Chapter 1
MySpace BULLETIN
From: Avery [inLA]
Date: October 11 -- 3:45 p.m.
Subject: Vote in my poll!!
I survived the school day! Now where should I go? All you have to do is vote & I pinky-swear to give you the exclusive inside details every step of the way!
• Shopping in Beverly Hills -- Celebrity views + Jimmy Choos all in one place!
• A concert at the Hollywood Bowl -- I'll take pics for you guys from the front row -- and backstage after the show!
• The set of a TV show at the studios -- What's gonna happen on our favorite show next season? I'll watch them film it -- & give you all the spoilers!
•l; A movie premiere and after-party -- Let's walk down the red carpet...& hit the VIP after-party later!
No matter what you choose, I'll give you all the celebrity sightings & all access --
Rrrrring!
Dang it. The phone rang, completely interrupting my train of thought. I put the laptop down on the round, furry chair I'd been sitting on and got up to look for the phone. I could hear it ringing from somewhere in my bedroom. Dang it again, I tripped over a cardboard box that was marked Avery/Magazines.
We'd moved into this house almost a month ago and a lot of my stuff was still in boxes, waiting for me to put it someplace. I'd convinced my parents before we moved to ditch my old bedroom furniture I'd had since I was eight. They had promised me I could get new furniture, including a bookcase just to hold all my magazines. But we hadn't even started shopping yet. All I had right now was a mattress, my old turquoise comforter set, and boxes. My room theme could be called Modern Cardboard Box. I kicked one of the boxes off to the side.
Rrrrring!
Rrrrring!
I narrowed the ringing noise down to somewhere on my bed. I moved a pile of clothes, my backpack, some pillows...and there it was. I saw my mom's cell number on the caller ID.
"Hi, Mom," I said.
"Hi, honey. I just wanted to let you know that Dad and I are working late tonight. Did you finish your homework?"
Um...
"Avery? Your homework is done, correct?" my mom said.
Uh...
Then I heard a phone ringing in the background on her end. Excellent. It was perfect timing for my mom's business line to be interrupting our call.
"Oh, I have to take this," she said. "Love you!"
I heard a click as she hung up. Yes! Thank you, customer, for interrupting us, as well as -- I hoped -- buying products from my parents' new company. I went back over to my chair and set my laptop back on my knees. But I was no longer in the mood to write any more of the MySpace bulletin; my mom's call had snapped me back into reality.
I reread my poll. Shopping! Concerts! TV sets! Movie premieres! Oh, the glam possibilities of life in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, those were options in somebody else's life, not mine.
It's pretty pathetic when the most exciting thing that happens in my day is making up a fake fantasy bulletin.
I held down the delete button and erased everything I'd typed. My parents always said I had an active imagination. I started a new bulletin and typed in a real poll.
MySpace BULLETIN
From: Avery [inLA]
Date: October 11 -- 3:45 p.m.
Subject: Vote in my poll!!
I survived the school day! Now what?!
• Do my homework!
• Do some laundry!
• Make ramen noodles for dinner!
• Wait for you guys to text me!
Yes, those were my real choices. I clicked send and watched my lame bulletin pop up on my bulletin list. My life pretty much consisted of school, homework, and being online. Shopping in Beverly Hills? A concert? I had no ride and no money. The TV set or movie premiere? Right...like I had any clue how to even find them, much less get into them.
MySpace BULLETIN
From: Avery [inLA]
Date: October 11 -- 4:10 p.m.
Subject: asfgdsl
boredom sux
please start a conversation with me
now!!!!
Hello...people? Where were my Ohio friends in my time of need? It was around dinnertime there, so somebody should've been available to chat with me.
I felt a pang knowing that if I was back in Ohio, I'd be there with them, planning for homecoming. I couldn't tell them I was feeling left out, though. I tried that a couple days ago, and Nicole said, "What do you have to complain about? You live in L.A.!" And a month ago, I would have thought the same thing. I still couldn't believe I actually lived in one of the most exciting cities on earth. My parents had worked in regular sales jobs back in Ohio, but then someone my mom worked with told her about a business franchise they could start up in California.
They'd called me into our dining room to discuss, as they put it, a major life decision. How did I feel about uprooting our family and taking a risk to start a new life in Los Angeles?
"We might move to L.A.?" I asked, not sure if I was hearing them right. "You mean live there?"
"Yes, we would live in a suburb of Los Angeles," my dad said. "I know you've never been to L.A...."
