Hello everyone! This is a book I am writing, I hope to get it published someday... PLEASE READ IT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!! I do not yet know what the title should be. I hope you enjoy! ~Abrielle Lindsay
Chapter One
Meeting
I am far from
popular. In fact if you put each kid in my class, from popular to non-popular,
I would be on the bottom.
My name is Carla
Jane. I am in the 5th grade. I live in North Carolina. My mother is
a very famous book writer, her name is Izabella Napier. My father, Nate Napier,
is a well known baker around the world. My three
older sisters, Jessica, Marissa, and Alex, are all married. Jessica is an
actress, very famous, Marissa, a firefighter, and Alex a singer. All famous.
Well, all except me.
Beth on the other
hand would be on top of the popular list. She’s smart, wise, kind, helpful,
funny, and extremely calm (even when crazy, coo-coo head boys are around).
She moved here a
couple of weeks ago. I know, the most popular girl, in a couple of weeks? Yah,
she jumps onto things.
We NEVER would have
met if it hadn’t been for my parents and Ms. Watts, our
teacher.
“As you all know, we
had a writing contest. And you all know even more that Beth Keball won. We will
do a play now! The play is Beth’s story. And since, after all, it is her story; she will decide who will
be who, including herself. Beth will give out the ‘who is who’ list Wednesday.”
Ms. Watts beamed.
I thought, ‘Please,
please, please let me be a ‘more’ popular person in the play.’
“At the same time,”
Ms. Watts continued. “We will give out lines.”
“Oh how I hope I get
a good part!” I thought I said to
myself. I was in my dad’s bakery.
“What Carly?” my dad
propped his head up with his hands on the counter. “What’d you say?”
I spilled the story.
My dad understands everything.
“So you want a good part so you aren’t on the bottom of
this popular list.” my dad started putting flour in a bowl.
“Correct. Any
suggestions?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope. But the Keballs’
are coming for dinner tonight so you’ll get to know Beth more.” my dad was now
kneading the dough.
“I thought Jess,
Caleb, and baby Clarissa were coming for dinner.” I looked hard at my dad.
“You think your mom
would cancel dinner with her daughter that is all over America and invite
someone else over?” Dad’s eyes
sparkled.
“No,” I smiled.
“Of course not,
silly.”
“I wonder where Jess has been this time.” My voice trailed off. Jessica
is an actress. I got that straight. She travels all over America. Serious. She even has her own website for crying
out loud! Her husband, Caleb doesn’t even have to work! He watches the toddler
Clarissa a LOT.
“Since this dough has to rise, we’ll take it home. I’ll begin to close
up, but if there are more customers, you know.” I love it when my dad puts me
in charge!
Just as Dad walked to the back, a girl from my class walked in.
“Hey Harper,” I said.
She nodded.
Quickly she said, “Mother wants me to get two loaves of bread, twelve
muffins, and two cupcakes.”
“Ummm, what kind?” I asked.
“Banana, blueberry, chocolate.” Harper can turn silent as fast as she
can talk. Which, by the way, is pretty fast.
I got all that she ordered and stuck them in their bags.
“That’ll be $11, Harper.”
She counted out the money, real fast.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. She readjusted her hat and went back out the
door.
“Who came, Carly?” Dad asked right after the door closed. He was ready
to go.
“Harper. Her mom sent her to get banana bread, blueberry muffins, and
cupcakes. The grand total of $11.” I beamed.
“Good job!” Dad ruffled my hair.
“Mama! There’s gonna’ be a play at school!” I rushed in the house. It
was 4:45. The house smelled, like, nothing. Mama was probably writing the book
she is sure to be a big hit. It’s about a little girl, I think her name is
Sienna. Anyway, she lives in this place called Java (maybe Indonesia?) and she
get separated from her family and that’s
all I know.
“Sorry,” Mama’s fiery red curls bounced as she came down the stairs,
three at a time. “I got sidetracked. Jess is bringing the main course, Rose is
bringing desserts, and I’m doing veggies and fruit. Home-?”
“Work?” I finished Mama’s sentence. “None! But there is going to be a
play!”
“She wants a ‘good’ part.” Dad mouthed.
“Oh,” Mama mouthed back. “Carly, go get some play clothes on.” Mama,
this time, said.
“Ok,” I charged up the stairs (four at a time).
Ok, my room is totally me. A
mess. I try to clean up, yeah, I really do! But when you have this puppy,
that’s pretty messy, it doesn’t help.
And, ok I admit, sometimes I just, well, I just leave it (sometimes). By the
way, did I mention that I am in love with
zebra stripes?? My wall is, no, not covered with black and white stripes, but
BRIGHT pink with circles filled with black and white stripes. Too cut, right?
My mirror has tons, literally, tons of picture so I know how to do
allkinds of things with my hair. Books cover 1/4 of the floor (I have
bookshelves, but they’re ALL full!), furniture covers 1/2 the room, go figure,
there is 1/8 of the actual floor, and
1/8 is covered with bright purple
rugs. (I love bright colors, can you
tell?)
“Titi, look what you did!” Apparently I didn’t sound very disapproving.
Titi was jumping all over me, like, ‘Aren’t you proud of meee?!’ “I gotta’ change, Titi.” I shut the door.
¨
“Carla Jane! Jess is here!” Mama called.
