Extra Credit #22 Read online

  Extra Credit #22

  Morgan, Melissa J.

  PENGUIN group (2012)

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  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Title Page

  chapter ONE

  chapter TWO

  chapter THREE

  chapter FOUR

  chapter FIVE

  chapter SIX

  chapter SEVEN

  chapter EIGHT

  chapter NINE

  chapter TEN

  chapter ELEVEN

  chapter TWELVE

  chapter THIRTEEN

  Teaser chapter

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2009 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2009012869

  eISBN : 978-1-101-14026-0

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  chapter ONE

  Posted by: Natalie

  Subject: who wants to be a supahstah?

  or superstar if you’re doing normal-speak. brynn, i can see you stretching your hand toward the ceiling and me-me-me-ing even though I haven’t given any of the deets yet. take a breath. good. now read on. this director friend of my dad’s is shooting a movie in guilford, ct, and she needs a ton of high school extras. the movie is this time travel thriller where sam quinn is searching for his lost son through all these different time periods. i guess some evil genius physicist has snatched the kid and is holding him hostage in some other time—but in the same place, his school. something about time being bendable and . . . please don’t make me explain it. it will make my head hurt and i have a spanish test . . . er . . . whatever the spanish word for tomorrow is. see? thinking about traveling through time but staying in the same place has wiped my brain.

  some ammo for parents that need convincing: the director has a daughter of her own about our age and is all about the importance of school and bedtime and all that, so she’s only shooting the big scenes with all the kid extras on weekends. if you want in, all you gotta do is show up at 8943 stockton ave two weeks from saturday at ten. you’ll get the rest of the schedule then.

  love you! mean it!

  Natalie was so glad the Camp Lakeview blog hadn’t shut down when the camp had. It had just kind of morphed into the Lakeviewalla blog. It was mostly Lakeview girls—make that former-Lakeview-now-Walla-Walla girls—but with a few old-time Camp Walla Walla girls mixed in. Like Avery, who had been one of Natalie, Jenna, Sloan, Chelsea, Brynn, and Priya’s tentmates over the summer.

  For most of the summer it had seemed like there was absolutely nothing in Avery to like, but she’d turned out to have a hidden streak of actual niceness. Living with her reminded Natalie of the first summer with Chelsea. And Chelsea had ended up a friend, too.

  If Avery decided she wanted to be an extra, it would actually be sort of cool. Natalie was almost positive she could count on getting in some Brynn time. She figured Brynn would do anything to get her parents’ permission to be in the movie—hunger strike, nonstop Shakespeare recitations at full volume. She might even get one of her drama club girls to impersonate her while she snuck off to Connecticut. Natalie smiled at the thought of Brynn coaching someone to act like her. Impossible. There was nobody quite like Brynn.

  Posted by: Brynn

  Subject: . . .

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

  That’s me being speechless. You guys, I’m speechless. Have you ever seen—I mean heard—me speechless before? I don’t think so. But when I read Nat’s post, my voice got sucked right out of me. Seriously, I had to drink a glass of grapefruit juice—which, ewww—to remoisturize my mouth so I could ask my parents if I could be a supahstah. They weren’t thrilled with me commuting two and a half hours to Guilford, but I told them I could use the train time for homework, and now I’m going to be in a movie! Yes, yes, yes! Yes!

  Promise I’ll remember I knew you when.

  Posted by: Sarah

  Subject: McSwoony

  Sam Quinn is in the movie. Sam. Quinn.

  I am so there.

  Posted by: Jenna

  Subject: McOldy

  Sarah, it must be said. Sam Quinn is old. Can’t wait to see my Walla Walla/Lakeview girls on the big screen!

  P.S. Mañana. That’s the word you’re looking for, Nat. Say it after me. Mañana.

  Posted by: Brynn

  Subject: Thinkless

  I was thinkless as well as speechless when I posted before. I forgot to ask who else is going to join me in stardom. Nat, you’re going to be in the movie, right? NYC is closer to Guilford than Boston is.

  What about you, Pree? We could meet up on the train. I know drama isn’t especially your thing, but it’ll be fuuun being an extra. Avery? You’re right in Connecticut? You in?

  Sarah, no swooning over McSwoony. Being an extra is a professional gig! (Well, you can swoon on the inside.)

  Posted by: Priya

  Subject: Bike Marathon

  Jordan and I entered this bike marathon. It’s not for a month and a half, but I have to train. There is no way that boy is beating me.

  This will probably be my last post for a month and a half. Talk to you all after I kick behind!

  Posted by: Brynn

  Subject: Jordan’s behind

  No kicking, Pree! I like my bf’s behind the way it is!

