Everyone's a Critic (13 page)

That night at dinner, Allie complained about the local paper's review too.

“They just didn't get it,” she said, shaking her head.

“But, honey, in both reviews you were the shining star,” Mom said. “Doesn't that mean something?”

Allie was quiet for a moment. “Of course it does,” she said, and looked at me. “It means a lot. I just feel bad for everyone else.”

After dinner there was a knock at my door. “Can I come in?” asked Allie as she barged in.

I took a deep breath.
Here it comes
, I thought.

“Did you really think I was good in the play?” Allie asked.

I stared at her. “What?!”

“Well, some of the kids in the drama club said
you just gave me a good review because I was your sister.”

“They what?” I sputtered. Now I was really mad.

“Well . . . did you?” Allie asked.

“Of course not!” I yelled. “I mean, if you were really bad, that would have been hard, but you were the one great thing about the play. You should have been the lead.”

Allie had a big smile on her face now.

“Besides, it wasn't just us who gave you a great review either.”

“That's what I told them,” said Allie. “But Julia is really mad and, well, she convinced a few kids that the reviews were rigged.”

“Oh for goodness' sake!” I said. “They were just reviews! This is really going too far.”

“Yeah,” said Allie. “It's a touchy group. But you know, I think they are all really mad because the reviews were no surprise. We all knew there were problems. We knew that the scenery crashed and that Julia wasn't terrific and that it was just too big a production. Sometimes the truth hurts.”

“I'm learning that,” I said. Just then I realized
that Allie had agreed with my review. “Well, all that's past us now. I'm going back to news reporting next week. So no more reviews for me.”

“That's probably a good thing!” said Allie.

“Allie, in all honesty, you were great. Even if the show overall wasn't great, you were great in it.”

Allie actually blushed. Then she gave me a really big smile. “Thanks, Sam. That means a lot. Well . . . good night. And . . . well, thanks for the good review. And I'm glad you're going back to writing about news before next year's show!”

“Thanks,” I said, and grinned.

“Hey, just being honest,” said Allie as she left my room.

That night I finally knew what to write back to Too Honest:

Dear Too Honest,

Sometimes people think they want to hear the truth, but when it's not positive, they do some serious backpedaling. Maybe your friend thought she wanted to hear your
advice, but ultimately was not ready for the truth, or the truth as you saw it. Basically, advice is subjective. Beyond math and science, the way each of us sees things is only our opinion of what we think we see. It is okay for you and your friend to disagree. Because, after all, true friends should ultimately respect you for your honesty. Maybe, with a little time, they just might see it your way.

Ha!
I thought as I folded the letter and put it in my bag.
That goes for sisters, too.

Extra! Extra!

Want the scoop on what Samantha is up to next?

Here's a sneak peek of the sixth book in the Dear Know-It-All series:

Digital Disaster

On Monday morning at school, after a nice weekend of mostly sleeping in and watching my favorite shows I'd DVR'd but hadn't been able to watch for, like, a month, Michael came running up to me while I was trying to unstick the zipper on my black fleece jacket. Even though it was technically spring, it was still pretty cold.

“Hey, Sam, did you hear about what happened?”

I looked up from my zipper immediately. Michael called me Sam only when something was really serious. He was breathless, his face flushed.

“No?” My heart started to beat really fast. I stuffed my hands in my jacket pockets and braced myself for what he was about to tell me.

“Someone stole the math exam.”

“Wait a minute, stole it? What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, not stole it exactly. The day before the exam, the math department teachers couldn't get onto the computer system because the password had been changed. They thought an administrator or another teacher had changed it. They were able to retrieve the files, but it took them a day to figure out it was no one on the staff. It probably was a student trying to get the test ahead of time.” Michael's hands moved wildly about while he was talking. He seemed upset, but also kind of excited.

“That's pretty serious,” I said, but was sort of relieved. I'm just glad it wasn't about anybody getting hurt or something. “How do you even know this?” I asked.

“I saw Mr. Trigg this morning. He told me everything and wants us to do a story on it. We're going to talk about it at our meeting today.”

“Wow,” I said, trying to get my head around the whole thing. I wondered what it was going to mean for all of us.

I went back to my zipper. I had to be in language
arts in less than five minutes and I still had my jacket on. I tugged it down as hard as I could, but no luck.

“Let me help you there, Pasty,” Michael said. Before I could respond, he grabbed the zipper and gave it a hard pull. Finally my jacket opened and there Michael was, standing there still holding the zipper. We stared at each other.

“Uh-oh,” he said.

I couldn't help but laugh. “Thanks a lot, Lawrence!”

“I guess I don't know my own strength,” he joked, but then he lowered his eyes and looked uncomfortable. “I'm really sorry. Can I buy you a new jacket?”

I was speechless. He was too good to be true this Michael Lawrence. “Uh.” I forced myself to say something. “That's really nice to offer, but I'm sure my mom can fix it.” I stuck my hand out for the zipper. “At least I don't have to wear my jacket to class, so thanks!”

He grinned. “No problem. Anytime you need your clothes ruined, you know who to call.”

I laughed and he handed me back my zipper. I
couldn't wait to tell Hailey about this, and I couldn't help but wonder what he would have done if I'd taken him up on the new jacket offer. Would we have gone shopping together? Maybe I had just made a big mistake turning him down. After I put my broken jacket in my locker, Michael and I walked together to class. His seat was right in front and I was in the middle. We sat down. The room was buzzing. Everyone all around me was already discussing the big news. How had people found out so fast? Mr. Farrell, our teacher, was trying to get the class's attention by turning the lights on and off. It took a while for people to settle down.
Mysterious Scandal Rocks School to the Core.

I wondered who was stupid enough to do something like this, if that was the case. The truth was, no one knew what had actually happened. But if it was a student, had he done it because he was really afraid he'd do badly on the test, or had he just wanted to cause some major drama? I looked around. It could have been anyone, maybe even someone right in this room!

This book is a work of fiction.
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously.
Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's
imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.

SIMON
SPOTLIGHT

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Division

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New York, New York 10020

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Copyright © 2013 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights
reserved, including the
right of reproduction in whole or in part in any
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SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon
& Schuster, Inc.

Text by Veera Hiranandani

Designed by Bob Steimle

ISBN 978-1-4424-6820-7 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4424-6821-4 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4424-6822-1 (eBook)