Stories from New York #3 (18 page)

“You have nothing to be sorry about,” I assured her. “We’ll just do what we did before. You’ll help when you can, and we’ll get it all done. We don’t even need the next issue completed for another two and a half weeks. That’s the great thing about making it a winter issue instead of a December issue—we ended up with some extra time!”

“And with all the requests we’ve had on the blog for people to be able to contribute, we’re thinking
the whole theme is going to be kind of like a collaboration between
4 Girls
and our readers. All the contributions would mean less writing for us to do this time around,” Ivy chimed in.

“Okay, good,” Miko said, looking relieved. “I’m totally on board with helping out and going to meetings when I can. I told my parents that
4 Girls
is as much a priority for me as this conservatory audition is for them.”

“Speaking of your parents, here comes your mom,” Ivy said.

Miko’s mother was a petite, elegant-looking woman in a deep-blue pantsuit, her graying hair pulled up in a bun.

“Hi, Mrs. Suzuki,” I said.

“Hi, girls,” Mrs. Suzuki said. “Tally, Ivy, Paulina, it’s so nice to see you here supporting Miko. Thank you for coming.”

“We wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” I said. “We haven’t seen enough of Miko lately. She’s been so busy. But guess what, Meek—my mom says I can have some friends over on New Year’s. Can you come?”

Miko looked quickly at her mother, but Mrs. Suzuki was already shaking her head.

“That’s very nice of you,” Mrs. Suzuki said. “But a friend of Miko’s dad’s will be visiting us that
night, and he is a very successful pianist. He thinks it would be helpful for Miko to talk to him about her audition.”

“On New Year’s Eve?” Miko said. “Was Dad even going to ask me about this, or is it all decided?”

“I thought he had, Miko,” Mrs. Suzuki said. “He thought you’d be excited about it.”

Miko said nothing, but turned slightly away from her mother and rolled her eyes a little.

“Sorry,” Miko told me. “I would have loved to have come. I guess the three of you will have to ring in the new year without me.”

“Oh, I can’t go, either,” Tally said. “The whole Drama Club is going to Buster’s cousin’s house. His parents are pastry chefs! We’re going to eat like kings and queens! Tea cakes and petits fours and meringues and raspberry cheesecake tarts!”

“Are you serious? Can you get some for us?” Miko asked. “My favorite dessert in the world is—”

“Sweetheart, your father is waiting,” Mrs. Suzuki said. “We’re supposed to get coffee with your teacher to talk about your performance, remember?”

I could see Miko’s father looking impatient. He kept glancing at his watch.
Poor Miko
, I thought.
Why can’t he let her enjoy being with her friends for just five minutes?

Miko sighed softly. “I’d better go. You guys,
seriously, thanks so much for coming. It means…a lot.”

“An alien invasion could not have kept me away,” Tally declared. “Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if we ran into an alien invasion on the way home. I saw this TV show about this race of space people that are hypnotized by the sounds of string instruments—it’s like some kind of communication or something for them, and if they happen to be passing close enough to a concert they steer the spaceship straight for—”

“Tal, she’s gotta go,” I said. Tally’s stories could go on all night long, and Miko was out of time.

Miko’s mother walked toward Mr. Suzuki, making a little “hurry up” gesture to Miko. Miko quickly scanned the room like she was hoping to see somebody else in the crowd.

“Thanks again for coming, you guys,” Miko said. She gave us each a quick hug. “And if I don’t talk to you before, have a great New Year’s! Can you believe we only have three more days until school starts again?”

“I can’t believe it,” I said. “It seems like we just went on break. See you later, Miko. And great job, again.”

As Miko rejoined her parents, my phone beeped and I checked the screen.

“Hey, guys, my mom’s waiting for us,” I said.

Tally zipped her coat—a massive, ankle-length down jacket that she completely disappeared into. I had learned many things about Tally Janeway, future famous actress, and one of them was that she simply could not stand to be cold.

“I’m ready,” Ivy said. She had on a simple navy-blue wool coat and a blue-and-white-striped scarf. If Tally was the picture of extravagance, Ivy was the exact opposite. Simplicity was her style.

“One second,” Tally said, fumbling in her enormous purse and pulling out two fat mittens, a scarf, and a purple-and-green wool hat with two long, hanging strings that made it look like the hat had pigtails.

Ivy tried to hide the small smile pulling at her lips as Tally pulled the hat over her mass of wild blond curls and yanked it down as far it would go without covering her eyes.

“I did say my mom was right outside,” I told Tally. “We don’t have far to walk. And the car will be heated.”

“Your version of heat is different than
my
version of heat,” Tally insisted. “The weather report this morning said it was going to be thirty below zero today!”

“Um, I believe the actual report said thirty degrees,” Ivy corrected her. “When they don’t specify, they mean
above
zero.”

“It’s like the South Pole out there,” Tally said. “It sure feels like thirty
below
.”

Tally sighed and looked ruefully toward the exit, like a polar explorer about to leave her hut and trudge toward the South Pole. “Okay, I’m ready,” Tally said, her voice slightly muffled since her chin and lips were covered by the collar of her coat.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Ivy asked playfully. “I can still see your nose.”

Tally wrapped her scarf around her head so that only her eyes were visible above it. Then she nodded.

As we headed out the door, I caught my breath as a blast of wind hit me. It
was
pretty cold out! But, as promised, my mother was waiting in a warm car right outside the concert hall with my little brother, Kevin, in the front seat.

As me, Tally, and Ivy squished into the backseat, it hit me how sad I was that Miko wasn’t with us. I was superexcited for her about the concert and the audition for the conservatory, but at the same time I felt bad. I’d always known Miko’s dad had put a huge amount of pressure on her to be perfect. But with this audition coming up, I had a feeling Miko was going to be even more stressed out from the pressure at home. And knowing her parents, they weren’t going to let her spend much time on anything else. Including us.

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 in 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.