Stories from New York #3 (2 page)

“I should have insisted she let us come pick her up,” Ivy said again, and I wondered if she even heard me.

“Sweetie, coordinating the drop-offs at the train station was my responsibility,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it.”

Miko tried Tally’s cell again, then I tried it on my phone, too.

“I hear something,” Ivy said. “I think it’s coming.”

Ivy was right. The train was coming, and Tally was nowhere in sight.

I held on tightly to the handle of my suitcase as the train squealed to a halt. As the doors slid open, I heard the sound of a car horn blaring in quick successive bursts. I turned around and saw a green minivan careening into the parking lot.

“That might be her!” I exclaimed excitedly, pointing. I felt a hand push firmly on my back.

“You need to get on the train, girls,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “If that is Tally, she’s going to have to run for it, and I can’t risk any of you being left on the platform.”

I shot one last agonized glance toward the parking lot, then got onto the train behind Ivy and Miko. My heart was pounding.

The aisles were narrow, and I had trouble with my
suitcase, which kept getting caught on the armrests of the seats. Up ahead, Ivy had found a four-seater and was getting herself settled. When Miko reached the seats, she turned around and looked at me.

“Did Tally make it?” Miko asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. I looked behind me, hoping to see her there. But it was just a line of people looking for seats. Not a curly blond lock or bubbly personality to be found.

We took turns hoisting our suitcases up onto the luggage rack. The train lurched as we began to move, and I dropped into the seat beside Ivy.

That was it then. Tally hadn’t made it.

The three of us sat in silence as the train pulled out of the station.

“Let’s google train and bus schedules to see what her options are to still get into the city,” Ivy suggested. “I don’t know if I feel bad for Tally or if I want to kill her!”

That was a good idea. Googling schedules, that is—not killing Tally.

“But how will we tell her if she’s not answering her phone?” I asked.

Miko and Ivy looked at me like I’d just asked them to name all the state capitals in fifty seconds or less. Finally, Miko said, “Let’s just see what the choices are. Then we can go from there.”

I fiddled with my phone, waiting for it to connect to the Internet. I stared at the trees outside the window, which were becoming blurs as we picked up speed. Suddenly, the door to our car crashed open, followed by a flurry of
oomph
s and
I’m sorry
s.

Miko leaned into the aisle and looked for the cause of all the commotion. In my spot by the window, I couldn’t see what was going on.

“What is it?” I asked.

Miko sat back in her seat and gave me a huge grin.

“Guess,” she said.

I stood up, almost slamming my head into the luggage rack.

Tally Janeway was coming down the aisle. She looked like she’d just been tossed out of a tornado. Her coat was misbuttoned, her long, curly blond hair was shooting out in every direction, and she had a piece of brown packing tape stuck to her arm. She was looking in every seat for us and turning around to talk to Mrs. Scanlon at the same time.

“Sorry,” Tally said each time she looked into a seat and didn’t find us. “Sorry. So sorry.”

“Tally!” I yelled, way louder than I meant to.

When Tally saw me, she rushed forward down the aisle to our four-seater, collapsing in a heap in the empty spot.

“Hey, y’all!” She took a deep breath, trying to get some air into her lungs.

“Is that all you have to say? Tally, you almost gave me a heart attack!” Ivy said.

“As you can see, we have our Tally after all. Settle in, girls. We have a three-hour trip ahead of us,” Mrs. Scanlon said, smiling warmly and shaking her head as she settled into the seat behind us.

“We didn’t think you’d make it,” Miko said.

“The conductor saw me runnin’, and I was hollerin’ for all I was worth,” Tally explained. “And he took pity on me and held the door!”

“We were supposed to meet at the train station ten minutes early,” Ivy said.

“You told me fifteen,” Tally said.

“Yep, and it still didn’t help,” Ivy said.

“Oh, but I was so organized, you wouldn’t believe it! I was all packed last night, and we left my house at the exact minute we planned to. Only we got halfway to the station, and I realized I’d forgotten my cell phone, and I knew y’all would be mad because Ivy’s mom made us all promise to have them! So we went back for it, but I had a little trouble finding it because I distinctly remember putting it down next to the bread box when I was making toast, but for some reason it ended up in the freezer, where I never even would have looked, except the bread box is white
and so is ice, well, not white but frosty, and—”

I stopped the stream of words by leaning forward and giving Tally a hug.

“I am so, so, SO glad you made it!” I told her. “As soon as I thought you really weren’t going to make it, I realized how much fun we’d all miss without you.”

Tally beamed at me. Her face was bright red—she must have been running like lightning from the parking lot.

“Well, the important thing is you made it,” Miko said. “And at least you tried to be organized. I was still cramming stuff in my suitcase until the last minute this morning.”

“Wait a minute,” Ivy said suddenly. “Tally…where
is
your suitcase?”

Tally’s mouth dropped open into a silent O.

“You forgot your suitcase?” Miko asked, astonished.

Tally looked genuinely mystified.

“Uh-oh,” she said.

There was a long silence while all four of us tried to figure out what we would do about the latest Tally Incident. Then, suddenly, the whole thing struck me as hilarious. I began to laugh, silently at first, then in a stream of giggles. Tally joined in while Miko and Ivy watched the two of us and shook their heads.

“How could anyone forget their suitcase?” Miko asked.

Tally shrugged and made a twirling motion by her ear.

She is nuts
, I thought. But she was also incredibly fun. Tally had a way of attracting disaster, but she rarely got down about it. Her sunny view on things and her wild excitement about almost everything was contagious. When I was with her, I felt like I was in a crazy but hilarious movie.

“So, guys, I have this month’s
City Nation
,” I said, pulling the magazine out of my bag. “Have you seen it? I thought maybe we could get some ideas about what to expect.”

