30 Days of No Gossip (16 page)

“Wait,” Jessica said, looking over at me. “Is Vi . . .
gossiping
?”

Since those were the exact words I’d just been thinking, I flashed a smile at Jessica. “Sometimes it’s okay to gossip, right?” I asked Vi.

“Right,” she said, surprising me. I’d been thinking it, but I didn’t know she’d so easily admit to it. “Sometimes you’re just sharing news.”

“And sometimes it’s good news,” I added.

Vi turned to me. “I guess I was a little over the top,” she said. “Besides, without you, I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet my idol.”

“Maybe you’ll win?” Jessica asked hopefully.

“You could go to Hollywood,” I added. I wasn’t sure about the rest of it. From what I remembered, the person would be helping to host the show. Since Vi didn’t want to be on TV, the “trip to Hollywood” part was the only thing that would appeal to her.

“The trip includes a day with the interior designers,” Vi said. “It would be amazing.”

“Plus, you’d be on TV.” Sydney had missed the earlier part of our conversation, when it came out that Vi didn’t like being on TV.

“Yeah, hopefully I can talk them out of that if I win.” Vi looked nervous.

Jessica gasped. She looked at me. I knew that look. It
was,
How could anyone not want to be on TV? Is she crazy?

I thought about it for a second. Camera in your face, the pressure to get every single word right . . . I could see why someone wouldn’t want to be on TV.
I
wasn’t one of those people—being on TV would be awesome—but I could see why she wouldn’t like it.

Whatever happened, I had a feeling Vi was going to win the trip to Hollywood. She had to. There was nobody better at design than she was.

Chapter Fifteen

WE RETURNED FROM LUNCH TO
find the floor was being ripped up. A team of men were doing it, and it looked fun. But they wouldn’t let any of us have anything to do with it.

While they worked, we were allowed to start painting at the front of the hall. That left most of us standing around while the camera crew gathered around the small group of people painting stencils between those two yellow lines. I took some pictures, but I still felt like I should be doing something more productive.

That was when Jilly showed up.

“Are we ready to go work on the break area?” Jilly asked the group. She was looking at Vi, though.

“Me?” Vi asked.

“Yes.” Jilly was beaming. Miss Golden stepped up next
to her and held up a page that looked like the pages in Vi’s sketch pad. “Vi just showed me one of her designs. I’d like to work through some ideas with her. Anyone who would like to help can come on back.”

Since we had nothing else to do, of course the entire group took off after Jilly. The camera crew, realizing this was where the action was, rushed after us. Someone had cleared the empty classroom completely out, leaving nothing but the old tile floor and plain white walls.

It was just like on TV. Jilly stood in the center of the room, talking to Vi about the overall vision. Vi was awesome, speaking just like the other people on reality shows. She sounded like an expert. I’d never been prouder of my BFF.

“Let’s go,” Jilly said. I wasn’t sure what we were doing, but it all sort of fell into place. I had a feeling this would be the point in the show where they fast-forwarded and made us look like we were doing everything really fast. That was one of the few parts I always watched.

In real life, it didn’t go at all like that. We painted and laid down a giant rug to cover the ugly floor. Then we watched while the muscular guys brought in a bunch of furniture, and Jilly and Vi rearranged it seven or eight times. By the end of it, I was standing next to Travis Fisher, watching him as he stared at Vi in amazement.

“She came up with all this,” he said.

I nodded. “She’s really smart.”

He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t have to. He wandered around after her with wide eyes. By the time Miss Golden stood up in front of all of us to announce the winner, I was sure he liked her.

“I’m sure by now you’ve all seen the new break room,” Miss Golden announced. The cameras weren’t on anymore, and I assumed that was because this part wouldn’t be shown. “You all have one person to thank for that. Vivienne Lakewood. Vivenne, come on up here. You’re going to Hollywood!”

Everyone clapped, but Jess, Syd, and I clapped the loudest. Maybe it was my imagination, but a few people seemed like they weren’t clapping very loudly. I looked around and saw Chelsea and friends. They were lightly clapping, while whispering to one another. They didn’t look happy, especially Chelsea.

