Tallahassee Higgins by Mary Downing Hahn Read Free Book Online Page B

you!"
    "And when will that be?"
    "Give me another month or two. That's not so long, Talley." Liz's voice softened a little and took on a pleading note.
    "It's forever!" I looked up as Aunt Thelma appeared in the doorway.
    "Let me speak to her when you're finished," she said.
    "Aunt Thelma wants to talk to you," I said to Liz.
    "Listen, sweetie, I can't stay on the phone any longer. This is really costing me. Tell her I really appreciate her taking care of you and give my love to Dan. Okay?"
    Before I could say another word, the phone clicked, and Liz was gone.
    As I started to slam the receiver down, Aunt Thelma grabbed it. "She didn't hang up, did she?" She spoke into the receiver, "Liz? Liz?" Then she turned to me. "Didn't you tell her I wanted to speak to her?"
    "She said she couldn't afford to talk anymore," I yelled. Ducking under my aunt's arm, I ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my room.
    "She isn't sending me a ticket," I cried to Melanie. "Not for a long, long time. And she's not a movie star yet. She's just a waitress like she was in Florida."
    "Poor Tallahassee," Melanie whispered. "But don't worry. Maybe Richard Gere will come to the Big Carrot for lunch one day and he'll see Liz and decide she's exactly the person he's looking for. Then, before you know it, you and me will be in California lying on a beach with Liz and we'll all live happily ever after."
    I hugged Melanie and thought about Richard Gere walking into the Big Carrot. Liz would ask him if he wanted the special, and he would say, "I think I'll have you instead," and he would carry her out of the Big Carrot, just like he carried Debra Winger away at the end of
An Officer and a Gentleman.
"You're coming back to the studio with me," he would say, and overnight Liz would become a star and I would go to California.

Chapter 9
    T HE NEXT WEEK Dawn and her friends joined Jane and me at our lunch table. "I thought you'd be in California by now." Dawn took a sip of chocolate milk and stared at me.
    "Well," I said, "they're having some trouble with the script. They're reshooting a lot of scenes, and they've put off going to the Caribbean. That's why Liz hasn't sent for me. Things are all up in the air right now. You know how it is in Hollywood."
    "It's not easy to be a movie star," Jane added loyally. "I saw Meryl Streep once on
Good Morning, America,
and she said your personal life really suffers. You have to sacrifice an awful lot."
    Dawn nodded. "Being a star must be worth it, though."
    Terri agreed. "They have tons of money and big houses and fancy cars. They all drive Mercedes or Jaguars."
    "So it's worth waiting for," Karen said, looking at me over her tuna sandwich. "If it's really true." She and Dawn exchanged a quick look.
    "What do you mean?" I asked.
    Karen leaned toward me, her sandwich forgotten. "Me and Dawn read lots of magazines, and we haven't seen anything about Richard Gere being in a movie called
The Island.
"
    "That's because it's top secret, dummy." I glared at her, but I had this awful feeling that she and Dawn had decided that I was lying about Liz.
    "You don't know anything about Hollywood, Karen," Jane said coolly, "so don't argue with somebody who does."
    Karen picked up her tray. "I'm not sitting with anybody who calls me a dummy." She stood up, and Dawn and Terri followed her across the cafeteria.
    Angrily, I watched them crowding in at another table. They were laughing now, and looking at Jane and me. "Stuck-up snobs," I muttered.
    "Don't let them bother you," Jane said. "What do they know?"
    ***
    To make things worse, I got in trouble with Mrs. Duffy that afternoon. She was already mad because I hadn't handed in my math homework. Then I got a bad grade on my spelling test, and I couldn't remember the year the Civil War began. She really blew up, though, when she caught me reading
National Velvet
during current events. She made me stand up and tell the whole class about it, and then she caught me as I was leaving and told