Well, no, I'd never been to L.A. in real life, but I'd definitely been there in my dream life. I'd been semiobsessed with celebrities since, well, pretty much forever. Even back in fifth grade, before I was allowed free reign on the Internet, I spent all my allowance on popstar magazines. I was my friends' go-to person for the star gossip and the newest posters to put up on our walls.
So of course, Hollywood was somewhere I'd always hoped to go. But I was thinking more along the lines of a weekend visit, like if my dad had a sales conference there instead of the usual places, like Des Moines. And then I'd convince him to take me with him and I would have the chance to stalk the stars' homes from a tour bus and put my feet in the cement footprints on the Walk of Fame. And then I'd go back home to Ohio for the rest of my life.
I never even remotely thought there was a chance my parents would move us there.
"I know this is the only home you've ever known, sweetie," my mom said. "And you've never been to California, so if you want a few days to think about it before you weigh in with your answer -- "
"Mom! Dad!" I interrupted. "The answer is heck, yeah! Let's move to L.A.!!"
"Well, breaking the news to Avery went far better than I'd expected," my dad said dryly, as he whisked my mom out of the dining room before I could change my mind.
However, breaking the news to my friends didn't go quite as I'd envisioned. I was preparing myself for some tears, declarations of how much I'd be missed, and maybe some drama about how they couldn't go on without me. I'd called an emergency meeting at Starbucks.
"I have major news," I announced. "I'm moving to L.A. in a couple weeks."
"No way!" Nicole said. "That is amazing!"
"I know," I said. "It's -- "
Wait. Did she say amazing?
"Ahem," I said. "I said I was moving to L.A. Moving, as in leaving here? Permanently?"
"L.A.! Ohmygosh! You have to get me Shiloh's autograph!" Kendall squealed.
"Shiloh's autograph?" I asked. "I'm moving to L.A. and you ask for Shiloh's autograph?"
"Seriously, Kendall," Nicole said. "Give poor Avery a break. I mean, Shiloh's autograph?"
Thank you. After all, I'd just announced I was leaving Ohio forever.
"Shiloh isn't even old enough to sign an autograph," Nicole continued. "Avery, try to get us Zahara's instead."
"Is anyone understanding that I'm leaving?" I said. "We've been friends since second grade. And I'm leaving."
"Well, officially, Lexa's only been friends with us since fourth grade," Nicole said.
"No, it was third," Lexa insisted.
"Not really," Nicole said. "You only thought you were in third. Really, we were only using you for your Bratz dolls."
"What?" Lexa sputtered.
"I'm just kidding," Nicole said. "Kind of."
"You guys!" I said. "Focus! I'm leaving in just a few weeks! This is one of the last times we'll all be sitting here on our couch at Starbucks together."
"Oh, Avery," Kendall said. She reached out and grabbed my hand. I started to get a little lump in my throat as I looked around at the friends I'd known almost forever.
"Okay, this is touching and all," Nicole said. "But a little too Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for me. I feel like we're about to swear our allegiance to our friendship and pledge that nothing can tear us apart."
"Would that be so bad?" I asked.
"Not if we got a pair of magic jeans that would fit all of us like they did in Traveling Pants," Lexa said. "That would be sweet."
"Ooh, can they be True Religions?" Kendall said. "Or Rich & Skinny."
"Those would be magic jeans if they made you look rich and skinny," Nicole said. Lexa snorted.
"You guys!" I said, a little too loudly. Everyone stopped and looked at me. "I need your support here."
"You're right" Nicole said. "You do need our support. Okay, guys, we need to rally around Avery."
Finally, someone was listening to me.
"We have to get Avery ready to go out there and represent us!" Nicole continued. "She doesn't have much time. She's going to have to go all Ashlee and make some facial tweaks. I wonder if we have enough time to get Avery on I Want a Famous Face?!"
"Ooh, make yourself into L.C.!" Kendall turned to me. "I love The Hills!"
"You think?" Lexa said. "She might be able to pull off Audrina, but I can't see her as a Heidi."
"Boobs!" Nicole yelled so loud that the guy at the table next to us spilled his coffee. "You need boobs!"
I sat there, slightly stunned, as my friends made a to-do list:
• Choose famous face and find plastic surgeon
• Get TanTastic's thirty-day all-you-can-spray tan special
• Dye my hair platinum
• Get clothes other than my usual earth-toned Hollister/AE/Abercrombie...
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