How I Became Famous

by Bonna Khondakar

“Come on Kristy, get up or you’ll be late for school!” shouted Mom behind my closed bedroom door, “Hurry up and get ready for breakfast.”

I groaned and sat up slowly, “I’ll be down in soon, mom!” I said, throwing my blanket across my bed. I looked out the window to see how the day was, it was a lovely day and the snow looked bracing. I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower, then got dressed, grabbed my school bag and my coat and went downstairs. As I put my bag down by the front door, the smell of blueberry pancakes filled the air. I walked into the kitchen and found my mother making the pancakes, my father was reading the paper, and my younger brother Mike, was nibbling on his plate full of pancakes. “Morning everybody.” I said as I sat down at the table, grabbed two pancakes and put them on my plate.

“Morning,” they answered.

I think this isn’t helping you understand what’s going on so I might as well explain it to you from the beginning. I am Kristen Spier but people just call me Kristy. I live in Brookeside, which is a small town in Connecticut. In my family there is my mother, Mrs. Spier, she is a thin woman in her late 30’s and early 40’s (she doesn’t tell anyone about her age). She has light brown eyes and waist length hair that is dark brown. She is a newscaster for the channel 3-news, and believe me, she loves her job so much that she could get sick just hearing about another job! But all she has to do for her job is read lines from a screen in front of her, look into the camera and say the lines with expression.

My father, Mr. Spier, is a tall man with short brown hair and darker eyes than my mother’s. He is a lawyer and is almost, always busy with work. But he has plenty of time to spend with the family. Sometimes he has to deal with cases that keep him up all night. Once he had to deal with a case that took as long as three months! Working on that case made him loose almost ten pounds. The one good thing is that he doesn’t like to deal with cases that have some kind of crime involved.

My brother Mike, that’s short for Michael, is a short eleven-year-old boy and I think that he is nosy and annoying. He is in the sixth grade and enjoys his time doing things (God knows what, is what my mom says) with his friend Tyler Finings. He is pretty good with schoolwork but seems to have some kind problem lately, because my mom and dad had to keep meeting his teachers. He is one of those kids who likes to watch TV all day and never comes around the family except for meals.

I, on the other hand, am good with schoolwork, great with making friends and my teachers just adored me (I’m bragging though and I don’t intend to, it’s the truth and one thing I never do is lie). I’m in the eighth grade and have the same eyes like my mother with soft, brown hair that is a little longer then shoulder length. I am one of those kids who just think of nothing but study, study and more study. I like watching TV but not all the time like Mike does. My family, as you can see, is an average family with average people.

Now back to that day. When I was done eating my pancakes I looked at the kitchen clock and saw that it was 7:10am and my school bus would be here in ten minutes. So I grabbed my lunch bag from the counter, just as Mike got up and grabbed his lunch.

“Kristy, Mike do you both have the house keys?” asked Mom, as Mike and I were just about to say good-bye to our parents.

“Yes, mom!” I said irritable. We (Mike and I) hear that every morning because neither of my parents are ever home when we get back from school.

“Okay, I was just making sure you do,” said my mom as irritated as we were.

“Mom, I’ve got to go or I’ll miss my bus, bye mom, bye dad!” I shouted, running out the door with Mike at my heels.

“Bye!” said Mom and Dad still busy with what they were doing.

“Class,” said Ms. Liberty, my Social Studies teacher, “There is only a few minutes before lunch, so before you leave I want to give you an assignment you might enjoy,” everyone was groaning, “Now come on you might really li...” she was interrupted by the lunch bell. The class was now making their way out of the door, “Never mind, have a great weekend!” she shouted behind the rushing group of students.

“You too Ms. Liberty!” I shouted as I was being dragged out with the rest of the class.

“Thank you, Kristy.” She said in a sorrow filled voice. I couldn’t understand why. Oh well.

I walked to my usual lunch table were my friends were sitting, looking interestedly at something that I couldn’t see from where I was. When I reached the table, I could see the piece of paper they were looking at. But when they saw me, they quickly hid it.

“Oh, hi Kristy.” Said Stacey Carver, my best friend.

“Hi, guys!” I said as I took my usual seat next to Stacey, “What’re you all looking at, can I see?” I asked.

My friends looked at me and then to each other, then Jessica Dalmest, another one of my friends said, “Hey Kristy can I borrow a pencil, I need to...write a new review for Mrs. Swartz. She didn’t like my old one.” (Of course I could tell that she just changed the subject so I wouldn’t talk about the paper they were looking at.)

“Yeah, sure.” I said taking out a pencil from my pocket and giving a weirdly at my friends, “Here you go.” I said handing her the pencil.

“Thanks, I’ll give it back to you at science.” Jessie informed me.

“That’s ok, keep it, it’s just a pencil.” I told her as I opened my lunch bag (the school lunch is never what I want. It’s always goosy and icky.).

“Thanks Kristy, you’re a pal!” Jessie said happily taking out a piece of paper.

“So, what are you guys doing this weekend?” I asked my friends, “If you’re not doing anything maybe you can all come over to my house on Saturday and we can watch a movie together.” I told them taking a bite of my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

“Sorry Kristy, I’m going to visit my grandparents.” Said Stacey.

“I’m going to Stanford, you know the next town from Brookeside.” Said Vanessa Carlton, another one of my friends.

“I’m going shopping with my cousin.” Said Jessie.

“And I’ll be at one of my cousin’s house because her parents and mine are going to some reunion and the two of us are going to hang out at her place.” Valerie Hacker told us as she took a bite of her sandwich.

“Oh, I guess I’ll be the only one with the most boring weekend, then.” I said sadly.

After lunch we all had the same class, science. So the five of us walked to our next class. In class we put our books on our desks and chatted with each other and other classmates until the principal, Mr. Johnson, came in.

“What’s he doing here?” I whispered to the others. Everybody shrugged and waited for Mr. Johnson to say something.

“Good afternoon class,” he said standing in front of the class, looking sad, “I am here to take over for Mrs. Fullerstein because she just had a car accident when she was coming here from the store just after lunch, she wanted to buy you all some treats because you were so nicely behaved the other day. Right now she is in the hospital.”

“Oh my goodness, is she okay?” I asked him with my heart beating faster than an automobile.

“Um, she just broke her left arm and sprained her right ankle, but nothing worse than that.” Mr. Johnson informed us.

“When will she be coming back?” asked a boy called Kyle Samson.

“She’ll probably be back by the end of this month,” said Mr. Johnson, “Now, I know you all have a ton of questions to ask me and want them to be answered but there is work to be done, so get to it.”

“How can he think of work when Mrs. Fullerstein is in the hospital?” I told my friends, sitting down at my desk and getting mad at Mr. Johnson.

The class got to work and half an hour before school was going to be out, Mr. Johnson told the class to take the novels from the shelf and he said that we would be reading those books to each other for the rest of class. He said it might help to keep our minds off Mrs. Fullerstein. The books were the same novel for a whole class to read so the class took turns to each read a different page.

When the story got to the part were the main character, Sheila, is told to do a very important job for a family reunion, the whole class kept staring at me! Then finally Mr. Johnson saw all the eyes land on me when the story got to the part that said, “...so it turned out that Sheila was actually being favored,”

“Excuse me for interrupting, but I couldn’t help see all of you staring at her,” said Mr. Johnson pointing at me, “Could someone please explain why you’re all staring?” No one said a thing, “Okay, I guess you’re giving me the silent treatment, well...if no one will say anything I’m just going to make all of you stay ten minutes after class and let...what’s your name?” he asked me.

