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“You staying for awhile [sic]?” Felicia asked me.

I told her no and said good-bye to both of them. I didn’t feel like seeing Tyler and Felicia in luv with each other, even if it was acting.

Tyler looked disappointed that I was leaving.

I guess that counts for something.

10:00 P.M.

Dad brought home selected dailies of the shoot with Vanish.

“I’m showing you the three best takes,” he told me. “But we’ll only be using a minute of that scene in the final movie — at the most. I hope you warned your friends.”

The takes Vance and the editor selected are close-ups of Vivian and J.B. You barely see the band in the background. The camera is focused on the luv chemistry between Tyler and Felicia. All I could think was that they look the way I felt when that current was running between Tyler and me.

I must have looked pretty sad watching the selects, because my father said, “They’re only acting, Maggie.”

I told him I didn’t care. That Tyler wasn’t my BOYfriend, just a friend.

“Which is all you should have at your age. Friends, and some of them happen to be boys. Know what I mean?”

Why do adults always say that?

Dad’s knocking on my door to say good night.

Gotta go.

A Few Minutes Later

Dad came in with some suggestions for my party. He offered to have it catered by this fancy Mexican restaurant and hire a DJ. “Pilar can serve,” he added.

I said I didn’t want a DJ, fancy food, or Pilar serving us.

“I’m just trying to help, Maggie,” he said.

I told him the biggest help would be if he left us alone. And made sure Mom did the same.

He put a hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t worry about her,” he said softly. “I’ll take care of it.”

I hate worrying about my mother being drunk in front of my friends.

But I’m glad Dad understands how I feel.

Saturday 5/22

7:30 P.M.

A party for eight that starts at eight.

Guests: Tyler, Amalia, Brendan, Sunny, Ducky, Dawn, Rico. And me.

I have a good supply of sodas, juices, pretzels, etc.

Pizzas are to be delivered at nine o’clock.

Since Zeke and Tyler have been e-mailing each other, I told Zeke he could drop in on the party as long as he didn’t stay the whole time.

I’m very nervous about the party!

10:00 P.M.

Tyler Kendall is an unreliable phony.

Why did I think he’d want to come to the party anyway? He probably only said he’d come to be courteous. He’s probably at another party right now. Maybe at Felicia’s. Later he’ll have some brilliant excuse (A LIE) for why he never showed up here.

Why didn’t he just come out and tell the truth in the first place? He says he loves the truth. He was probably afraid to say not to the producer’s daughter.

I bet he and Felicia are laughing about how the producer’s YOUNG daughter has a crush on him.

At 9:00, when Tyler was only an hour later, Dawn said we should wait for him to eat the pizza. I said,
absolutely not!
and served them as soon as they were delivered. We sat at the table by the pool, eating pizza and talking.

Ducky said that our lives over the past few months would make a good TV series.

“It certainly wouldn’t be a sitcom though,” said Amalia.

“If it’s not a comedy then I don’t want my character in it,” Sunny told us.

No one said anything. But we were all thinking,
How can it be a comedy if your mother dies in
it?

“My mother would want it to be a happy series,” Sunny said softly. “She loved to laugh.”

Dawn reached out and gave Sunny’s hand a squeeze. “You’re right,” she said.

“It’ll be a sitcom with dramatic moments,” Ducky explained.

“A comdram,” suggested Dawn.

“A dramedy,” added Amalia.

“Will I be in it?” asked Brendan.

“Yes,” we shouted in unison.

Amalia and Brendan beamed smiles at each other.

We were all just fooling around about the TV show. But I was serious when I thought,
Tyler
won’t be in the story of my life
.

My friends are being very cool about the fact that Tyler isn’t here. They’ve mostly ignored it and have had a good time without him.

But not Zeke!

“If you’re having a party for Tyler, how come he’s not here?” he asked about twenty times.

Finally he went to his room, but I had to promise him that I’d let him know as soon as Tyler showed up.

