Reel Life Starring Us by Lisa Greenwald Read Free Book Online Page A

pile. It’s from only a couple years ago. She starts flipping through the pages haphazardly, responding to texts every three seconds. You’d think she would lie low on the text messaging after the debacle from the other day. Apparently not.
    I’m looking at the pages over her shoulder when I spot her. “Oh my God.” I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
    â€œWhat?” Chelsea asks.
    â€œDid you just see who was on that page?”
    Chelsea turns back a page and squints.“Um … Mrs. Matrizzi, the computer science teacher who looks like a real-life version of the mom from
The Family Guy
?”
    â€œOh, well, yeah.” I laugh about that for a second, then point to what I saw. “But no, look at her. That’s Sasha Preston. Like
the
Sasha Preston, from
Sasha Says So
. She went here? Oh my God. Did you know that? That’s so, so, so coo—”
    Chelsea rolls her eyes for the billionth time. At least that’s how it feels. “Are you serious? You didn’t know that?”
    I’m tempted to lie, because admitting I didn’t know Sasha Preston went here will probably decrease my coolness level even further. But I’m a bad liar. “Nope. Had no idea.”
    â€œYeah, she graduated from here four years ago. She left here, got discovered, and then her show started. She has private tutors now and doesn’t go to high school.”
    We’re still looking at her picture in the yearbook. She looks pretty similar to how she looks in the show—except her hair is a little longer and not really styled at all in the picture. She looks normal, average, like any girl you’d see at any school in the country. I wonder if anyone could have predicted that she’d become a star.
    It’s hard to imagine her having to play badminton and having to stand on the hot-food lunch line and having to change in the gym locker room. Did she get chipped?
    Sasha Says So
is about this girl who runs an advice column in the school paper that gets to be so popular she sets up a booth where people can come and ask for advice. It’s cheesy but funny at the same time. It’s the kind of show you like more the more you watch it, so it’s better in reruns. But it’s really popular—it wins the Kids’ Choice Award every year.
    Looking at her picture in the yearbook makes me wonderwhat her real life is like. Or
was
like when she went here. Did she like the school? Was she popular? Was she a Chelsea? Or a
me?
    Chelsea and I keep flipping through the old yearbook. We’re looking at everything but mostly looking for pictures of Sasha Preston. We find her in the index, and she has at least twenty page numbers after her name. Most people only have two or three.
    â€œI can’t believe you never looked for pictures of her in the yearbooks before,” I say.
    Chelsea shrugs.
    â€œOh my God, this is it!” I scream.
    â€œWhat?” Chelsea says as she puts her hair up in a ponytail. Her phone keeps vibrating, but she ignores it.
    â€œWhat we’ll do for the video! A day in the life of a Rockwood Hills student? Well, hello! Here’s one! And a famous one.” I take a deep breath. Finally, a good idea is coming to me. “Even if she’s not the whole video, we can put Sasha in it somewhere!”
    Chelsea shakes her head, not even looking at me. She finally picks up her phone so it stops vibrating. I can tell from where I’m sitting that she has three missed calls. “Are you kidding?” I can’t tell if she’s talking to me or to her phone. “You don’t get it. She doesn’t live here anymore. She’s, like, famous. I know youcame from Massachusetts, and you don’t know that much about pop culture, but she’s not just going to be in our video.”
    Okay. Did she really need to insult where I’m from?
    â€œFirst of all,” I say, “I’m from the Berkshires. It’s like