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- Herausgeber: Little Tiger Press
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Serie: The Switch Up
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
WILLAFilm directorLA insiderImpulsiveLooks like AliceALICEEco warriorLA touristCautiousLooks like WillaAlice can't wait to visit Willa in LA – home of Hollywood, where dreams come true. Their plan is to explore the city and see the sights, but then Willa gets the opportunity to work on the film project of her dreams and she can't say no! The only problem is she is absolutely 100% supposed to be taking part in a beach clean-up. Which, now she thinks of it, sounds pretty perfect for Alice... Can the girls really swap lives again? Cue plotting, outfit swapping and award-winning performances. But everyone knows that real life is nothing like the movies…The second instalment in THE SWITCH UP series and the perfect read for fans of GEEK GIRL and SUPER AWKWARD.
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For Mike and Rich, with love
Contents
WILLA
Everything was perfect.
The lighting – natural Californian sunlight streaming between the buildings, illuminating my set. The setting – a quintessential all-American high school in Los Angeles, on the last day of term before spring break. The cast – giggling quietly just off camera, waiting for their big moment. The music – all queued up and ready to burst out of the speakers the instant I gave the signal. The camera angles – my friend Matty behind one camera, ready to get the static shots, and me darting in and out of the action with my trusty mini-camera, getting the really interesting views.
This was going to be phenomenal.
I’d been planning this day for months now, more or less since my second week at school here in LA. I wanted to create an event, the sort people would be talking about all through spring break, and beyond. I wanted to get noticed, in a way that my fledgling YouTube channel just hadn’t achieved yet. When 2Matty and I had been paired to work together on a small project at Film Club, we’d realized our styles melded well. Which was why I’d asked him to help me … and suddenly everything had come together.
There’d been a lot more to it, of course. People to persuade, rehearsals to schedule, blocking and planning and costumes and make-up … but finally we were there.
Today was the day I was going to make a real impression on my little corner of LA. Today, St Saviour’s High School; tomorrow, the movie studios! Or, at least, some recognition.
“In five, four, three,” I whispered into the mic linked to my assistant’s earpiece. She watched me carefully from over where the cast were waiting as I held up two fingers, then one, then gave her the nod.
The music blasted out from the front steps of the school and over the grass verges, loud enough to be heard all the way to the far end of the car park. Students passing by looked up, some confused, some smiling. On the beat, my first few dancers emerged from their hiding places, their coordinated costumes and moves spectacular in the sunlight. With a quick glance to check that Matty was capturing the action in a wide shot, I darted into the dance to get the 3close-up shots.
We’d rehearsed this to the second and everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do. As the beat changed, five students who’d seemingly just been hanging around the steps suddenly jumped up and started jiving, fast and furious, to the music.
It was just as I’d planned it. Right down to the cartwheels over the cars parked by the main hall, and the dancing on the edges of the concrete planters. I spun around in the middle of it all, catching the carefully coordinated chaos on film. Around us, people were laughing, clapping, cheering – even joining in. It was everything I’d dreamed it would be.
Right up until the moment I saw Principal Carter stalking across the grass towards me.
ALICE
Everything was horrible.
OK, fine, not everything, not all the time. But right now, as I hid in the girls’ toilets at school, waiting for everyone else to leave, things felt pretty horrible.
I wasn’t supposed to be in the girls’ toilets. I was supposed to be at Climate Change Club, in the science classrooms. But it was the last day of the spring term, and no one else had even bothered to show up. Not that many people had shown up most of the other weeks this term either. Some days it was just me and Miss Morris, the teacher who ran the group.
This week, even Miss Morris had gone home early.
I always watched the climate protests on the telly, saw teenage activists across the world speaking on social media, yet I couldn’t even get my school to change the name of the club to Climate Crisis Club. News reporters told me that my generation were fired up about climate change but apparently ‘my 5generation’ didn’t go to Bollingsdale High School.
At my old school, we had recycling drives and designed awareness posters and no one got in too much trouble for skipping school to attend the march in central London. I went with Dad and his girlfriend, Mabel, and the whole day was incredible – being surrounded by people who cared about the same things I did.
Basically the opposite of my new school.
