Tangled #3 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

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  Text copyright © 2011 by Taylor Morris. Cover illustration copyright © 2011 by Anne Keenan Higgins. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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  ISBN : 978-1-101-53564-6

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  To my niece, the fearless Sophie Rose—TM

  CHAPTER 1

  “Remember, Eve, you already promised me I could be your personal hairstylist,” I said.

  “Are you sure?” Eve asked. She sat next to me at the lunch table, a Frito pinched between her long, thin fingers. “Didn’t I say umbrella holder?” She popped the chip in her mouth, then grinned.

  “I’m not too proud to be an umbrella holder, whatever that is,” Lizbeth said from across the table. “Just as long as I get to be there for your superstardom ride. And Kristen, too,” she added, bumping her best friend’s shoulder.

  “I’ll pass,” Kristen replied.

  “Well, dahlings,” Eve said, tossing her long white-blond hair over her shoulder, “I’ll see if I can fit you all into the payroll.”

  In case you were wondering, our friend Eve Benton was a huge star in our small Berkshires town. The biggest actress Rockford, Massachusetts, has ever seen.

  After starring in a commercial for the live-action version of the video game Warpath of Alien Doom, Eve was still basking in the glow of the spotlight. The commercial’s premiere and opening of the game a couple days ago had been a blast. There’d been a red carpet and lots of photographers taking pictures of the stars, and Eve had been the most glamorous of them all. At least in our eyes. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be the next Disney star, but she was having fun with her newfound fame.

  “Eve!” called Cara Fredericks as she passed by our table. “I saw the commercial this weekend. You were awesome!”

  “Thanks!” Eve said, waving back.

  “That was the best party I’ve ever been to,” Lizbeth said. “I’d seriously go back to play the game if it meant I could walk that red carpet again.”

  “It was like sampling the life of a celebrity,” I agreed.

  “I liked having all of us hang out,” Eve said. “That was better than the red carpet and the food.”

  “I’m pretty sure that there is no food in the world that is better than a boy,” Kristen chimed in.

  Eve had suggested we all bring dates to the premiere. My best friend, Jonah, went with her; his friend, Kyle, hung out with me; and Tobias Woods and Matthew Anderson, who Kristen and Lizbeth had crushes on, took them. Kristen, who liked to be in the spotlight, had paid more attention to Tobias than Eve. I knew that’s why she was being extra snarky now. The attention wasn’t on her.

  “Nothing was better than the commercial,” I said, bumping my shoulder against Eve’s.

  “Except maybe the hair and makeup,” said Lizbeth, grinning.

  Part of me cringed and part of me felt proud. Eve had played a blue alien goddess in the commercial, and that blue came out of a hair disaster created by yours truly. Thankfully, with the help of the pro stylists on the set, she had ended up looking amazing.

  “Bunny wants me to go to Boston for more auditions, but Mom isn’t so sure,” Eve said. She picked the onions off of her ham-and-cheese sandwich. Bunny was the casting director who first spotted Eve when we were in the food court at the mall. “She wants me to agent up, even if I don’t know if I want to commit to this acting thing.”

  “Agent up?” Kristen asked—with a bit of a sneer if I do say so. “What does that mean?”

  “You know, get an agent,” Eve replied. “Bunny said they’ll set me up on auditions that I’m best suited for, stuff like that.”

  “That’s so cool,” Lizbeth said. “We’ve never had an actress at our school before.”

  “Or in our town,” I added.

  “You guys, it’s no big deal,” Eve said, blushing slightly.

  “Yeah,” Kristen said. “It’s not like she invented leggings or something.”

  “Because then,” Eve said, eyeing Kristen, “you’d all have to bow down at my feet. Right, Kristen?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Kristen said. We all looked at her and she withered under our gazes. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I wasn’t trying to be snarky, okay?”

  “You don’t have to be my personal umbrella holder,” Eve offered with a smile.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Kristen. “What gives?”

  “I don’t want to be a downer,” she said.

  “Just snarky?” Lizbeth teased.

  “You guys,” she said, her voice close to a whine. Very unlike Kristen. “Look, Eve. I’m happy for you. I really am. I feel like a jerk.” She sighed.

  “But . . . ,” Eve said.

  “But . . . ,” Kristen looked at Lizbeth and said, “You know how long I’ve wanted to be an actress. It’s all I’ve ever talked about.”

  Lizbeth busted out laughing. “I’ve never once heard you say that.”

  “I say it all the time!” Kristen protested.

  “Name one time,” Lizbeth said.

  “Look, the point is,” Kristen said, ignoring her friend, “I’m really happy for you, Eve. And I also hope to one day be on TV, too.”

