The Great Scavenger Hunt (16 page)

B
y the time the Cranberry Boggers hit the road, they were already thirty minutes late, and it was a fifteen-minute bike ride to the set. “It's cool,” Maeve assured the Boggers. “They expect stars to be fashionably late.”

“Maeve, I hate to burst your bubble,” retorted Betsy, who had been the only one of the team to be up on time. “But I don't exactly think anyone here would qualify as a
star
.”

“Ahhh, Betsy, if you don't think you are a star, you'll never be a star,” explained Maeve cheerfully.

When they finally arrived at the set, it seemed that Bethany shared Betsy's opinion. “Where have you all been!” she fumed. “I was about to try to call those kids from yesterday!”

“We rode as fast as we could. We're on bikes, remember?” Danny Pellegrino spoke up. Though Betsy was still avoiding him after the incident last night, Isabel noticed
their eyes meet.
Mmm,
thought Isabel,
Betsy must have forgiven Danny. Maybe things will actually work out between them, and I will be free of Danny Pellegrino forever.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Danny turned and said, “It's not like we're getting paid for this, right, Izzy?” He practically winked as he looked right at her. Maybe she had spoken too soon; Isabel cringed as she gave him a little half smile.

Betsy's little smile faded into a look of pained discomfort. Any more of Danny's over-the-top confidence could get them kicked right off the set!

“I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.” Bethany took a deep breath and began to pace back and forth like a worried sandpiper. “We're shooting the wedding banquet scene, when Black Sam Bellamy interrupts the dinner to save Princess Polly from her loveless marriage to the brutish Sir Eric Bonewagon,” Bethany explained. “Maeve, you are going to be a flower girl. Fabiana, you're a wedding guest.”

“A flower girl!” Maeve gushed as she twirled around in her imaginary flower girl designer dress. She had always wanted to be a flower girl, and she could only imagine what the dress was going to look like!
Perhaps light pink lace layered over white? Or maybe dark rose with a scalloped neck? Did flower girls wear crowns back then?

“Riley, you're reprising your role from yesterday as the powder monkey,” Bethany informed him. “And, get this, Ozmond even wrote in a few lines for you. Everyone thought you looked ‘appealing' in your little pirate outfit!” She smirked.

Maeve's dress fantasies were rudely interrupted by a twang of jealousy—both for Riley getting a speaking role, and that someone other than she (certain blond girls, probably) thought he was adorable.

Life is so unfair
. She gritted her teeth. Maeve was supposed to be the only one who knew and appreciated Riley's adorableness. That was the whole point of having a crush on the
band cutie who no one ever noticed until you did.

“What about me?” Danny asked.

Bethany looked at her sheet. “Um, I don't need any more extras today. Thanks anyway, though!”

Danny looked completely crushed. “But my historical outfit was perfect, except for the shoe buckles, and I had an idea about those—”

Betsy spoke up before he could get them in even more trouble. “Danny can help me with the consulting today,” she told Bethany. “He has a wealth of historical information at his fingertips.”

Danny gave Betsy such a look of puppy-dog adoration that Isabel was happily convinced meant that she would be safe from a Danny Pellegrino crush for the rest of her junior high days. Now she could actually be pleasant to Danny and not have to worry that he would glom on to her like superglue ever again.

Bethany didn't look too impressed, but she answered. “Hey, I'm in wardrobe, so I'm going to go ahead and say why not.”

“Although,” she added, as she checked her wardrobe list, “I personally don't get why Ozmond wants you kids
following him around, but then again no one understands a thing a crackpot does….” Bethany strode off with her clipboard, muttering to herself.

“I guess I'll go find Patrick and Poppy,” a relieved Isabel announced, running off to search for her favorite set designers.

Maeve let out a big sigh of relief as a grateful Danny sidled up beside Betsy. “Thanks for letting me help,” he said as they wandered around the set looking for Ozmond, who was supposedly off somewhere getting coffee.

“Well,” Betsy said. “That girl was not nice. I mean, you just can't take everyone from a group and leave one person out…. It's highly inappropriate social etiquette…but movies are a business. We have to go with the flow, you know.”

“Betsy, you are something special, you know?” Danny looked at her again, this time his eyes wide with fascination.

Betsy giggled. “Maybe she was afraid that if she gave you a part, they'd have to pay you a zillion dollars or something!”

Danny's eyes sparkled. “Maybe they do! Maybe they have to pay everyone! Ha ha, just kidding. Man, I'd do this for free any day.”

“Well, if it's any consolation, helping the director is fun stuff,” Betsy assured him.

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. Ozmond totally listens. He wants things to
be right. Maybe we could even add this to our list of extra-curriculars.”

Danny's face brightened. “So I can just tell him about a couple of anachronisms I've noticed?”

Betsy blinked. “Yes! Isn't that the greatest thing ever?”

Cranberry Boggers Dance a Jig of Sorts

It was taking the film crew absolutely forever to start filming. There was some sort of technical difficulty or something.

Fabiana asked everyone if they wanted to wait it out or get going. Maeve was conflicted. What she did know is that for the first time ever she was having the most amazing time
not being
filmed, but what about her friends? Fabiana asked for a show of hands—no one wanted to leave.