When Dad and I moved from Cambridge to London in January, I tried to think of it as an adventure. I was happy that he’d got a new job at the university where Mabel worked. But living in Mabel’s tiny flat until we found a new home, taking the Tube to school every day instead of riding my bike, and sleeping with the noise of London outside my window took a lot of adjusting to. And then there was school.
Bollingsdale was a good school – great reputation, outstanding inspection reports, higher than average exam results. Dad never stopped telling me how lucky we were that I was able to get in there. And I was sure it was a good school for lots of people.
Just not for me.
I didn’t fit in there. I didn’t want to be there – and 6from what I could tell, the other students didn’t want me there either. Everyone already had their group of friends – I mean, they’d had fourteen or fifteen years to sort that out.
I tried to go to an after-school club most days, because that meant leaving later than everyone else. To be precise, it meant leaving later than Cassidy, Mollie and Jana, the three girls in my year who seemed to get a peculiar joy out of making me miserable.
“Alice?”
My name echoed around the empty room and I smiled. OK, fine, maybe there was one person in the whole school who didn’t mind me being there.
“Hal, you are definitely not allowed in the girls’ toilets,” I told him as I unlocked the cubicle door.
He was standing in the doorway, waiting for me. “I’m not in. I’m hovering on the boundary. Plus you’re hiding and I want to get home, so come on!”
Hal spent last summer helping my best friend Willa pretend to be me (long story) and they became pretty good friends. I think she must have told him to keep an eye out for me because ever since I started at Bollingsdale, he’d checked in on me most days. He had his own friends but he still made time 7for me, walking me to and from the Tube station nearest our school. I appreciated that a lot. Willa said he had a crush on me, but I didn’t believe her.
Grabbing my bag, I followed him out and we headed for the Tube together.
“When do you leave for LA?” he asked as we walked along the busy London pavements.
“Tomorrow morning.” I had my bags packed, my passport and paperwork triple-checked, and a book already picked out for the plane.
“Are you excited?”
“Very.” This time tomorrow I’d be almost there – in fact, by LA time, I would be there! I’d be in Hollywood, with Willa, a world away from Bollingsdale. Me and my best friend, relaxing in the sunshine and having fun for two whole weeks. I couldn’t wait.
“Just don’t let her talk you into anything crazy this time, yeah?” Hal joked.
I laughed. “I think we used up all our craziness last summer! We’ll probably just go to the beach and stuff.”
Which was true. But I couldn’t stop a small part of me hoping there might be a touch of Willa’s unique mayhem about my trip. Because I couldn’t 8deny that last summer had been fun. And I hadn’t had a lot of fun lately. I thought about how, if I had been pretending to be Willa, Bollingsdale wouldn’t be nearly so bad. Willa wouldn’t care what other people thought about her. And when I’d been Willa last summer, I’d had some of that magic confidence too.
Maybe hanging out with her for a fortnight would help me find it again.
WILLA
So it turns out that school is school, wherever you are.
When my mum’s contract got extended, and she told me we’d be staying in California for at least a year, I thought that going to school in LA would be the best. I mean, I’d be living and studying in Hollywood. I’d be starting September as a ‘freshman’ in high school. I’d seen the teen TV dramas, not to mention the reality shows. Finally I’d be living and learning somewhere that got me, Willa Andrews, star in the making. This was the place where all my dreams of becoming a famous director (who perhaps starred in her own films) would come true.
Except apparently, when you organize a student flash mob to perform near the car park and one or two cars get a little dinged, and the presentations the tenth-grade students were being tested on get a tiny bit disturbed, nobody praises your directorial ability… 10
No, instead I just got hauled to the principal’s office. Which felt exactly the same as being dragged into the headteacher’s office back at home.
My mum sat statue-like beside me as we waited for Principal Carter to pass judgement. She’d already had a long talk with him while I kicked my heels outside, waiting my turn. I could predict exactly what he was going to say – the same as all my other annoyed headteachers.
We’d already done the ‘very disappointed, not the behaviour we expect from a St Saviour’s student’ spiel. He’d thrown in an ‘appreciate you’re still adjusting to a new country as well as a new school, and it’s good that you’re making friends and joining in’, which I thought was nice. Unfortunately it was followed by a ‘but behaviour of this nature cannot go unpunished, especially when the grades of other students are involved.’
So now we were just waiting to find out exactly what that punishment was.
Great.