“Kri...Kristy,” I said with an awed look on my face.

“Right, Kristy, I’ll have Kristy leave class before any of you,” still not one word, “Okay then, I’ll add five minutes for every minute you waste.”

A moment later Stacey stood up with the rest of the class staring at her and she said, “Mr. Johnson, we kept looking at Kristy because...because reading that story about being favored and stuff made us think of her.” My mouth dropped and I looked shocked.

What is she taking about? I asked myself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Mr. Johnson curiously looking at Stacey then to the class, and back to Stacey again.

“Well Kristy has always been the teachers pet here at school,” said Vanessa also standing up. Mr. Johnson and I just stared at my friends who I thought liked me as friend, but now I knew everything. Somehow, the picture of them, looking at that paper in cafeteria came to me, and now I knew that it had to do with me! I couldn’t believe that my own friends would stab me in the back like this.

“What are you trying to say, I still don’t understand?” asked Mr. Johnson.

“Kristy is always the teachers pet,” said this boy named Russell Foster, I looked at him and thought that the whole class must be in this, but what exactly? “She’s always the one who the teachers always like and they always send her to do this and that.” He finished furiously.

“Yes, that’s right,” said Valerie, “The teachers never let us go do things for them, it’s always ‘Kristy this’ and ‘Kristy that’.”

“What are you guys talking about?” I spoke up, I couldn’t take any more of their lies, it was never always Kristy this and Kristy that, “And this isn’t true Mr. Johnson!”

“Come up here, Kristy,” he told me, I walked up to the front, “If it’s not true then why are they saying all this?”

“I’m not sure why, but I do know that the teachers are not always telling me to do things for them.” I said giving my friends a dirty look.

“Yes, they are,” said Jessie, “Just because you’re the smartest one of us doesn’t mean that the teachers should favor you.”

“Why are you guys doing this?” I asked almost about to cry, and my voice was now getting horsy.

“What do you mean by “you guys”, the whole of eighth grade things of you that way,” said Stacey, “We are not the only ones.”

That was it! I couldn’t take any more of this. They didn’t like me because I was smart! I always thought that my friends and classmates liked me because I was smart. I even remember helping them out with schoolwork they couldn’t understand and this is how they pay me back, hate me!

“What kind friends are you?” I said crying and running out the door to the girls’ bathroom. Just as I was about to turn the corner, I bumped into a man I had never seen before, I looked up at him and said, “Soorrryyyyy!” with the horsiest voice ever and continued running. The man just looked at me with a strange look but didn’t say anything.

Five minutes later Ms. Liberty came in the bathroom, “What’s wrong Kristy?” she asked me, while I was sitting in the last toilet stall.

“I’m not in the mood to talk right now,” I said sobbingly.

“Oh come on, can’t you at least tell me what happened and who did all this to you?” she continued walking up to the closed door I was behind.

I couldn’t say anything because the thought of my friends hating me and saying all those things about me just made me feel even worse than I looked. Soon I saw that I couldn’t stay in there forever so I opened the door and walked out to face my fears. Ms. Liberty smiled at me and rubbed my back gently, I gave her a quivering smile, “I thought they were my friends, but I guess I was wrong,” I took a tissue and blew my nose then threw it away and took another one to wiped my tears, “But what are you doing here, how did you know about all this?” I asked, now finding this a little weird to see a teacher in the girls’ bathroom while school wasn’t over yet.

“Mr. Johnson told me that a girl named Kristy was crying in the bathroom and I knew exactly who that Kristy was and why she’s crying.” She said with a funny hand gesture as she finished. I couldn’t understand what she meant by why she knew I was crying.

“What do you mean?” I asked uncertainly.

“What I mean is that I knew all about your friends hating you because you’re so smart.”

“What?” I exploded, “You knew all this time and didn’t say anything to me, what is this school made of, liars?”

“Kristy, relax!” she told me calmly, “At least give me chance to explain why I didn’t tell you.”

“Okay, why didn’t you tell me?” I asked a little calmly.

“It’s because I thought that you would be hurt to hear it from me,” she said, “This morning I saw your friends write up a plan to get you back because of being a teachers’ pet all the time. They were in this bathroom and I came in to wash my hands, and when I opened the door ajar I could hear them laughing and saying that this was going to be the perfect way to get you back. I didn’t say anything to you because I knew that if you heard it from me, it would hurt you more.”

I stood there and just stared at her for a moment. The fact that my friends and classmates would do such a thing still couldn’t go through my head. I took a deep breath and said, “So you knew and didn’t say anything because you thought I was going to get hurt, hearing about it from you?” Ms. Liberty nodded, and then I asked a question that no one could ask a teacher, “Do you and the other teacher really favor me?”

She looked strangely at me, “I think your friends have answered that question.”

“But why, why me, why not some one else?” I asked almost about to cry again.

“Kristy, we teachers don’t favor students, we just do something in a way to show them that we appreciate their wonderful talents. So take you for example, you do so well in school that we show our appreciation by telling you to do things for us and that doesn’t mean that you’re the teachers pet.”

“I still don’t understand why they would do such a thing to me,” I said with my eyes filled with tears, “I always helped them with their problems and now this is how they repay me.”

“OH, Kristy!” Ms. Liberty said giving me a hug, just then the last bell for the day rang, “Oh my, time can really fly. I need to get to the staff meeting, are you sure you’ll be ok?”

I nodded and watched Ms. Liberty rush out the door shouting good-bye to me. I waved to her and quickly dried my tears because I heard someone coming in. I ran to the last toilet stall so they couldn’t see me. A few moments later I heard four girls talking to each other. I recognized the voices immediately, they belonged to my friends, I mean my ex friends.

“Did you see her face?” said Vanessa laughing.

“Yeah, I thought it would take her forever to cry but it took only a few minutes!” said Stacey laughing along with Vanessa, soon they all joined in and walked out, laughing. I walked out of the bathroom and saw that strange man again. He smiled at me and rushed to the staff room. For the rest of my walk home (I missed the bus), all these thoughts made me feel very dizzy. What kind of friends pay you back like this when you do everything in the world for them?

That evening as I lay in bed sadly and thought about the worst day of my life, I had made a decision. I decided that I would forget everything that happened on this very day, November first, and go on with life. Just then a knock on my door startled me. I got up and opened the door to find my brother standing there with the cordless phone in his hand.

“It’s for you,” he told me.

“Who is it?” I asked. Mike shrugged and handed me the phone, then walked to his room and shut the door.

How rude! I thought.

I closed my door and said, “Hello?”

“Hello,” said a man’s voice on the other end of the phone, “I’m Mr. Brewer.”

“Yes, may I help you?” I asked politely.

“As a matter of fact, there is something you may do for me,” said Mr. Brewer, “Well actually I’ve been watching you all day today and,”

“What?” I exclaimed interrupting him.

“I mean I am a director and I came here to meet Mr. Johnson, he’s an old friend of mine. So when I was on my way to his office this morning I saw you for the first time. Then I saw you again running past me when I was on my way to see him in the science classroom.”

“Excuse me for interrupting, but I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” I told him.

“Of course you don’t, let me just get to the point then,” he took a deep breath and continued, “I think that you look wonderful for acting and I think that you could be a really good actress. So I want you to star in my new movie.”

“What, you want me to act?” I asked him in amazement. I was going to be a movie star!

