Aries Rising (2 page)

Snider seemed to take it in. “All right. Shall we walk down the hall?”

Good idea. Students would be filling the journalism room any minute.

“I didn’t know that Mr. Jaffa contacted you,” I told her. “All I said to him is that I would need the approval of the school. Maybe that’s why he phoned the superintendent, and since you’re my journalism teacher ...”

“Whatever the reason, I got called, at home, on a Sunday and hit with considerable pressure from a famous writer.”

“I am sorry if I caused any of that,” I said. “I was just so excited about the internship. If you can help me get it, I’ll make up the time.”

“Are you still involved with that astrology stuff?”

Yes, Capricorn, and don’t be so true-to-your-sign frosty about it.
“I am,” I said. “It’s what I used last spring when everything here was in such an uproar.”
Not to mention your reputation.
I didn’t say it, but I could tell by her expression that she understood.

“What happened last spring was all about your courage and your intelligence,” she said. “And, yes, I know how much you want to believe otherwise.”

“But what does that have to do with my internship?” I asked.

“Only this.” She lowered her voice. “Henry Jaffa.”

“What about him?”

“His beliefs, the subjects he writes about. All of that paranormal stuff.” She paused in the hall. “You’re a good kid, Logan. I want you to learn to rely on yourself and not on magic.”

“Astrology isn’t magic,” I said. “And
CRUSH
is a teen magazine. I know the superintendent will go along with the internship if you approve.”

“Okay,” she said. “I will do that on two conditions.”

“Anything,” I managed to say.

“First, you can go to the magazine only one day a week.”

“No problem. That’s the way the internship is set up.”

“Second, you have to promise me that you’ll stay away from astrology.”

“Totally away?”

“Away,” she said. “Promise me that you will not use it to run your life.”

That was easy. Astrology didn’t run my life. It enhanced and expanded my life.

“It’s a deal,” I told her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

ALTHOUGH AQUARIUS IS USUALLY FOCUSED ON A GOAL,
IT’S ALSO IMPORTANT TO FOCUS ON THOSE AROUND YOU
WHO HAVE THE POWER TO HELP YOU MEET THAT GOAL.
OR NOT. A FIRE SIGN WOULD CRASH THROUGH THE
DOOR, AND AN EARTH SIGN WOULD DIG ITS HEELS
IN. A WATER SIGN WOULD REDUCE EVERYTHING TO
EMOTION, BE HURT, AND SAY NOTHING. IF YOU’RE AN
AIR SIGN, YOUR MIND IS LIKE A COMPLICATED MACHINE
TRYING TO GET FROM HERE TO THERE. STOP THINKING
AND START TALKING. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

Fearless Astrology
was right again. I needed to stop speculating and start talking. Having Jaffa for my mentor was a huge plus, but he wouldn’t be able to control my internship at the magazine. Stacy Rogers would. Although she had seemed a little cool during our telephone interview, she had given me the job. Now, I just needed to prove to her that I was worthy of it. I would do that, not by crashing my way through the door the way a Fire sign would, but by talking my way through it like a Gemini or the Aquarius that I am.

The
CRUSH
offices were on the second floor of a building on Powell and Union Street in North Beach. The months of September, October, even November were San Francisco’s real summer. The day was warm enough for short sleeves, but experience had taught me to dress in layers. Even though fall was my favorite time to visit the city, I knew that the weather could do an about-face in an instant. At any moment, the fog could roll in and change everything.

The boots I wore were a gift from Paige, who had insisted they would make me look taller—and, yes, maybe a little older. The vehicle I had driven here was my dad’s ugly Chevy paint van he used to deliver his artwork to galleries and page proofs to his advertising clients. I parked it in a garage about a half-block away where no one could possibly see me. Then I started walking down Powell.

Between two large, bushy trees, I spotted the burgundy-and-gold awning of Washington Square Bar and Grill. Those
bay windows, trimmed in white, against a yellow background, looked as if they belonged in a Victorian home. The building where
CRUSH
was located must be straight ahead.

“Logan. Over here.”

Thank goodness. There was Jaffa wrapped in the same navy scarf he’d lived in during our summer workshop. I was so happy to see him, his frizzy hair even wilder in the warm breeze, I could have hugged him.

Except that Jaffa wasn’t a hugger. He was a focused, kind-of-weird Aquarius. He grinned just then as if he were a mad scientist, and I a bug under his microscope.

“I told you we’d get approval from your school, didn’t I?”

“You did. I’m so happy.” I didn’t mention that my Capricorn journalism teacher wasn’t.

“You’ll like Stacy,” he said. “She’s very ambitious and dedicated, the same as you. If you get along as well as I think you’re going to, perhaps you might try for something more than an internship.”

“Something more?” I asked.

“An astrology column, for instance.” He gave me a pleased-with-himself grin and stopped to examine some flowers from a sidewalk vendor. “I need to send something to my wife.”

I was still thinking about the astrology column and remembering my no-astrology promise to Snider.

