Leading Ladies #2 (15 page)

“I'm dying,” Kevin wailed, curled miserably in his bed. “I think some of my fingers are falling off!”

Kevin had finally achieved his dream—he had come down with the dreaded Bixby flu.

Unfortunately, he'd made it through the entire school week and had woken up sick on Saturday morning.

“Do you want to play Sonic the Hedgehog with me?”

I usually never let Kevin anywhere near my laptop because he always managed to get the keyboard sticky.

“My eyeballs can't take it,” he complained. “I think they're swelling up. I'm pretty sure they're going to pop right out of my head. I can't do anything! How did I get this stupid flu, anyway?”

I could think of about five ways, but I was much too nice a sister to point them out.

The doorbell rang.

“I wonder who that is?” I asked. “We're not expecting anybody.”

“It's probably the fundertakers,” Kevin groaned. “Because they know I'm about to die, and they're going to take me away to the funder parlor to bury me in the graveyard.”

I stood up.

“I'm going to go see,” I told him. “Try to get some sleep, buddy. You'll feel better in a while, I promise.”

I walked downstairs and opened the front door just enough to peek out.

“Wow! What are you guys doing here?” I exclaimed.

Ivy, Miko, and Tally were standing together on the front doorstep.

“I knew you were sticking close to home to help out with Kevin,” Ivy said. “So we thought we'd pop by and surprise you. Is it okay?”

“Sure,” I said, delighted. I opened the door all the way to let them in. “Kevin's upstairs dying, so if you hear screams of agony, don't be alarmed. Mom had to run out to pick up some groceries. Hopefully she'll be back soon.”

“We can't stay too long,” Ivy said. “Miko's dad is coming back in a few minutes. He's just running an errand.”

“Okay,” I said, confused.

My friends trooped into the living room and sat down in various comfy spots around the room.

“Something's come up, and I wanted to tell you all about it at the same time, in person,” Ivy said.

“If you tell me you actually are moving I'm going to jump out the window,” I said.

Ivy laughed.

“Sorry, you're stuck with me,” she said. “Here's the thing—I know we came up with an outline for issue number three this week, and if you guys want to stick with that, it's fine.”

“But . . . ,” Miko prompted.

“But.” Ivy took a deep breath. “My mom went into the city to meet with the people she's going to work with at
City Nation
. She happened to bring a copy of
4 Girls
along with her.”

“
City Nation
magazine saw our magazine?” Tally asked, a little breathlessly. “Wow!”

“That isn't even the best part,” Ivy said. “Okay, some of the editors took a look, and of course they loved it because it's a fabulous magazine. And . . . they made a little offer.”

“A little offer?” Miko asked.

“An invitation,” Ivy said. “The four of us are invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City for three days over Thanksgiving break to work on a special joint issue with their editors. Their work will appear in the next
4 Girls
issue, and our work will be in the Christmas edition of
City Nation
!”

Tally screamed.

“
City Nation
is like a huge national magazine,” Miko said. “Practically half the country reads it!”

“And we'd be in it?” I asked.

“They want to interview us, write about us, and publish some of our original
4 Girls
content,” Ivy said. “And they'll pay for everything—meals, hotel, the works.”

“I'm going to faint,” Tally announced.

“Ivy . . . this is unbelievable!” I said.

“Do you guys think your parents will be okay with letting you go?” Ivy asked. “My mom will be there as a chaperone. It's three nights.”

“I know I'll be able to go,” Tally said. “And my sister is going to be
sooooo
jealous!”

“Miko?” Ivy asked.

“My parents might take some convincing,” Miko said. “But don't worry. They
will
end up giving me permission.”

“We're going to New York City!” I said, amazed. I couldn't wait to ask my mom.

“We're going to be famous!” Tally added.

“We're going to have to work really hard,” Ivy cautioned.

“And we're going to have a blast,” Miko added.

It was all true and, boy, was there a lot to think about. And a lot to do. Getting stuff ready for the middle school to read was hard enough. Now we would be writing and creating things that thousands of people would see. Tens of thousands!

As Ivy told us all about
City Nation
and the places we'd get to see in NYC, I felt a sudden lurch of panic in my stomach, like Audriana must have felt when the spotlight came up on her at the opening of
Annie
. Was I good enough to take on such a big responsibility? Would my writing, even my ideas, seem small and silly when they were printed in a copy of the great
City Nation
? Could I do this?

But all at once, the panicked feeling disappeared.

I don't have to do anything,
I thought.
It isn't me. It's
US.

The Four.

Suddenly Miko stood up. “My dad's back, guys,” she said. “We should probably get going.”

“I'll walk you out,” I said, standing and following my friends to the door.

Ivy paused on the front step while Miko and Tally got into the car. “Can you believe this, Paulie?”

“I can't,” I said, a little breathless. I couldn't believe everything that had happened in the last week, and yet it had
all
happened. I felt like a million bucks.

Ivy gave me a quick hug and then bounded down the steps and into the car. I watched as Miko's dad pulled out of the driveway. As he turned up the street, the license plate caught my eye:
GALILEA7

“What?” I muttered. That was the name of one of the blogposters . . . the one who . . .

And suddenly everything made sense. I smiled. Miko had never
really
left us after all. Now I felt like a million and one.

We'd always been four, but now we were officially back together—and not a moment too soon. We had our magic back.

And I had a feeling that when we got to New York City, we were going to need every single bit of it.

Because as everybody knows, anything can happen in New York.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Cody Kimmel is a widely published author of thirty books for children and young adults, including
The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt
and the
Suddenly Supernatural
and
Lily B.
series. Elizabeth is proud to admit that she was never asked to sit at the Prom-Queens-in-Training table at her middle-school cafeteria. She likes reading, hiking, peanut butter cups, and
Star Trek
, but not at the same time. You can visit her at www.codykimmel.com.