Free The Encyclopedia of Me by Karen Rivers Page B

I heard her pounding down the stairs to tell Dad. I have no idea why she didn’t tell him first. It’s really HIS dream come true, not mine. My dreams don’t feature Lex and Seb looking into the camera with fake serious looks. Ugh.
    I picked up the phone, pressed Freddie Blue’s number, and listened to it ring. Her voice mail came on, and I didn’t leave a message. I called back again. And again. Finally, she answered.
    â€œOh, hey,” she said.
    â€œWhy didn’t you answer?” I said. “I have some news.”
    â€œDo you?” she said. “Can you hang on? I’m on the other line.”
    â€œNo!” I said, but she’d already cut over. I listened to the silence for about ten seconds before I hung up. I lay back down on the Itchy Couch. It itched. I glared at Hortense and tapped her with my foot. She purred.
    â€œI’m not being nice,” I told her. “I’m in a terrible mood.” I stared out the window. The sky was so blue, it was insulting to my grumpiness. I could see the roof of Kai’s house. Kai. I sighed.
    KAI.
    Wait!
    Freddie Blue NEVER puts me on hold. We have a deal! We wouldn’t put each other on hold! UNLESS!
    Unless we were talking to a boy!
    I got up and ran to the window, as though I’d be able to see Kai talking on the phone (if he was). All I could see was reflections in the glass.
    â€œArgh,” I said, and kicked the wall. What if he saw the list? What if he had called her to confirm? 59
    Kai and Freddie Blue. What if they were RIGHT NOW talking about their mutual like for each other? What if they were Liking each other on Facebook? What if they were IN LOVE?
    I mean, sure, she could have been talking to someone else. But I couldn’t overcome the thought. It was like the thought was a hungry seagull and I was a tiny crab trapped on an expanse of sand. And just like that, my silly crush on Kai was swallowed by a noisy, annoying seabird.
    I stomped up to my room and flung the door open, like there might be someone in there who cared. Of course there wasn’t. AND my bed was in completely the wrong place.
    â€œIDIOTS!” I shouted, in case my brothers Dumb and Dumber were somewhere where they might hear me. I lay down and waited for FB to call back. It wasn’t until I really started to think about the photo shoot, though, that I realized something.
    The problem with the whole
Everybody
thing wasn’t going to be me. It was going to be
Seb
.
    Because photo shoots involve cameras.
    It was going to be a huge FAIL. Because when Seb says, “No more pictures,” he isn’t going to change his mind. At least, I doubt it. He once changed his mind about something. ONCE. 60
    Mom would be crushed! Dad would be destroyed! And I would never be famous! So the whole thing would be filed, once again, under
S
, for “Seb Didn’t Want To So We Didn’t.”
    I laughed out loud.
    â€œDREAD,” I shouted, not that anyone was listening. “DREAAAAAD.”
    See also
Aaron-Martin, Sebastian (Seb); Autism; Celebrities.

Fame
    The lofty position celebrities enjoy, i.e., being stared at in Starbucks and photographed in unattractive sweatpants. People who are in
Everybody
magazine are either already famous or they gain fame just by being in the magazine. 61
    When Freddie Blue finally called me back, I told her about the photo shoot, and then I said, “So if I get famous, will you still be my friend?”
    Then there was this long silence. I knew she was there because I could hear her breathing. I laughed. “Freddie Blue, seriously! Answer!”
    She sighed. “I guess,” she said.
    And that was it. Just like that. “I guess.”
    My heart fell into my stomach. I could practically feel it disintegrating in the acid. My stomach gurgled.
    â€œWhat?” I said. “I was kidding, FB. We aren’t going to be famous, except maybe at school for five minutes, because people