Sidekick closed and slip it into your pocket. “I think I’ll just stay glued to this bench for the rest of the day,” you say, moping.

  “Yeah … I don’t think that would be very productive,” a deep voice says behind you.

  You turn to see one of the most gorgeous guys ever. His short curly brown hair complements his deep hazel eyes perfectly, and when he smiles, his cheeks dimple just the tiniest bit. As he stands there with his thumbs hooked casually through the belt loops of his designer jeans, you realize that for some reason he’s smiling at you! You clear your throat a few times before answering, hoping your voice doesn’t come out as a nervous squeak.

  “Oh yeah?” you answer. “What do you know about it?”

  You didn’t mean that to sound quite so defensive, but right now your pride is hurt and you didn’t want any witnesses, let alone an insanely beautiful one.

  “I know plenty, actually.” He holds out his hand for you to shake. “I’m Elliott, one of the models on the Bebe LaRue shoot you just ran away from. And I’ve worked with Janice for years. You wanna know how to get through to her?”

  You nod, but half of you doesn’t want to know.

  He smiles sweetly. “You should ask for another chance!” When your eyes bug out, he chuckles softly. “I know, I know … sounds like suicide. But trust me, she responds to people who are more like her: really confident.”

  Hmmm … what Elliott says makes a lot of sense. But you aren’t entirely sure you have “confident” in your repertoire at the moment.

  “Anyway,” Elliott continues, turning to leave, “just think about it. I’ve gotta get back to the shoot. I hope I see you there.”

  After he’s gone, you think about what you really want to do now. On one hand, you feel like you should go back to the Photo Hut and fight for your right to model. On the other hand, you don’t think that anything you say will sway Janice, so maybe you should just rejoin your friends and focus on finding Shawna. When did life at the mall get so complicated?

  All right, so that didn’t go exactly as planned. You made it to the Photo Hut in time for your big break, but it ended up being more of a big bust, thanks to some sudden monster acne. And to top it off, you skipped out on hanging with your übercrush, Jimmy, just to be rejected by Janice. Not that it matters, since Jimmy already has a date to the party—your archenemy, Mona. But it looks like all hope isn’t lost. You’ve just met a walking billboard named Elliott who is not only sweet, but seemingly pretty smart. He’s given you some decent advice, but only you can decide if you should take it. So get to the quiz and figure out what you would do next.

  QUIZ TIME!

  Circle your answers and tally up the points at the end.

  1. You’re the star of the school play and the curtain is just about to go up. How do you feel?

  Panicked! Your palms are sweaty, you can’t seem to catch your breath, and you don’t think you’ll remember a single one of your lines. Is it too late to sneak out the back door?

  Scared silly but really excited too. Right now your stomach is full of butterflies, but you’re praying they’ll disappear as soon as you step out onto the stage. Anticipation is always the worst part.

  A little nervous, but jitters are to be expected on opening night. You know you’ll probably make some mistakes, but that’s part of the fun of live theater!

  Just fine. What’s to be nervous about? You’re completely prepared for this play and you’re sure you’ll do well. In fact, you might be the only actor on the stage whose hands aren’t shaking!

  2. It’s candy-selling time at school to raise money for the class trip, and whoever sells the most gets a trophy and no homework for a week! You each have to set a goal. You set yours:

  pretty low. You are still reeling from the disaster that was your lemonade stand when you were little (two measly cups sold in three hours!). Your confidence has been shot ever since, so you’d rather set a goal that will be ridiculously easy to reach. You won’t win the big prize, but if anybody asks whether you hit your goal, you can say yes—even though you did set the bar so low that only an ant could limbo underneath it.

  kind of low, but at least it’s higher than the goal you set last year, which was basically “whatever I can sell to my mom.” You have a feeling you’ll be shot down, but you’ll at least try to sell to your neighbors this time.

  fairly high. You aren’t shooting for triple digits, like some of your classmates, but you’ve set a respectable goal. Even though you aren’t positive you’ll hit it, you’re sure you can at least get pretty close and give yourself a decent shot at winning the trophy.

  off the charts. You believe so strongly in your ability to sell tons of candy that you ask your teacher for three extra order forms. Between your friendly, outgoing personality and a catalog full of chocolaty goodness, there’s no way you’ll lose. Besides, why aim low? You’ve got this competition in the bag.

  3. You attend your school’s Fall Free-for-All—the first dance of the year-and they’re playing your favorite song. You’re itching to bust out some fancy footwork, but so far the dance floor is empty. What do you do?

  Camp out by the snack table and try to look like you’re way too busy scarfing down chips and punch to get out and dance. You’re not exactly the get-the-party-started type and you’re not sure whether your moves would make you a star or a laughingstock.

  Stand on the sidelines of the dance floor and nod along to the music. You don’t want to play yourself by being the only person to get out there and dance—especially since you’re not sure anybody would join you—but this song is too good to ignore completely.

