Almost Famous, a Talent Novel

by Zoey Dean

  “Your best is all you can do.” Adrienne shrugged as if it were all no big deal. She clasped her hands and leaned toward Mac. “Let me tell you a little story,” Adrienne sighed. “Remember that agent who made me go by the name Audrey? Well, I gave it three months. Then, when I realized he wasn’t going to promote me, I convinced another partner in the agency to hire me.”

  Mac gasped. She’d encouraged all her friends to work hard based on false pretenses. “But I thought you said you had to pay your dues?”

  “Yes, but you have to be smart about where you pay them. And you have to know when to cut your losses. I got off his desk, worked for another partner—the one who wanted all those peanut butter shakes—and within a year I was a junior agent. I even got my own e-mail address.”

  Mac thought about this. When her mom had hit a wall, she’d switched bosses. But there was no way she could transfer schools two weeks into the year. “But BAMS is the only boss in my world.” Mac sighed.

  “Who said anything about BAMS?” Adrienne shook her head. “You have to think outside the BAMS box,” she continued with a knowing look.

  Mac looked at her mom as if she had fallen from the sky. “Mom, you’re losing me.”

  “You did great in Hollywood a few weeks ago,” Adrienne said. “You got Emily seen for the hottest project in town. I have agents working for me who still can’t get their clients in front of Elliot Tachman.”

  Mad nodded, feeling a tiny bit proud.

  “It seems like you’ve been spending an awful lot of time worrying about the small dogs, and now it’s time to pony up for the big dogs.” Adrienne winked.

  Mac shook her head. How did her mother always know the answer to everything?

  “Oh, and by the way, tomorrow you should check out Variety. I know things have been tough, but you have to stay on top of industry news.” With that, Adrienne picked up a script with a red Initiative logo and kicked her heels on her desk, signaling that their conversation was over.

  Mac smiled. Of course she would check out Variety. She used to read it every day, before she became so wrapped up in Pax Rubana and lost sight of her real goal: Hollywood domination. She and her friends were lucky enough to know exactly what they wanted to do with their lives. Why scale it down to BAMS size?

  Mac thought about the girl she’d been for the past seven days. And then, as with the skinny jeans trend, Mac knew:

  It was time to say adieu!

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  emily

  Monday September 21

  12 PM Mac, where are you?

  When the lunch bell rang, Emily walked very slowly to her locker, dragging her checker board Vans so that each step took twice as long as it should have. She felt weighed down by a horrible sense of guilt. It had been so painful to see Mac, always strong, actually vulnerable and sad because of things she had said. She must have seemed so ungrateful. Emily wished she could rewind and close the door when she’d been talking to her mom. How could she have been so stupid?

  She was in no rush to join Becks and Coco at their Z-list table. Not that she had anywhere else to go. Mac was MIA—she hadn’t ridden to school with Emily and hadn’t been in homeroom—and Emily couldn’t shake the feeling that it was all her fault.

  As Emily took in BAMS’s red-tiled roof, its blazing bougainvillea, and the mystic-tanned kids lounging on the lawn, she felt a little nostalgic for BAMS, knowing she was leaving. She still hadn’t told Becks or Coco, and she wasn’t sure when she would.

  Emily, Becks, and Coco met at the entrance to the food hall, grabbed their trays, and headed to the vegetarian section. They each grabbed an M Café tofu bento box.

  “Dude, I haven’t seen Mac all day,” Becks said, opening her box before they’d even swiped their charge cards. She reached in and grabbed a tofu square, nibbling at the corners.

  “She’s totally MIA.” Coco glanced down at her phone. “Six unanswered texts.”

  “Do you think Mac is sick?” Emily asked hopefully. It was a better prospect than Mac being so depressed that she had to take a mental health day.

  “Who knows?” Becks shrugged.

  “This is so unlike her,” Coco said somberly, checking her phone one more time.

  Emily didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t even felt this anxious before performing as Spazmo in front of a packed house. Only Mac could give a girl this much anxiety. They walked in silence to their usual table, with no energy to strut.

  The girls opened their bento boxes and began pecking at the tofu squares inside. Emily couldn’t think of anything new to talk about other than the fact that she was leaving, and she didn’t feel like dumping more bad news on Becks and Coco.

  After several minutes of non-golden silence, Emily felt a hand on her shoulder. The scent of Essie wafted under her nose.

  Mac!

  She was wearing a brand-new Marni sundress with a scoop neck. Her silver Inner Circle ring beamed brightly off its long chain.

  “I’m glad to see we’re in the mood for sushi,” Mac said, eyeing the boxes on the girls’ trays. “And I’m glad to see you haven’t done too much damage, ’cause I made rezzies.”

  Becks, Coco, and Emily looked at one another with curious smiles.

  “Follow me,” Mac said simply.

  The girls left their bento boxes on the table and followed Mac out the door and to the front of the BAMS driveway, where Erin was waiting in a black Mercedes S600 sedan.

  “Why is Erin driving a new car?” Becks asked.

  “Because today is a new day,” Mac said. “But the car is only for today.”

  “Oh no!” Coco groaned. “Have you been spending time with Cardamommy?”

  “What’s so special about today?” Becks asked.

  “Today,” Mac said, holding the door open so her friends could crawl into the backseat, “is the first day of the rest of our lives.” She closed the door and hopped into the front. “Which is why we are going to celebrate at Katsuya.”

  Erin whirled around and cheerily faced the group. “You guys, I seriously like don’t know how to drive this. OHMYGOSH!” Erin giggled. The Benz was tricked out with a Garmin GPS, DVD player, and the finest leather steering wheel. Erin honked the horn.