  Posted by: Sloan

  Subject: Outlook Good

  I’ve consulted the tarot, the I Ching, the leaves in the cup of tea I just drank, and, of course, the Magic 8 Ball. All revealed a happy outcome for the extras in the movie. Go for it! The Sedona girl knows all. =)

  Natalie grinned as she read Sloan’s post. Of course being an extra was going to be a happy outcome. Natalie wasn’t a drama girl like Brynn or a Sam Quinn megafan like Sarah, but hanging out on a movie set with her buds—what could be bad about that?

  Posted by: Natalie

  Subject: Outlook Fantabulous

  i’m not from sedona, center of all things mystical. But i am from nyc, and new yorkers know everything. i say the outlook for the extras is more than good. it’s good squared. (see, i know math. told you nyc-ers know it all!)

  can’t wait to see some of my camp girls in a couple weeks!!<
br />
  j’adore (i know french, too! well, perfume french.)

  chapter TWO

  Avery couldn’t help letting out a little snort as she read Natalie’s latest post. New Yorkers always acted so superior. Didn’t they have noses? Their city stank. It really did. Hot, rank air wafted up from the grates over the subways. There was always garbage on the streets. Not just scraps of paper, either. Food. Chicken bones and chewing gum. Yuck.

  It was a fine place to visit. To go shopping. Maybe to see a play or go to a museum. But no human being should want to live there. Not when there were places like Connecticut so close by.

  Avery decided there was no reason to put her thoughts in her post. She was sensitive like that.

  Posted by: Avery

  Subject: Unbelievable

  No being an extra for this girl. But I’ll be first in line to see the rest of you. Now can we talk about something else, please . . . ?

  Like, my birthday, for instance? It’s coming up (hint, hint—when you’re mailing presents you have to buy early!) and I’m pretty sure I know what I’m getting from my dad and the new(ish) wife. I was going through my father’s briefcase because I needed a pen—and because I wanted to find clues about my b-day present—and I found all these paint chips and carpet samples.

  It looks like I’m finally getting my room redecorated. What else can it be, right? I’ve been dropping hint bombs for my dad all over the place, keeping the TV on decorating shows 24/7, plus leaving decorating mags in my father’s office, open to pages with my picks for bedding and curtains and furniture. I want the extreme makeover. I hope my father realizes that means a lot more than a bed-in-a-bag. I want a new bed, too! And a revamped closet. And a window se—

  To be continued. My worse half—the twin—is invading. And obnoxiously reading over my shoulder.

  She quickly logged off the computer, twisted around in her desk chair, and shot her best evil eye at her brother, Peter.

  He laughed. “Like there is anything worth keeping secret in your little camp blog. I loooove Sam Quinn. I want to have a million of his babies.”

  “You’ve watched all his movies about a million times,” Avery reminded him. She’d been so happy when he’d gotten his own DVD player. Not that she hadn’t won most of the what-to-watch fights with Peter. But still . . .

  “Yeah, but I don’t watch them because I loooove him,” Peter answered. He flopped down on her bed. “I hope Dad and Elise don’t think decorating is an acceptable birthday present for me.” He picked up a heart-shaped pillow and tossed it at her.

  Avery caught it. “You haven’t been hinting. You have to hint to get what you want. It’s clearly worked for me—as you learned from your snoopage.”

  “Going through Dad’s briefcase wasn’t snoopage?” Peter asked.

  “That was snooping to find out something about me,” Avery told him. Peter could be a teeny bit dense. “You were just snooping to snoop.”

  “I really came in to see if you’d bogied the chocolate chip cookies,” Peter said.

  “They’re gone? I haven’t even eaten one,” Avery answered. “You should ask Elise. Have you noticed she’s been getting a little puffy?” Avery was actually hoping Elise would be forced to admit that her blue silk shirt was now too small—and give it to Avery.

  “Yeah. She’d better watch it. I think there’s a strict weight limit on trophy wives.” Peter shoved himself off the bed.

  Avery raised one eyebrow. “Trophy wife. You think she ever qualified?” Elise was pretty, Avery had to give her that. But trophy pretty? Um, no.

  Peter shrugged as he headed out the door. Avery logged back on to the computer. Maybe she could find a few good shopping links to send her dad. She really didn’t want to have to endure a bed-in-a-bag fiasco on her birthday.

  “Now I’ll definitely get a boyfriend,” the girl sitting next to Natalie—she’d said her name was Jo—went on.

  Shut up, Natalie thought. Please, shut up, shut up, shut up.

  “Maybe I’ll even ask out this guy, Noah, at school. I’ve had a crush on him since sixth grade. In sixth grade, there were only two guys it was acceptable to like—Noah Snyder or John Martin. That’s it. If you asked any girl, they would always say one or the other.”