“Oh, I have!” Tally exclaimed. “The tribute to silent movie stars was
sooo
beautiful! If I were a silent movie star, I…I would…”

Even Tally did not seem to be able to process a version of herself that was silent.

“I think Paulina means the magazine as a whole,” Ivy said. “Remember, we’ll be working in a few different departments. Later today we’re supposed to go to editorial and design meetings. Maybe we should split up and have two of us go to one and two of us go to the other, so we can cover more. Then tomorrow we’re going to sit in on the final prep meeting for the cover photo shoot, then watch the shoot itself. That’s when we’ll get to ask the celebrity our questions. In the afternoon, we’re going to watch
them make storyboards, and on Wednesday we’ll check out some of the pictures from the shoot while they’re laying out the article. Other than business and accounting, we’re going to be seeing most of the major departments.”

“I still don’t see how we’re supposed to come up with questions for the cover person when we have no idea who it is,” Tally stated.

It was a good point, one I’d been asking myself a bunch of times.

“We’re just going to have to be ready for anything,” Ivy said. “And remember what my mom told us: Things go wrong just as often as not. So there’s a possibility there won’t be time for us to ask our questions at all. Or even that they’ll switch to a different person for the cover. We’re just going to have to play it by ear.”

“That’s right. Be ready for anything,” I said, pulling my little video camera from my bag. “Starting now—time to record our first video entry for our web issue.”

“Oh, great idea!” Ivy said. She turned around and hung over the back of her seat. “Mom, can you film us for a minute?”

“Sure,” Mrs. Scanlon said, reaching over and taking the camera from me. “Why don’t all four of you squish into the seat facing me.”

Ivy and I piled on top of Miko and Tally.

“Ready? I’m recording,” Mrs. Scanlon said.

Never shy about being on camera, Tally jumped right in.

“Hey, y’all!
4 Girls
here, heading into New York City to bring you an all-web edition of
4 Girls
from none other than
City Nation
magazine!”

Tally nudged me.

“We’re going to spend the next few days seeing how things run at one of the most popular magazines out there,” I said, holding up my copy.

“We’re going to go behind the scenes in everything from design meetings to a photo shoot,” Miko added. “So if you’ve got any questions, post them to our blog, and we’ll try to answer them for you.”

“We’re going to post articles, photographs, and videos of everything we can,” Ivy said. “And we’re going to keep you updated on the question that’s been keeping the four of us up at night—who is the mystery celebrity who’ll be featured on the cover?”

“And what question should each of us ask him or her if we get the chance?” Tally asked. “Stay tuned to find out!”

“Okay, that was great,” Mrs. Scanlon said. “You’ve created a sense of anticipation to keep your readers checking back.”

“So…who IS the mystery celebrity?” I asked with a grin.

Mrs. Scanlon laughed. “For now, you’re going to have to stick to your own advice and stay tuned,” she told me.

As if we had a choice—the four of us had front-row seats to the show!

When we got off the train in New York, my breath caught in my throat and my heart began to race. I was in awe of the massive expanse of Grand Central Terminal, its vaulted ceilings painted with constellations. The main room looked as big as a football field and was crowded with people moving one way or another and somehow managing not to collide. Mrs. Scanlon led us past a row of shops, including a bookstore, a coffee shop, and a chocolate store packed with customers. A brightly lit display of breads and cakes caught my eye, and a delicious smell stopped me in my tracks. Ivy ran into me with an “Oomph!” She looked at the storefront.

“Eli’s,” she said, grinning as I stared wide-eyed at an enormous stack of cupcakes. “Best bakery in the world.”

I could believe that. The smell was intoxicating,
and I felt like I could stand there all morning just sniffing.

Mrs. Scanlon ushered us quickly through the crowds, and before taking us out the door and into the city for real, she gathered us around her.

“Okay, girls. The hotel is just a few blocks away from Grand Central, so we’ll walk there,” she said. “Everybody stay close to me. We’ll go check in and drop our bags in our suite, then we’ll go over to
City Nation
. Everybody ready?”

Tally gave a whoop and grabbed my arm. “I’m about to step foot in New York City for the first time!” she cried.

“Tal, you’re already here. This
is
New York City,” Ivy said, motioning all around us.

Tally shook her head. “I’m not there until we go through that door,” she said.

“Well, let’s not keep New York City waiting then,” Mrs. Scanlon said, pushing the door open.

My senses were on overload the second I stepped outside. The sounds of cars and buses and horns and people’s voices made me want to turn in every direction at once. There were a million smells—hot dogs and car exhaust and, as a beautifully dressed woman walked by, a whiff of perfume. The buildings around us were so tall, I felt like I’d shrunk down to two feet in size. There were streams of people on
the sidewalk, all of them moving quickly, in a hurry to get somewhere or see something. If we weren’t sticking close to Ivy’s mom, I could imagine running up and down every street. I wanted to see it all.

“Everybody keep an eye on Tally,” Ivy said. She had already stopped to kneel on the sidewalk, saying she wanted to get as close to New York as she could, and we had almost walked off without her.

We walked single file on the sidewalk, making sure Tally stayed between Mrs. Scanlon and Ivy.

“Is it always this crowded?” I asked Ivy, amazed.

“Depends on the time of day,” she told me. “This isn’t even rush hour. But Thanksgiving week is a huge tourist time. You should see Rockefeller Center at Christmas when they’ve got the tree up. Now
that’s
crowded!”

“Two more blocks,” Mrs. Scanlon called over her shoulder.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked Ivy.

“Well, this is Forty-Second Street,” she said. “Our hotel is on the same street, but two blocks that way, just past Fifth Avenue. The city is divided into east and west by Fifth Avenue. So Grand Central is on East Forty-Second Street, and our hotel is on West Forty-Second.”