I could almost hear Alice’s voice in my head, telling me that I should have planned it better. If I’d only held the flash mob after school, or somewhere else. But that would have missed the point. It had 11to be at school, and during school hours, or no one would have seen it – and what good would that be?
I might not be a planner like Alice, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have an end goal in mind. I’d joined the Film Club as soon as I started at St Saviour’s, but I was a freshman, and just showing up every week and sharing my YouTube posts wasn’t enough to get the older students to take notice. I wanted more. And I saw my chance: the Senior Film Class short film project. Last year, the film the class made had actually won awards and got some buzz. Everyone who worked on it got into film school and I wasn’t willing to wait another two years to get that kind of experience. I wanted to do it now. This year, the hot ticket project was being directed by Fran Levine, the coolest senior in the school, who was already tipped as the Next Big Thing in local indie film circles. This was absolutely meant to be.
And working with Matty had given me the opportunity. I wanted him to put in a word for me. “Show me what you can do first,” he’d said.
So I’d shown him.
See? I had a plan. I just had to get through whatever punishment Principal Carter dreamed up for me first. 12
Across the desk, he steepled his fingers and rested them against his lips. He was a big guy in a perfectly cut grey suit and, normally, I liked him. He sometimes played basketball and soccer with the students after school and showed up for every performance of the Glee Club, even joining in with a deep harmony now and then. I had a sneaking suspicion that, had it not been for the interruption of the oral presentations, he’d have loved my flash mob.
“Willa, over this spring break, what I would like is for you to work on thinking about others before you act.” His dark brown eyes were serious. “So, I’ve had a discussion with your mother and we’ve come up with the following plan. This spring break, you’re going to spend at least four hours every weekday volunteering at the Shore Thing Project. It’s a charity venture the school is involved with.”
“Sure thing?”
Mum shook her head. “The Shore Thing,” she repeated, as if I could tell the difference in spelling from her pronunciation (which I couldn’t). “It’s run by my friend Darla down at Santa Monica Bay. They’re working on cleaning up the shoreline around LA, and educating school children, locals and tourists on the importance of looking after our seas.” 13
“The future of our planet is in all our hands,” Principal Carter continued, “and people like the volunteers at the Shore Thing Project are really trying to take charge. A lot of our students are already involved as part of their environmental science studies, and Darla has agreed to let you volunteer there during the two-week break. I think it will be a real learning experience for you.”
“Sounds … great.” Actually, it sounded incredibly boring. Or like something Alice would love. Or both.
Wait. Alice.
“Do I have to do it over spring break?” I asked, sitting up straight in my chair for the first time since the meeting started. “I mean, I get that it’s really important, that I need to make amends, and think of others and all that … but could I start thinking about others after spring break?”
Principal Carter barely hid his smile at that. “Willa, this is what your mother and I have agreed, to avoid a suspension on your permanent record.”
“Right. It’s just … I have a friend visiting from England for spring break. I haven’t seen her since last summer!”
“Alice’s dad is a marine biologist,” Mum reminded 14me. “I’m sure she’ll love spending some time at the Shore Thing too.”
“Fine.” I slumped back in my chair. “I’ll spend my spring break counting seahorses or whatever.”
“Learning to think about others,” Principal Carter corrected me. “And how we’re all equally important parts of the larger world around us. Even seahorses.”
Mum got to her feet, shaking Principal Carter’s hand. I followed her out of the office to the car. The rest of the school had already broken up and the car park was almost deserted.
Yeah, so I now had to spend forty hours volunteering at some seaside thing but I reckoned it was worth it for the footage I’d got. Tomorrow Alice would arrive, and I knew we’d still manage to have fun. Everything would be fine.
Mum gave me the silent treatment as I climbed into the car. From past experience, I figured that would probably wear off in time for her to read me the riot act over dinner. For now, I just enjoyed the peace.
My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. It was a message from Matty.
Got you in on the project! Fran says we start filming Monday – it will be every day over spring break, except15weekends. I’ ll swing by tomorrow and fill you in on the details. You owe me!
My eyes widened. Matty had come through for me! Everything I’d worked on so hard for weeks and weeks had been worth it – I’d be the only freshman involved with the best Senior Film Class project! That made even my punishment worthwhile.
Wait.