  Please, just stop talking, Natalie silently begged. But Jo just kept going. And going. And going.

  “I didn’t like him just because you had to like one of them, though,” she went on. “I really liked him-liked him. And I still do. And I think without these—” Jo gestured to her mouth “—maybe he might like me, too. It’s Friday. Maybe I’ll just text him and see what he’s doing this weekend. I should just go for it, don’t you think?”

  Natalie gave a sort of nod, sort of head shake and picked up a magazine. It was two years old. She started to read it, anyway. Jo kept talking.

  “I’m going to join the debate team, too. I’ve always been good at coming up with the arguments, but I never wanted to join because—” Out of the corner of her eye, Natalie caught Jo gesturing to her mouth again. “I just hated having people look at me. How could they even listen to what I was saying with—” her hand waved at her mouth yet again “—with this face full of junk?”

  Natalie started flicking through the magazine. She couldn’t concentrate enough to read with Jo going on and on and on.

  “Yeah, I’m definitely going to call Noah today,” Jo went on.

  “Good idea.” Natalie tossed the magazine down on the table. “I hope you find out it was your braces that were keeping him away from you before, and not something like your—”

  Natalie stopped herself before she said the word “personality,” but Jo’s eyes still widened with hurt. “I’m sorry,” Natalie said. “It’s just that I’m getting braces on. Listening to how happy you are about getting them off is kind of hard.”

  Jo reached out and put her hand on Natalie’s wrist. “That was really selfish of me. I’m just so . . .”

  “Happy,” Natalie finished for her, then sighed. “It’s cool to be happy. I’m sure I’ll be happy when I get mine off. Someday.”

  “I would say it’s not so bad, but I kind of think you might not believe me,” Jo said.

  Natalie gave a bark of laughter. “Probably not,” she agreed.

  “I’m trying to think of something good I can say.” A long, icky silence stretched out. “The orthodontist’s assistant is pretty cute, so you’ll have something nice to stare at.”

  “With my mouth hanging open,” Natalie added.

  “Still,” Jo said.

  “Jo Womsley,” the receptionist called.

  “That’s me.” Jo stood up. “Sorry about . . . you know.”

  “It’s okay,” Natalie answered. It’s not like she wouldn’t have found out soon enough that her life was totally, completely, utterly over.

  Not forever, she told herself. Just for the next two years!

  To: NatalieNYC, SarahSports

  From: BrynnWins

  Re: What our lives could be

  I know I’m the drama girl, but I don’t think I’m being dramatic when I say that our lives could totally change starting tomorrow. Nat, you were joking around—at least I thought you were—when you asked who wanted to be a superstar, but all three of us could be. Check out this article I found about Ember Davis. Did you know she started out as an extra??? An extra—as in what we’re going to be tomorrow!

  Check it.

  EMBER ON FIRE

  Ember Davis has just been cast as Ferris Bueller in the remake of ’80s classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Director Camden Perry said he wasn’t considering changing the lead from male to female until he saw Davis in her breakout role of Geebee in Wonderworld. Most think that was Davis’s first film credit, but two years before she was in The Lost Farm. Davis was an extra in the film, but was moved up to a featured extra by director Zan Lazarus, who was struck by “the way her personality shone out of her face.”

  There’s a lot more, but that’s the part I w
anted you to see. And you know who is directing our movie. Nat, I know you know. But Sarah, in case you don’t, it’s Zan Lazarus!! She could pull us out of obscurity, too. (Not that you’re exactly in obscurity, Natalie. You’re the daughter of Oscar-nominee Tad Maxwell—don’t you have to say Oscar-nominee every time you say his name now?)

  See you tomorrow—when our new lives begin!!!

  -Brynn

  chapter THREE

  “Sarah, over here!” Brynn frantically waved her arms over her head to get Sarah’s attention. It was all she could do to restrain herself from bouncing. Bouncing wasn’t professional extra behavior, and Brynn intended to be professional.

  “This is the line to get costumes,” she said when Sarah reached her.

  “Are you planning on camping out?” Sarah asked, nodding at the two large duffel bags at Brynn’s feet. “I know it’s a long way out here, but—”

  “It would almost be easier to camp, right?” Brynn answered. “But this—” she nudged one of the duffels with her toes “—is all stuff to help us be better extras. On this movie, they’re handling wardrobe. Sometimes extras do that themselves. But we still might need to look different from scene to scene, so I borrowed some wigs and glasses from the drama department at school. Also, I brought my tap shoes, a yo-yo, a harmonica, a baseball glove—”