Free The Steps by Rachel Cohn Page A

things.
    â€œWhat’s your mum like?” Lucy asked after another spell of silence.
    That was hard to answer. Before that call from Hawaii, Angelina had been one of my favorite people in the whole world. Now I wanted to shut her out of my mind. I was running away so I wouldn’t have to think about the wedding, about Harvey, Wheaties, or another half sibling. And I especially didn’t want to think about moving in with those people. I liked living with Bubbe.
    I pulled a picture of Angelina out of my backpack and handed it to Lucy. It was one of Angelina’s head shots, which is a black-and-white photo with a listing of her acting credits on the back that she has to give to casting agents and producers to get acting parts.
    â€œWOW!” Lucy said. “Your mum’s an actress. She was on Days of Our Lives! We have that show here! Mum doesn’t let me watch it.”
    â€œShe was on Days of Our Lives for like a day,” I mumbled. Angelina had two lines on one episode—“Help, Doctor, my boyfriend’s been attacked!” and “Oh, God, he can’t be dead!”—and then she screamed in glistening, white-toothed splendor. That was when Angelina had spent a month in Los Angeles for pilot season. She hadn’t gotten any acting roles on new TV shows (the pilots), but she did get three commercials.
    â€œAnd she was in Home Alone Two!” Lucy exclaimed.
    â€œShe was an extra,” I groaned.
    â€œShe’s beautiful!” Lucy said. “Her hair is so straight and long. The brown color is so shiny. That’s probably why she’s gotten all these hair commercials. She has a face like a doll’s. You have the same shaped eyes as her. Angelina Waverly. What a great name.” Lucy pronounced “great” like “graayate.” She sounded exactly like Penny.
    â€œSounds better than Amy Finkelstein,” I added. Angelina’s birth name.
    â€œShe must be terribly rich from all those acting jobs. She must know loads of famous people.”
    â€œHardly,” I said. “She does okay. But mostly it’s Bubbe’s money. Bubbe pays for my private school. Bubbe paid for me to come here.”
    â€œWhat’s she like, your mum?” Lucy was leaning into me. I could tell she was really curious about my other family.
    I said, “EXCEPT for the fact that she is marrying Wheaties’ dad, EXCEPT for the fact that she is having a baby without asking me first, EXCEPT for the fact that she thinks I am moving in with those people, Angelina is pretty cool, for a mom. She likes to go down to Greenwich Village to get coffee and yummy desserts, or to Soho to go shopping and to look at funky art. Our favorite place is the Cloisters, this really cool medieval museum uptown. She lets me pick her clothes for her auditions and her parties. We read together every night. We just finished this gothic romance called Rebecca. It was about this mousy lady who married this rich guy who she thought was still obsessed with his first wife. And the first wife’s housekeeper at this ancient old mansion was really ticked off about the second wife and spooked the second wife practically to death. Angelina is hysterical to read with. She plays all the parts and makes these really funny faces and does great strange accents.” I sighed. “Lately, though, she hasn’t been around as much. She’s been going away for lots of weekends with Wheaties’ dad. And look what that’s come to!”
    Lucy said, “That’s how Angus and I knew something serious was going on with our mum. When she extended her vacation to America by two extra weeks. We were staying with our Granny Nell. When Mum came back from America, she was like in this glowing other world. It was sickening almost! And she was engaged to your dad! Angus and I were sooooo mad.”
    â€œBut you got Jack!” I protested.
    â€œI know,” Lucy said. “But we