Rising Star by Karen Webb Read Free Book Online Page A

She yanked the small car around the
curve, still much too fast.
    “ Holy cow, Selena,” Beth
said as she turned the stereo down. “You okay?”
    “ Yeah, sorry.” She glanced
in the mirror again, but Matt’s beautiful face had
disappeared.
     

Chapter 9
     
     
    She was working on her story again a few
days later, typing away on her old computer, when her cell phone
rang. Her heart leaped as she thought of Matt. She could see his
twinkling blue eyes as she thought of him, with the mischievous
light shining out of them. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her
breath as she picked up the phone.
    “ I’m calling for Angelique
Deveroux,” a lady’s voice on the phone said. “Is this Selena
Summers?”
    “ Yes,” Selena answered,
confusion heavy in her voice. She had been so sure it was Matt this
time; now her brain had to switch gears as she heard a female
voice.
    “ Angelique is interested
in interviewing you for a magazine layout. Would you be able to fly
out to L.A. next week?”
    “ Um…I guess so.” Selena
was at a loss for words. Then she remembered Don’s phone call. This
must be the lady he’d sent her picture to. Selena hadn’t took it
very seriously and in fact, she had forgotten all about
it.
    “ Good, I’ll book the
flight and send you the details.” The lady took down Selena’s email
address.
    Selena hung up, dumbfounded. How was she
going to explain this to her parents? She had completely forgot
about Don’s call and had never mentioned it to her parents. There
were only a few days left of school before graduation. Would her
parents let her miss those last few days? Would she be back in time
to graduate with her class? She hadn’t even found out how much the
job pays or how long it would last. Not to mention the fact, she’d
been spending all her free time working on her novel. She was much
more interested in selling her book to a publisher than being in
Don’s movie or modeling women’s clothes. She felt sure the only
reason they were interested in someone like her, was because the
stick-thin models probably couldn’t sit on a horse without falling
off.
    “ I can’t believe it, my
baby’s going to be in a magazine?” Selena’s mom screeched when she
told her about the phone call.
    “ It’s just an interview,
mom. I don’t know yet if I’ll be in anything.”
    “ I’m not too crazy about a
teenage girl going alone to L.A.,” her dad chimed in.
    “ I’ll be okay, dad. A
driver is meeting me at the airport and taking me straight to
Angelique’s office. I’ll never be alone while I’m
there.”
    “ Mmm…and what about
school?”
    “ I’ll ask my teachers
tomorrow if I can miss a few days. Graduation is next Friday, I
should be back by then. It’s only a few classes I would miss.
Anyway, it’s an interview. If she’s not happy with me, I’ll be back
the following day.”
    “ I don’t think you should
miss the last few days of school,” her mother said.
    “ She’ll be fine, Rosa,” her
dad answered for her. “Her grades are good enough, I’m sure she’ll
be able to miss a few days.” He kissed the top of her mother’s head
as he said it, then turned to Selena.
    “ Go. Spread your wings and
fly, duckling.”
    Selena laughed and hugged him. “Thanks dad.
You guys are the best.”
    But, did she really want to go? Maybe it
would have been easier if her parents had forbidden it. Of all the
things she’d wanted to be when she grew up, a model was definitely
not on the list. Later that night, she stood in front of the
full-length mirror hanging from the door of her small closet. She
turned this way and that, striking a pose like the girls she’d seen
in magazines. This is just stupid, she thought as she finally gave
it up, flouncing down in front of her old computer. They’re going
to take one look at me, and wish they had saved the air fare. She
went back to one of her manuscripts, a Trish Black adventure she’d
never finished. As she read through it, she