  “We can settle this right now.” Eve looked around the table. “Whose phone has video on it? Can
we get some live streaming here?”

  “Very funny,” Kristen said, but a smile crept across her face.

  Lizbeth threw her arm around her and said, “We’ll always love you, K. Even if you’re a nobody.”

  Kristen nudged off her best friend. “You’re messing up my couture blouse,” she said. She ran her hands over the silk, pleated blouse she wore, smoothing out the nonexistent wrinkles.

  “Don’t worry, Kristen,” I said, stifling a laugh. “No one will notice.”

  “Tobias might,” she said. She looked around the cafeteria. “Where are they?”

  “Seriously, Kristen,” Eve said. “I’ll give you Bunny’s info if you want. You can call her and see if she can set you up.”

  Kristen picked at her food. “Maybe I will,” she said, trying to be calm. But really, I knew she was bursting with excitement.

  “That way you can see for yourself how boring a set is,” Eve continued.

  “I would love to see for myself,” Kristen said.

  “And Kristen?” Eve said, really looking at her now. “All you had to do was ask.”

  “Fine, okay,” she said. “I’m sorry, Eve.”

  “I know,” Eve replied.

  See why we’re best friends? Even though Eve had only been at our school for a couple of months, she fit into the group like she’d been there forever. I don’t know what I did before I met her. (Okay, I do—I hung out with my best guy friend, Jonah. But you know what I mean.)

  After lunch, Eve walked with me to my locker to get my books for English.

  “I’m already so behind on my reading,” I said, pulling out the paperback copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. It had been assigned to us two weeks ago, but for the last week I’d been so focused on my oral presentation for our Career Exploration project that I’d let my reading slip. I’d given a presentation on my job as a sweeper at Mom’s salon, Hello, Gorgeous! I really hadn’t expected that to take up so much time since I’ve been at the salon my whole life. But now I was a couple chapters behind and I couldn’t let Mom find out that I’d been slacking off or she’d make me step back from my responsibilities at the salon. “Want to come over after school to start studying for Friday’s test? We can read the chapters together and go over them with those worksheets Ms. Carlisle gave us.”

  “Wow, Mickey.” Eve grinned. “Start studying now for a test on Friday? Are you feeling all right?”

  “Very funny.”

  Eve laughed. “I’d come over,” she said, “but I’m busy today.”

  “Going to see your grandma or something?” I asked. That’s the reason Eve and her mom moved here this spring—to be closer to her grandma. But Eve shook her head no. “Doing some mother-daughter thing with your mom?” She shook her head no again. “So come on,” I prodded. “What are you doing after school?” This wasn’t like her to be so secretive. I put on my best supportive friend face. I didn’t want her to think she couldn’t tell me something.

  It was easy to see when Eve was embarrassed. She had really pale, smooth skin that flamed bright pink. “I have plans,” she said slowly, “with Jonah.”

  “My Jonah?” I said. Then I gulped, realizing how that sounded. “I mean, my friend Jonah. Who is your friend now, too. I guess. Wow. Really?”

  Eve gazed down the hall as she said, “We’re just going to the Waffle Cone on Camden Way to get some ice cream before I meet Mom and Grandma for dinner.” She was trying to play it cool, but I could tell she wanted to bust out a smile.

  Eve and Jonah. Huh. When I first met Eve I wouldn’t have paired them together, but now I saw that it all made sense. They had a lot in common, like video games and, well, me. I guess that was enough.

  I wondered why Jonah hadn’t told me about this. I knew they liked each other, but were they really considering dating? No way was Jonah ready for that. He still thought it was okay to burp in front of girls. I wondered why he wanted to stay close-lipped about my friend. Didn’t I have a right to know what was going on?

  (Okay, maybe not.)

  We walked into Ms. Carlisle’s English classroom and sat down at our desks, which were near each other.

  “I wasn’t planning on working at the salon today,” I said. “But maybe I’ll go in for an hour or two and then come meet you guys. What time are you going? Oh! Did you hear the Waffle Cone has a new tiramisu ice cream? Yum.” If I went, I’d be doing Jonah a huge favor. Left alone, he’d probably think it was cool to show Eve his skateboarding scabs. Gross.

  “Um, I’m not sure what time,” Eve replied. She turned to get her notebook out of her bag, and then started flipping through her notes.

  “You made plans but you don’t know what time?” I asked. I shook my head. “That’s just like Jonah.”

  Eve didn’t say anything. She just kept looking at her notes. That made me pause. “Wait,” I said. “Are you guys together now or something? Like, together together?”