Now even Zeke has given up on Tyler. I just passed his room and he’s sound asleep.

Sunny and Ducky are shouting for me to play water polo. I better go back to my own party.

After Midnight

Tyler finally showed up at ten-thirty. We were all in the pool.

“Hey, man, good to see you,” Ducky shouted.

Brendan tossed Tyler a wet ball.

Tyler tossed it to me. “Sorry I’m late,” he said.

I threw the ball to Dawn, but she didn’t bother to catch it. Instead, she pulled herself out of the pool to greet Tyler.

So did Amalia and Brendan.

Amalia draped a towel over her shoulders and talked to Tyler while Dawn went inside to zap the leftover pizza for him.

But I stayed in the water.

Ducky swam to the floating ball. He hurtled it to me and shouted, “WE might as well get out too.”

I was the last one out of the pool.

Tyler was standing with my friends, acting like he hadn’t been
two and a half
hours late for the party. “Sorry I’m so late,” he said. “The shoot ran over, then this reporter stopped, me, and — ”

I put up a hand. “It’s okay,” I said. “It’s no big deal.”

“You’re shivering,” he said. He grabbed a towel from the chaise and wrapped it around my shoulders. “There. That’s better.”

I knew I was being unfair, but I still felt angry.

“You could have called,” I said. My voice was tight. I was also angry at myself now. For making such a big deal about Tyler’s being late. For caring that he was late. For caring so much that my stomach was in knots.

I asked who wanted ice cream.

Everyone shouted ME!

“I’m sorry I’m late, Maggie,” Tyler said again as he followed me into the kitchen. “It was either this or not come at all. And I’ve been looking forward tot his all day.”

“Good,” I said in a sort of friendly tone. “I’m glad you could come.”

I opened the freezer and pulled out two boxes of ice-cream bars. He took them from me.

“I e-mailed my best friend in Santa Claus and told him about you,” he said.

He was looking straight into my eyes. My anger and insecurity started to melt. I felt the warm current between us starting up again.

“I feel sorry for you, Tyler,” I said. “It seems like you’re working all the time.”

“But being with you makes that okay. I’m happier with you than I am with anyone else.”

That line was like a slap in the face.

I pulled back.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“That’s a line
right out of the script
,” I said. “J.B. says it to Vivian in the library.”

“Oops.” Tyler blushed. “That’s what happens when I’m working on a film,” he admitted. “I shave to say lines so many times that they — ”

“ — come out too easily,” I said.

“I was going to say that they become part of my subconscious.”

I pointed to the boxes of ice cream bars and said that we should bring them to the others before they melted.

Half an hour later Tyler’s limo came by to pick him up.

“Anyone want a ride?” he asked.

My friends all jumped at the chance to ride in the limo with him.

“You come too,” Tyler suggested to me. “I’ll drop you back here after we bring the others home.”

“Come on, Maggie,” begged Sunny.

“No, thanks,” I said.

So my friends all left the party at once. And I’m alone in my room — wondering why I fell for Tyler when I knew better.

I wasted so much time thinking about him, hanging out at the set, getting Vanish involved …

Maybe I should have tried to work things out with Justin.

It’s too late now. He has Nancy.

They’re probably out having a great non-Hollywood time tonight. No one is following them around with cameras, asking them questions, and writing about them in gossip columns.

Starting tomorrow I’m concentrating on my own life.

A real life.

Without a script.

I’m going to forget Tyler Kendall ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Sunday 5/23

Two dozen roses arrived this morning. With this note:

For Maggie: Thanks for the party. Wish I hadn’t missed the first part. Your friends are great. I
have today off. Want to go to the beach? Call. Tyler

Sending expensive flowers after a party is such a Hollywood thing to do.

They’re yellow roses. Yellow roses mean “I’m sorry.”

I wonder if Tyler knows that?

He probably doesn’t even know what color they are. Or even that they’re roses. He probably told his assistant to send the producer’s daughter a bunch of flowers.

