Famous by Todd Strasser Read Free Book Online Page A

back to the dining room.
    â€œYou found someone?” I asked excitedly.
    â€œA fifth grader named Ethan Taylor.”
    We located him sitting with a bunch of boys, collars unbuttoned, ties askew, shirttails hanging half out. Ethan had thick blond hair and a cute upturned nose that belied a long ancestry of lockjawed, God-fearing, WASP bankers.
    â€œCan I talk to you for a second?” I said. “In private.”
    The other boys began to grin nervously, but Ethan met my gaze calmly. A cool character.
    â€œGo on,” one of his friends urged. “See what she wants.”
    Ethan pushed his chair back, and we walked toward some windows that faced out at a small courtyard garden marked with a plaque that read GIFT OF THE ROCKEFELLER FAMILY .
    â€œYou know who Naomi Fine is?” Avy asked. He always got a charge out of being on the case.
    Ethan shook his head.
    â€œAn actress who lives in your building,” I said. “Possibly the penthouse.”
    â€œShe’s on
Single and Loose,
a TV show you’re probably not allowed to watch,” Avy said.
    â€œYou may have seen her with a tall, thin guy who wears his hair in a ponytail?” I added.
    Ethan blinked with astonishment. “Oh, yeah. I know who she is!”
    â€œWant to make a hundred dollars?” I asked.
    Ethan’s eyes widened briefly, then narrowed suspiciously. “You’re the one who takes pictures of famous people, right?”
    â€œHelp me get the picture I need, and if it gets printed in a magazine or online, it’s worth a C-note.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œThat actress is in the city for a couple of days to see a doctor,” I said. “I need to find out who that doctor is. Ask around your building, okay? Chat up the doormen and elevator guys. See what you can learn.”
    â€œWhy can’t I ask my mom?” Ethan asked.
    â€œIt would be better if she doesn’t know,” I said. “She may not be too happy about you making money this way.”
    â€œShe won’t care,” Ethan said. “And she’s a doctor, too. Actually, I think maybe that Naomi actress could be one of her patients. I remember her once saying she had a really famous patient in the building.”
    Avy and I exchanged a surprised glance. It sounded too good to be true. “There could be more than one famous person in your building. So you better check it out. Only, this is just between you and me, right?”
    â€œGotcha.” Ethan turned toward the table where his friends sat.

JUNE OF TENTH GRADE, NYC

    ON THE SCREEN OF YOUR MACBOOK, AVY WILL ASK HIMSELF, “What got you started acting?”
    Then, in the role of interviewee, he will reply, “We did a lot of plays and musicals in school, and I discovered that I felt different when I was on stage. Like, more fulfilled, you know? I liked knowing that everyone was watching me. It wasn’t like some actors who have to be the center of attention all the time. But when I was in the spotlight I definitely got off on the idea that everyone in the audience knew who I was. And let’s face it—I was good at it. People started to say that it seemed like I was born to be on stage. Like I innately knew what to do up there,how to deliver lines, how to project, and where to stand. I had stage presence. Some people get lost on a stage. You hardly know that they’re there. Not me. When I was on that stage, everyone knew it.”
    Your insides will convulse and your heart will twist. Tears will start to run down your cheeks and drip onto the keys of the MacBook. That part is so true. Avy
was
good on the stage. He was funny and full of energy, and he really did seem larger than life. It would be impossible to count the number of times you told him he was the most talented person you knew and how sure you were that he could have a fantastic future as an actor. You believed every word you said. And he believed it, too. Avy Tennent was going