I re-read Matty’s message. Filming was over spring break. Exactly when I was supposed to be volunteering at the Shore Thing project and showing Alice the LA sights.
Even I couldn’t be in three places at once.
Could I?
ALICE
Heathrow airport was exactly as I remembered it from last summer. I just wished I still felt like the girl I’d been then, full of hope and confidence after spending a summer in Italy pretending to be Willa.
Right now, I felt every bit Alice again. Anxious, small and unsure.
Waiting in line to check in, while Dad located the Unaccompanied Minors person from the airline, I pulled my passport, ticket, journal and phone out of my bag one last time.
“I wouldn’t imagine they’d have disappeared in the three minutes since you last checked them,” Mabel commented, with a gentle smile.
I shoved my things back down again, feeling a blush hit my cheeks.
I liked my dad’s girlfriend. I hadn’t expected to, but I did. Maybe it was because I’d spent all of last summer avoiding her, only to find that she was just as nervous about meeting me as I was her. It helped that Willa had liked her too. 17
“I bet you’re excited to see Willa again,” Mabel said, obviously trying to find something to take my mind off my nerves.
“Yeah.” I was. In fact, the invitation from Willa’s mum to spend spring break with them was pretty much the only thing that had got me through the last term at school.
Maybe spending time with Willa would help me find that Alice again. The one who took risks. The Alice who had made good friends and learned a lot. I’d like to bring that Alice back to London when school started again.
“You must tell her all about your new school, and the house-hunting,” Mabel went on. From the edge in her voice I could tell she was just talking for the sake of it, filling the silences. “And make sure she knows it’s her turn to visit us next! I hope she can come in the summer, for the wedding.”
Of course. The wedding. Dad and Mabel were getting married.
Woohoo.
No, I was being unfair. Dad and Mabel were happy together, and that made me happy too. Honestly.
Dad hurried back with a smiling woman in 18uniform. “Alice, this is Marta. She’s going to look after you until you reach LA.”
“Hi, Marta.” I gave her a tentative smile.
“Don’t you worry about anything, Alice,” she said, beaming back at me. “I’ll take very good care of you until you reach your friends in California.”
I turned to Dad and Mabel to say my goodbyes. Suddenly there was a huge lump in my throat I hadn’t expected. I wanted to go to LA and see Willa but I hated saying goodbye.
Dad hugged me tight then stepped back, holding on to my arms as he dipped his head so our noses were level. “Now, we’ll call every night, yes?”
I nodded fiercely.
“And you absolutely won’t swap places with a random stranger on your flight, right?” Marta looked a little alarmed at Dad’s joke, but it made me smile.
“Not this time,” I promised.
He let go and Mabel moved in to hug me goodbye. “Don’t let Hollywood change you,” she teased.
Dad joined the hug, and I felt enveloped in their love. “Too right,” he said. “We love you just the way you are, Starfish.” 19
I gave them a shaky smile and a wave as Marta led me away to the Unaccompanied Minors lounge.
Don’t let Hollywood change you.
That was exactly what I wanted to happen. I wanted to come home from LA a different Alice. One who could fit in at school and stop hiding out in the toilets or the library. One who wouldn’t lie in bed worrying. One who would fight for what mattered to her, even if it didn’t matter to anyone else.
And now the goodbyes were out of the way, my excitement was starting to build again. A buzz, deep in my stomach, that was growing with my smile as I thought about two weeks in LA with Willa.
I checked my passport and ticket one last time. Still there.
I was ready. 20
WILLA: Why are all schools awful?
HAL: Hmm, YOU hate all schools, all schools find YOU difficult… If only there was a common denominator…
WILLA: Not helping.
HAL: No, just being hilarious.
WILLA: Amusing to an audience of one.
HAL: So what happened?
WILLA: Nobody appreciated my BRILLIANT flash-mob performance and now I have to volunteer every single day over spring break.
HAL: Ah. Is it up on YouTube?
WILLA: Check later tonight. You’re going to love it.
HAL: I’m sure I will. Is Alice there yet? 21
WILLA: Arriving this afternoon. She doesn’t know yet about the whole volunteering thing. But it’s for some coastline conservation charity, so she’ll probably love it.
HAL: That’s good. She’s finding it kind of hard here in London. I think she’s looking forward to getting away.
WILLA: Hard how?