  She blushed again. “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. She still wouldn’t look at me but this time I could see a real smile spread across her lips. “Friday at the premiere was awesome. We texted all weekend and then he called me last night. That’s when he asked me out.”

  “You guys talked on the phone?” That was big. Bigger than talking at school.

  She scribbled in her notebook. “Yeah. He said he couldn’t wait until my next big premiere to do something so he asked me to hang out tonight. It was actually really cute.”

  It did sound sweet. Jonah wasn’t just my oldest and bestest friend, he was also sort of like the brother I didn’t have. But thinking about him being all mushy with Eve made a part of me grossed out. In a nice, happy-for-you kind of way, that is.

  Ms. Carlisle finally got class started. She went over the chapters we read last week of To Kill a Mockingbird and as she talked about the trial and how significant it was that Jem, Scout, and Dill sat in the balcony of the courtroom, my mind drifted to my two best friends. How cool was it that they were dating! The three of us could hang out together, and maybe we’d all become best friends. It was win-win-win.

  Before the last class of the day, I ran into Mr. Smooth himself, Jonah Goldman.

  “Hey, Jonah,” I called. “Wait up!” I ran down the hall to catch up with him.

  He paused when he heard me, but didn’t look up.

  “Hang on a sec,” he said. His eyes focused on the glow of his phone while he typed and sent a text. Once he finished he looked up. “What’s up?”

  “Hey, I was just wondering, do you know how long it takes us to walk to school in the morning?”

  “No idea.” He gave me a weird look. “Why?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, either,” I said. “Not for sure, anyway, but I think it takes somewhere in the ballpark of eight minutes.”

  “Okay,” he said. “So?”

  “So . . . I’m just wondering why in eight solid minutes this morning you didn’t tell me you and Eve have plans to go to the Waffle Cone this afternoon.” I nudged his shoulder with mine and winked.

  Jonah shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said, not meeting my eye. “Didn’t think about it. It’s not like it’s a big deal or anything.”

  Aww, I thought I as I watched Jonah shift from one foot to the other. What a good friend! How sweet that Jonah didn’t want me to feel left out. I’m so lucky to have two such amazing friends.

  “I told Eve I might drop by to hang out with you guys,” I said. “That’s cool, right?”

  For a moment Jonah didn’t respond. Finally he said, “Yeah. Sure. I mean, whatever.” He scratched the back of his neck and continued, “We’re just hanging out. No big deal.”

  “Sure. No big deal. So you’ll tell me when you guys are official, right?” I asked.

  He cut his eyes at me and said, “Official what?”

  “Her official BF,” I replied.

  “Biggest fart?” he asked.

  Disgusting. But at least his immature joke made us both smile.

  “You’re such a dork,�
�� I said. “And be serious. If you guys get together then that’s awesome. Right?”

  “I guess,” he said with a shrug. “Eve’s cool.”

  “She’s cool? Jonah, the weather in Canada is cool. My vintage barrette is cool.” I touched said barrette—a long, crystal beauty I’d pinned on the side of my head that looked elegant in the midst of my barely tamed curls. “Can’t you think of a better way to describe your girlfriend?” I said, testing the word on him.

  “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said, just as I thought he would. He took his phone out again. A new text was on the screen.

  “Okay,” I said. “Sorry I said anything. But I just want you to know that she’s my friend and you’re my friend and if my two greatest friends are together—or just hanging out together or whatever you want to call it—then I think it’s pretty awesome. Okay?”

  He smiled the tiniest bit and said, “Okay.”

  We stopped at his classroom. Mine was just around the corner.

  “Hey, you didn’t tell me what time you’ll be there tonight,” I said.

  “Maybe around four. But Mickey?”

  “Yeah?”

  He stood just outside the door and finally his eyes focused on me. He started to say something, but then seemed to lose his train of thought. “Never mind,” he said.

  I shook my head. Boys were always so distracted. “Text me,” I said. “It’ll be fun!”

  CHAPTER 2

  “Mickey, wait up!”

  I turned to see Lizbeth and Kristen waving at me from the front steps just after school. I walked back toward them.

  “Are you going to the salon?” Lizbeth asked. She shielded her eyes from the bright sun. “We’re going for manis.”

  “Not today,” I said. “I might go over to the Waffle Cone.”

  “Oh, come with us to the salon,” she said.

  I thought about Jonah, Eve, and the Waffle Cone. I didn’t want to ditch them. Who knew what state of boy panic Jonah might get in if I wasn’t there as a buffer. I also had a lot of homework to do. But the salon . . . it was my weakness.