“Yes, now I would like to know when you can come to see me to an audition for a role in the movie?”

“I don’t know because my parents aren’t home and I can’t do it without their permission.” I said.

“Oh, ok then can you tell me when they’ll be back?” he asked disappointedly.

“They’ll be back by five thirty.” I told him cheerfully.

“Ok thank you Kristy, I’ll call again at seven then, bye.”

“Bye,” I said and hung up. As soon as I did so, I jumped on my bed and screamed so loud that my brother came bursting in my room. I told him everything and even he was excited. When my parents got home I told them all about how my worst day turned out to be my best day. They were also as excited as I was, but something told me that they didn’t like the idea of me acting. Then I told them that Mr. Brewer would call at seven so we had dinner and waited. We waited and waited till it was seven thirty and I thought that my best day was going to be the worst day again. No sooner had I had thought of that, the phone rang. I ran to the kitchen to answer it.

“Hello?” I said exhaustedly.

“Hi, is this Kristy?” asked the man’s voice, it was Mr. Brewer.

“Yes, hi Mr. Brewer. My parents are home now so you can talk to them.” I told him, excitedly.

“Wonderful, and I’m sorry I called so late, I was working on the movie cast and crew and I got carried away.” Mr. Brewer apologized.

“That’s ok, hold on a minute while I get my mom,” I said. I ran to the den and told my mom and dad who was on the phone and they went to the kitchen. They told me to leave them alone for a while so they could talk to Mr. Brewer privately.

They talked for over an hour and when I went down to the kitchen later that night, my parents told my brother and I to sit down so we could have a family meeting. Then she made hot chocolate for me and Mike and coffee for dad and herself.

“Well, we had a long talk with Mr. Brewer,” my dad told us once we were all nice and cozy, “And I guess...your going to be a movie star!” he said smiling and hugging me, my mom came over to hug me, too.

“Aaaahhhhhggg” I screamed, I couldn’t help it and I guess it was kind of exciting for all of us. For a moment I felt like I was in haven and that life was more like a movie right then. I felt like I was living a new world. My stomach was doing tumble turns and it felt like I was on a roller coaster ride.

“Oh my god,” exclaimed Mike, “I’m the brother of a movie star!”

“I can’t believe this,” I said to my parents, “What did he do to you, I mean you guys would never have let me be a movie star?”

“He didn’t do anything,” Mom said as Dad nodded and took a sip of his coffee. I was so excited that I forgot I had hot chocolate in front of me, “We thought about what happened to you today,” Mom continued, “And thought that it would be best for you if you took your mind off of this. Then when Mr. Brewer called and told us again about your bad day, we decided that we had to do something to make you happy.”

“Wow, making me a movie star is the most happiest thing in the world for me!” I said giving them a hug. This was the best day of my life, again.

“Come on mom, dad, Mike,” I shouted from the foot of the stairs, “We’re going be late!”

“Sshhisshh, Kristy,” said Mike, “We want to look good, so hold on.”

“You’re the one who has to look good?” I asked in amazement.

“Okay guys, break it,” cut in Dad fixing his tie and coming down the stairs, “I think we all want to look good.”

“Ok, I’m ready, lets go!” Mom said coming down the stairs looking very elegant. Every one of us looked elegant. Okay, maybe I should explain all the elegancy.

Last night Mr. Brewer called again and told us to meet him at Brookeside Middle School where we were to take a limo to a movie studio in Stanford (when he said Stanford, I just remembered Vanessa saying that she was also going to Stanford today and I wished that I wouldn’t bump into her).

When we got to my school, there was a black limo in the parking lot. Mike ran to it and the rest of us walked our way there. Mr. Brewer was talking to Mr. Johnson, but when we got there they stopped.

“Hello, Kristy,” said Mr. Johnson shacking my hand joyfully, and then moved to talk to my parents. I felt a tap on my shoulder and when I turned around I saw Mr. Brewer.

“Kristy,” he said seriously, “Could you tell your parents that if we don’t get to Stanford soon, we’ll be really late.”

“Ok,” I said and walked over to my parents.

“...is just wonderful to actually have an actress schooling at BMS,” I heard Mr. Johnson say.

“Excuse me,” I said to my parents, “Mom, dad Mr. Brewer says that we’ll be really late if we don’t get to Stanford soon.”

“Oh, sorry dear,” Mom said walking away from Mr. Johnson and pulling Dad along, “We’re really sorry about that Mr. Brewer.” She said once we were set to go in the limo ride.

“That’s ok, now come on everybody,” he told us.

In the limo, Mr. Brewer explained about how he wanted me to be in the movie, “I came here to talk to Shamus, your principal, about an idea for a new movie and that’s when I saw you,” he told us, “You looked so wonderful that I had to put you in my movie.” I blushed a little, “so I talked to Shamus and he gave me your home phone number, I called you last night to find your parents weren’t home. I called again and found them. I explained to them that they would have to sign a few papers and make a few commitments, and more things like that at the studio. While I was calling up the crew I thought about you crying, so I called Shamus and wanted to know why you were crying, He told me.” At that moment he grabbed a bottle of champagne and three glasses. He poured some in them and gave them to my parents and one for himself. Then continued with his story, “And that’s when it hit me, I knew exactly what my movie was going to be,”

“What?” I asked.

“The movie is going to be about a girl who’s stabbed in the back by her best friends,” he told us excitedly, “Then a few days later a director calls her and tells her that she was to be a movie star.”

“That’s exactly what happened to Kristy,” said Mike.

“Yes, and that’s exactly what I want the movie to be like,” Mr. Brewer told him. He continued with more stories about his past experience.

Twenty minutes later we arrived at the studio, and Mr. Brewer introduced me to some of the crewmembers. He showed me around, and a few minutes later some other actors and actress came to the studio. I was introduced to them and then he announced that it was time to audition. Everyone took their places, cameramen by the cameras, make up people by the stage, etc.

“Attention everyone,” said Mr. Brewer, “I would like to introduce to you a new actress. This is Kristy Spier.”

I waved a little and turned red. Somehow all this looked too hard to me, I felt extremely weak and felt like I was in a trance for a moment, then within a second I snapped back to normal. That was strange!

“Now, everyone, please take your places.” He ordered. As everyone took their places I went to find my parents, “Kristy, could you come here for a minute?” said Mr. Brewer still looking at the script. I walked over to him.

“Yes, Mr. Brewer?” I asked him.

“You can call me Greg if you want. Are you looking for your parents?” he asked me.

“Yes, I am. Have you seen them?”

“Well, not exactly,” he said putting the script down, “Remember I told you that they had a lot of signing and things to do, so that’s probably what they are doing. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry much. Oh, I almost forgot to say that you have to do some things, too.”

I nodded. What did I have to do? I thought.

“I think you should do that first,” he informed me, “I’ll see if Nancy can take you there.” He went of looking for Nancy and I waited and watched people rehearsing their lines in the set ready to audition.

A few minutes later Mr. Brewer, I mean Greg, came back with a short young woman about my height. She had the palest, blonde hair I had ever seen. Greg pointed at me and walked to another man, while Nancy (I guessed) came over to me.

“Hi, you must be Kristy Spier?” she asked smiling at me.

I nodded.

“I’m Nancy Deuser,” she continued, “Greg tells me that you’re going to be the new actress and I think that means you have to go to the signing room?”

“I guess so,” I said as she led the way to a blue trailer. We walked in and I saw my parents sitting down and waiting. I sat down next to them and waited for someone to tell be to do something. Just then a chubby, short man opened the trailer door and said, “Ah, the Spiers. Get ready for a long day of work!”