HAL: You know. Fitting in and stuff. She’s kind of … quiet too.
WILLA : She’s always quiet.
HAL: Not this sort of quiet. Just … look after her, yeah?
WILLA: Of course! Whatever’s wrong, I can fix it. She’s probably just stressing about her dad and Mabel’s wedding or something.
HAL: Yeah, probably. So what else have you got planned for her visit, apart from 22volunteering?
WILLA: Funny you should ask. How do you think Alice would feel about another of my brilliant plans…?
WILLA
Because Alice was travelling as an unaccompanied minor, Mum had needed a letter from Alice’s dad to say she was authorized to pick her up. I’d hoped it would mean we could meet her straight off the plane, but because she was travelling internationally we had to wait until after customs and immigration.
I practically fizzed with excitement as we zoomed through the airport. When we got to the spot where we expected her to appear, I jammed the chauffeur’s hat I’d picked up at a costume store on my head and held up the sign I’d made with Alice’s name on it. I hadn’t seen her for almost nine months, and I was desperate for her to just get here already.
Would she have changed much? I mean, we’d texted and emailed and kept up on social media plenty but she hardly ever posted photos of herself. Would we even look alike any more? That was the one thing that had brought us together. It was hard to imagine her looking different to me now. I strained to spot her in the crowds coming through 24to the arrivals hall, mentally discounting people as they passed. Too old, too young, too blond, too short…
And then I saw her. Same long brown hair as me, same slim figure I remembered, her shoulders slightly hunched and her eyes tired.
But it was Alice.
I pushed through the tide of people to reach her and her face lit up, the tiredness I’d seen in her fading away. We hugged tightly, while Mum dealt with the Unaccompanied Minors person who’d brought Alice through.
“I can’t believe you’re really here!” I placed my cap on her head and she laughed.
“Neither can I! After last summer, I never thought my dad would let me on a plane again.”
“It took some persuasion,” Mum said drily. “But I promised to keep a close eye on the pair of you.”
“I promised my dad and Mabel I’d be on my absolute best ever behaviour while I was here,” Alice said fervently.
“Glad to hear it,” Mum replied. “Now, come on. Let’s find your bag and get you home.”
Home, as I explained to Alice in the car, wasn’t exactly ours.
“When we realized we were going to be staying 25in LA longer than planned, Mum started house-hunting. Then Mum’s friend Harrison said we could use his place, because he’d be over in London for the next twelve months anyway, starring in some musical in the West End.”
“That was kind of him,” Alice said.
“Very kind,” Mum murmured from the driver’s seat.
You see, Harrison’s house wasn’t just a house. It was a mansion. Loads bigger than our place back home in Cheshire, and located in one of the priciest areas in LA. The Brentwood house had six bedrooms, a pool, a huge garden and a den that was basically just mine. Dad had his own room when he came out to visit and my bedroom had two double beds in it.
My favourite bit about the house though was the patio by the pool, where there were loungers and sofas with big, soft cushions, a chest full of blankets for warming up after a dip, and even a fireplace for cooler evenings.
I’d considered telling Alice all about this before she arrived, but decided it would be more fun to see her face when she realized where she’d be staying.
“So, what do you have planned for while I’m 26here?” Alice asked. “I was reading up about all the sights on the plane. There’s so much I want to do!”
Mum gave me a meaningful look in the rear-view mirror. I knew what it meant. It meant ‘you have to tell Alice about the Shore Thing volunteering’.
And I absolutely would. Later.
“OK, so, we have to go shopping, obviously. And you have to see Hollywood Boulevard and its stars. And the beach! We’re totally doing Santa Monica beach, repeatedly.” Especially since we’d be right there volunteering anyway.
“Sounds fantastic,” Alice said, smiling. Meanwhile, Mum’s eyes narrowed further in the mirror. Really, she should have been watching the road, not me.
Mum turned off San Vicente Boulevard and on to our street. Alice’s eyes widened as the houses we drove past grew bigger and bigger, until Mum pulled in at the gates to Harrison’s mansion. Leaning out of the window, she punched the code into the security pad, and the gates swung open automatically.
“You’re staying here?” Alice gasped. I was right: totally blown away.
“Yep.” I grinned. “Welcome to your best holiday ever!”
ALICE
Willa’s new house was, basically, a palace.
