Free Star Time by Patricia Reilly Giff Page B

Farelli.
    “Of course,” Gina said, too. She stepped a little bit in front of Destiny. She wanted to be sure the actress saw her. She looped up Grandma Maroni’s pearls.
    Destiny gave her a push. “You’re taking up my airspace.”
    Gina pushed back.
    “Hey!” Destiny yelled. “No pushing at the Zigzag School.” She grabbed her sparkly purse away from Gina.
    Gina tried to grab it back.
    What would the used-to-be-famous Madam Ballantine think of a girl with a hippo-bird on her shirt? Or a rhino?
    Mrs. Farelli came toward them. “Outside,” she said. “Both of you.”
    They followed Mrs. Farelli into the hall.
Everyone must be staring
, Gina thought. She looked down at her sneakers.
    “This is a fine kettle of fish,” Mrs. Farellisaid. “What must Madam Ballantine think?”
    “Sorry,” Gina said.
    “Sorry,” Destiny said, too.
    “Sit out here for a while,” Mrs. Farelli said. “Get your act together.”
    Mrs. Farelli disappeared back into the auditorium.
    Gina and Destiny slid down against the wall. They watched a bunch of kids go inside.
    Four girls said they were going to be stars.
    Four boys said they were going to be robots.
    “How long do you think we have to sit here?” Gina asked.
    “Maybe for the rest of the afternoon,” Destiny said.
    “But what about the actress?” Gina hoped she wasn’t going to cry like a hyena.
    This afternoon wasn’t turning out very well.
    Not very well at all.

CHAPTER 3
TOO BAD—IT’S STILL FRIDAY
    O utside, Gina could hear the
slap-slap
of a jump rope.
    Inside, she heard voices. “SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS SPACESHIP!” someone shouted.
    That was Mitchell.
    “He must be reading part of the play,” Destiny said.
    “A nice loud voice,” Madam Ballantine said.
    Gina peered through the crack in the door. “Do you think Mrs. Farelli forgot about us?”
    The gym door opened.
    Mrs. Farelli came out. She kept going down the hall.
    A moment later, she was gone.
    “Maybe she’s going home,” Destiny said. “I guess we’ll be here all night.”
    “With nothing to eat?” Gina asked. Her mother would be sad. Mom wanted her to have good healthy food.
    “Maybe they turn off the heat at night,” Destiny said. “We may freeze.”
    Gina held on to Grandma Maroni’s pearls. She could see blocks of ice in the hall. Icicles on the ceiling!

    “There’s something worse,” Destiny said. “Today is Friday. We may be here for the whole weekend.”
    Gina opened her mouth. A sound came out.
    “Are you going to cry like a hyena?” Destiny asked.
    Gina snapped her mouth shut. The hyena was trapped inside her throat.
    In the auditorium, Mitchell was yelling again. “WATCH OUT! THE SPACESHIP IS GOING TO CRASH!”
    “Bloop. Bloop. Bloop,” said Peter.
    “Wow,” said Madam Ballantine.
    “I guess that’s the spaceship crashing.” Destiny stood up. “I’m going in there.”
    “You can’t do that,” Gina said.
    “Mrs. Farelli wouldn’t want us to freeze to death. I think she just forgot about us.” Destiny banged open the auditorium door.
    She went inside.

    Gina thought about going inside, too. But suppose Mrs. Farelli came back?
    She put her head against the wall.
    Tonight her mother was making turkey with stuffing.
    No dinner for her.
    And bedtime was nine o’clock.
    Would she still be here? Sleeping on the hall floor like a frozen ant?
    “I WILL SAVE YOU,” someone said in a loud voice.
    Thank goodness
, Gina thought. Then she realized. It was Destiny. She was trying to be the star.
    Poor Grandma Maroni. Poor Aunt Suki and Uncle Tony. Poor meat man at Stop & Shop. What would they think if they heard Gina wasn’t a star?
    She yanked on the pearls.
    Snap!

    They flew all over the place.
    The hyena was escaping from her throat. She couldn’t stop it.
    She began to cry.
    Someone opened the auditorium door. It was Clifton, a kindergarten kid. “You sound like a—” he began.
    Gina gulped. She hoped he wouldn’t say
hyena
.
    He didn’t. “You sound