Is Bridgeport big enough for Kae, Robyn, Alex and Jasmine? They're all beautiful, captivating, and a little bit crazy... but there can be only one It Girl.
[ Based on the It Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar ]
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A cold, gray rain splattered against the huge plate glass windows of the art studio. Instead of focusing on the enormous sheet of newsprint sprawled on the desk in front of her, Kae found herself thinking about the love scene from The Notebook where Ryan Gosling practically devoured Rachel McAdams in the pouring rain. Of course, if she had her way, it would be sexy junior Chris Brown devouring her. Sexy junior Chris Brown—who just happened to be her boyfriend.
Last week, Mrs. Silver had invited Kae, Chris, and Zendaya to join her Wednesday afternoon Human Figure Drawing elective. She'd pulled them aside after their portraiture class and with a proud voice and a glint in her eyes said, "You are my stars." By joining the Human Figure Drawing class, she'd reasoned, they'd be able to get a better understanding of the body and enhance their already-impressive talents. Kae had been thrilled. It was totally flattering to be taken aside after only a few weeks of class and told that she was talented. And the thought of getting to spend a little extra time with Chris didn't hurt, either.
When she arrived at the studio after lunch, Kae took a seat near the door. In the center of the room was a large platform about a foot off the ground with a single chair on it. The desks were arranged around the platform in a semicircle. Her eyes scanned the class, hoping for a glimpse of Chris's adorable head of curly hair. She recognized a few people. Durk Banks, the senior from Chicago that the girls were always whispering about, a brown-skinned girl from her field hockey team, a girl she and Brett had taken to calling the Girl in Black. Finally she spotted Chris way over by the supply closets. He'd been staring at her while she scoped out the class and gave her a little wave, making her heart flutter. Not that it wasn't already fluttering.
When Kae wasn't daydreaming out the rainy window, she found the two-hour class to be wonderfully challenging. Every five minutes Mrs. Silver asked a different student to go up and pose as directed. Fully clothed, of course, so it really wasn't anything to be embarrassed about, although Kae didn't like the idea of the whole class drawing her. Luckily, she wasn't called up. But Chris was. Mrs. Silver had him sit in the chair and tie his shoes, and Kae couldn't help thinking how much better her drawing would be if he had his shirt off. Before class ended, Mrs. Silver circled the room and selected the very best sketches of the day (Chris's, French Boy's, and Girl in Black's) for Friday's student gallery show, which not so accidentally coincided with Bridgeport's Trustee Weekend.
By the time the students were dismissed, the wind had picked up and it looked like an all-out monsoon outside. Good thing she was wearing her rain boots with their funky, multicolored floral design. Cute, yes—but functional, too. She'd read in a magazine that it was helpful to the psyche to wear something bright and colorful on dreary, wet days. Kae had taken the advice to heart and used it as an excuse to buy the rubber boots and an adorable red trench coat that she'd found online. It was a kids size and a little tight around the chest, but wearing it made her feel like smiling.
Not that she needed another reason.
Kae stood up and removed the straps of her schoolbag from the back of her chair. "Drop something?" she heard a low voice behind her say as something poked her gently in the back. She whirled around, and there was Chris, brandishing her pink umbrella like a fencing sword.