“Don’t worry, at least she’s in the movie now.” I heard Dad telling Mom.

What’s happening is that after all those signing and commitments and lots of other things, Mom’s been having second thoughts. And Dad’s been comforting her. Yes, there are a lot of things to do before you can be an actress or actor. At least things went well and my parents have agreed to let me be an actress. The audition was great. Not exactly audition, Greg just asked some actors and actresses to be in the movie. Then if they like their roles and want to be in the movie, they just have to call Greg and tell him. Then they audition for Greg to see if they are right for the role. I got the role of a girl called Maxine who is the character of Stacey in the movie. The actress who plays my character is a professional actress named is Hillary Duff. She is a really good actress from the way she auditioned. (I didn’t see Vanessa, thank god!) Greg gave me my script and told me to start memorizing my lines and actions as soon as possible so we can start shooting soon. Greg also said that I won’t be going to my old school anymore but I will be having special class because I will be missing out a lot of work. This special school is in a trailer that goes with me everywhere I have to go and shoot for a movie. I have a special teacher who turned out to be Nancy, and I’m required at least three hours of schoolwork a day. But since we weren’t going to start rehearsing for the senses yet, Greg said that I could go to school for one last week. And guess what? I didn’t have the most boring weekend after all.

So on Monday, I got up and got dressed for school. When I came down the stairs that was when I heard Dad telling Mom that she didn’t have to worry anymore, because I was allowed to be an actress now.

“Morning Kristy,” said Mom pouring coffee in her mug.

“Morning,” I said as I sat down and poured orange juice in a glass, “What’s wrong Mom?”

“Nothing dear, I’m just tired from all those stuff we had to do yesterday.” She told me irritably.

“She’ll be fine,” whispered Dad with a wink and walking towards the door, “I’m off to work then, bye everyone!”

“Bye!” we said as he ran out.

“Oh, Mom we better get going or we’ll miss the bus.” I got up, grabbed my lunch and walked out with Tyler at my heels calling, “Bye, Mom.”

“Hey wait, do you guys...” she said as we ran to the bus stop.

“Yes, we have our keys!” shouted Tyler.

At school, I stayed as far away from my friends as possible. Even in classes I tried to avoid them, but for some reason they kept looking at me with a very soft, friendly look, I couldn’t understand what was going on. Then at lunch I sat alone at a table all to myself when they came over and sat next to me!

“What do you want to do to me now?” I asked them with a dirty look on my face, “Hate me even more for being...” I stopped right there because I didn’t want them to know that I was an actress now.

“Kristy, Kristy,” said Stacey, “We all know about you being an actress.”

“What, how...but...” I couldn’t see a way for them to know, I was only signed up to be an actress just yesterday.

“What do you think,” asked Vanessa, “That we don’t watch Entertainment Tonight?”

“I was in ET?” I said surprised.

“Of course,” said Valerie, “Why wouldn’t you be, you’re the newest star and there’s no other way for people to know about it then through ET.”

“Well what do you guys want from me, then?” I asked them.

“We just wanted to say that we are sorry for what we said on Friday,” said Jessie, not even looking a least bit sorry.

“So now you want to be my friends again just because I’m an actress?”

“No, no Kristy,” said Stacey, “We feel really bad for what we did and want you to forgive us for the stupid things we did.”

“Oh...I see, you want me to forgive you for all the things you did to me,” I repeated with an even dirtier look, “Ok, I forgive you.” I said calmly.

“WHAT!” they all exploded. Everybody in the lunchroom stared at my table to see what all the commotion was.

“I said, I forgive you,”

“You mean it?” asked Vanessa.

I took a deep breath and said, “Yeah, I forgive you for all the things you did to me, but I don’t forgive you for what you said about me on Friday. I mean how could you, I did everything to be you friend, and I am not favored by the teachers,” they put their heads and turned red, as my voice got louder, “I thought you were my friends but I guess I was wrong. Friends don’t stab their friends in the back like that. I even remember helping you guys with anything you needed help with, I was there for you to lean on me, and I was there to listen to your problems. You lied to Mr. Johnson and didn’t want to be my friend because I’m smart. And now you want to be my friends just because I’m an actress, well guess what? I’m not going to be here any more because I’m going to be busy on the set...you know what else? Oh never mind, I’m not even going to bother going on from here.

“Kristy, we...” spoke Valerie in a very soft voice.

“No, no.” I said angrily, “I don’t even want to hear it, ok? So save to for someone who does. Good bye!”

I walked away feeling a little guilty but then I thought that they wanted to be friends again just because I was going to be a star. After lunch I had science, which meant that I would have to see them again. I didn’t care much because I knew I would be here for another four days only, so lets just give it a shot. In the science room, I sat at my desk looking mad with a book in my hands. A few minutes later Mr. Johnson came in with a new substitute. While he talked to the class the sub was standing outside so none of us could see him or her.

“Class,” he said clapping his hands to make the class calm down, “I have a new substitute for you, Ms. Deuser could you please come in here?”

Ms. Deuser, I thought, isn’t that Nancy’s last name?

A short, young woman came in, and to my surprise it was Nancy! She stood next to Mr. Johnson and looked at the class and then when she saw me, she smiled at me. I couldn’t smile back, not with the whole class there.

“Well, I guess I’ll leave everything to you then,” said Mr. Johnson.

“Yes, thank you Mr. Johnson, I’ll take it from here.” Nancy replied. Mr. Johnson smiled and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

“Ok class,” she began, “My name is Nancy Deuser, but you can call Ms. Deuser.” The class laughed, I could feel a tiny smile on my face, “Ok, ok, first of all, I am only going to be here as your substitute for this week and then I’ll be working... at a different place. Now I want to know you guys better so when I call out your name, just tell me a little about yourself.”

That was close, she almost said about working on the set as my teacher. So she called out names and people told her about themselves, then when she said, “Kristen Spier,” I got up slowly and didn’t have a clue of what I was going to say.

“Im’ Kristy,” I started, “I’m fourteen and I live with my mom, dad and my brother Mike. I’m ah...” I couldn’t go on. But thank goodness a knock on the door saved me. My shoulders dropped and I felt relaxed.

“Come in,” said Nancy, I mean Ms. Deuser. I didn’t know what to call her anymore.

“Sorry for interrupting,” it was Mr. Johnson, “But I would like to talk to Kristy Spier for a moment, please.”

“Of course,” she said looking at me.

I walked out the door facing Mr. Johnson, “Yes?” I asked.

“Kristy, I know that Ms. Deuser is going to be you new personal teacher soon, so I hope you don’t mind seeing her here to teach you already?”

“It’s ok,” I said smiling at him.

He smiled back and said, “One more thing, I just want to congratulate you on this wonderful new career of yours.”

“Thank you,” I said walking into class again.

“Bye then.” He called behind me with a very soft and gentle voice.

“Bye Mr. Johnson.”

The last week of school went fairly well. I did enjoy having Nancy around and Mr. Johnson was really sad when it was time for me to leave. Well at least I didn’t have to hear any more bad lies about me, so that was a relief. Greg, Nancy, Mom, and Dad have been busy discussing about how my schooling and filming will be. Then they came up with a schedule for me and this is what it looks like:

 

“So Nancy, how did you like my terrible friends?” I asked Nancy in one of my class hours. She and I had become really close and talked about practically everything that would be troubling us.

