Teen Idol Read Free

kisser with, like, excellent suckage.
    Oh, and that on Sunday mornings, he frequently bakes apple crumble.
    I love apple crumble. Geri Lynn, though, won’t eat it. She says Scott uses like a whole stick of butter just in the crust and that she can practically feel her arteries hardening just
looking
at it.
    Since Geri was already mad at Scott for having agreed to do what she considered such a stupid story in the first place, the fact that he assigned it to Kwang just made her madder.
    "For God’s sake," Geri said. "It was Jen’s idea. Why don’t you let Jen write it? Why are you always stealing Jen’s ideas and giving them to other people?"
    I felt a wave of panic, and shot Scott a look.
    But he was totally calm as he said, "Jen’s too busy with the layout."
    "How do you know?" Geri snarled. "Did you ever bother to ask her?"
    I went, "Geri, it’s all right. I’m happy with my position on the staff."
    Geri snorted like she couldn’t believe me. "Puhlease."
    I couldn’t say what I wanted to, which is that doing layout is fine by me. That’s because I do a lot more for the paper than just that.
    Only no one’s supposed to know that. Well, no one but Scott, anyway, and Mr. Shea and a few school administrators.
    Because one of the other things that had happened on that retreat over the summer was that Mr. Shea had approached me and asked if I’d be willing to take on one of the most sought-after—and secretive—positions on the staff . . . one that for years has traditionally only been held by a senior, but which Mr. Shea felt I was uniquely qualified for, even though I’m only a junior. . . .
    And I’d said yes.

Ask Annie
    Ask Annie your most complex interpersonal relationship questions.
    Go on, we dare you!
    All letters to Annie are subject to publication in the Clayton High School
Register
.
    Names and e-mail addresses of correspondents guaranteed confidential.
    Dear Annie,
    Help! I’m in love with a boy who doesn’t know I’m alive. Of course, he has actually never met me, seeing as he lives 2,000 miles away and works in the entertainment business. Still, when I see him on the big screen, and gaze into his blue eyes, I know that we are soul-mates. I am not sure how much longer I can go without him. But I don’t have enough money to buy a plane ticket to L.A., nor do I have anywhere to stay when I get there. Please help me figure out a way for me to meet my love before he leaves for New Zealand, where he’ll be filming his next movie
.
    Crushed
    Dear Crushed,
    There is a fine line between celebrity worship and stalking, and you sound ready to cross it. Surrender the fantasy and start concentrating on what’s important – finishing school and getting into college
.
    Besides, you are clearly talking about Luke Striker, and I hear he is still heartbroken over the whole thing with Angelique Tremaine. So get over it
.
    Annie

T WO
    A ctually, I wasn't
too surprised when Mr. Shea asked me if I’d be the
Register's
new Annie. That’s because for my whole life, people have always come to me with their problems. I don’t know why. I mean, it’s not like I
want
to hear about Geri Lynn and Scott’s love life.
    But seemingly since birth I've been cursed with being everybody’s confidante. Seriously. I used to think I was a weirdo magnet or something, because it seemed like I could never go anywhere without random strangers coming up to me, telling me all about themselves, like about their hammer collection or their sick ferret or whatever.
    But it isn’t just random strangers, it turns out.
Everybody
does it. Trina was the first one to put her finger on why. It was her twelfth birthday, and Trina decided to have her birthday party at the Zoom Floom, this giant water slide over in Ellis County. Only on the day of the party, I got my period. Since I was scared of tampons (when you’re twelve, those things can be scary. And it wasn’t like I had figured out yet to buy the special teen ones—"Petal soft and