Stories from New York #3 (15 page)

“Insecure?” I asked. “She comes off as a lot of things, but insecure isn’t one of them.”

“It’s all an act,” Whit told me. “You should go for that internship, Ivy. Don’t stay away just because of Dakota. It would be awesome to have you around again, just like old times.”

Ivy smiled, blushing slightly. “I’ll definitely think about it,” she said. “Either way, I could always come in with Mom when she’s working. We could hang out.”

Whit grinned. “Good. I’ll call you this weekend.”

I exchanged a quick look with Ivy. He was going to call her!

“Great. You’re here,” Mrs. Scanlon said, appearing in the doorway. “Listen, Quincy’s car is already downstairs waiting for you. I’ll arrange for the hotel to hold our luggage in the lobby. You guys are going to need to go right now if you still want to see some sights.”

“Okay, wait. You’re going sightseeing with Quincy
Vanderstan?” Whit asked, shaking his head. “The stuff that happens to you four is mind-boggling. You really took
City Nation
by storm!”

“We seem to have that effect when the four of us get together,” I said, laughing. “It was really great meeting you, Whit.”

“Same here,” he told me. “I think all four of you should come back. It’s going to be incredibly boring here without you.”

“Oh, we’ll definitely come back!” Tally said. “I don’t know how I can face school again now that I’ve been here!”

We all had our coats on, and Ivy’s mom was gesturing for us to hurry.

“E-mail me when you’re home and tell me how it went,” Whit said to Ivy.

“Oh, I will,” she told him. “I’ve got your new address.”

A phone on one of the desks rang, and Whit quickly answered it.

“Intern room,” he said, looking up and waving. Suddenly he was all business, and we left him to it.

“Well, I hope
City Nation
was everything you wanted it to be,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “From what I hear,
4 Girls
made quite the splash.”

“We had no idea it was going to be this great,” I
said happily. “I don’t think anybody will believe half the things that happened.”

“They won’t have to take your word for it,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “They can see it for themselves online.”

That’s one of the best parts of the experience
, I thought as I walked with my friends. It would all be there on our web issue so we could relive it again and again.

It was hard not to believe it was going to be the best
4 Girls
ever.

I didn’t know what was more unbelievable, the fact that we were sitting in an enormous limousine or that we were sitting in
Quincy Vanderstan’s
limousine. I couldn’t forget that she was a big star, and yet here we were sitting with her like she was a regular person.

“Everybody in? Let’s go!” Quincy said.

The limo was huge. There were two seats facing each other, individual seats on one side along the door, and what looked like a miniature kitchen and entertainment system in the middle.

“You have to give me the address of your site so I can see it,” Quincy told us, opening a laptop.

“Can you do that while we’re driving?” I asked.

“You can do just about anything in this limo,” Quincy said.

“Here—I’ll do it,” Miko said, and Quincy handed her the laptop.

“This is so great of you to show us some of the city,” I said.

“Are you kidding? This is fun for me! And I owe you guys. You really helped me out yesterday. If I had stayed in that sample room any longer, Helvetica would have found out I went missing. I was such an idiot,” Quincy said.

“Who doesn’t get mad at their parents sometimes?” Miko asked. “We’ve all been there. That was a ton of pressure for you on that set.”

“Did you get to talk to your mom about it at all?” Ivy asked.

“I did, actually,” Quincy said. “She ended up being supernice about it. I think she was even more relieved than me that we got back on track without Helvetica finding out. Sometimes I forget that I’m not the only one whose life has turned upside down in the last year. She’s pretty much made my career her full-time job.”

“Oh, that reminds me of my question,” I said. “Can I ask it now?”

“Shoot,” Quincy said. “Ask me anything.”

Miko tossed her camera to Ivy, who turned it on.

“Okay,” I began. “So like you said, this has all happened really fast. You had the TV show last year, but then you got the movies, and it seemed like you suddenly skyrocketed to fame. What’s changed the
most for you? And if you could get one thing back from your old life, what would it be?”

“Wow, that’s a good question,” Quincy said. “I can’t even say what’s changed the most because
everything
has changed. I was about to start my senior year in high school. We’d shot most of the show over the summer, but I had to have a tutor on set so we could keep on schedule. I never in a million years imagined myself saying this, but one thing I’d change back would be school. I really miss just being around people my own age, going through the regular old dramas, you know? Who’s going to ask who to Spring Fling, who dropped their lunch in the cafeteria, who’s trying out for the school play. It all seems kind of endless and boring when you’re in it, but you can never get those days back. I really miss them.”

I nodded thoughtfully.

“Can I ask my question now, too?” asked Tally.

“Sure,” Quincy said.

“Well, I’ve wanted to be an actress since forever,” Tally said. “My mother says I’ve been acting like the world is my stage since I learned to walk. I love acting, and I love going to the movies and to the theater, and I’m really sure it’s what I want to do. And if someone offered me the chance to be famous like you, I wouldn’t say no. I mean, who would?
But there must be things you don’t like about being famous, on top of having to miss school,” Tally said. “Is being an actress ever
less
fun when you become
more
famous?”