Maeve couldn't help voting to stay. She was thrilled because the flower girl (not just an orphan anymore!) got to do a little jig with the powder monkey boy.
Dance a little jig…with Riley.
That was what the script said.

Maeve was hoping the jig was interpretive and maybe she could convince the director to let them do a ballroom dance instead, but Danny (grrr) said that that would be completely unrealistic. So…a little jig was exactly what she and Riley were practicing.

I had no idea that a little pirate jig could be so much fun!
She and Riley spun each other around and around until they began staggering from dizziness. Maeve's heart leaped when Riley reached out his hand to steady her. Or,
was it she who offered her hand to Riley? He was, after all, beginning to turn a rather alarming shade of green.

“Riley,” a suddenly concerned Nurse Maeve said, “you really don't look very well. Maybe we should try something different, so you don't get sick,” she said sweetly.

Riley nodded gratefully.
It really doesn't matter as long as we keep dancing…together,
she thought happily.

Maeve patiently showed him a few dances she remembered from her week of Irish step dancing lessons. Although the lessons were a long time ago, Maeve's natural talent for dancing helped her recall a few simple moves.

In fact, after a few tries, she and Riley, who also had natural rhythm, were completely in sync, and the pirate crowd was going wild. They formed a circle around them and clapped, while the musicians on set played some Irish music on their guitars.

“Wheee!” Maeve shouted giddily when the music picked up pace.

“What is going on here?” demanded a shrill voice. The crowd stopped clapping and the music fizzled out as everyone cautiously cleared a path for a young woman wearing a fluffy red bathrobe. “I mean it! Will somebody please tell me why I'm
still waiting
in hair and makeup?”

Maeve gasped and leaned over to Riley. “Oh, that's her…. Lola Lindstrom…superstar!”

Riley's eyes widened. “Dude, you're right! I almost didn't recognize her with that black wig.” Lola Lindstrom was huge…mega huge, and famous for her long fire-engine-red hair (Maeve had always felt a kinship), a penchant for
dating foreign princes, and her oh-so-infamous, on-set temper tantrums.

“This is the best day of my life, Riley!” Maeve clasped her hands to her chest while she whispered. “To witness a Lola Lindstrom temper tantrum! It just doesn't get any better than this.” Maeve squeezed Riley's hand.

“Like I told you, there are just a few kinks the director is trying to work out….” Bethany began.

“Still?” Lola groaned. “For Pete's sake, by the time they're done I'm going to be
middle-aged
! I can't believe I turned down
Safari Game Park
for this.”

“Don't worry, Miss Lindstrom,” a visibly nervous Bethany tried to assure her. “The director is working with some historical consultants, and everything should be ready shortly. Why don't you go back to the trailer and put on the Princess Polly wedding dress?” By the end of her little speech Bethany's voice had begun to shake.

Lola crossed her arms and sniffled. “No.”

“Pretty please,” Bethany tried again, sounding strained.

“Hmm…no. I hate that hideous outfit. The fabric makes my skin itch.”

Lola's face looked like she had just smelled something very stinky. Maeve was affronted. How could someone who had so much look so annoyed and unhappy over a little itch? It seemed…well…unprofessional.
Still, Lola's diva attitude is impressive
, she thought.

“Look, Riley. This is the stuff of entertainment.”

With a raised eyebrow, an unimpressed Riley watched
a quivering Bethany turn to Lola and say, “Pretty please, Lola, with sugar on top?”

Was this groveling mess of nerves the same girl who had dismissed Danny with such indifference earlier? Maeve could not believe what she was hearing.

Lola frowned and uttered a dramatic, “
Fine
.” She started back to the trailer, then paused. “But I
need
my cappuccino
yesterday
, Beth, or whatever your name is. And make sure it's
nonfat
this time. Last time they said it was, but it tasted too good to be. Make sure this time it doesn't taste so good. Everyone is just trying to get me fat!”

They all watched as Lola flounced off to her trailer, while a spent Bethany, who had averted a crisis with her star, shot dagger eyes at the temperamental superstar's back.

Finally, Riley whirled his finger around his ear to signify that he thought Lola Lindstrom was completely bonkers. Maeve had to agree.

“Boy, Riley,” Maeve said, fanning herself. “I have to admit, star or no star, I don't want to get anywhere near someone who is freaking out about a cappuccino that tasted great.”

Isabel, who had wandered over to witness the dramatic star's rantings, whispered to Maeve, “If you become a star and ever act like that, the BSG will have to have a trial and sentence you to a hundred pillow-mashes till you come to your senses!”

Maeve held up her hand and promised “to never act like a crazy diva with a bad attitude to anyone, even to
someone who brings me fabulous-tasting coffee.” Maeve and Isabel collapsed in a sudden fit of giggles.

“I sure hope Betsy and Danny fix those kinks before Lola Lollapalooza, or whatever her name is, bites someone's head off!” Riley warned Maeve and Isabel, who nodded in unison.

The Facts About Fireworks

At the far end of the set, Ozmond was standing with one white-sneakered foot directly in the middle of a patch of poison ivy and peering over his notebook at a few technicians unloading giant boxes labeled
DANGER: HIGHLY FLAMMABLE
from a truck.

“So we get rid of the fireworks completely?” asked Ozmond, tapping his pencil against the ragged pages of scribbled notes. “Are you quite sure about that?”