30 Days of No Gossip (14 page)

Mr. Shelly took the mic again. “We’ll have security guards, so don’t get any ideas.”

As I watched him step back and hand the microphone to Miss Golden, it hit me. He hadn’t told her. Mr. Shelly had never said a word to
24-Hour Makeover
about the fact that students knew.

“But that’s
still
not the best news,” Miss Golden said.

Silence fell over the gym as everyone waited for the rest. My mind, meanwhile, was reeling. Of course Mr. Shelly hadn’t told them that. He wasn’t going to blow it for the school. In his office it had run through my mind that he might just be trying to scare me, and I’d been right. He’d never once said he was going to tell Miss Golden. I’d just been so mad at myself, I’d let myself believe I’d blown it. Instead, he’d kept his mouth shut, and I’d realized something very important about secrets and my complete horribleness at keeping them.

“We’re having a contest for the best worker,” Miss Golden was saying, her voice jerking me out of my thoughts. “The winner gets to come to Hollywood to help host the show about this school.”

Everyone started talking again. A low rumble spread across the bleachers as everyone excitedly discussed what Miss Golden had just told us. A trip to Hollywood, but not only that—a trip to Hollywood to be on
TV
!

“Can we bring a friend on the trip if we win?” someone called out. I couldn’t see who was doing the talking, but I frowned in the general direction of the voice.

“You can bring one parent or legal guardian,” Miss Golden said. “Any other questions?”

I looked around. Nobody was raising a hand. Did I dare speak up? Did I have the nerve to open my big mouth after everything I’d done?

The answer was yes. For Vi, yes. I just had to avoid looking at Mr. Shelly and seeing his disapproving glare. I squeezed my eyes shut, I thought about Vi and how much this would mean to her, and before I could stop it, my arm shot up.

“Yes, Maddie?” Miss Golden said, her smile widening.

I winced. Now everyone was looking at me, waiting to see what I’d say. It probably didn’t surprise them at all that I was asking a question.

“I was just wondering about the design,” I spoke up to say. “What if someone is really good at picking out things? Could they help?”

“Are you volunteering?” Miss Golden asked.

“Not me,” I said. “Someone else I know.”

I shifted my gaze to where Vi was sitting. I couldn’t see her from here, which meant she wasn’t watching. But she could hear every word of this. I took a deep breath and returned my attention to Miss Golden.

“Speak to me after the assembly,” Miss Golden said. “If there are no other questions, I’ll turn it back over to Mr. Shelly.”

Mr. Shelly gave us the usual routine about how he expected us to behave and make him proud and blah-blah-blah. I heard very little of it. I was too busy thinking up what I would say to Miss Golden.

As it turned out, there was a line to get to Miss Golden. I stepped in behind a group of girls who were trying to talk Miss Golden into letting them help with picking out things. No way. That was Vi’s job.

I was so caught up in what they were saying, I didn’t realize that Vi herself had stepped into place behind me until she spoke. “What exactly are you doing?”

I spun around, ready to defend myself. She wasn’t about to attack me, though. She was simply waiting for an answer.

“Speaking to Miss Golden,” I said. That was pretty obvious.

“About what?” she asked.

“Someone who would be perfect for helping them get all of this together” was all I said. I knew it was probably only a matter of seconds before I’d have to say exactly what I was trying to do. But before I could say anything, the girls in line in front of us left, and Miss Golden stepped over to stand in front of us.

“Is this Vi?” Miss Golden asked.

At that point, I not only didn’t remember having mentioned Vi to Miss Golden but I couldn’t believe that if I had, she’d even been listening. “Yes,” I answered. I’d just have to wait to see what Miss Golden remembered about her.

“You must be the design expert,” Miss Golden said. “I have to tell you, you have a great friend here.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vi straighten a little. Would she say something against me to Miss Golden?

“She was telling me all about you,” Miss Golden said. “This huge sales pitch about how great you’d be at helping with the makeover. You wouldn’t believe the trouble she went through to help you. Now
that’s
a friend.” Miss Golden shook her head. “I wish I had a friend like that.”

Vi looked down. Her shoulders were slumped now. I wanted to argue that as much as I was a good friend, I kept
messing up. If I could just walk around with duct tape over my mouth all the time, I’d be a
great
friend.