“Well, in terms of the acting itself, it’s way more fun than ever,” Quincy said. “I have so many more parts to choose from. There are so many options. I loved doing theater in school, and that’s something I really want to get back to, but that’s one of the downsides of being considered famous. You guys saw a little of what it was like yesterday on the shoot. There’s a ton of people around, and if I lose my temper or have a bad moment, they all see it happen. It’s hard to function when you’re in the spotlight all the time. So as much as I really want to do a play, I kind of worry about it. What if I had a bad day in front of all those people? Would they think I was just being a diva, or would they tell stories about me to the press? What if the real me is so different than the celebrity me that people don’t like me, or I disappoint them? Or what if I’m great for TV or film, where you can do stuff over again if you mess up, but I don’t have what it takes to be a Broadway actress? Sometimes I think if I got a little less attention, I might feel more brave about trying new things. Does that make any sense?”

“It makes perfect sense,” Tally said. “But you
shouldn’t let that stop you from doing a play. You’d be a smash on Broadway. I know you would.”

“Thanks,” Quincy said. “And speaking of Broadway, check it out!”

We all looked out the window, and I took a deep breath as Tally exclaimed loudly.

“Oh, Times Square!” she cried.

We had driven down a street where all the buildings created this great opening—like a grand canyon in the center of the city. Every building seemed covered with brightly colored ads and pictures. On the side of one building was a massive television screen and above and below it were electronic billboards on which moving images flashed. I couldn’t look at any one thing for too long because something else would catch my attention. My eyes went from a glassed-in television studio to a theater to a rotating, blinking Coca-Cola can to a store that seemed to sell nothing but M&Ms. There was so much to take in, and we were moving briskly with the traffic. There were so many people jammed onto the sidewalk, I was suddenly grateful to be in the quiet, roomy limousine. Times Square was overwhelming, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to see it on foot, in the middle of all those people.

“I never get used to that sight,” Ivy said. “Not even when I lived here. Times Square is always so
crazy. That’s why they call New York the ‘city that never sleeps.’”

“You think it looks packed now—check it out tomorrow when the Thanksgiving parade comes through,” Quincy remarked.

“Garamond said you’re actually going to be in the parade,” Miko said. “Is it true?”

Quincy nodded, grinning. “Yep! I’m way more nervous about that than the photo shoot. There’s going to be thousands of people everywhere and millions watching on TV! What if I do something stupid? What if I have to, like, climb off my float and run into a Starbucks to use the bathroom?”

“Oh, but you’re a star!” Tally exclaimed. “They should give you your own bathroom inside your float!”

Quincy laughed. “Maybe you should be my manager, Tally,” she told her.

“Okay, so now that you’ve seen Times Square, we’ll head somewhere a little quieter,” Quincy explained. “Hey, guys, your site is really cool!”

“If you hit that link, it goes to the blog,” Ivy pointed out. “You can see the comments people have been leaving about what we’ve put up so far.”

“I want to see,” Quincy said, pushing a button. “Oh wow. Here’s a thread called ‘Quincee’—they spelled my name wrong. Are all these comments about me?”

“Well, we didn’t know who we were going to be interviewing until the day of the shoot,” Ivy explained. “It turned into a big ‘guess who it’s going to be’ thing.”

“‘Please tell Quincy Vanderstan she is my favorite actress,’” Quincy read. “Cool! ‘Can you guys get Quincy to come to Bixby so we can meet her, too?’ Hah—you never know. Oh, here’s a good one: ‘Ask Quincy what Johnny Depp is like in person.’ Please. I wish I knew!”

“We get all different kinds of comments,” I explained. “Some of them might seem silly. I’m sure nobody imagined you’d be reading them!”

“Want me to post a message?” Quincy asked, grinning.

“Wow, seriously? Would you do that?” Ivy asked. “Just a sentence or two. Everyone would go nuts!”

“Absolutely, let’s do it,” Quincy said.

“Here, I’ll sign you in as Quincy Vanderstan,” Miko said, turning the laptop toward her. “Okay, there you go.”

We all watched as Quincy began to type, her tongue tucked in the corner of her mouth as she concentrated.

“Okay, how’s this: Hi,
4 Girls
readers. Thanks for all the comments. I’m sitting here with Miko, Tally, Ivy, and Paulina having a great time in New York
City. This site is awesome, and I love reading your comments. I will definitely keep reading—I am
4 Girls’
biggest fan!”

“That’s perfect! Everyone will love it!” I exclaimed.

“Can you leave my log-in so I can post again if I have time?” Quincy asked.

“Sure,” Miko said, taking the laptop. “I’ll just set a password for you. What do you want it to be?”

“Something I can’t possibly forget,” Quincy said.

“How about ‘Helvetica’?” Ivy suggested.

Quincy laughed. “Perfect,” she agreed.

Miko typed in the password. “All set,” she said. “Oh wow—Ivy, look what your mom just e-mailed!”

Miko turned the computer so we could all see it. Mrs. Scanlon had sent the picture Raavi had taken of all of us at the photo shoot. I don’t know how Raavi had managed it, but he seemed to have captured something utterly unique in each one of us. Quincy was giving a glamorous smile, but she had turned her head and arched one eyebrow like there was a secret we were all in on. Tally was grinning wildly, her eyes huge and clear, and her face flushed with all the excitement. Miko was standing up very straight with a cool, half smile, but I could see she was clutching Tally’s arm very tightly. Ivy was looking slightly past the camera, around the spot where her mother had probably been standing. And I wasn’t looking at the
camera at all, I was looking at the four girls standing with me, and my face was just starting to go into a full smile. I actually looked like I was about to laugh.

It was amazing that one picture could say so much. Whatever the finished web issue contained, whatever footage and stories made it in, and whatever details never appeared, it was all contained in this one single image, what the four of us were individually, and what we became together in one glorious day.