“I don’t know what to say,” she told me.

“I can’t believe that they wanted to be my friends again just because I’m an actress now!” I said with an angry look on my face.

“Kristy, don’t worry about all of that any more,” said Nancy comforting me as I got back to work on the computer, “I think that what you told them about how you were always there for them and stuff, is going to make them think for sure! I’m sure that once they see the movie they’ll understand how you felt about what they said afterwards. Now you have to work so get back to it.”

I got to work and I was done by three twenty, so Greg told me that we could start on my scenes. Making a movie is very hard. You could work on one scene all day to make it perfect, for all I know. The way it all works is also completed. When we start shooting at a place, we do all the scene that are to take place there. So for example, the scenes for school might take place when they hate me, I mean Ashley (my character) and the last week of school before being a star. They shoot all of those scenes at the same time so they don’t have to come back to it. Then when they edit and do other things for special effects, they put things together. Right now we are working on the scene were Ashley has a fight with her friends in the cafeteria.

Everybody works really hard, even the stunt people. (This movie doesn’t have many stunts though.)

As I walked to makeup, I spotted Stacey and Valerie standing by the trailers.

Oh great, what do they want now? I thought.

“Kristy, over here!” shouted Stacey waving merrily at me.

I walked over to them. “What are you two doing here, they don’t allow spectators around the set?”

“We came to see...you,” said Valerie forcing a smile.

“What do you want from me?” I asked them curiously.

“We thought about what you said and,” Stacey started, “We know how bad we have been. So we came to apologize and want you to be our fri...”

Before she could even finish the sentence I knew what she wanted to say, “You just don’t get a clue do you?” I sad furiously, “I don’t want to be your friend any more, ok. So just leave me alone and don’t bother to ask again.” With that I walked away to the make up trailer.

The nerve of, I thought as I walked into the trailer, Coming back for my friendship just because I am in a movie.

“Hi Kristy,” said Dorothy my makeup artist, “All set for you makeup?”

“Yeah,” I said glumly. I took my set in front of the mirror and looked at myself as Dorothy put makeup on me. I thought of what Greg saw in me that made him wanted to make me an actress. I couldn’t really find anything. When I was out of the trailer I came face-to-face with Nancy standing right outside.

“Kristy, I’ve been looking all over for you,” she said exhaustedly.

“What’s wrong Nancy?” I asked her.

“It’s your friends,” she said.

Oh great! I thought sighing deeply and rolling my eyes, “What do they want?”

“I’m not sure but they left this note for you,” she handed me an envelope.

I opened the envelope to find a letter written in lavender ink (my favorite color) that read:

Kristy,

We are really sorry for what we did. So please except our apology and let us be you friends again. Oh...then can we come and watch you act in person? Well, gotta go. Bye!

Signed

Stacey and friends.

“What does it say?” asked Nancy as I put the letter back in the envelope.

I gave her the letter and said, “They will never get it, I DON’T WANT TO BE THEIR FRIEND!” I said with greeted teeth.

“Oh my,” said Nancy after reading the letter, “You’re right, they will never get it.”

I felt like strangling them for what they did. Why couldn’t they just leave me alone? I didn’t concentrate much on shooting that day.

“Who is it?” I asked sleepily. I came in my trailer earlier to go through me script but before I knew it, I feel asleep. So that’s why I was talking sleepily.

“It’s me, Nancy,” said Nancy. I walked to the door and opened it.

“Hi!” she said coming into the trailer.

“Hi, what’s up?” I said rubbing my eyes.

“I just came in to check on you, and Greg said that we are done for the day.”

“Really,” I said startled, “But it’s only...two twenty,” I said looking at the watch on my wrist. It was kind of a shock because we were never done by 2:20pm.

“Yeah, I know. I think something came up, or maybe because it’s Saturday.”

I picked my script up and put it in my backpack, “I can’t find my cell phone,” I told her, “Have you seen it Nancy?”

“I think you left it at makeup, remember the call you made after lunch?”

“Oh, yeah!” I said remembering that I called Mom earlier, “Oh no, my parents aren’t right now and my limo driver is supposed to pick Mike at his friends’ house...now!” I said looking at my watch again, “How am I going to go home, then?”

“I’ll take you,” Nancy volunteered.

“Really, thanks a bunch! I’ll just go and get my phone, be right back.” I said running out the door. At makeup I found my cell phone. Well actually, Dorothy found it and she held it for me.

“Thanks Dorothy!” I shouted running back to my trailer.

“No problem,” Dorothy said behind me.

In front of my trailer Nancy was standing out with my backpack in her hand. When I approached her she handed me the bag and led the way to her car. Her car was the easiest to find because it was the only green beetle at the parking lot. When we were on the road Nancy kept staring outside with a really weird look on her face. She looked sad and angry, and at the same she looked like she was in a lot of pain. I wanted to ask her what was wrong but I just couldn’t. Finally, when I couldn’t take those weird looks any more I asked, “Nancy, is something wrong?”

“No, no,” she said in a quivering voice.

“Nancy,” I said in a serious tone of voice, “I can see it all over your face. Please let me what’s wrong, I might even be able to help.”

“Kristy, I...I don’t know how to say it to you,” Nancy was about to cry but stopped and looked angry again which made her look serious, “Do you remember the first day I met you?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“I think we should stop at the coffee shop, this might take a while.” Nancy said turning a corner at the stoplights.

At the coffee shop we ordered lattés and sat at a cozy table inside. Before Nancy said anything I called my parents to tell them what happened, where I was, when I would be home and whom I was with.

“So, where was I?” asked Nancy after I was done with calling.

“You were talking about the first time we met,” I reminded her.

“Right, when Greg told me about you and showed me where you were, did you see him walk to another man?”

“Yes,” I said remembering the first time I met her.

“He is my manager and...he just,” she stopped and took another sip of latté.

“What’s he just done?”

“He fired me!” she said angrily.

“What, why?” I asked her surprised.

“Because he thinks that I’m not doing a good job teaching you,”

“But your doing great, in fact you are the best teacher I ever had,”

“I wish he thought of me that way,” she said putting on a dirty look.

I took a sip of my latté and looked at Nancy very closely. She looked so sad and angry all at the same time. I felt like giving her a hug but at he same time I wanted to know more. Something about the way she was acting just didn’t feel right, as if she was hiding something from me.

“We should get going,” said Nancy looking at her watch, “Your brother will be home soon, I think.”

“Nancy,” I spoke up, “Are you hiding something from me?”

“What, what makes you think that?” she said getting up. I got up with her and we made our way to the exit.

“I mean, you look like you have something else to say.”

“I know you are trying to help Kristy, but this isn’t some little mystery that you can solve with just a few clues.”

“No, that’s not what I want to do, I just want to know why he fired you.” I informed her.

“I don’t know if I can tell you that,” she said with a weird look. By now we were getting in her car. Neither of us said anything for a while, and once we were seated in the car Nancy put on the radio.

“So Kristy,” she said forcing a smile on her face, “What’s your favorite kind of music, POP?”

I couldn’t help wondering why Nancy was hiding things from me, and why she was trying to change subjects? “Nancy why are you changing the subject?” I asked her looking a little cross.

“What,” she said with a painful smile, “I’m not hiding anything.”

“Oh come of it!” I said angrily, she was hiding something and I knew it.