“I want both of you,” Miss Golden said.

She reached back and tapped Mr. Shelly on the shoulder. He turned around with a smile on his face, but when he saw me, that smile fell.

“These two are best friends,” Miss Golden told him. “I think it would make for great TV to maybe hone in on them a little Saturday morning. Can you both be here at six a.m.?”

“Miss Evans won’t be participating,” Mr. Shelly said.

It seemed to take Miss Golden a second to realize that
I
was Miss Evans. She looked at me, her brow furrowing, and turned to Mr. Shelly.

“Why not?” Miss Golden said.

I’d expected this. I knew Mr. Shelly was mad at me for telling everyone about
24-Hour Makeover
. I didn’t plan to help anyway. I didn’t deserve to help. I’d stay home Saturday while everyone else had fun, and be happy knowing Vi was realizing her lifelong dream of being on her favorite TV show.

“Miss Evans knows what she did,” Mr. Shelly replied.

He wouldn’t say what I’d done because if he did, he could jeopardize the entire show. Instead, he gave me a
grim look and turned around to continue his conversation.

Vi, on the other hand, had no issue with saying what I’d done. “Maddie has a bit of a problem with her mouth,” she told Miss Golden without looking at me. “Seems she can’t keep a secret. She—”

“I’m a gossip,” I interrupted quickly, before Vi said anything more. If Vi let it slip that students knew about
24-Hour Makeover
, the whole thing could be toast. Now that everyone officially knew, what was the harm in keeping it a secret a little longer, right?

Vi laughed. “A gossip? She told everyone about you being here.”

Miss Golden blinked. “She told everyone about me being here?”

“Yes,” Vi said with a nod. “She looked you up online and figured out you were with
24-Hour Makeover
. All of these people probably already knew who you were when you made your announcement. Big surprise, huh?”

That whole tirade had gotten Mr. Shelly’s attention. He’d stopped everything to turn around and look at us. All the blood seemed to have drained from his face as he stared directly at Miss Golden. Miss Golden, on the other hand, was still smiling. I don’t think she got it.

“Interesting,” Miss Golden said. She looked at me like
she had newfound respect for me, which was weird. And completely undeserved. Then she asked something that surprised me. “Nobody told you to keep it a secret, though?”

“No,” I answered, lowering my head. “But that doesn’t excuse it. I tried to keep it a secret and I goofed it all up.”

“You’re thirteen.”

With those two words, my head lifted. Being thirteen was no excuse, but I wanted to hear what Miss Golden had to say. Instead, Mr. Shelly broke in.

“Discretion is important,” Mr. Shelly said. “Miss Evans is the publisher of a newsletter called the
Troy Tattler
. You can’t tell her anything without it being spread all over school, the Internet—even the evening news.”

That last part was a huge exaggeration, but Miss Golden probably knew that. “Hmph,” Miss Golden said. She was still giving me that interested look.

“It’s something I’m working on,” I insisted. I looked over at Vi, who rolled her eyes. I added, more insistently, “I
am
.”

“Then why does the entire school know about
24-Hour Makeover
?” Vi asked.

“Ask Sydney,” I said. “People were guessing what was going on. I tried not to tell them—”

“So,” Miss Golden interrupted. “If I needed to get the
word out about something, it sounds like you’re the person to talk to.”

Both Vi and I turned to face her. Mr. Shelly was looking at her now too. We were all waiting to find out where she was going with this.

“I think this could be useful,” Miss Golden said, turning back to Mr. Shelly. “We need someone who can promote
24-Hour Makeover
, especially once the episode is about to air. We’ve been trying to reach a younger age group, and someone like Maddie here can do much better than our publicists at posting things like this on social media sites.”

Mr. Shelly looked puzzled. I was afraid to look at Vi. All of this was really confusing.

“Do you have a cell phone with a camera?” Miss Golden asked me. “Of course you do. I saw it the day I met you, in Mr. Shelly’s office. How would you feel about taking pictures Saturday and posting some things online for us?”

I didn’t know what it involved, but I didn’t have to know. “I’d love to!” I practically shouted.

