Stage Fright Read online

  Here’s a sneak peek at

  RULE #8

  You Can’t Do Something to Make the Birthday Girl Unhappy on Purpose on Her Birthday

  Glitterati was just the way it had looked in all the pictures I’d seen. It was huge and sparkly and filled with loud, up-tempo music that seemed to fill my whole body and drum against the inside of my chest in a happy, boppy beat.

  It was exactly what I’d hoped it would be, and more.

  I was so excited I thought I was going to explode.

  And not just from all the Coke and M&Ms I’d had in the limo.

  “Hi, I’m Summer,” yelled the pretty girl with the spiky hair who met us at the door (she had to yell to be heard over the music). “I’ll be your Glitterati guide for the day. I’m here to make sure your Glitterati experience is everything that it can be. I want to get you pumped!”

  Summer didn’t need to worry. I was already pumped. So was everybody else. Except maybe Mrs. Hauser. She looked like her head hurt a little from all the music.

  “The first thing we need to do,” Summer yelled, “is explain that Glitterati isn’t just a store. It’s a way of life. At Glitterati, we encourage kids to use their imaginations and creativity to envision their future and themselves exactly the way they’ve always wanted to, without limitations!”

  When Summer said the word “limitations,” she threw something at us. It turned out to be gold sparkles. It got all over us…our hair, our clothes…everywhere. Mrs. Hauser backed out of the way so it wouldn’t get on her and the fur trim of her coat.

  “There!” Summer yelled. “Now you’ve been Glitteratied!”

  This was awesome. I had always wanted to be Glitteratied.

  “Today, as long as you wear your Glitterati dust,” Summer went on, “all your dreams will come true. If you’ve always wanted to be an undercover rock star, at Glitterati we can help make you an undercover rock star. If you’ve always wanted to be an urban fairy, like me, we can make that dream come true, too. Glitterati is about expressing your individuality while promoting a unique shopping experience that makes every kid feel special!”

  Whoa. Maybe it was because I’d been Glitteratied, but I was ready to feel special. Also, unique.

  I could tell Summer was unique because she had some sparkly star stickers right next to her eyes.

  I wanted some sparkly star stickers next to my eyes, too. This, I felt sure, would make me be as special and unique as Summer.

  “So,” Summer yelled at us. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes,” we all yelled back. Even Mary Kay, who never yelled.

  “Then let’s go express our individuality!” Summer yelled.

  We all ran screaming into the costume racks, where Summer said we could decide on what looks we wanted to use to express our individuality.

  “I’m going to be an urban fairy, like Summer,” Paige yelled. She was pawing through the fairy costumes, looking for one exactly like Summer’s, which was tight jeans and a black sparkle halter top.

  “No,” Lauren said. “I’m going to be an urban fairy!”

  “You guys.” Mary Kay looked like she was about to burst into tears. “I’m going to be an urban fairy! We can’t all be urban fairies. You have to be something else.”

  I couldn’t believe it. They all wanted to be urban fairies.

  And it was probably just because Summer had been dressed like one.

  Which wasn’t really all that unique or individual, if you thought about it.

  It was true I’d wanted to get shooting star stickers next to my eyes like Summer. But I still wanted to dress as an actress slash veterinarian for my photo shoot.

  I shook my head in disgust over the other girls, then went to the rack marked superstar. There were lots of fake leather jackets and tight short skirts. Also, knee-high zip-up high-heeled boots. In just about every color you could imagine.

  This was exactly what I would imagine an actress slash veterinarian would wear. You know, for doing her important acting and animal healing work. It was amazing, but the Glitterati dust was already working! It was helping me to envision my future career. Well, what I was going to wear while I was doing it, anyway.

  “None of you can be urban fairies,” Brittany yelled. “Because I’m going to be an urban fairy. And it’s my birthday. I’ll figure out something else for you to be.”

  Paige and Lauren looked super disappointed. Mary Kay started to cry. Courtney, who hadn’t joined in with any of them, anyway, just rolled her eyes and shrugged.

  I guess Summer could see some of Brittany’s party guests were having trouble envisioning their futures and expressing their individuality (only not me. Because I had already picked out a purple zebra-striped fake leather jacket, a black mini sparkle skirt, red shirt, and black zip-up high-heeled boots), since she came up to us and went, “So, ladies. What have we decided?”

  “Well, I’m going to be an urban fairy,” Brittany said. “Since it’s my birthday.” Then she started pointing at each of us. “She,” she said, pointing at Paige, “is going to be an undercover rock star, and she,” pointing at Mary Kay, “is going to be a prep school princess. And she,” pointing at Lauren, “is going to be a teen superstar, and she,” pointing to Courtney, “is going to be a teen goth vampire, and she,” pointing at me, “is going to be a pirate.”

  Books by Meg Cabot

  Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls #1: Moving Day

  Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls #2: The New Girl

  Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls #3: Best Friends and Drama Queens

  Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls #4: Stage Fright

  Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls #5: Glitter Girls and the Great Fake Out

  FOR TEENS

  Airhead

  Being Nikki

  All-American Girl

  Ready or Not

  Teen Idol

  How to Be Popular

  Pants on Fire

  Jinx

  Nicola and the Viscount

  Victoria and the Rogue

  The Princess Diaries series

  The Mediator series

  I-800-Where-R-You series

  Avalon High series

  For a complete list of Meg Cabot’s books, please visit www.megcabot.com

  Copyright

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  This book was originally published in hardcover by Scholastic Press in 2009.

  Copyright © 2009 by Meg Cabot, LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, APPLE PAPERBACKS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

  eISBN 978-0-545-22987-6

  Cover photograph by Michael Frost

  Background illustration by Lisa Henderling

  Decorative panel © iStockphoto

  Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

 

 

 
; -o-filter: grayscale(100%); -ms-filter: grayscale(100%); filter: grayscale(100%); " class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share