Nancy took a deep breath and said, “Okay, you got me. See, years before I started this job Mr. Bailey, that man Greg was talking to, hired me to be a stunt person.” I nodded as she went on, “I had to do this stunt as a woman who falls from the roof of a school building. After I did that stunt Mr. Bailey told me to start getting ready for another one. So I went to the dressing room and found two army officers waiting for me.” At this point she dried a tear from her left eye, “You know what that means, don’t you?”

I nodded, “Yes, it means that someone di...” I stopped because I didn’t want her to start crying again.

“It’s okay,” she continued, “I was married at that time and there was a war at some country, so my husband went to fight there. The officers told me everything and I had to leave the job for a while so I could go to the funeral. Once I left, I was never allowed back because Mr. Bailey said that someone took my place, so I went to find a new job. That’s when I found the teaching job and Greg hired me.

“Five years later you came in and my job was a hit. Then, just yesterday Mr. Bailey says that I was supposed to come back for the stunt job after the funeral. I didn’t know any of this so I told him that I liked my new job and I wanted to keep it. But he didn’t listen and now he tells me that I have to do my old job or I can forget to do any job in filmmaking. I really like working on the set and stuff so I had to take the old job.”

“I’m really sorry to hear that Nancy,” I said as she was taking the turn to my street. I didn’t even realize that we had been talking for so long.

“Kristy do me a favor and pretend this didn’t even happen, okay?”

“Yeah, sure!” I said forcing a smile. I couldn’t just pretend that this didn’t happen, I just couldn’t, “Bye then,” I said walking out of the car.

“Bye Kristy,” she said to me smiling and pretending that all this just didn’t happen.

“Nancy...” I said leaning on the open window.

“Yes?” she said. I could see tears in her eyes so I tried to keep it simple.

“I’m really going to miss you,” I said finally, trying not to cry too.

“I’m going to miss you, too!” she said and started the engine, I walked away from the car and she drove off without a word.

With my head down and looking glum, I walked over to the front door. It was a Saturday and I knew that on Saturdays my parents are usually not home around two to three. I opened the door with the key I had. Inside looked very dark so I walked to the family room to open the shades. Just as I walked in a ton of people jumped up from everywhere. They jumped from behind the sofa, from under the coffee table, and from behind the curtains.

“SURPRISE!” they shouted. I turned as white as the wall.

What day is it? I asked myself Oh...it’s the sixth of January, oh my. It’s my birthday already? “Wow, this is wonderful!” I said, turning back to normal again. Everyone came over to me and started to give me hugs and kisses and wish me happy birthday. I could see my aunts and uncles and cousins, people from the crew of the movie I was in, some cast members, and lots of other relatives. Some, I couldn’t recognize and other who looked a little familiar.

When all the hugging was over, the doorbell rang, “I’ll get it!” I shouted over the crowd of people. I ran to open the door and found, Nancy!

“Nancy,” I said awed, “What are you doing here?”

“I thought today was a Kristy Spiers’ birthday?” she said laughing softly. I laughed with her and let her in. We walked to the family room and everybody said hi to Nancy. After a little while I pulled Nancy aside and talked to her.

“Nancy,” I began, “You brought me home so that everyone else could get here earlier and get things set, right?”

“Yup,” she answered, “And after that I had to hurry and come back here.” We laughed a little and she told me more about how the whole cast and crew was in this. “...so that’s why Greg let everyone take the day off.” She finished.

“So Nancy, what about Mr. Bailey and stuff?” I asked suddenly remembering the conversation we had earlier.

“Oh that,” she said smiling and laughing, “That was just to buy everyone some time so they could get things done faster. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I made that up. And thank god you bought it, other wise I would have come here too early.” We laughed some more. I was relived that it wasn’t true!

“So what did you think of my acting?” Nancy asked me a little later, she swept her fingers through her hair as she said so.

I laughed and said, “You were great, Nan...”

“Kristy!” I heard someone shout. From behind the walls that separated the family room from the dinning room, I was my mom coming towards us.

“Over here mom,” I said as she walked in the dinning room.

“Hey,” she said hugging me and smiling at Nancy, “It’s time to cut the cake!”

“Um...” I gave Nancy a glance and continued to talk to my mom, “Ok, lets go!”

Nancy followed us to the family room where everyone was laughing and drinking punch and talking to each other and having tons of fun.

“There she is,” I heard one of the guests say as I walked over to the table where the cake was placed. I smiled and continued walking.

“Attention everybody,” said Greg standing by the table, “Kristy is going to cut the cake now, so if you would all just settle down.” Everybody did.

“Thanks Greg,” I said picking up the knife.

Nancy lit the candle and some people took pictures of me.

“Make a wish,” she whispered to me after fourteen candles were lit and glowed

brightly on the star shaped cake.

I took a deep breath and wished, I wish that...um, the movie I’m in is going to be a huge hit and everybody is going to love me as a new actress! I blew my candles and to my surprise they all blew out at the same time.

“Well Kristy,” said Mom, “I guess your wish is going to come true.”

“How do you know?” asked Dad.

“Because all her candles blew out at the same time,”

“Wow,” I said, “Really? My wish is going to come true, then?” Mom nodded.

“Hey, what are we waiting for?” said Dorothy, “Lets have some cake.”

“Yeah!” everybody shouted. We all had cake and danced they night away. What I mean is that we all had a lot of fun and everyone went home happy.


 

The next morning I woke up in a room filled with wrapped presents. I got up and got dressed quickly. By the time I was done, it was almost ten so I ran downstairs for breakfast. In the kitchen Mom and Dad were sitting around the table having coffee. Mike wasn’t up yet so I walked over to the table.

“Good morning Kristy,” said Mom and Dad together.

“Morning,” I said sitting down and pouring myself a glass of milk, “I still haven’t unwrapped my presents.” I informed them remembering all the presents in my room.

“Oh, why don’t you bring them down in the den and you can open them when Mike is...” Dad stopped and tilted his head to look behind me.

“Is what?” said a sleepy voice behind us. I turned around and saw Mike rubbing his eyes and walking over to the cupboards.

“Squirt,” I said (That was his nickname I used whenever I just wanted to have fun with him. Though Mike doesn’t like it), “we were just talking about you,”

“I know, I just heard you say my name,” he said giving me a dirty look, “So what about me?”

“Kristy is going to open her presents in the den,” Mom filled him in, “And we were waiting for you to get up so we could get started.”

“Great, when do you start?” he asked me excitedly.

“I’ll go and get the presents from my room!” I said running up the stairs.

Fifteen minutes later all my presents were in the den and my family was sitting on the coach. “Ok, which one are you going to open first?” asked Mike.

I grabbed a big, blue wrapped box and said, “This one,”

For the next two hours I unwrapped about a hundred presents and by the time I was done, it was almost time for Mom to prepare lunch. By 1 p.m. we were done with lunch and it was time for me to take a short break before I had to go back to Stanford for more shooting. While I was resting, the doorbell rang and I went down stairs to answer it. Mike was at a Tyler’s house, and my parents were resting in their room.

I opened the door and found Stacey! And behind her were Valerie, Vanessa and Jessie.

“Hi!” they shouted walking inside. I couldn’t say anything because I was so shocked to see them.

“What are you all doing here?” I asked them with greeted teeth.

“We came over to say happy birthday to you,” said Jessie.

“But my birthday was yesterday,” I said with a wrinkled forehead.

“Oh,” they said frowning and putting they heads down.

“Oh?” I said, “What’s that supposed to mean? You didn’t know when my birthday was, did you?”