“Wait a second,” Mr. Shelly broke in. “You’re telling me you’re actually going to encourage her to spread the word about your show?”

“Sure.” Miss Golden shrugged as if to say,
Why not?

“Because that behavior should be punished,” Mr. Shelly
said. “It’s because of Maddie that the entire school knew about this before you showed up. This breaches the confidentiality.”

“There’s nothing confidential about
24-Hour Makeover
,” Miss Golden said with a dismissive wave. “Plus, I guarantee she’s not the only gossip around here. One person can’t spread something like that on her own. I’ll make you a deal. If you’ll let her participate Saturday, I’ll make sure she works hard. Deal?”

Mr. Shelly looked at me, then at Miss Golden. “Deal,” he agreed. “But I want to see this one covered in paint by the end of the day.”

Miss Golden shrugged as Mr. Shelly walked away. Then she turned back to the two of us.

“Be here Saturday at six a.m.,” she told us. “And don’t be late.”

Miss Golden turned to speak to someone else, which was when the hard part began. Vi and I were left alone to talk to each other. This was my chance to state my case. But Vi turned and walked off. Before she did, though, I thought I saw something in her eyes. Gratitude. That had to be a good sign, right?

Chapter Fourteen

THERE WAS A REASON THE
grown-ups had told us that if we weren’t here by six a.m., we wouldn’t be a part of the show. Six a.m. was tough, especially on a Saturday. Saturdays were for sleeping in and hanging out all day. Saturdays weren’t for bicycling to Troy Middle School in your old jeans and tennis shoes, hoping you made it in time.

It was actually five fifty-five when I parked my bike at the rack, but I wasn’t the first person to show up. Not by a long shot. The sidewalk in front of the door was packed with students. There were cars pulling up too, still dropping students off. I pulled out my camera and started snapping pictures. If Miss Golden wanted me to post this everywhere, I may as well start now.

“Maddie, over here!”

I heard Jessica calling out to me, but I couldn’t see her. Not in this crowd. I was starting toward the end of what I assumed was some kind of line when I saw movement off to the side. Jessica was jumping up and down.

“Maddie.” Jump. “This way.” Jump. “We saved you . . .”

I couldn’t hear her last few words as she dropped back down again, but I could piece it together. She was saying they’d saved me a place.

“Maddie!”

Now Chelsea was calling out to me. She was just a few feet away, near the end of the line. She was giving me her biggest, brightest smile, and it made me smile back.

But then I heard Jessica again. I stopped and looked from Chelsea to Jessica. Sydney rose up on tiptoe and started waving too. My friends. Then I looked at Chelsea and saw someone who had never been my friend. She’d only ever been nice to me when she thought I had information she might want.

I turned and started in the direction that felt most natural to me. I squeezed through the crowd and a few seconds later was standing next to two of my three closest friends in the world.

“This is so exciting,” Jessica said. “Aren’t you excited?”

I nodded, thinking that was a silly question. Of course I
was excited. We were all excited. Jessica was looking at me with this huge, hopeful smile on her face, though, so I tried hard to get to her level of cheerleaderish happiness.

“Can’t wait,” I said, pasting on a huge smile. In truth, I was too nervous to be excited. I didn’t know what Miss Golden had planned for me and Vi. Mostly, though, I was worried about Vi. Could I somehow make this work so we were friends again?

The front doors to the school had obviously opened because the crowd suddenly started pushing toward the school. I went with it and just hoped I wouldn’t be trampled before we got inside.

Once through the doors, everyone seemed to be heading in the same direction—toward the language arts wing. I wanted to slow everything down. It was all going so quickly, I didn’t have time to figure it all out. Plus, I needed to find Vi.

I couldn’t find Vi
or
Miss Golden. Everyone was spread around the annex, being given instructions and materials. Lots of paint cans and brushes and those tray things to pour paint into. So we were painting over the painted brick? Someone pulled a ladder in and gathered some students around to talk about the ceiling.

Somehow I’d gotten separated from Jessica and Sydney as the crowd had pushed between us. As I was craning my
neck to look for them, Chelsea stepped up next to me.

“Where are the cameras?” Chelsea asked. She was looking around too.

I shrugged. Why did she think I’d know?