  Wait till a few other brave souls get the dancing started, and then drag your friends out there so you can party the night away together. Now that the Free-for-All is finally in full swing, you’re confident in your ability to dance with the best of ’em. (Hopefully everybody is having too much fun to bother critiquing your dance moves anyway.)

  You are the first one to hit the dance floor. You have absolutely no doubt that once you get out there, everybody else will follow your lead. And if they don’t, who cares? At least you’ll be having a good time.

  4. Your friends are up for some karaoke and they want you to choose the place. You pick:

  the small karaoke machine in your room. You aren’t sure you’ll be able to belt out songs the way you want to in front of a roomful of strangers. What if your voice cracks? Uh-uh. At least if that happens, the stuffed animals on your bed will be the only witnesses.

  the coffee shop on the corner. It’s a small, intimate setting, and usually the place is a ghost town on karaoke nights. (And hey, you aren’t above faking a cold if you chicken out.)

  the popular karaoke place near the mall, where all the kids hang. Everybody there likes to pick songs that the whole room will sing along to. You won’t feel unsure of yourself belting out a Katy Perry tune if all your friends are singing too.

  the nearby baseball stadium, where they have giant open mike nights for the whole town during the off-season. Why shouldn’t everyone get to hear your fabulous musical stylings?

  5. The school is accepting candidates for student government and you want to be involved. You put your name in for:

  secretary. It’s a low-pressure position, you don’t have to make any big decisions that your classmates might get on your case about, and you’ll hardly be noticed at the meetings. Perfect!

  treasurer. You’ll be in charge of a student budget that puts your allowance to shame. And judging by how you did in your last math class, you’re pretty sure you’ll be able to deal with the big numbers.

  vice president. Second-in-command is just where you belong. You don’t have to worry about having the fi
nal say on things and possibly making the wrong decisions, but you’re still high enough in the ranks to have a lot of important responsibilities. And if you drop the ball on anything, the prez will be right there to bail you out.

  president. You know you have good ideas for the school and have no problem leading people. Yes, it’s a job you’ve never done before and you aren’t sure what kinds of things will be thrown your way. But you’re confident that you can do anything you put your mind to, so you say bring it on!

  Give yourself 1 point for every time you answered A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every D.

  —If you scored between 5 and 12, go to chapter 8

  —If you scored between 13 and 20, go to chapter 10

  Some people might call you nosy, but you prefer to think of yourself as curious. After all, don’t the best journalists have to dig a little to get the scoop? And what is the nightly news if not one big gossipfest? But you could work on respecting people’s privacy a little more. After all, you definitely wouldn’t want anybody reading your diary!

  Okay it’s not your proudest moment, but you totally eavesdrop on Mona and her mom. You can’t help it! Finding out that Janice has a child is just too weird—especially since they don’t even share the same last name. Plus, you figure maybe you’ll happen to overhear why Mona has it in for you.

  You inch a little closer to the curtain, glad that you’re barefoot at the moment.

  “But, Mom, why do I even have to be here for fittings and everything? Everyone knows that I’m the star of the show, and everything fits me perfectly anyway.”

  Gag. She’s worse than you thought.

  “No one skips fittings, period,” Janice tells Mona in that icy voice of hers.

  “Moooom,” Mona whines again. “I already told my date to Shawna’s party to meet me here so we could figure out what he should wear. Since we’re going together, I don’t want him showing up in anything that’ll make me look bad. So I’ll just come back later, okay? It’s not like anybody’s going to start without the director’s daughter.”

  But Janice is not having it. “Listen up, Mona. Just because you’re my daughter does not mean you get any special favors around here, got it?”

  “Ugh, whatever,” Mona replies, and you can practically hear her eyes rolling. “What are you gonna do? Replace the star of the shoot?”

  Janice laughs a little meanly. “Mona, you can easily be replaced. It only took me five minutes to find a model in the mall, of all places. So how hard do you think it would be for me to find another? Hm?”

  Whoa. That shut her up.

  “Besides,” Janice continues, “I think you’re too young to be going on a date anyway. Even if it is with a nice boy like Jimmy Morehouse.”

  What? Did she just say “Jimmy Morehouse”? Your Jimmy Morehouse? Quiet, shy Jimmy is dating that monster? What did she do? Cast some sort of love spell on him? You’re itching to know more, but it sounds like this conversation is almost over.

  “Bottom line, you’re not leaving. It’s high time for you to grow up and be a professional!” Janice barks. You hear her stomp back to the set, leaving Mona speechless and no doubt pouting. Interesting. For the first time ever, you find yourself feeling a tiny bit sorry for Mona. Sure, she’s no picnic, but then, neither is her mom.

  You hear someone coming, so you scramble back to your seat in the small room where Steve left you. Steve walks in carrying a pair of gorgeous golden flats that match your outfit perfectly. He sighs with relief. “I finally found them in the accessories trunk. Try these on.”

  You slip into them as easily as Cinderella into her glass slipper. They’re a perfect fit.

