Your Life, but Sweeter

by Crystal Velasquez

  Lena doesn’t waste any time before pulling out her phone and calling Amanda.

  “What did she say to do?” you ask after Lena hangs up.

  “She said to stay put—and she means it this time.”

  “Got it,” you answer, looking around at the skyscrapers reaching into the sky all around you. Each one is decked out with colorful wreaths, and there is a light dusting of snow on the ground.

  “Hey, hey!” Jessie suddenly shouts next to you. “Isn’t that Nick Jonas? No, can’t be. Wait, could be …”

  She points to a boy with unruly black hair hurrying down the street in a pair of sunglasses and a stylish black wool coat. “I can’t really see his face, but it does kinda look like him, I guess …,” you say, not wanting to ruin it for Jessie with a dose of reality.

  But your lukewarm agreement is all the confirmation Jessie needs. Before you have time to look any more, Jessie grabs your arm. “Come on! Let’s follow him!”

  Your first experience with a New York City train didn’t turn out exactly as you hoped. Okay, that’s an understatement. Somehow you got separated from Lena’s cousin and squished into a crowded subway car. But since you weren’t afraid to ask for help, you got back in touch with Amanda and things seemed like they would work out. But now Jessie’s celeb fever has struck again and she wants to go chasing after a guy who may (or may not) be a Jonas brother. You do kind of want to follow him (hey, you never know, right?), but what about Amanda’s instructions—are you just going to ignore them? Not sure what you want to do? Let the next quiz clear it up for you.

  QUIZ TIME!

  Write down your answers and tally up the points at the end.

  You have a book report due on Monday. But all weekend they’re showing a marathon of your favorite show. What do you do? A. Get out of the house and do all your work in the library so that you can focus on the report.

  B. Stay home, but don’t turn on the TV all weekend so that you aren’t tempted to tune in.

  C. Work on your report, but give yourself permission to watch an episode or two during your breaks.

  D. Watch the whole thing. It’s a marathon, for goodness’ sake! What kind of sense would it make to watch only an episode or two? You can always ask your teacher for an extension on the report.

  Your parents give you an allowance for doing certain chores around the house. What do you do with the money? A. You put all of it in a savings account. You might need it for college tuition one day.

  B. You put half of it in your savings account and usually spend the other half on school supplies.

  C. You put half of it in savings and spend the rest on seeing movies with your friends.

  D. Spend all of it on having a good time with your friends. What’s the point of working so hard if you don’t get to enjoy the rewards?

  Your parents go out for a romantic dinner and leave you in charge of your little brother and a handful of chores. What do they find when they get home? A. Your homework is done, your brother is safely tucked in bed with freshly brushed teeth, the plants are watered, and the house is spotless. You want them to know they can trust you to hold down the fort while they’re gone.

  B. Your homework is finished and you’ve done all your chores, but your little bro is still running around the house like a maniac. He’s too much of a handful for you when it comes to going to sleep. Your parents will have to handle that one.

  C. You’ve done part of your homework and one or two of the chores, but when your friend Ericka called, you got distracted and spent the rest of the night on the phone. Can they blame you? She had some serious dirt to spill!

  D. Are they home already? You were kind of hoping you’d have another hour or so to relax. When your parents go out is the only time you can get away with blowing off your homework and chores and doing some quality catching up with your DVR.

  Your Girl Scout troop has formed a team to participate in a walkathon to raise money for juvenile diabetes. There is a lot to take care of. Your troop leader puts you in charge of: A. supervising all your fellow Scouts. You will have to know what everyone’s job is so that you can take over if they need help. It’s a lot of responsibility, but your leader knows you can handle it. From sending out emails to making sure everyone knows where and when to meet, to helping order the team shirts, you have a hand in everything.

  B. keeping a tally of all the numbers and keeping the funds safe. They know they can trust you to keep an eye on all the money raised—and of course not to spend it on yourself!

  C. getting the word out to your friends and family. Your job may not carry a ton of weight, but it’s important all the same. And with your carefree, fun attitude, you have no problem getting people to support your cause.

  D. walking. Someone else has to call you in the morning to make sure you don’t oversleep, and you might need a reminder to bring your donations, but walking you can handle, no problem!

  Your little sister is going away for a week on a camping trip with her best friend and her family. While she’s away, she asks you to take care of her science fair project: growing an African violet, which has very specific care instructions. While your sis is away, you: A. follow every instruction to the letter. You keep it away from direct sunlight, feed it a good violet fertilizer, pluck any dead leaves, keep the house a balmy 70 degrees for the best growing conditions, and check the pot’s water every two hours once you get home from school. By the time your sister gets back, she is going to have the best-looking African violet in the land!

  B. follow most of the instructions, but you get a little lax about plucking the dead leaves and checking the water in the pot every two hours. That part is just going overboard.

