Landry in Like (17 page)

M
om ordered
pizza for dinner and wanted to watch my interview that we recorded on TV. I got out the plates and we sat down. Man, I had a photo shoot, pizza for dinner, my boyfriend was “in like” with me, and now Mom and I were going to watch me on TV? This was practically the perfect day. Well, other than the head stabbing thing at the photo shoot.

“So what did your friends say about your TV appearance?” Mom asked, taking a bite of her pepperoni pizza.

“Um, well, Ashanti, Peyton, and Vladi thought it was great, but I'm sure no one else saw it yet because of homework and afterschool practices and stuff,” I said, not mentioning I didn't tell too many people about it.

“Don't be silly. I'm sure everyone went to look it up online.”

I doubted it. Well, maybe they stopped to look and see if I did anything stupid. I shrugged.

She hit play and the interview went pretty much as I remembered it, only it seemed like I was talking a lot faster and at a higher pitch. It was like a cartoon chipmunk had taken over my body. Did I actually sound like that? At least I had stopped the weird deer-in-the-headlights wide-eyed blinking thing. The whole interview was over pretty quick and I hadn't made a fool of myself, so that was something.

“I'm sure they'll all be talking about it tomorrow. You were great. I bet your teachers will be impressed, too,” Mom said.

I got ready for bed and my phone lit up as I was pulling up the covers. It was Vladi texting and asking if he could call me. I dialed his number.

“Hey,” I said. “What's up?”

“Nothing, I just like hearing your voice before I go to sleep,” he said, and I could tell he was smiling over the phone.

“Me, too,” I said.

“You did amazing today. I told you you'd be great, didn't I?”

“Yeah, well, you calmed me down with your advice. I was so nervous before that, and there aren't a lot of people I can talk to about that — well, other than Peyton.”

“What about Ashanti?” he asked.

I bit my lip. “Lately she's been kinda into her own stuff.”

“Is she ignoring you?”

“No, she's just doing a lot more with the girls from the cheer squad.”

“And you're afraid she's not going to have time for you?” he asked.

“Yeah, pretty much. How did you know?”

“I can always tell when something's bugging you,” he said. “Girls can be flighty that way, but she's always been a good friend, so I'm sure she'll come around. And you always have me to talk to. I'm not going anywhere — promise.”

“It's nice to have someone to count on.”

“Same here and I love that I can tell you anything. That's not easy to find,” he said.

“Yeah, I know.”

“I better get to sleep, but I'll call you tomorrow. Texts are okay, but like I said, I love hearing your voice right before I fall asleep.”

“Me, too.”

“Night, cutie,” he said.

Just knowing I could count on him made me feel a lot better about the whole Ashanti situation.

M
om had built
up my expectations a bit for the next day, so when I got to school the following morning, I expected someone to say, “Hey, way not to make a fool of yourself on TV.” But instead I got nothing. Now, I didn't, as Ericka put it, expect the world to stop for me, but if one of my friends or classmates had been on TV, I would have watched it and said, “Nice job” or “That was great,” even if she or he stunk, just to be nice. Instead, I walked up the path to school and stood there wondering if I should bring it up because I finally had news to share or to just be quiet and not call attention to myself and have to deal with any jealous drama later.

I went over to stand with Tori and Ericka.

“Hey, Landry,” Tad Johnston said as he came over. “My mom and I watched you on TV yesterday. You did a nice job. I didn't know you wanted to go to business school.”

“Thanks, Tad. I—”

“Oh, that was soooo funny when you said that, Landry,” Yasmin said, walking over to us. “I was dying. I mean, you barely get through math. Soooo funny.”

I didn't know what to say. Part of me was so surprised Yasmin even watched my interview, much less admitted to it, that I stood there stunned.

“Yeah, I was… totally joking,” I said.

“I liked your lipstick,” India said. “So pretty.”

“I'm surprised your mom let you wear so much makeup, or did they make you so you wouldn't look horribly washed out on TV?” Yasmin asked.

“Um… no, I just put some on.”

“I assumed they made you to wear it, too,” Ericka said, now standing next to Yasmin and nodding in unison with her like they were besties. I suddenly wanted to stop talking about the interview or, failing that, go back in time and never tell a soul I was even doing one. Maybe I could go back in time and not go on the dumb show in the first place.