“I don’t think you can ship those,” I told him. “What’s your wife’s Sun sign?”

“Aries.” He continued to eye the flowers.
Good combination.
The Fire sign wife was running the relationship while he was trying to save the world.

“Maybe you should just call her,” I said. “She’d probably like to know that you’re thinking about her. Aries women often want to be the center of their loved one’s life.”

“Great idea. Actually, she gets upset when I don’t call often enough. Thanks for reminding me.” He turned away from the flowers. “You are going to be a fine astrology writer, and this is where we’re going to try to make it happen.”

My mind exploded with reasons why I couldn’t go after more than I already had. Snider would be angry and end my internship. That was at the top of the list. Right along with how I could possibly write an astrology column for a national magazine.

“Don’t you think I should prove myself as an intern before I ask for a column?”

Jaffa stopped before a building of weathered bricks. “Remember this, Logan. Everything in life is action or distraction.”

“Action or distraction?”

“If it’s not moving you forward, it’s distraction, regardless of how noble or how interesting it appears at the time.”

“But what if
CRUSH
already has an astrology columnist?”

“Do you know where I would be if I had worried about
what if
?” He gave me that same weird grin I remembered from class when he was trying to drive a point home.

“Sure,” I said. “But you’re Henry Jaffa.”

“I wasn’t always.”

Good point
. I started to say that I appreciated his confidence in me, but just then an elegant girl in a sapphire-blue jacket stepped out of a taxi at the curb in front of us.

“Henry.” She ran to us and took both of Jaffa’s hands in hers.

Her thick black hair was pulled straight back, no bangs, just those dark eyes that dominated her face. I tried to guess her age. Late twenties. Jaffa must be right about her ambition and dedication. Her skin was pale as porcelain, her lip gloss muted and natural. With that hair, she had to be a Leo, I thought. She wanted to be on stage, and right now, with Jaffa beaming at her, she was.

“Hey, Stacy.” He turned to me. “This is Logan.”

“Welcome.” She put out her hand with the understated-but-perfect nails that matched her lips.

“It’s so good to meet you in person,” I said.

“You, too. Sorry I’m late. I just got back from an appointment with Arianna Woods and her people. She’s going to be our first cover model for
CRUSH
, but of course you know that.”

“Arianna Woods?” No, I hadn’t known that, and, apparently, neither had Jaffa.

“Isn’t she having some issues?” he asked.

“Just a little negative press. She’s okay now, better than okay, and she will be a great cover for our debut issue. Don’t you think so, Logan?”

“I’m sure she will,” I said.

“I mean, you’re our target demographic. Wouldn’t you want to read a magazine with Arianna on the cover?”

I tried really hard. “I wouldn’t
not
want to read it.”
Lousy, lousy Aquarius liar.

“Well, then. Is there someone you’d rather see on the cover? Someone who’d make you pick it up or subscribe to it?”

I was starting to feel sweaty and anxious. I knew she wanted me to say no, but I couldn’t. “Girls like guys. So, I don’t know. Maybe Josh Mellick. He and Cory Scott have done pretty well even after Arianna left their group. And Josh was on the cover of
People
a few months ago.”

“Magazines like ours have
girls
on the covers,” she said. “We’ll have guys inside, of course. Maybe even Josh or Cory. I really do think Arianna’s perfect, in spite of her ... alleged problems.”

“If anyone can make it work,” Jaffa said, “I am certain you can. Now, I need to get back to my hotel.”

“I was hoping we could all have lunch.” I could tell that Stacy was disappointed to be stuck with me.

He shook his head in that unaware, onto-his-next-mission Aquarius way. “I’m on deadline, same as you.”

I was reminded that this was
the
Henry Jaffa and that I was beyond lucky to even know him, not to mention have him on my side.

“Thanks so much for making this happen,” I told him, “and for taking the time to meet me here.”

“You two will work well together,” he said. “My instincts regarding these matters are seldom wrong.”

Stacy smiled at him, and I could see that even though she was a magazine editor now, she was just as in awe as I was.
Jaffa-ites. That’s what the writers he mentored called themselves. I hoped to be one of them someday.

“Henry says you’re a hard worker,” she told me. “The intern we tried before you was all about the glamour. I don’t have to explain to you about unrealistic expectations.”

“No, you don’t. I’ll do any job you want me to.” I realized that Jaffa was staring at me. “I’m also ... I mean, I am kind of into astrology. I’m just putting it out there in case you ever have a need for something like that.”

Although she looked as friendly as ever, I could feel the air freeze between us.

“Henry told me about what happened in Monterey this summer. It’s a little difficult to believe that astrology had much to do with it.”

“If you were there,” Jaffa said, “you wouldn’t question.”

He was trying to help me. So I couldn’t just stand there, too terrified to speak.

“It was a forty-year-old mystery that no one had been able to solve until then,” I told her in a voice that sounded far more confident than I felt. “It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t studied the astrological charts of the people involved.”