I left a voice on Tyler’s voice mail. I said thanks for the flowers, and that I can’t see him today because I’m working at the shelter. I didn’t say anything about seeing him soon or that he should call back.

He’s off the hook with the producer’s daughter.

10:00 P.M.

Arrived at the shelter at noon.

My first job was to clean out the cat kennels. Piper said I seemed a little sad. She’s super-sensitive and picks up silent signals from animals and people. Especially me. But she also respects my privacy. So all she said was, “if you want to talk about anything, I’m here. And if you don’t, I’m here too.”

I told her I’d be okay.

My next job was to take the two puppies out to play behind the shelter. The puppies are

adorable. I hope they will be adopted together.

I was playing a game of chase with them when I saw someone running across the field toward me. Tyler.

He was breathless by the time he reached me. The puppies jumped on his legs. He bent over and picked one up in each arm.

The first thing he said was, “Look at these cute guys.”

The puppy with brown spots licked his face. The black one nibbled on his jacket sleeve. Tyler laughed.

I couldn’t help laughing. Tyler looked so happy with that armful of puppies. “Where’d they come from?” he asked.

I told him they’d been left at the door of the shelter in a cardboard box. “Where’d
you
come from?” I asked. “How’d you find me?”

“You told me about this place the first time we went out,” he said. “I remembered the name.”

He nodded to the black puppy. “This one reminds me of my dog, Coffee, when he was little.

How many dogs do they have here?”

I told him that at the moment we had thirteen dogs and at least twenty-five cats.

“Do you like dogs better than cats?” he asked. “Or the other way around?”

“I know that a lot of people consider themselves either a cat person or a dog person. But I like them both equally. I’m a both person.”

“Me too,” Tyler agreed. “We have loads of cats on the farm. And Coffee and a border collie who helps with the sheep.” His smile faded. “I miss the farm.”

“That must be hard,” I said.

The black puppy snuggled deep into Tyler’s arms and closed his eyes. The other puppy was now lying across my feet.

It was very peaceful in that sunny field with Tyler and the puppies.

“What’s greatest about animals is that they don’t care who you are,” Tyler said. “If you take care of them and love them, they’ll love you back. I wish people could be more like that.”

I knew that what Tyler said wasn’t from any script. It was from his heart.

I thought about how angry at him I’d been. I knew I’d been unfair. I’d judged him by his fame, not for himself.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “For everything.”

He inched closer. “Me too. Sometimes I wish I’d never come to Hollywood.” He paused and looked deeply into my eyes. “But then I wouldn’t have met you.”

That’s when he kissed me. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

During the kiss the puppy in Tyler’s arms licked the bottom [sic] of our chins. I giggled.

He put the puppy back on the ground and told him to find his own girlfriend. Then he put his arms around me and we kissed again.

Tyler helped me with the rest of my chores. I was impressed by how much he knows about

animals.

“I want to be a veterinarian someday,” he told me when we were feeding the cats.

“What about acting?”

“I’ll do it for awhile longer, but it’s not what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

I told him that it was my dream to be a veterinarian too. But that other times I want to be a writer.

“You should be a singer too,” he said. “You’re a terrific singer.”

I thanked him and said he was a terrific actor and maybe he shouldn’t give it up so fast.

We said it would be great if we could do all the things we cared about.

It was interesting to talk to Tyler like that.

I’ve decided that Tyler Kendall is a great guy to know. It’s not his fault that he’s so famous.

I’ll just have to learn to deal with it.

THE PUPPY

Yapping, jumping, loving, licking.

A puppy in your arms.

I was going to give you up,

But you held me close like that pup.

Understanding, forgiving, loving, true.

A puppy in your arms.

I was there too.

About the Author

ANN MATTHEWS MARTIN was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, NJ, with

her parents and her younger sister, Jane.

Although Anne [sic] used to be a teacher and then an editor of children’s books, she’s now a full-time writer. She gets ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences. Others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events.