Some Kind of Wonderful by J. Minter Read Free Book Online

must be the A-list at Dalton
     this year.
    Looking at them, even just from afar, made me feel really out of touch with this world.
    Dara, Veronica, and Olivia were trying to play it cool, but they quickly started arguing about who should approach the boys
     first.
    "I did it last time when we saw him at Papaya King," Dara whispered insistently.
    Behind me, I could feel SBB retreating ever further into panic mode. It was crazy what a group of guys could do to a room.
     But my immediate concern was Sara-Beth. I turned to her and grabbed her hand. "You okay?" I asked. "We can head out if you
     want."
    "Too dangerous," she said in a voice I didn't recognize. It was as if she had turned into an android. "Follow me."
    She tugged my hand and pulled us both around a corner. There, down an aisle and to the right, in a whole different room of
     the store, was a giant steamer trunk. I stared at it. It was easily the biggest piece of luggage I'd ever seen in my life—quite
     possibly bigger than a MINI Cooper. Before I knew it, SBB tugged me inside, and the trunk closed around us with a soft click.
     There I was, huddled in a piece of luggage next to SBB, trying to help her control her breathing.
    "Meditate at the third eye point," I told her. "That always helps."
    "Shhh," she said. "Don't leave."
    "Sara-Beth, I don't really have anywhere to go." The walls of the trunk pressed up against us, and only a glimmer of light
     came through the hinges.
    "Let's just be for a few minutes. I think it will help, okay?"
    "Okay." But it was clearly not okay, since SBB was gripping my forearms so hard that I could feel her nails digging into my
     skin.
    Once SBB's breathing had quieted, I was able to hear sounds from the outside. "Oh Alex, guess who you just missed?" Olivia
     said. "Flan Flood! She was just here. I don't know where she went. She looked amazing, didn't she? Maybe / should have gone
     to Stuyvesant."
    This made the other girls laugh—and I almost didn't hear Alex say, "Well, Flan was always a hottie."
    My eyes grew wide and even SBB put her panic attack aside for a minute to nudge me and giggle. Now we definitely couldn't come out of the steamer trunk until everyone was gone.
    "I have a credit card here for Flan Flood" a French-accented voice rang out. Crap. It was the snotty saleswoman, blowing our cover. The way she called my name out made it sound like a dead fish falling to
     the floor with a thump.
    "What do we do?" I asked SBB.
    Sara-Beth put back on the Texas drawl and said loudly through the trunk, "Um, ma'am, we were fixin' to look at this steamer
     trunk, and we happened to get ourselves stuck."
    There were muffled giggles from the other side, and I heard one of the girls whisper, "Who knows? She's from Texas," before the saleswoman came over with the key. I was ready to breathe in the sweet air of freedom and deal with the embarrassment
     of falling out of a steamer trunk in front of a high-profile audience, but SBB can never do anything the normal way. She had
     other plans.
    The steamer trunk opened a crack and we saw the dour face of the saleswoman and a glimpse of my friends standing just behind
     her. But before the door opened all the way, SBB grabbed the saleswoman by the name tag on her lapel and pulled her partway
     into the trunk.
    "Angie," she said in an urgent voice. "Look, I'm sorry about this, but I'm a movie star." She flicked up her sunglasses briefly
     to show her face. "See? Sara-Beth Benny. I don't usually do this, but I need to ask you a favor."
    Angie let out that weird, excited exhale of someone really into meeting famous people.
    Sara-Beth continued talking. "My ESP tells me there's a load of paparazzi waiting outside this door, and I know you don't want them in your store. They break things, trample on nice luggage, and blind customers with their awful camera
     flashes. It's bad for business."
    Angie's forehead wrinkled, and we watched her glance out the door. "What can I do to help?" Angie