  C. do what all your other plant-sitting jobs have amounted to: watering it and calling it a day. You doubt you really have to do all that other stuff for the plant to survive. Your sis is just being obsessive.

  D. forget all about the plant, and it ends up wilting. Well, how were you supposed to remember? A dog, at least, will bark to remind you that he’s hungry or thirsty. The plant never stood a chance.

  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 this page.

  —If you scored between 13 and 20, go to this page.

  Hello, Miss Independent! You feel that you are able to accomplish anything you set your mind to without anyone else’s assistance. And you hate admitting it when you can’t get there on your own. But you should know that there’s no shame in asking for help when you need it. Even the most powerful people in the world sometimes need a hand. (Just ask the president!)

  As the train rumbles along, the knot in your stomach pulls tighter and tighter. You somehow left Amanda back on the platform and you and your two friends are panicking big-time. You’re not sure how you got into this mess, but you know you’ve got to find a way out.

  “Lena, why don’t you call Amanda?” Jessie asks her.

  Lena pulls the phone out of her purse and tries to dial, but nothing happens. “Oh no, I’m not getting any cell reception down here!” she cries, shoving her phone back into her purse in a huff.

  “Well, let’s ask somebody what to do,” Jessie begs.

  You glance around at the other passengers, most of whom have headphones on or have their noses buried in books or newspapers. You could ask one of them for advice, but you don’t want to look like the clueless tourist you are. “No way. They don’t want to be bothered. We’re on our own.”

  The train pulls into the next station and your car empties out enough for Lena to grab a seat. You hope against hope that you’ll see Amanda waiting for you, but no such luck.

  “Maybe we should get out,” Jessie suggests.

  “But what if we get out and Amanda is waiting for us at the last stop of this train? If we get out here, we’ll miss her,” you add.

  “But we don’t even know where this train stops,” Lena s
ays logically. “Some of these trains go to Brooklyn!”

  The very thought sends your mind whirling. “Oh jeez … What if the train stops in some distant neighborhood and we never find Amanda so we never get back to the bus home and we end up having to drop out of school and live on the streets of New York, wearing fingerless gloves and singing for pocket change?”

  Your imagination is totally running away from you. Thankfully, Lena is there to reel you back in. She stands up and puts her purse down on her seat. Grabbing both your shoulders, she stares deeply into your eyes and yells, “Chill out! Enough with the what-ifs. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll get out at the next stop and try to find a signal for my cell phone so that we can call Amanda. Okay?” She glances over at Jessie, who nods weakly, her blond curls looking just slightly deflated.

  Finally, after what seems like forever but is probably only five minutes, the train pulls into Forty-second Street and Grand Central Station and you and the girls follow a clump of passengers onto the platform.

  The three of you find a pillar to stand behind, getting out of everyone’s way.

  “All right,” you begin, “try calling her now.”

  Lena nods and reaches for her purse … which is no longer on her shoulder. Uh-oh. She looks all around, maybe hoping that she dropped it nearby. But then the realization dawns on all of you: She never picked it up again after she put it on the seat when she got up to calm you down. Her purse is still on the train, which is now rumbling away to the next stop without you.

  “Aw, you’ve got to be kidding me!” Lena yells, watching as the train slips out of sight.

  You feel terrible. Lena losing her purse is partially your fault. If you hadn’t been spazzing out and refusing to ask for help, she wouldn’t have put her purse down. You’ve got to redeem yourself and save the day. “Hey, guys,” you offer, trying to sound confident, “there’s a map over there. Maybe we can check it and figure out how to get back to Amanda.”

  “Couldn’t hurt,” Jessie agrees, leading the way.

  But to you the train map of New York City looks a lot like the pictures of the human blood circulation system in your biology textbook. Only, on the map, there are blue, green, yellow, and even purple veins crisscrossing and curling all over the place. How does anybody ever make heads or tails of it?

  Maybe you should speak for yourself, because Jessie seems to be having no problem at all. She finds the You Are Here sign that points at Grand Central and follows the train lines with one manicured fingernail. “Oh, cool!” she says brightly. “Look how close we are to Times Square right now! All we have to do is get on the shuttle train and go one stop and that will leave us in the middle of everything!”

  Lena just stares at her incredulously. “Are you crazy? We need to find Amanda and get my purse back!”

  “I know, I know,” Jessie replies quickly. “And we will. But how cool would it be to go to Times Square first, all on our own? We could run and see MTV Studios real quick, and then call Amanda and try to get your purse back.”

  You know you can’t completely trust Jessie’s logic here, because once again her eyes are glazing over with Jonas fever. Lena is clearly not amused. Heading out to Times Square is obviously not the most responsible course of action. But does that mean you shouldn’t go? It would be pretty exciting. Hmm … Both your friends are looking at you to be the tiebreaker.

