Free Reality Check by Jen Calonita Page A

things too, like TV specials.”
    My head is spinning. Wardrobe, salary, DVDs, TV specials, photo shoots. This offer just keeps getting better. “Um, maybe you could find my parents a coffee cart or something?” I ask.
    Bruce nods. “We'll set them up in the green room. They'll love it. You can retrieve them afterward.”
    “Thank you.” I breathe a sigh of relief. I get the feeling it will be a lot easier spilling my high school horror stories and the other embarrassing moments I assume they're looking for if Mom and Dad aren't listening.
    “Charlie, I'll check back later with the other girls,” Addison tells me, listening to a message on her phone at the same time. “Keiran is with the lawyer, but all of you should be finished by four o'clock and then you can walk around the city or do whatever you want before dinner.”
    “Okay.” Kayla walks over and blots my face with powder and then adds a swipe of lipstick. I wonder if they'll be doing my makeup all the time.
    “Are you ready, Charlie?” asks Bruce a few seconds later. He has a headset on and is clutching a clipboard with what looks like pages of notes.
    I step onto the platform and make myself comfortable in the chair, wincing when they turn on a bright light.
    “Try not to think about the camera,” says Phil.
    “Even though it's right in my face—oops.” I can't help glancing at a huge camera on a rolling tripod that is inches from me.
    “Exactly,” Phil says as if it's the easiest thing in the world. “By the end of the first week, you won't even notice them.”
    “If you say so.” The heat from the light is already making me sweat.
    “Just stay focused on me and forget the camera is even there.” Anthony's voice is soothing. “Are you ready for the questions?”
    “I think so,” I tell him as my palms begin to sweat. Everyone is here to interview
me
. I'm usually the one doing the interviewing.
    “We'll start off easy; how did you get the nickname Charlie?”
    “My real name is Charlotte, which I can't stand.” I stare at the crease in his forehead to keep from looking at anything else around me. “It sounds so formal. I wanted my parents to change my name for a while to anything other than Charlotte. Charlene even, but they wouldn't budge. Brooke calls me Char sometimes, but I don't love it.” Was that okay to say? Too late now. “Not that I mind it too much. Then my friend Hallie started calling me Charlie Girl in tenth grade and then it was shortened to Charlie and it just sort of stuck. I like Charlie.”
    “Let's talk about your friends,” Anthony says, reading off a sheet. “Would you say you're very close?”
    That question is easy. “Definitely. They're my best friends.”
    “Who are you closest with?” he asks without looking up.
    I pause. I wasn't expecting that question.
    “It's okay, Charlie, it's just us,” Bruce says, reading my mind.
    “I guess Keiran,” I say slowly. “We've known each other the longest.”
    “How do the others feel about you being closest to Keiran?”
    “I don't know,” I admit. “We've never really talked about it, but if something major happens, I probably call Keiran first.”
    “How does Brooke feel about that?” Anthony asks. “Would you say it bothers her to be out of the loop?”
    Umm… I feel like I'm on a witness stand all of a sudden. I'm sweating and now I know it's not just the lights. It's like Bruce knows the answer he's going to get before I even say it. How does he know these things? Have the girls been blabbing in their interviews?
    The next few questions go the same way: “Would you call yourself the group leader? Do you think the others like you to be one? What makes you leader material? Would you say Brooke is difficult? Would you call yourself a perfectionist? Do you think you're better than your friends sometimes? How many boyfriends have you had? What did your friends think of them? What's your biggest fear? Describe your friends’ best traits and biggest