All four of them put their heads down looking glumly. I threw my hands in the air and said, “Wait here,” I ran up the stairs and started looking in my backpack. I found the letter they had written to me, grabbed it and ran back down the stairs.

“Here,” I said throwing the letter at Stacey angrily. It hit her right shoulder and fell to the floor by her feet.

“What’s this?” asked Stacey picking it up and looking like she didn’t know a thing about it.

“That,” I said, “Is the note you gave me the other day.” “But I didn’t give you any note,” said Stacey opening the envelope and starting to read it.

“But if you didn’t give me the note then...” I stopped before I could even finish the sentence because I had just thought of something. I frowned and thought very hard.

“Kristy, what is it?” asked Vanessa shaking me back to sense.

“Huh, I...I just thought of something,”

“What?” Valerie asked me.

But before I could say anything Stacey was done reading the note and looked up to me with a frown on her face. “Kristy I think I know who wrote this note,”

“I think I do too, maybe we should all sit down,” I told them.

So we walked up to my room and had some hot chocolate while we discussed things. Before we did anything I had to call Greg. So while the others were having hot chocolate in my room, I went to the kitchen and dialed his cell phone number.

“Hello?” he said at the other end.

“Hi Greg, it Kristy,” I said.

“Oh hi Kristy, what it is?”

“Um, are you still planning on shooting my scenes today?” I asked him feeling a little scared. Greg is very serious when it comes to shooting scenes and anything that has to do with the movie.

“Yes, of course,” he said a little louder then before, “We missed yesterday because of the party, so we can’t miss today. But why?”

“Well, um, I can’t tell you,”

“Ok, but you can’t afford to miss this shoot,” he said getting a little angry.

“I know I can’t but something really important kind of came up.” I said feeling guilty for all these excuses.

“Well I guess there won’t be any scenes with Maxine today,” he said glumly.

“I’m really sorry Greg, I’ll make it up and work extra hard tomorrow,” I told him.

“Yeah, well bye.” He hung up before I could even say bye to him.

I put the receiver down and walked up stairs to my room.

“So, what did you want to discuss about?” asked Jessie as I sat down on my chair by my desk.

“It’s about our break up,” I said.

“What about it?” asked Stacey.

“Well, before you guys said those things about me did anyone say anything to you?”

“Yes, but how did you know?” Stacey asked surprised.

“I kind of figured it out,” I said, “But what I want to know is what she said to you,”

“How did you know it was a she?” asked Vanessa awed.

“I...I, well I kind of thought it was Nancy,”

“You know?” they shouted together.

“Isn’t she Ms. Dueser, and your personal teacher?” asked Valerie.

I nodded, “I figured that if you didn’t give me the note then it had to be her. She was the one who gave me the note write after you came to visit me on the set the other day.” I said to Stacey and Valerie.

“But I don’t understand, why would she want to break our friendship?” asked Jessie.

“I don’t know, but I want to find out fast before things get worse. I still want to know what she said to you.” I told them.

“While you were still at home that day,” said Valerie, “She came with that director Mr. Brewer. Since we always get to school earlier than you do we saw them and found out who they were. Then when you came to school Mr. Brewer saw you and I think that was when he decided to make you a movie star. I don’t know what happened next but while you weren’t around us Nancy came to us. I don’t think she likes you so she told us to think of all the bad think that happened to us because of you. I don’t mean to hurt you Kristy but that was what she said. At first we couldn’t think of anything, then she said things about you, like being a teachers’ pet and always being smart and things like that.”

“Yeah and she told us to tell the principle when he was going to teach us in science class because Mrs. Fullerstein wasn’t there,” said Jessie, “We couldn’t understand what she was talking about at all. But somehow something inside us made us mad and we went to the...”

“Girls’ bathroom to come up with a plan, I know Ms. Liberty told me,” I finished for her and added the Ms. Liberty part.

Jessie nodded and continued, “Um, after that we kind of got suspicious and thought of why she wanted us to tell Mr. Johnson and why.”

“Aha,” came in Vanessa, “And we even tried to think of away to tell Mr. Johnson. At lunch, before you came in we told all the kids in our science class about the plan. Then in science we told Mr. Johnson,”

“Wait a minute,” I interrupted, something came to me again, “Nancy told you to tell Mr. Johnson that day, right?” they nodded, “How did she know that Mr. Johnson would be teaching us in science that day, and that Mrs. Fullerstein wasn’t going to be there?”

They all looked at each other and looked very suspicious.

“Your right Kristy,” said Stacey.

“Oh c’mon guys,” said Vanessa, “Lets not jump into conclusions, yet, maybe she found out from Mr. Johnson.”

“But Mr. Johnson said that Mrs. Fullerstein went to the store after lunch,” said Stacey.

“That’s right,” said Valerie, “This is just too weird guys!”

“Wait, wait,” I said jumping off my chair and walking around my room, “What if she was the one who caused the car accident. I mean, you guys just said that she doesn’t like me so that means that she was the one who did this to make Greg not like me, so that Greg wouldn’t want me in the movie! But why doesn’t she want me in the movie?” just then a knock on my door stopped all the suspicion. “Come in,” I said sitting down again.

My mom poked her head in and looked weirdly at the others, “Kristy, what are you doing home, I thought you had to get to the set half an hour ago?”

“Yes mom,” I said, “But I called Greg and told him that I couldn’t make it. I told him that something came up,” I said looking down at my friends (It all came to me that the break up wasn’t exactly their fault).

Mom looked at them and said, “Oh, ok then. Your dad and I are going out for a while, is it ok with you?”

“Yeah,” I said. Mom nodded and walked out the door. I turned back to my friends and said, “So where was I?”

“You were thinking of reason for why Nancy doesn’t like you,” answered Jessie.

“Right,” I continued, “I think that she had something to do with Mrs. Fullerstein’s accident, and that’s how she knew that Mr. Johnson was going to teach us that day.”

“So you’re saying that she made the accident happen and knew that only Mr. Johnson was going to be able to take over the class, and that it was her plan for us so we could tell Mr. Johnson about you?” asked Stacey.

I nodded and took a sip of my hot chocolate. “But the big question is why she doesn’t like me and I’m going to find today.”

“But how can you?” asked Valerie, “You’re not at the set today,”

“Yeah,” I said with a nasty grin on my face, “But just because I’m not on the set doesn’t mean that Nancy isn’t going to teach me. You see if I don’t make it to the set then Nancy has to come over to my house.”

“Oh!” said my friends.

“But Kristy,” said Vanessa looking concerned, “Do you think it’s ok for her to come here will your parents aren’t home? I mean she doesn’t like you, you know?”

I looked at her and thought of how nice it was of her to worry about me, she didn’t like me just a few days ago and now she was worried about me. “It’s no problem, I’ll just call her and tell her what time she can come over.”

They nodded. Jessie looked at the watch on my wall and gasped.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“I’m going to be late for a important family meeting if I don’t get home soon!” she said grabbing her coat from the floor and running to the door, “Bye guys!” she shouted running down the stairs.

“Bye,” we said from my room.

“I think we should be going too,” said Valerie and Vanessa standing up and putting on their coats.

“Ok, bye then,” I said to them.

“Bye,” they said as the left Stacey and I alone in my room. Suddenly everything was really quite, all that could be herd was our breathing. And all we did was smile at each other.

“So, Stacey,” I said (it felt a little weird calling her that again), “Do you want some milk and cookies?”

She smiled at me and said, “Yeah, I’d like that,”

I smiled back and I knew from then that our friendship was back.