  Is this really happening? Or are you trapped in some kind of nightmare? You chose to leave the safety of your school trip in hopes of having a New York adventure, but this isn’t quite what you had in mind. You got separated from Amanda, you have no idea where you’re going, and now because you were panicking just a touch (all right, more than a touch), Lena lost her purse on the train. And her cell phone was your only hope of finding Amanda again. You could do the responsible thing and deal with this mess … or you could choose to have a little fun first. Which way are you leaning? Take the quiz for the answer—and be honest!

  QUIZ TIME!

  Write down your answers and tally up the points at the end.

  You have a book report due on Monday. But all weekend they’re showing a marathon of your favorite show. What do you do? A. Get out of the house and do all your work in the library so that you can focus on the report.

  B. Stay home, but don’t turn on the TV all weekend so that you aren’t tempted to tune in.

  C. Work on your report, but give yourself permission to watch an episode or two during your breaks.

  D. Watch the whole thing. It’s a marathon, for goodness’ sake! What kind of sense would it make to watch only an episode or two? You can always ask your teacher for an extension on the report.

  Your parents give you an allowance for doing certain chores around the house. What do you do with the money? A. You put all of it in a savings account. You might need it for college tuition one day.

  B. You put half of it in your savings account and usually spend the other half on school supplies.

  C. You put half of it in savings and spend the rest on seeing movies with your friends.

  D. Spend all of it on having a good time with your friends. What’s the point of working so hard if you don’t get to enjoy the rewards?

  Your parents go out for a romantic dinner and leave you in charge of your little brother and a handful of chores. What do they find when they get home? A. Your homework is done, your brother is safely tucked in bed with freshly brushed teeth, the plants are watered, and the house is spotless. You want them to know they can trust you to hold down the fort while they’re gone.

  B. Your homework is finished and you’ve done all your chores, but your little bro is still running around the house like a maniac. He’s too much of a handful for you when it comes to going to sleep. Your parents will have to handle that one.

  C. You’ve done part of your homework and one or two of the chores, but when your friend Ericka called, you got distracted and spent the rest of the night on the phone. Can they blame you? She had some serious dirt to spill!

  D. Are they home already? You were kind of hoping you’d have another hour or so to relax. When your parents go out is the only time you can get away with blowing off your homework and chores and doing some quality catching up with your DVR.

  Your Girl Scout troop has formed a team to participate in a walkathon to raise money for juvenile diabetes. There is a lot to take care of. Your troop leader puts you in charge of: A. supervising all your fellow Scouts. You will have to know what everyone’s job is so that you can take over if they need help. It’s a lot of responsibility, but your leader knows you can handle it. From sending out emails to making sure everyone knows where and when to meet, to helping order the team shirts, you have a hand in everything.

  B. keeping a tally of all the numbers and keeping the funds safe. They know they can trust you to keep an eye on all the money raised—and of course not to spend it on yourself!

  C. getting the word out to your friends and family. Your job may not carry a ton of weight, but it’s important all the same. And with your carefree, fun attitude, you have no problem getting people to support your cause.

  D. walking. Someone else has to call you in the morning to make sure you don’t oversleep, and you might need a reminder to bring your donations, but walking you can handle, no problem!

  Your little sister is going away for a week on a camping trip with her best friend and her family. While she’s away, she asks you to take care of her science fair project: growing an African violet, which has very specific care instructions. While your sis is away, you: A. follow every instruction to the letter. You keep it away from direct sunlight, feed it a good violet fertilizer, pluck any dead leaves, keep the house a balmy 70 degrees for the best growing conditions, and check the pot’s water every two hours once you get home from school. By the time your sister gets back, she is going to have the best-looking African violet in the land!

  B. follow most of the instructions, but you get a little lax about plucking the
dead leaves and checking the water in the pot every two hours. That part is just going overboard.

  C. do what all your other plant-sitting jobs have amounted to: watering it and calling it a day. You doubt you really have to do all that other stuff for the plant to survive. Your sis is just being obsessive.

  D. forget all about the plant, and it ends up wilting. Well, how were you supposed to remember? A dog, at least, will bark to remind you that he’s hungry or thirsty. The plant never stood a chance.

  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 this page.

  —If you scored between 13 and 20, go to this page.

  Congratulations! You are one of those rare people who are completely able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. When you say that you feel their pain, you really mean it. You hardly ever have serious clashes with others, since you can usually see where they’re coming from. And the fact that you always seem to get how your friends feel makes you the automatic go-to person when they need to talk out their problems.

  You can’t believe you’re going to say this, but you feel bad for Mona. Ever since Amy spilled the beans about Mona’s crush on Paul, you’ve been watching her—from a distance, of course. And you completely recognize the long sideways glances she keeps shooting at him, careful to look away as soon as he turns his head toward her. It’s the exact same way you look at Jimmy sometimes.