My gaze swept around farther. Other people were only half smiling as well. Meanwhile, Vi was walking up to the front of the crowd, a huge smile on her face. This was her moment. Everyone else could be jealous all they wanted, but it wouldn’t change the fact that Vi had won. Vi was going to Hollywood!

“Thank you,” Vi said, taking the envelope Miss Golden
handed to her. Jilly was on the other side of her. I pulled out my phone and started snapping photos. “I just wanted to thank my best friend, Maddie. Without her, I wouldn’t be up here now. We have our . . . differences, but I couldn’t have asked for a better friend. Thank you, Maddie.”

I’d lowered my phone to stare at her, so now everyone could see my face as I blushed five different colors. I didn’t feel like I deserved this. I’d been a bad friend, and even a trip around the world wouldn’t completely make up for it. I’d just have to work hard every day to prove to Vi that I could stop gossiping.

It wouldn’t be easy, but I had a feeling the key was to focus more on me and less on what everyone else was doing. In other words, I needed to
get a life
. Get some hobbies. Find something else to talk about besides Chelsea and Emma and Aiden and everyone else at this school.

“In that envelope, you’ll find two round-trip tickets to LA,” Jilly said. “You’ll be spending three full days with the
24-Hour Makeover
crew, and, best of all, you’ll help host the show.”

I could tell from watching Vi that they’d had her all the way up to that last part. Her smile fell slightly, but she held it together. I was so worried, I began to make my way toward the front of the room as Jilly made final announcements.

The other kids began walking toward the door, but I kept
going in the other direction. I wasn’t the only one. People were gathering around, trying to talk to Jilly, but I didn’t care about Jilly. I wove around her and the line of people in front of her to sneak in behind Vi and Miss Golden.

I was all prepared to argue that Vi didn’t really have to be on TV. They could just edit together the things she’d said here and let her work behind the scenes. But it was none of my business. That was how I’d gotten in trouble the first time—trying to help Vi in my way, instead of letting her figure it out a bit first.

“No problem,” Miss Golden said. “In fact, we may have what we need from the conversations we’ve had during the course of the day today.”

I felt a little panicked at that. Would they decide they didn’t need her to come to Hollywood after all?

“What we may have you do,” Miss Golden began, making my heart skip a beat, “is sit down with one of our producers, maybe even me, and talk about the experience and what you go through when you design. It would be an informal pretaped interview. Could you do that?”

Vi nodded, although she still looked a little uncomfortable. I wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was thinking.
Don’t blow it, Vi. This is your chance to go to Hollywood and hang out with all your idols.

“And this young lady over here is amazing.” Miss Golden suddenly turned her gaze on me.

I didn’t realize she’d known I was standing there, eavesdropping. I looked down, ashamed at having been caught.

But Vi wasn’t mad I was listening. In fact, she turned to face me.

“She is,” Vi agreed.

“Because of her, we had all of this turnout,” Miss Golden added. “I can’t believe Mr. Shelly thought that was a liability. You, young lady, have a future in PR.”

I held my breath as I looked at Vi. What if Miss Golden’s words reminded her why she was mad at me? Vi looked over at me and I couldn’t read her expression, really, but I didn’t want to take the chance of making her mad again, so when Miss Golden turned to talk to someone else, I rushed to make things right.

“Sometimes gossip can be good, right?” I asked. “I mean, I know it’s bad to spread bad things about people, but what about things like this, where you want people to know something is going on so they’ll help out?”

But even as I spoke, I could tell Vi wasn’t mad. She looked thoughtful. I wondered if she’d been thinking the same thing.

“Miss Golden’s right,” Vi said, smiling. “You just might have a future in PR.”

While we were on the subject, I wanted to get something out so it wasn’t secret anymore. “I know you asked Syd to keep an eye on me,” I admitted.

“I’m sorry,” Vi said. “I shouldn’t have had your own friend spy on you. I figured you’d get on the phone with Sydney and Jessica without including me, like you always do. So I had to make sure one of them was on board. I trust Sydney. She told me you weren’t gossiping at all.”

