Free Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci Page B

try not to let on that I am one of those girls.
    My heart sinks as I realize that Saba Greer is a bitch. I listen to her mouth off about her fan base for a while longer, and then I just stop listening to her altogether. She’s an awful person. She’s no hero.
    “Who are you?” Saba Greer says, eyeing me suspiciously. “You’re not an Egg freak, too, are you?”
    “No, this is Ursula Denton’s daughter, Victoria — right?” Lark says.
    “Yes. Victoria,” I say.
    Saba Greer sticks her hand out to shake mine. I take her hand. Her grip is weak. Her hand is freezing cold and her skin is clammy. She is everything that Egg is not. I guess that’s why they call it “acting.”
    “Pleased to meet you,” she says. But she’s not pleased at all. She’s already looking behind me to see who else is here.
    Wanda comes over to join us.
    “Lark, Saba Greer. I see you’ve met our best intern and your biggest fan, Victoria.”
    Saba Greer and Lark shake their heads yes, that they have met me and I imagine probably immediately forgotten me.
    “Well, we’re going to start in about five minutes, so we should probably head inside,” Wanda says.
    “I’ll help Eduardo break down,” I say. They leave me standing there in the open air with my heart breaking. I look over at my mom’s full glass of wine and down the whole thing in one gulp.
    Then I notice a tray of full wineglasses that has been left on a table. I go over and take two glasses and down those as well. Then I take two more and wander off to behind a palm tree to drink in peace.

“How much wine did you have?” Mom says, standing in my doorway. She’s yelling too loudly. My mouth feels like a cotton ball. My head is splitting right down the middle. This is my first hangover.
    “Don’t talk so loudly,” I say.
    “Excuse me?” Mom says.
    “Please,”
I beg. I am actually begging my mom.
    “Is this how you are going to behave at the
Nemesis
reception at the museum?”
    “No,” I say. “Please talk quietly. In fact, please don’t talk at all.”
    “I give you so much freedom and this is what you do?” Mom says. “I didn’t think that you would become a drunk.”
    Now she is making me angry. She is being dramatic, as usual.
    “I’m not a drunk. I never get drunk.”
    “Except last night.”
    “Saba Greer was a bitch. She was a horrible, horrible
bitch.
”
    “Well, Saba Greer is playing Athena in the movie with me, and since you’ll be coming with me to Greece this summer before you go to college, you’d better get used to her being a bitch.”
    “Maybe I’ll have other plans for the summer,” I say. “I’ll be a high-school graduate and can make my own goddamned decisions about where I’ll be this summer. I might not go to college right away. I might not even go at all. I’ll be independent, and I would like to consider all the choices open to me.”
    Mom doesn’t have an answer for that. She just slams the bedroom door shut.
    I am so glad it’s Saturday and not a school day.
    I make my way to the bathroom and take some aspirin and drink lots of water. If I cared, I would notice that I look like hell.
    I slide in front of my computer and log on to the
Terminal Earth
site. There are ten new postings all about the party at the Cinematheque last night. They all say that Saba Greer was the nicest, most sincere, most loving person ever and that she had complimented all of their Egg costumes.
    That seals it. Saba Greer really
is
a good actress.
    I follow a thread on the message board that asks the question, “Any chance Saba Greer is gay?” I’m tempted to reveal that I know she is dating Lark Austin, but I resist.

“Well?” Rue is gooning at me, as always, trying to bond with me. “How was Saba Greer?”
    “I thought you’d be swinging off the roof today,” Martin says.
    “It was so special,” I lie.
    I don’t want them to laugh at me for worshiping someone who sucks.
    Martin puts his arm around Rue’s waist. It’s so tender