Devon must have overheard something because she was suddenly at my side.

“So, Yasmin, what is up with you and Kyle?” she asked. “I feel so dumb. I thought he was going out with Arianna, but then I heard you guys were back together? Is that true?”

Yasmin's perfect Cupid's bow mouth grimaced as she said everything was, “Just fine,” but you could tell it wasn't. The bell rang and we all headed inside.

“Did you watch the interview?” I asked Devon.

“Yeah, you were fine,” she said.

I was going to tell her about the text heart, but she was already halfway down the hall. Well, at least she had interrupted my humiliation.

I got to class and Thalia was excited to see me.

“Landry, you were awesome on the show,” she said.

“Landry, you were soooo awesome,” Stuart said mimicking her.

Thalia stared down at her desk. I swallowed hard.

“Thanks, Thalia,” I said. “I was super nervous.”

“Yeah, Landry's so famous,” Yasmin said.

She was giving me a big smile, but her eyes weren't smiling at all and I didn't know how to react. If I said, “Oh, I'm not famous,” people would think I thought she was serious and they'd and laugh at me, but if I didn't react at all, then they might think I thought I was too good for them — like it was beneath me to get excited about it. It felt like no matter what I did or said, someone wasn't going to like me.

I just gave a fake smile and pretended to be busy taking out my homework to give me something to do. But it happened again when I got to math class.

“Look, it's the big TV star,” Kyle said.

Kyle could be a jerk, but sometimes he said things all nice and sincere so I never knew how to take him. Thalia called him a “passive aggressive mean girl,” but I didn't want to make him mad at me either. If he was on your side then life was good and everybody liked you, but if you got on his bad side… ugh. Prepare for the worst. He didn't even have to do anything. He'd just get Stuart and the other guys to take care of it for him, which was why Thalia had such a hard time some days with gum stuck in her locker. Someone even threw a piece of gum in her hair once.

“So can I have your autograph, Miss TV Star?” Kyle asked, slipping a piece of paper in front of me.

Oh man, what did I do now? I stared at the paper, and he slipped the pen into my hand and put his arm around me. Then I had a brainstorm and wrote “Kyle is awesome” on the paper and handed it to him.

He glanced at it and laughed. “I will save this for when you're on all the magazine covers. Oh, and I'm trading pens with you so I can say I have a souvenir from you,” he said taking the baby blue pen Devon had written my name on with a permanent marker when she was bored in science class.

Phew! Crisis averted — for now — until lunch when I overheard Yasmin in the cafeteria telling people how I had been flirting with Kyle in math class and how she was super upset. What? How had
that
been flirting? I had done the note thing to save my own butt. The girls were in line ahead of me and we were separated by a group of seventh graders.

“But you're in that class, and Landry couldn't be that dumb to flirt with him in front of you,” Halle said.

I couldn't tell if Halle was saying I wasn't that stupid or if she was questioning my intelligence — insult or standing up for me? Hmm.

“And Landry has a boyfriend, remember? Plus, he's cute, so I can't see her going after Kyle.”

Yasmin shrugged. “I wouldn't put it past her. She always goes after what other people have. I mean, you, Ashanti, and Maggie were all best friends, and then she came along completely
uninvited and tried to steal Ashanti from you guys. She's so fake. I mean, all her friends stopped talking to her so she goes after Ashanti? So lame.”

Halle shifted. I knew she and Ashanti used to hang out a lot more before I came along and you could see she wasn't sure what to say. Meanwhile, I was wondering if anyone else was listening in and if it was obvious I could hear them at the back of the line or not.

“I'm just saying, I wouldn't trust that girl,” Yasmin said. “Someone should warn that Vladi guy about what she's like.”

My stomach dropped. They couldn't tell Vladi some fake rumor about me. He might think I was flirting with a bunch of guys behind his back.

“Whatever,” Halle said. I started to relax until Halle added, “Vladi's super cute. He's probably cheating on her anyway.”

And welcome back super sick feeling. Ugh. The line moved up. I picked out a turkey sandwich and some fruit and walked over to Devon's table where Tori was already seated. Ashanti waved me over, but Halle, Yasmin, and Maggie were heading toward her. There was no way I could deal with them right now.

“What's up?” Devon asked. “You look like you're going to puke.”