So the two of us walked to the kitchen and had some milk and cookies. Then we went to the den and watched TV till my parents came home and it was time for my classes with Nancy.

It felt really good to have Stacey back as my friend again. Things were back to normal except for the actress part but at least I had my friends back, and that meant more to me than acting in a movie and being famous.

 

After dinner, Dad had to get to work because of some important case he was dealing with so he was the first one to finish dinner. When the rest of us were done Mom told me to call Nancy so I could get started with my studying. I quickly washed the dishes and called Stacey first. I told her to call Valerie, Jessie and Vanessa, I explained to her what she had to do and then I called Nancy to come over and within ten minutes she was standing at the door ringing the bell. I opened the door and let her in. We went straight to my room and got to work.

By nine I was almost done. I looked at my door and saw four pairs of feet outside.

This is it! I said to myself. I decided to ask her some questions. I slowly put my pencil down and turned to her, “Nancy can I ask you something?”

She looked surprisingly at me and nodded.

“Remember the day you and Greg came to my school so Greg could talk Mr. Johnson about a new idea for a movie?” I asked her looking calm so she wouldn’t suspect anything.

“How did you know that I was there with Greg?” she said looking a little suspicious.

“My friends told me,” I told her folding my arms and leaning back on my chair, “And they also said that you made them tell Mr. Johnson about me being the teachers pet and the teachers always favoring me.”

Nancy eyebrows rose and she closed the book she was reading.

I took a deep breath and continued, “You know what else? I think you caused Mrs. Fullersterin’s accident because you knew that if she didn’t come back to school after lunch that day then Mr. Johnson would be the only person to take over her class, so that it would be the perfect time for my friends to tell him about me, I also know that you wrote that note and made it look like my friends wrote it. And if Greg heard about all those things happening to me, he wouldn’t want me in the movie. I even know that you don’t like me. Am I right about all this?”

Nancy slowly lowed her head without saying anything.

“Am I right?” I repeated.

“Yes, yes!” she exploded with tears running down her checks like a flood, “You’re right Kristy. I caused the accident, I broke up your friendship with those pathetic girls, and I told your friends to tell Mr. Johnson about you. I am the one who did all of that and I wrote the note, I don’t like you at all! But my plan didn’t work because Greg just didn’t care. He wanted you so badly in the movie that he didn’t care how hurt you were that day.”

“But why don’t you like, I didn’t do anything to you?” I said. I was still mad at her for doing all those things just to get me out of the movie business.

“What do you mean you didn’t do anything to me,” she said angrily, “Before Greg decided what to do about the new movie, I was a movie star too. Just like you are except I was a side actress, which means that I would have smaller parts in a movie. But after you came along I was thrown out because he liked you better. Now I have to be your stupid teacher! I tried so many things to make you quit the filmmaking business but you didn’t budge. If you hadn’t come along then I would still be acting today.”

I looked at her sadly and for some strange reason I could feel her pain. I felt guilty for saying all this, but she did do all those incidents. “Nancy I’m really sorry for budging in and I didn’t mean to do so. But what you did was wrong and I can’t forgive you for that,”

“I don’t care what you think of me but I just don’t know what the police will do if the find out that I was the one who caused that accident,”

“But how did you do it?” I asked her wanting to know how some one can cause an accident.

She gave me a dirty look and said, “In the morning she told Mr. Johnson that she was going to go to the store after lunch to buy your class some treats because you guys were so well behaved. She also told him that if she was a little late he should take over her science class. So I went to her car and loosened her breaks. She crashed at the first stop light and I was watching her as she bumped into a big tree by the park.”

I just looked at her in amazement and thought of how cruel it was of Nancy to do such a thing like that.

“Nancy, I’m sorry to say this but your jig is up,” I told her just as my friends entered my room with a tape recorder in Valerie’s hand. This was the plan I had told Stacey when I made the call before calling Nancy.

“What is this?” asked Nancy getting up from her chair.

“We have every single thing you said on tape,” Valerie said waving the tape recorder at her.

“Why, you little brats!” she shouted, so loudly that my parents and Mike came bursting in my room.

“What’s going on?” asked Dad walking in. He looked awed at my friends and then at Nancy.

“Mr. and Mrs. Spier,” started Nancy, “I don’t what this girls are do...”

“Oh come on Nancy,” I said giving Valerie an eye-to-eye sign, she nodded and understood exactly what I meant.

“Mr. Spier, Mrs. Spier, Mike, I think you should listen to this,” said Valerie pressing the play button on the tape recorder. Everyone listened very carefully. After my parents heard everything Nancy had said to me, they just looked at her with a dirty look. Nancy forced a smiled and looked like she was innocent. But it was too late. Dad grabbed my phone by from the table by my bad and called Greg. He told him to come over to our house and bring the police. While we waited for them to get here everyone waited in the living room, none of us was brave enough to say anything. Fifteen minutes later the doorbell ran. I got up and walked to the foyer and opened the door.

“Hi Kristy your Dad told me come here with the police, what’s wrong?” Greg said all this very fast and walked in with three police officers at his heels. He walked straight into the living room, ignoring me completely.

“Hi Greg,” I said while he was still walking into the living room, “Come in!” I shock my head and followed them into the living.

“Hi Mr. Spier, what’s the matter?” Greg asked Dad.

Dad pointed at Nancy and said, “She is the matter!”

“What do you mean?” asked Greg looking at Nancy.

Mom picked up the tape recorder and played it for Greg and the police officers. After they listened very carefully Greg looked madly at Nancy, “Nancy, how could you? I trusted you with all my life and this is what you do? This is just too much, officers please, just take her away!”

“Greg, no, no, I didn’t mean to, Greg please don’t do this,” shouted Nancy as she was being bragged out the door by the officers. As she was pushed into the police car, she shouted loudly, “Nooooooooo!” The car started and the driver drove off with Nancy still screaming inside.

Greg turned to my parents, “I am so sorry about this, I didn’t even know that she was like this.”

“You should be more careful when you decide whom to work,” I told him as we all headed inside. He nodded and followed us inside.

Mom made some coffee for Greg, Dad and herself and ovaltine for the rest of us. We all sat in the den and I told them how I had figured Nancy did all this. My friends also told their side of the story but before long it was getting late so my friends had to leave. Greg volunteered to drop them of on his way home.

 

“And the award for the best movie goes to...Stabbed by my friends!” announced Jim Carey. Applauses filled the air in the huge auditorium as Greg walked up to the stage and took the trophy from Jim Carey.

He walked over to the microphone and spoke clearly, “Wow, I don’t know what to say?” he began, “Well, I would like to thank everyone in the movie and say that they all did a fabulous job. There is one person I would like to thank in person and that is the new actress, Kristy Spier.” Applauses filled the room again. I blushed slightly and smiled at Greg. Hillary Duff was sitting next to me and she smiled at me, “Kristy helped me find out things in life that I never even thought of. She showed me that sometimes the people you trust the most can turn out to be your worst enemy, so this trophy is for you Kristy!” more applause. Greg walked of the stage as I watched parts of the movie I was in play on a big screen on the stage.

That night as I lay in bed, I thought of all the things that happened while we were shooting the movie. I gave up quickly and thought how things were now. I had my friends back and I was an actress, a real actress. Nancy was in jail because she caused those things and my first movie was a big hit. I guess sometimes your birthday wish can come true. This is the story of how I became famous!

 

The End !

Bonna Khondakar, Age 14, August - 2002, Minnesota USA