“I wasn’t,” I insisted. But something she’d said bugged me. “I always try to include you. I call you just as much as I call the two of them.”

“But you talk to them about all kinds of things you don’t talk to me about.”

I saw it then. The hurt in her eyes. This was something that had been bothering her for a while. Why hadn’t I seen it? Sure, Vi was antigossip and she believed in talking only about positive things, but that meant I shared stuff with Syd and Jess that I could never share with her. When I’d betrayed her trust with Travis, that had been the final straw.

“Not anymore,” I said. “You come first. They can gossip if they want, but the gossip queen has closed up shop.”

“Not completely.” Vi held up her hand to stop me. “I think I know of a way you can use your talents for good.”

Chapter Sixteen

One Troy Middle School seventh grader will see all her dreams come true next month when she travels to Hollywood to appear on
24-Hour Makeover
. Vivienne Lakewood, known to most of us as Vi, won the opportunity when the show spent a day helping us redo the language arts wing. Today Vi talks to us about her interior design work and how she feels about traveling across the country.

“Well? What do you think?”

Vi set down the piece of paper and looked at me. I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until that very moment.

Slowly, her face broke out into a smile. “I love it,” she
said. She handed it to Sydney, who was quietly munching on a baby carrot.

“Where’s the rest?” Sydney asked after reading the paragraph.

“We haven’t done the interview yet,” I said. Sydney handed the paper to me. “Vi has to come over to my house today after school.”

“Or we could just do it here,” Vi suggested.

Vi had been sitting with us at lunch since the day of the show—an entire week and a half. Day after day I’d stayed far, far away from gossip. But the need to let everyone know what was going on was still there, lurking beneath the surface.

That was why Vi’s idea was perfect. She’d suggested I start up a real school newspaper. So I went to my language arts teacher, and she agreed to sponsor it. We didn’t really have the money for printing, so it would be an electronic newsletter, viewable from the school’s website.

Now the goal was to give people a reason to read it. That was where Vi came in. She was the star of the moment. People wanted to know about her, but Vi didn’t like the spotlight. The only way that could happen was through an article written by her best friend.

There was one person who probably wouldn’t read
the interview. She breezed past just as I was tucking the paragraph about Vi back into my bag. Chelsea and friends couldn’t seem to walk past Vi these days without making some kind of noise.

Today it was just a loud laugh and the three of them looking down at us. They prissed their way to their usual table. I wanted to say something, but I held it in. Sydney didn’t.

“Jealous losers,” Syd said. “I’m going over to say something.”

“No,” Jess said. “Don’t start a scene.”

“I’ve been thinking. . . .”

This came from Sydney again. We all turned to look at her.

She sighed and plunged in. “Okay, so I know Maddie’s a new person now and doesn’t gossip, but her newspaper would be a great way to get at Chelsea. I’m not saying she should gossip, but what if the newspaper had a column written by, you know, someone here at school who might know a little about what’s going on . . . ?”

“A gossip column as part of the newspaper,” Jess said. “It’s brilliant. And I assume you’d be the one who wrote it?”

“Maybe, but I’m not talking about gossip,” she corrected. “Just
observations
. Like, ‘What Troy Middle School seventh-grade princess can’t stand that another girl got
picked to go to Hollywood over her? Little does she know, she was never in the running.’ ”

I laughed. Jessica did too, but hers came out as a snort. Vi remained silent.

Sydney’s smile fell as she noticed Vi’s stoic expression. “It was a stupid idea,” Syd said. “Forget it. I just wanted to find some way to get back at them.”

“It might shut them up, too,” Jessica said. She was looking at Vi hopefully.

Vi shook her head. “No.”

She was as calm as ever as she said that one simple word. I realized that I’d never respected my best friend more than I did at that very moment.

“They’re jealous,” I said, not taking my eyes off Vi as I spoke. “The best way to get back at them is to ignore them completely.”

That brought a smile from Vi. I watched her for a second, amazed. Even though Vi still always did what was best, she’d lightened up a lot in the past week and a half. She no longer sat there, quietly drawing in her sketch pad. Instead, she participated in the discussion and had fun with us.