I told her what happened in the lunch line.

Devon rolled her eyes. “Yasmin's always looking to stir up drama. Her own life must be so boring she has to make stuff up.”

I took a bite of my sandwich.

“Seriously, she's not going to say anything to Vladi,” Tori said. “The only way she'd do that is if she thought he might get interested in her instead, but… oh… well, maybe she would then.”

“Way to be comforting, Tori,” Devon said. “I have Yasmin in my English class later. I'll tell her one of the freshmen guys asked me about her at the last game we were both at, and she'll forget all about it.”

“Did one of them ask about her?” Tori asked.

“Yes, but what he said was, ‘Who is that idiot with the big head who thinks she's hot and what is she doing blocking the aisle?'”

We all started laughing.

“Sorry, but I haven't been on her side or Kyle's since the whole cheerleading tryout thing,” Devon said.

“Why?” I asked.

“The day after I didn't make it, Kyle came up to me and said, ‘Oh, Devon, you're the best cheerleader ever,' and Yasmin laughed like he was the funniest guy on the planet. He was so rude and I would never, ever have laughed if he said something like that to her.”

Tori's eyes widened. “He said that to your face?”

“He pretended it was all a joke and like he didn't mean anything by it, but it was so… you know… jerky.”

“What a creep,” I said.

“Can we change the subject?” she asked.

I nodded. “I don't want to make this all about me, but I have some news.”

“Why would you say that?” Tori asked.

“Ericka made a comment — whatever — I just don't want anyone to think I'm bragging or—”

“What? Spill it,” Devon said.

I told them about the heart Vladi texted me and said that's why I was worried Maggie might spread some rumor about me flirting behind his back.

“Oh wow, that is so crazy,” Devon said. “That's so amazing he did the heart thing. I hope those girls don't take that gossip stuff too far. I'm sure it'll be fine though.” Her face was super serious for a minute like she was thinking about it, and I didn't get warm fuzzies from her expression.

I
got
home and saw that Mom had texted me to call her when I got in. She said the store people liked photos of me in the communion outfit and they wanted to use it for a postcard ad for the store. An ad? Sure, it was of me looking like, ten years old, but it was still something major to put in my modeling book.

I texted Ashanti, who was over at the high school for a cheer meeting. She couldn't write much, but she said she was super excited for me.

Peyton wasn't at home, so I called Tori to tell her the news.

“That's great, so did you finish the social studies homework?” she asked.

“Uh, no. I was talking to my mom about the whole contract thing. I haven't started my homework yet.”

“Oh, okay. Well, Erika's here, so I better get back to our assignment.”

“Okay, can you tell Erika about the ad?”

“Sure, hold on.” Tori put the phone down for, like, a second and then came back on. “She said, ‘That's nice.' Anyway, gotta go. We have a ton of homework. See you tomorrow.”

I stared at the phone in my hand. A ton of homework? We had all the same teachers. I had two assignments, and I had finished most of the math in class.

I decided to call Grandma Albright next to tell her the news.

“Oh, that's lovely dear. Quite exciting. However, your father mentioned to me that you didn't do well on your last math quiz. You can't afford to let your grades slip if you want to get into a good college,” she said.

I wasn't even in high school yet. And who cared about one stupid pop quiz when I could be on the brink of fame and fortune? Okay, maybe not quite fame and fortune, but I had to start somewhere.

“Dear, your cousin Lucy's here. Why don't you tell her your news?” she said.

Lucy, my super-perfect, never-a-hair-out-of-place cousin with the amazing grade point average who didn't give me the time of day? That cousin? Oh fun.

“Hey, Landry,” Lucy said in a bored tone.

“Hi, so… um, I am going to be in an ad for a store here. I'm super excited.”

“Oh, so a local store then?”

I didn't like how Lucy said “local,” like it was a kid's lemonade stand or something.

“Yeah, but they have cute clothes and—”

“Do you get a discount?” she asked.

“No, but I'll have my picture online and in a postcard ad.”

“So just local stuff then?”

There was that word again.

“Yeah, but the ads will be—”

“How much money are you getting for this?” she asked.

Like, next to nothing, but I didn't want to tell
her
that. Besides, Talisa Milan always said you had to be professional and respect the business you represented.

“I'm not allowed to say.”