Climbing slowly out of the car, I attempted to take in the sheer size of the building. It was two storeys, but with red-tile roofs at different heights above the white walls, wrought iron balconies and arched terraces. It looked like it belonged on a Mediterranean hillside, down to the potted olive trees outside the front door.
Once we’d unloaded my suitcase, Willa’s mum took the car round to the garage at the side, and Willa and I lugged my stuff up the two shallow steps to the terrace and the front door. I could smell something sweet and citrusy on the breeze and, when I looked around, saw actual orange trees growing in the garden.
“This place is incredible,” I whispered to Willa.
“It’s pretty awesome,” she agreed, grinning. “And you haven’t even seen the pool yet!”
Dumping my case at the bottom of a sweeping staircase, Willa led me straight through the 28immaculate lounge (also painted white, with white-tile floors and huge, squidgy-looking white sofas with azure blue cushions) and out to the back terrace.
The pool, shimmering blue in the afternoon sun, was fabulous. Kicking off my trainers and socks, I dipped my toe into the water; just warm enough for swimming. Perfect.
Already that small buzz of excitement I’d felt leaving London had grown until it seemed to fill me. I was here, in LA, in a mansion, ready for the best holiday of my life. It was almost unbelievable – except for the part where it was really happening.
Willa had disappeared by the time I turned round, but after a little searching I found her fetching drinks from a small bar set up on the pool terrace. She handed me a can of lemonade and we settled on to the oversized beanbag chairs, with a great view over the pool and to the mountains beyond.
“I feel like I’m in a different world,” I admitted.
“You kind of are.” Willa flashed me a grin. “I mean, I love London, but LA is something else, right? So, what’s the news from home? Any gossip?”
I shook my head. “Not really. New school is, well, school. Having Hal there helps though.” 29
Willa raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Not like that. He’s a friend, that’s all. Um, Dad and Mabel are embarrassingly happy together, and constantly dragging me house-hunting. Oh, they’re hoping you can come over for the wedding this summer, by the way.”
Willa sat up straighter. “Definitely! I always love an excuse to go dress shopping. Plus, you know, I feel kind of responsible for their happily ever after.”
“How do you work that one out?”
“Well, if I hadn’t been such an awesome house guest pretending to be you last summer, Mabel might have been put off step-mumming for life, and then they’d never have even got engaged!”
I didn’t point out that that had been the actual plan. Willa had a way of making the facts fit her own version of reality.
“What about here?” I asked. “How’s your new school?”
I knew Willa had been hoping it would be some sort of a school for film stars, but as far as I could tell from her messages and emails it was just an ordinary school. Or at least, as ordinary as schools got in LA.
Willa drained the rest of her can, then jumped to 30her feet to dump it in the bin. “Like you say, school is school. Come on. Let’s dig out your best bikini and go for a swim.”
Before I even had a chance to tell her that I didn’t own a bikini, just an ordinary sporty swimsuit, Willa’s mum appeared, followed by a boy and a girl who both looked a couple of years older than us.
“Willa, your friends are here.” Mrs Andrews didn’t look too happy about it. “But please don’t forget that you and Alice have lots to sort out before tomorrow. And I’m sure she’s tired after such a long flight.”
I had been tired, but the exhaustion I’d felt when I’d got off the plane seemed to have evaporated in the Californian sunshine. Now I was here, I was just excited – excited to see Willa, to explore this place, to catch up. Not so excited to spend time with people I didn’t know though.
“Matty!” Willa motioned the newcomers through to our little nest and sat down again. “And…?” She left it hanging, and I realized she didn’t know who the girl was either.
“Oh, this is my girlfriend, Jenn.” Matty dropped on to a spare beanbag as Jenn smiled weakly at us. “She’ll be working with us too.”
Working with us? On what? And am I part of the ‘us’? 31Uncertainty started to replace my excitement again.
“This is my friend Alice, from London,” Willa said, waving a hand vaguely in my direction.
Matty’s eyebrows went up. “The one you switched places with?” He studied me for a moment, which I didn’t like. “Wow. You guys really do look alike.”
Jenn frowned. “You guys switched places?”
“Long story,” Willa said dismissively. She leaned forwards with her elbows on her knees, folded almost double in the beanbag chair. “We have more important things to talk about. I’m really in?”
