Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Stage Fright by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online Page A

it, if you want to know what’s going on.”
    With that, the fifth-grade girls turned and walked away.
    Meanwhile, Cheyenne’s face turned bright red. Because of course she thought she already knew what was going on. Finding out she didn’t was quite a surprise to her. It was such a surprise that even her best friends, Marianne and Dominique, giggled at the shock of it.
    This caused Cheyenne to twirl around and say, “Shut up!” to them. Then she stuck out one hip and put her hand on it and said, “Well, I guess we’ll find out who knows what’s going on today when Mrs. Hunter tells us who got the part of Princess Penelope, won’t we, Allie?”
    So. She didn’t know yet, after all. The reason she’d been all mad when she’d stomped up to us had been because the cool fifth-grade girls had been paying attention to us, and not her. That was all.
    “I guess we will,” I said. I added in my head, but not out loud, And it’s going to be me. The reason I didn’t say it out loud was because I didn’t want to make Sophie feel bad. I knew how much she wanted to play Princess Penelope, and that she was probably going to cry when she found out I’d gotten the part and not her. Friends don’t try to make friends feel bad on purpose. That’s a rule.
    That was also why Cheyenne wasn’t our friend. She was always trying to make us feel bad. And none of us had ever done anything to her except try to be nice.
    I couldn’t wait until Mrs. Hunter told everyone I had gotten the part of Princess Penelope. Sure, it was going to be sad when Sophie cried.
    But it was going to be awesome when Cheyenne did. And this time, her tears wouldn’t be fake.

RULE #7
No One Likes a Sore Winner
    “I hate her,” Sophie said after Cheyenne had stormed off.
    “No, you don’t,” Erica, always the peacemaker, said. “It’s wrong to say you hate people. Even Cheyenne.”
    Except that I didn’t think so. And neither did Sophie, it turned out.
    “I still hate her,” Sophie said. “If she gets the part of Princess Penelope, I’m transferring to a different school.”
    Oh, no! Did this mean if I got the part, Sophie would transfer?
    “What if Dominique gets it?” I asked carefully, as an experiment.
    “She won’t get it,” Sophie said with a sniff. “Her audition stank.”
    Uh-oh. This was terrible. If Mrs. Hunter gave me the part—and she was probably going to—one of my best friends was going to stop being my best friend, and maybe even transfer to another school! Oh, why had I even listened to Uncle Jay and auditioned for Princess Penelope in the first place? Uncle Jay gave the worst advice of all time. Well, some of the time.
    It was right after that that the bell rang to show it was time to line up to go inside. As we got into our lines, Mrs. Hunter noticed me looking at her, and she smiled. I thought this must mean I got the part of Princess Penelope, but my hopes were crushed when all Mrs. Hunter said was, “I saw your mother last night on television, Allie. She was wonderful.”
    Wonderful! Mrs. Hunter thought my mother had been wonderful on TV! And she’d said so in front of the whole class! So loudly that Joey Fields went, “Your mom was on TV, Allie? Why didn’t you tell me?” And Stuart Maxwell tried to snatch my scarf off and throw it down the stairwell as we were going up the stairs, but Rosemary caught it just in time and gave it back to me.
    “Your mom was good,” Rosemary said. “But her eyes looked kinda funny.”
    I stared at her. “What?”
    “Her eyes looked funny,” Rosemary said. “Like a mouse or something.”
    “They did not,” I said.
    “All right,” Rosemary said. “I’m just saying. There’s nothing wrong with mice.”
    What was Rosemary talking about? My mother looked nothing like a mouse. Okay, maybe she looked prettier in real life than she had on TV. But everyone did. I looked different in mirrors than I did in my school photos, didn’t I (usually better, since school