Authors: Nancy Krulik
Friends for Never (5 page)
“Not today, she’s not,” Mr. Lock reminded his wife.
Katie looked at him. “What’s wrong with Suzanne?” she asked.
“She’s just a little nervous, that’s all,” Mrs. Lock assured Katie.
“A
little
?” Mr. Lock disagreed. “She’s more than a little nervous. This morning, she told me she’d forgotten how to walk!”
little
?” Mr. Lock disagreed. “She’s more than a little nervous. This morning, she told me she’d forgotten how to walk!”
Katie giggled. “I think she meant she forgot how to walk like a model.”
Mr. Lock shrugged. “She walks fine as far as I’m concerned.”
Mrs. Lock sighed. “Katie, do you think you could go backstage and talk to her? You always calm Suzanne down.”
“I don’t think she . . .” Katie began.
“She’d be really glad to see you,” Mrs. Lock assured her. “It would be awful if she got too nervous to go on.”
Katie sighed. She was still really mad at Suzanne. But then Katie thought about what her mom had said. She and Suzanne had been friends for a long time. Besides, she didn’t want Mrs. Lock telling her mom that she had refused to help Suzanne. That would make her mom really angry.
“Okay,” Katie agreed. “I’ll try.”
Chapter 9
Katie couldn’t believe how crazy things were backstage. Everyone was running around, carrying clothes, hairbrushes, hair-spray, makeup, and more!
The really little girls were with their moms. They looked kind of weird in makeup and grown-up hairstyles.
The girls who were Katie’s age were all huddled together in one corner of the room. They were brushing their hair, zipping their dresses, and giggling nervously together.
The teenagers looked like real models. They were busy talking on their cell phones while they practiced walking in their high heels.
Katie looked around for Suzanne. She saw her sitting by herself in the middle of the room putting on makeup. Katie wondered why Suzanne was sitting all alone. Did she think she was better than the other models? Katie thought about walking away and leaving snobby Suzanne to herself. But Katie had promised Mrs. Lock that she would talk to Suzanne.
“Nice pants,” Katie said as she walked over toward her.
“Huh?” Suzanne said, looking confused.
“I said, ‘Nice pants,’ ” Katie repeated, pointing to the black leather pants hanging next to Suzanne’s mirror. “They’re really cool. You’re going to look great in them.”
“Thanks,” Suzanne said quietly. She stared at herself in the mirror. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“
You’re
nervous?” Katie asked her.
You’re
nervous?” Katie asked her.
“I feel like there are a million butterflies in my stomach,” she answered.
“You’ll be great,” Katie assured her. “But don’t you think you should get dressed? The show is going to start soon.”
Suzanne just sat there. Katie looked around at the other girls. They were all ready to go.
“Come on, Suzanne,” Katie said. “You can do it!”
“Modeling is really hard work,” Suzanne told her. “I don’t know if I can be the best.”
“You don’t have to be the best,” Katie said. “Just do your best.”
Suzanne sighed. “You don’t get it, Katie.” She turned her head slightly and looked at the door. “Oh, thank goodness,” she said.
“What?”
“My assistant’s here,” Suzanne said. “She’ll understand what I’m going through.” Suzanne stood up and waved her hands wildly. “Over here, River!”
Jessica ran over to Suzanne. “I brought your purple lip gloss,” she told her.
“You’re so great!” Suzanne exclaimed. She gave Jessica a big hug and leaped out of her chair. “So do you like these pants?” She held them up against her.
“They’re awesome!” Jessica told her. “You’re going to be the model everyone remembers!”
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course,” Jessica assured her.
“Well, this is what I was born to do,” Suzanne boasted.
Katie’s cheeks turned almost as red as her hair. She was really angry. She had come backstage to be nice to Suzanne. But now that Jessica had arrived, Suzanne was completely ignoring her!
There was no way Katie was going to watch Suzanne’s modeling show now. She didn’t care what her mother had said!
Tears started forming in Katie’s eyes. She didn’t want to let Jessica and Suzanne see that they’d made her cry. Quickly, she ran to the other end of the dressing room. She saw a bathroom and ran inside. Katie locked the door so no one would bother her. Then she leaned against the wall and tried to stop the tears from falling.
Suddenly, Katie felt a cool breeze tickling the back of her neck. Within seconds, the breeze grew stronger, until it felt more like a wind than a breeze. And not just any wind.
This was the magic wind!
Before Katie knew what was happening, the magic wind was circling wildly around her. Katie grabbed onto the sink and held on tight. The tornado was really wild. Maybe the strongest it had ever been. Katie felt like she was being blown away.
And then it stopped. Just like that. The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie Carew.
Chapter 10
Katie opened her eyes slowly. She blinked a few times, getting used to the bright lights that were shining on her. There was a mirror right in front of her face.
“Oh, no!” Katie exclaimed as she looked at her reflection. Suzanne’s face stared back at her from the mirror!
“What’s the problem, Ocean?” Jessica asked her.
Katie gulped. How could she explain that the problem was that she
was
Ocean?
was
Ocean?
“I, uh . . .” Katie began.
“Five minutes, girls,” a woman called out from the front of the dressing room.
“I’d better go get a seat,” Jessica said. “You have to put those pants on. Isn’t this exciting? In a few minutes, you’re going to be a real model.”
“Exciting isn’t the word for it,” Katie replied slowly.
As Jessica left, Katie stared at the black leather pants. She’d never worn anything made of leather! Katie was more into jeans and wool skirts. Leather was Suzanne’s type of thing.
Of course, she
was
Suzanne now.
was
Suzanne now.
“Hey, Suzanne, you’d better finish getting dressed,” one of the teenagers called to her. “We’re starting to line up.”
Katie sighed. She didn’t know anything about modeling, other than what Suzanne had told her. There was no way she could go out there and walk like a model the way Suzanne did. She wanted to run away and hide somewhere until the magic wind came back.
But Katie knew she couldn’t do that. This fashion show was really important to Suzanne. And as mad as Katie was at her, she couldn’t let her down. She was going to have to try and be Suzanne.
“Line up, girls,” the woman in the front of the room called out. “The music’s starting.”
Katie quickly threw on the leather pants and zipped them on the side. Then she slipped on Suzanne’s high heels and hobbled over to where the other girls were standing.
“Okay, ladies,” the woman said. “It’s showtime!”
Chapter 11
As she waited backstage, Katie’s stomach was doing flip-flops. She peeked out from behind the curtain. Yikes! The runway looked
really
long. She hoped she wouldn’t trip and fall.
really
long. She hoped she wouldn’t trip and fall.
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