“Who would I tell that would possibly care?” she said with an annoying laugh.

Rude much? “It says so in my contract,” I said, thinking she'd be impressed by the word “contract.” It sounded so adult.

“Whatevs. So what's up with your math grade? I heard you're, like, flunking out of school or something.”

Way to be dramatic, Luce.

“No, I—I got a seventy-eight percent on a pop quiz,” I said, feeling queasy for sharing too much information. Why did I just tell her that? It was none of her business.

“Well, there goes any chance of getting into an Ivy League school,” she said sighing.

I didn't even know which colleges were considered Ivy League schools, but I told her I wasn't interested in those anyway. I mean, hello? I was only in eighth grade.

“I'm not worried about it. College is a long ways away.”

“It's coming sooner than you think, but you're right,” she said. “You don't need to worry about those since you can't get into them with bad grades. I mean, seniors at my school who were valedictorians got rejected by them, so…”

I didn't even know for sure what a valedictorian was — like a straight A student? But I did get her meaning, which was, if smart kids couldn't do it, then what chance did an average student like me have? I wanted to say, “Maybe I'll just focus on my modeling career instead,” but I knew my mom would find out about that and pull me out of the ad, the agency, and quite possibly ground me for life if I did. Plus, I still had my big ad coming up with Talisa and Jem, so I couldn't afford to take any chances of messing that up.

“Well, I have to go. I need to do some homework,” I said.

“Right. I'm sure it takes you a lot longer to do it, too. Bye, Landry. Good luck with your little ad thing,” Lucy said.

It was a big day for me and yet I couldn't have felt more worthless. I went to check my email and re-read the contract Mom sent me so I could see what was going on with the ad. It made no sense to me, but it was still official proof that someone out there liked me and thought I was pretty enough to be in an ad. It was like this one email was saying, “You're not gross and disgusting.” I clicked “print,” so I could have it to look at when I felt blah later.

I
ran
to greet Mom as soon as I heard her key in the front door.

“Mom, did you read through my contract yet so we can sign it and send it back?”

“Landry, I just walked in. I need to unwind,” she said, grabbing a bottle of iced tea.

“But — but… what if they change their minds?”

“Well, then it wasn't meant to be,” she said, kicking off her shoes and taking a sip of her tea.

“Mo-om, do you think Talisa Milan's mother used to wait to read her contracts?”

“Talisa Milan is going through business school to learn how to read her own contracts,” she said.

“Fine. Whatever. I'll just stay here forever in this house wondering what could have been had my mother read my contract and helped me to become a star.” I said. “And I would have bought you a house with my first big check.”

“It's lovely to see you're not being dramatic,” Mom said smirking. “Let me have something to eat and then I'll get to it. Now go do your homework.”

“It's done.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“No, honest. It is. I did it during class when Hakeem puked in the hall and my teacher had to go help him. He pukes a lot.”

“What a charming story. Fine, go read or something.”

I decided to call my Grandma and Grandpa Dombrowski to tell them about my ad. Maybe they'd be happy about it and not bring up my stupid math grade. Grandpa Bernie answered the phone and I told him I had some news, so he had Grandma Lily get on the other line.

“Okay, we're both here now, sweetheart,” he said. “What's your big news?”

I told them and you would have thought I just announced I was running for President.

“That is wonderful, Landry. Next stop, Paris and Milan.” Grandpa said. “When does it come out, and can you send us a copy so we can take it to church to show our friends?”

Grandma said she wanted to talk to me alone, so Grandpa hung up. Oh no, was a math lecture coming?

“Honey, I'm proud of your accomplishments and your mother has told me how grown up and professional you've been on all these jobs and competition things, but it's still the fashion world and I worry,” she said.

“Mom is there for almost everything, and whenever I did an
Ingénue
event they had a lot of people around to make sure we were okay and not getting into trouble,” I said. “It's not like the scene for the older teens that model. I promise.”

“That's good to hear, but this world does expect you to, well, grow up a little faster. I know you have a good head on your shoulders, but I want you to make sure you hold onto the values you were raised with.”