I must’ve fallen asleep. My long, black curls were in a heap on my bed,
while I was sitting on the floor, my
back against the bed.
“C’mon, Titi.” I flew out the door.
“Hey Jess! Hi Caleb! Hello
Clarissa.”
Clarissa smiled real big. Well, at least someone enjoyed me!
“Hey Carla Jane! What’s new?” Jess smiled.
“Nothin’ much, except for a
play we’re going to have at school. Will you come??” Surely my sister would
come! She’s an actress for crying out loud!
“When is it?”
How silly of me! Why didn’t I ask Ms. Watts? Oh yeah, BECAUSE I DON’T
EVER SAY ANYTHING!!
“I, uhhh, errr, don’t know.”
“Ahh, tell me as soon as you find out, and I’ll try to make it.”
Yes!! My thoughts were sooo happy! Normally, when Jessica said ‘try’ it
meant, no matter what, she would do it.
“Iz?” Dad was looking out the window. I went over there. “Is the
Keballs’ car tan?”
“Yeah, Dad. That’s their car.”
“Hi! C’mon in!” Dad smiled at the Keballs’ as they walked through the
door. “I’m Nate. This is my wife, Izabella, our oldest, Jessica, her husband,
Caleb, their child, Clarissa, and our youngest, Carla Jane. Can you give me
yours?” Dad smiled even bigger.
“I’m Logan, my wife, Rose, our 2 10th grade boys, Andrew and Drew,
they’re twins, and our youngest,
Elizabeth, but likes to go by Beth.”
Everyone squeezed in a few his and hellos here and there.
Andrew and Drew were the tallest teens I had ever seen! Just makes me wonder how tall Beth will be…
“Carla, why don’t you take Beth to your room?” Mama said, her look was
‘take-her’, it wasn’t something I had a choice for.
“C’mon Beth.”
She smiled and followed.
“You like zebra stripes and bright colors too??” Beth asked as she
walked in my room.
“Yeah, they’re my favorite.” I replied.
“Carla Jane, could you help me decide who would be perfect for each part
in the play?”
I wanted to jump up and down saying, ‘Duhh!’ But I couldn’t so I just
said, “Sure Beth.”
She pulled out a printed copy of her story’s characters, and then a list
of the kids in our class.
“Harper, I think, would be perfect for that girl who is always wearing a
too-big Jersey and a baseball cap. Don’t you?”
“Harper fits Sam’s personality perfectly!” Beth quickly wrote down
Harper’s name next to Sam’s.
I had read Beth’s story 1 gazillion times, but just now did I notice
that there were exactly 18 kids in
the class that she wrote about and there are exactly 18 in our class! Plus, get this, 10 girls and 8 boys, just
like our class!
“Beth?”
“Yes?” She lifted her head.
“Is your story based on our class?”
“Yes,” She spoke sooo boldly.
“That’s awesome!” I smiled.
“Carla Jane! Beth! Time for dinner!”
“C’mon!” I said, half way across the room (since there’s not a ton of room)
“So, what’s this about a play, Carla?” Caleb asked at dinner.
“Beth here wrote a story that won and now Ms. Watts says we are going to
have a play, based on the story!” I said, extremely excited.
“Beth?!” Andrew and Drew said at the same time. It was pretty funny. I
mean, I knew they were twins, but I didn’t know they talked OR did the same
thing AT THE SAME TIME! But I didn’t laugh; that might be mean.
But Mr. and Mrs. Keball sure did.
“Yes, boys. We’ll tell you more when we get back to our place.” Mrs.
Keball said.
“So that leaves you and me.” Beth said. Since it was Friday, I invited
Beth to stay overnight.
“Bethany seems more like you. And Jana like me.” Now that I knew the story
was based on our class, I realized that (this is just too cool) Jana (me) is the main character!!
“Yes, that’s who you are. Get it,
Carla Jane, Jana?” she smiled.
“Carla, Beth, time for bed.” Mama stepped in from the doorway.
I yawned. “Ok, Mama.” I climbed in my bed. My stomach was half too excited
and half too scared. This was my first
sleepover (I mean, I have slept at my families’ homes, but does that even
count?). We had a sleeping bag for Beth.
“Oh, it so cute! I love it! Right after zebra stripes, its polka dots.”
Beth sighed, deeply. While I crinkled my nose.
“It was Alex’s, but she’s gone
and doesn’t want to take it with her, where ever she is. I don’t like polka
dots. Zebra stripes are me, totally.” I replied.
The rest of the Keballs had left awhile ago. I could just see the question marks still coming out of the teens’ heads.
“Have you ever been out of America, Beth?” I asked.
“Yes, I have actually. My dad went on a mission trip last summer. And
took me along. We went somewhere in Indonesia. It was totally AWESOME! I would
go again if I could.” Beth sighed, looking off in space.
“Did you learn any of the language?” A (actually, only) friend out of
the country, too cool.
“Yep, I learned ‘Selemat Pagi’ which
means ‘Good Morning’, I learned ‘makan’,
‘food’. Nasi Goreng is my favorite. That’s delicious fried rice. Yum…”
“That’s so cool, Beth!” I replied.
“Good night girls.” Mama went out of my room.
“Good night, Beth.”
"Good night, Carla Jane."