  “Excellent!” Steve says, clapping his hands. “At least something went right today. We’ll start doing test shots in about”—he checks his watch—“ten minutes. Don’t. Go. Anywhere.”

  “Sir, yes, sir!”you cry, saluting him as if you are a soldier.

  He shakes his head at you, clearly thinking, Where did Janice find this weirdo?

  After he leaves, you pace around the tiny back room, trying to process all this juicy new information you’ve learned: Janice has a kid. Mona may have inherited her rotten attitude from her model-scout mom. And quiet little Jimmy is going on a date with a nightmare. You’re having a hard time wrapping your brain around that last one. You’re utterly confused about how he could have accepted an invitation from Mona, of all people—especially since you thought for sure you and he had some sort of connection. But maybe that was just wishful thinking.

  Before you have a chance to puzzle it out, Bryan strolls in, pushing his hair back with one hand. He’s holding your phone and it is ringing off the hook. “Yours, I take it?” he says, holding it out to you.

  “It is,” you answer kind of self-consciously.

  “That ringtone … Vampire Weekend, right?”

  You smile as you nod and take the phone from him, your fingers grazing slightly. Bryan nods his approval. “Cool.” Then he saunters out as slowly as he came in.

  By the time you flip open your phone, just before the call would have gone to voice mail, your face is feeling all flushed. Bryan likes your music taste. Maybe he’s even thought about going to a concert with you… . Wait! Weren’t you just thinking about Jimmy? Ugh, it’s all so confusing.

  Anyway, you answer your phone, and—no surprise—it’s Amy Choi. She is letting out a squeal so high-pitched that only dogs should be able to hear it. “Eeeeeeee! Lizette just won a ticket!” she shouts. “And you know what else? There are only a few tickets left, but each one admits two people. So if you win, you can bring somebody. Isn’t that awesome?”

  That is pretty awesome, actually. Or at least, it would have been awesome back when you thought Jimmy could be your date. You really hope your friends are hot on Shawna’s trail so that they both win and one of them can bring you. Or maybe if you get this fashion stuff over with quickly, you’ll still have a shot at winning a ticket of your own. And since you obviously won’t be hanging out with Jimmy anytime this century, you could bring one of your friends …

  Just then Bryan comes skateboarding into the room and winks at you.

  … or maybe you could bring someone else!

  Well, at least now you know why Mona is such a witch sometimes. She gets it from her mother! But how she landed Jimmy is as big a mystery as where Shawna is hiding herself. Before you have time to feel the pain from that, though, another guy seems to be trying to catch your eye. You’ll have to decide what to do about him, but right now, it’s more important to figure out how to handle your archnemesis. After all, she could ruin everything for you! But do you have it in you to match her witchy behavior with your own? Take the quiz to find out.

  QUIZ TIME!

  Circle your answers and tally up the points at the end.

  1. You’re trying out for the position of head camp counselor at Camp Chickasaw. It’s been a tough competition, but now it’s down to you and one other girl. Each of you must save a blow-up doll thrown into the lake. When you swim out, you reach her doll before your own. What do you do?

  Pull out a pin you secretly stashed in your bathing suit and pop a hole in her doll in hopes that it’ll deflate before she has a chance to reach it. Okay, so that’s not entirely sportsmanlike, but you’re here to win, not make friends.

  Purposely swim across her path, hoping that the splashing from your kicking feet will slow her down just the tiniest bit. There’s nothing in the rules that says you have to swim in a straight line.

  Swim hard and fast for your doll, not even giving your competition a second look. If you win, you want to make sure it’s fair and square.

  Push your competitor’s doll closer to her. After all, if it were a real person, the point would be to save her life, right?

  2. You hear that the new girl in school has started an ugly rumor about you. You react by:

  starting an even uglier rumor about her and posting it on your blog for the whole worl
d to see, and saying snide things under your breath whenever she walks by. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

  confronting her about it and yelling at her in front of the entire cafeteria. You’ve got to put the new girl in her place. Besides, she started it.

  ignoring it. You and your friends know that the rumor isn’t true, and that’s all that matters. Besides, the gossip-mongers in your class have the attention span of goldfish. This whole rumor business will blow over in no time and they’ll move on to talk about something else … you hope.

  switching schools. There isn’t much point in taking a stand now. Your rep here is o-v-e-r.

  3. You’ve been invited to a Halloween party and you want to go dressed as Vanessa Hudgens’s character in High School Musical. When you get to the costume store, you see that there are only two of that costume left. You:

  buy them both, just so no one else has any chance of wearing it. You want to be the only one who gets to show up as Gabriella.

  buy one and bury the other costume under a pile of clown suits. Hopefully no one will find it there.

  buy one and hope no one else comes in for the other one. It would be cool to be one of a kind at the party, but you aren’t willing to do anything underhanded to make sure your wish comes true—no matter how tempting the thought may be.

  get on your cell phone and call your friends to tell them there’s still one left in case one of them wants it. You’d love to be unique, but you and your friends are all High School Musical fans, so you can’t deny them the chance to score such a hot costume.