I wasn't sure exactly what she meant by that, but I assumed it was about not drinking, acting stupid, or dating too many boys or something like that. It felt safe to just say, “Yup, don't worry, Grandma.” It wasn't like I was in Talisa's league anyway, and my mom, with her hawk eyes, would never let anything happen anyway. It was almost sad how boring my modeling life was. It seemed like models would be going out to clubs and partying, but that must just be the older ones who weren't under their mommies' watchful eyes.

“Well, Grandpa didn't get to tell you, but he has been busy, too. Our neighbor, Jamal, had his car break down and needed a ride to school. He goes to a small college a half-hour away, so Grandpa drove him. Jamal just had one class that day, so Grandpa said he'd wait for him and give him a ride home. While he was there, Grandpa found out about a furniture making class. He was curious about it so he went into an office to ask, and it turns out the person teaching the class was right there and invited Grandpa to sit in. He liked it so much that the teacher suggested he sign up and take it as a non-credit course. He's already made a small bookshelf, and he's working on a little bookcase next.”

“That's great.”

“He brought the school schedule home, and they have this introduction to painting class there that you can take as a non-credit course, too. It looks interesting,” she said.

“That's sounds fun. Did you sign up for it?”

“Oh, me? No. I don't paint.”

“Isn't it an intro class to learn how to paint?” I asked.

“Well, yes…”

“Then take it and learn how,” I said.

“Oh, Landry, at my age you don't just pick up a new hobby.”

I asked why not and pointed out Grandma Anne had just taken up golfing after several of her friends did.

“Well… I did mention it to a few of my friends, and they thought it sounded kind of silly,” she said.

“Some of the people at school think my modeling stuff is stupid, but I try not to listen to them,” I said.

“You run into that with friends? They don't support you?”

“Sometimes. People aren't great about that kind of thing. But, I mean, if I didn't do it anyway then I would have missed out on getting this ad and the chance to do one with my favorite models, Talisa and Jem.”

“That's true, but it's different for me, honey,” she said.

“How?”

“Well, people kind of think it's strange to step out of your comfort zone and, honestly, it's probably a class full of young people. I haven't touched a paintbrush since I was in school. I won't be any good, and then my friends will have something to laugh at.”

“So? They're the ones missing out on trying something cool. Don't let anyone talk you out of it. It might be super fun,” I said.

“I could be terrible at it though.”

“But what if you're good? Like, amazing at it? You won't know unless you go and try a couple classes out,” I said. “I almost backed out of an audition because I was afraid of what people would say if I tried and failed, but I didn't and I got to be on TV… well, that didn't turn out so great when I ran into that girl on the stage, but I did get some modeling experiences out of it and now I have an actual portfolio and credits.”

“Well, I guess if my granddaughter can be brave and go on TV, then I can sign up for painting 101,” she said.

And then it hit me. The whole frenemy thing where I held back from doing new things so people at school wouldn't laugh at me or say, “I told you so” when it all went south—it apparently never went away. My grandmother was going through the exact same thing. There was no way I was going to let her miss out on this painting class. I was glad she was saying she'd sign up, but it also kind of depressed me that this sort of insecure friend thing was still an issue for someone who was a grandparent. Why couldn't people just support each other in trying new things? It was so dumb.

“Okay, I will sign up tomorrow. Maybe I'll do a picture for you,” she said. “But, honey, just promise you'll be careful with the modeling stuff and don't do anything crazy. Talk to you soon. Love you.”

I went over to Mom who was looking over the contract.

“I'm not done reading it yet,” she said.

“Whatevs. I was just talking to Grandma Lily,” I said, filling her in on the painting class. “Isn't it depressing that even she has frenemy stuff to deal with?”

Mom laughed. “Yeah, gotta love the supportive sisterhood sometimes. But there are people out there that will encourage others. You just need to find the right group. Find your tribe.”

“I guess. She did say she'd sign up for the class. I hope she goes through with it.”

“Grandma came from the kind of background where you didn't make waves and take risks. Security was a big thing to her parents and grandparents. They all thought I was nuts when I wanted to go away to school and live in a dorm.”

“They did?”

“Yeah, it was hard for me to be a business major when I had cousins around the same age taking the safe route. All I heard was how amazing they were doing with their perfect jobs, their husbands who they had known since they were five, and their families who all lived nearby to support them,” she said. “Anytime school got hard for me, my cousins would all say, ‘I told you so,' and that I ‘overreached' with my goals. It was hard to keep pushing on.”