  “Take it down a notch, GPS,” Mac said affectionately, using her nickname for Erin. Emily hadn’t heard that nickname for Erin since the night she’d met Mac. And then she realized: With that coy remark, that Mac was back. The girl who had chased after her at a party and almost made her a movie star in seventy-two hours. The girl who made the impossible possible.

  “Girls, I realized, I’ve been thinking too small for all of us,” Mac said. “We have the whole world at our fingertips.” She reached into her purple Mulberry Mabel bag and pulled out a business card, which she waved in the air like a Polaroid picture. “Remember Chad Hutchins?” Mac said, thrusting the card toward Becks. “Becks, my dear, you are going to be Roxy’s next great surf talent slash model,” she said. “I’ve already pitched you to him. He can’t wait to come see you surf in the ’Bu.”

  Becks’s jaw dropped and she reached for the card. “I figured I blew it. Are you sure?” Becks asked, befuddled.

  Mac nodded. “And if you still want Austin, once he sees you on every billboard on Sunset Boulevard, you’ll definitely get out of the friend zone. But we’re not doing this for him, we’re doing this for you. He’s just vegan icing on the dairy-free cupcake.” Becks grinned and slid the business card into her jeans pocket.

  Mac turned to Coco. “Remember that crazy water boy song of yours that I interrupted? Sure, it was nuts, but you’ve got an amazing voice, my little chanteuse.”

  Coco nodded gratefully, her eyes twinkling.

  Mac continued. “You’ve been going down the Britney Spears path and—duh!” Mac tapped her temple, like she was having an “aha” moment. “You’re way more Jewel circa ’99, minus the whole living-in-a-van thing. Big duh.”

  Coco beamed as if the clouds had parted and pure, bright s
unlight was streaming down onto her pretty head.

  Emily watched her friends’ moods soar and she stared at Mac in awe. She had never seen anyone inspire people the way Mac did. Or so fearlessly aim for the top. She didn’t even mind that Mac didn’t have any grandiose plans for her, or that her problems might not even be fixable. She felt like she was back on the winning team, and that was enough.

  “Wait, what about Ruby?” Becks asked. “Are we just going to let her off the hook?”

  “Well, if a video montage of her talking smack about Kimmie, bossing me around, and throwing a hissy fit will entertain just the four of us, I can’t help that, can I?” Mac raised her eyebrows. She pointed at the flat-screen TV that faced her friends.

  “Enjoy!” Mac giggled.

  The girls leaned in to stare at the screen. Sure enough, there was a short movie of Ruby bossing Mac around.

  “You have to send this to everyone at BAMS!” Coco gasped.

  Mac shrugged. “Nah. I think we have bigger and better things to worry about.”

  Coco, Becks, and Emily nodded. Of course: They did have bigger and better things to do. Emily was proud of her group. And she was starting to feel like her pre-BAMS self again.

  Mac looked over at Emily. “Lastly, my little starlet. Are you ready for another Davey Woodward kiss?”

  “Um . . . I’m not sure what you mean?” Emily stammered. The last time she’d kissed Davey Farris Woodward, colossal movie star, it had been for a movie audition. It had been scary and fun, and ultimately everyone who’d seen her kiss him had rejected her for the part. She didn’t want to think about getting rejected uh-gain.

  “Elliot saw your play. The man’s not an idiot. He’s now seen you be a convincing dude, a totally believable spaz, and an adorable all-American Midwestern girl. He had to admit you’re phenom.” She smiled. “Plus, he was sitting next to my mom, and she had a few convincing words.”

  Emily’s right leg began to tremble. She’d come so close to the part in Deal With It so many times, and she’d finally accepted that it wasn’t hers. As her mother would say, she’d let it go. But was Mac saying that she had the part? Or that Elliot knew she was talented? She twirled a strand of hair nervously around her index finger and looked out the winding roads as they passed palm trees and sprawling Beverly Hills mansions.

  Before Emily could experience another nanosecond of fearful doubt, Mac flashed her phone in front of Emily’s face. It showed a PDF of today’s Variety. The headline:TACHMAN “DEALS WITH” CASTING SHUFFLE

  EMILYSKYLER TAPPED FOR CAUFIELD’S ROLE

  Emily’s eyes widened. She didn’t have to scream, because the Inner Circle was screaming for her. Erin honked the horn joyfully.

  Mac smiled at her friends. “So, girls, are you ready to be major stars?” She reached into her purse and began pouring a bottle of Orangina into plastic flute glasses she’d brought for the occasion.

  “Your success is my success!” Mac passed a drink to each of the girls. “To winning together!”

  “Together!” the girls cried in unison, raising their glasses through the sunroof.

  “Let’s just hope this isn’t being recorded,” Coco said matter-of-factly.

  There was silence in the Benz as the girls sat up and double-checked for open iChat windows. Then they burst into laugher, knowing they were done with all that.

  Mac smiled, her hair whipping triumphantly in the breeze from the sunroof. “This is it, girls. We’re almost famous!”

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks to the team: Joelle Hobeika, Sara Shandler, and Josh Bank. I’m also very grateful to Kristin Marang, Andrea C. Uva, Lexa Hillyer, Jessica Rothenberg, and Ben Schrank. And a huge thanks to Joanna Schochet, Ruby Boyd, and Abby Stern.

  It’s their turn to shine

  ZOEY DEAN‘S STAR POWER

  A TALENT NOVEL

  Mac is on a mission: to make her girls stars. Mission Hollywood Domination is in motion! But she quickly discovers that a Tinseltown takeover is not as easy as it seems. Coco’s got the voice, but when it comes to the stage, can she out-sparkle her über-famous mom? Becks lands a Quiksilver contract, but will she survive the competitive quicksand? And will Emily ever get another star-kiss from her star-crush? Unless Mac gets in the way . . .

  TALENT

  YOU EITHER HAVE IT OR YOU DON’T

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