"Supermodels 3 - Having It All - Calhoun, B.B." - читать интересную книгу автора (Calhoun B.B)

By the time I'd eaten dinner and done my homework that was due the next day, it was after eleven. But I knew I'd better start outlining my history paper or I'd be in big trouble next week. So there I was, hunched over the dining room table, staring at the words swimming on the page of the notebook in front of me.
Just then I heard a sound, and the hall light went on. I looked up and saw Mrs. Hill in her bathrobe.
"Naira, what are you still doing up, honey?" she asked, a concerned look on her face.
"Homework," I answered with a yawn. I waved toward the notebook.
Mrs. Hill pressed her lips together and shook her head. "It's awfully late," she said. "Can't it wait?"
"I suppose," I answered. Sighing, I closed my notebook. Then I flipped open my appointment book and pulled out the postcard of Central Park. "There is one more thing I have to do before I go to bed."
She frowned.
"It'll only take a minute," I assured her. "I've just got to send this postcard to Kyra. She's counting on me."
"All right, then, dear," she said, turning back down the hall. "But do try to get to bed soon. You know you have that shoot in the morning."
Oh, right, I said to myself. I'd nearly forgotten. Jill Murray had scheduled the first shoot for the Sauce article the following
morning. Where was it again? I opened my appointment book to checkЧthe Central Park carousel, at eight o'clock.
I flipped over the postcard, but I was so tired I could barely think straight. Finally, I scribbled a quick note:
Dear K, J, and 7Ч
How are you? This is Central Park, where I'll be going for a shoot tomorrow morning. I'll write again soon. Love to Dad.
ЧN
I sat back and read what I'd written, forcing my eyes to stay open a bit longer. It wasn't the most interesting postcard in the world. But, I thought, stifling another yawn, it'll just have to do.
"And it's a great day out there today. Fifty-five degrees at six twenty-five, and not a cloud in the skyЧ"
I groaned, rolled over, and fumbled with the buttons on the clock radio, desperately trying to turn it off. How could it possibly be morning already? It seemed as though I had just gotten into bed.
Finally, I located the off button. I lay on my back and looked up at the ceiling. Or tried to look up at the ceiling, that is. My eyelids felt as if they were glued shut. All I wanted to do was roll over and fall back to sleep. I'll just lie here for one more minute, I thought.
The next thing I knew, someone was shaking my shoulder, and I could hear Kerri's voice in my ear.
"Ni, don't you think you should get up
now? The car will be here soon to take us to the shoot."
I rolled over and looked at her.
"What time is it?" I asked groggily.
"Ten after seven," she said.
I sat upright in bed. "Oh, my gosh! You mean I only have twenty minutes to get ready?"
"Sorry," she said. "I tried to wake you up earlier, but you wouldn't budge. I know that when I'm like that, it's because I really need the sleep. So I thought I'd give you a little more time." She grinned. "Actually, I kind of overslept too. It made me realize how much I count on you to always get me up on time."
I shook my head. It just wasn't like me to oversleep. I leaped out of bed and grabbed my robe. If I hurried, I'd be able to take a quick shower and get dressed before the car arrived to take us to the shoot.
"Okay, Naira!" called Will Nichols, the photographer for the Sauce shoot, from his spot between two carousel horses. We were at the carousel in Central Park. It was beautiful in the park. Some of the leaves on the trees were just starting to take on autumn colors, and
the morning sunlight filtered through them, making patterns across the ground.
It was nine o'clock, and the six of us were dressed in brightly colored T-shirts and blue jeans and perched on horses on the carousel, which was moving. We'd only been working for an hour, but already I was feeling pretty tired.
I leaned toward Will from my black and white speckled horse, trying to hear what he was saying. But I couldn't make out the rest of it above the music of the carousel.
"Excuse me?" I said.
"I said, try holding your arms up in the air," he shouted. "You know, like you're having fun."
"Oh, okay." I gripped the carousel horse beneath me with my legs, let go of the reins, and raised my hands above my head. "Like this?"
"Right," said Will, snapping away with his camera. "Good."
I struggled to keep my arms in the air and look cheerful, which wasn't easy, since my hands felt like hundred-pound weights.
After a few moments, Will paused.
"Okay, let's stop everything a minute
for touch-ups, please!" he called.
The music faded away. As soon as the carousel came to a stop, Francine, the makeup artist, and Carl, the stylist, made their way through the horses toward us.
Francine brushed some blush onto Pia's cheeks. Pia was sitting in front of me on a caramel-colored horse.
"Straighten her hair out a little, too, if you can," Will called. "And get some powder on Kerri's nose." He looked around. "Now, Paige."
"Yes?" Paige said meekly from her black horse behind me.
"Let me ask you something," said Will. "Are you by any chance a horseback rider?"
"Um, sure," she answered. "I ride all the time. I mean, I used to, back in Nebraska."
"All right, then," said Will. "What I need you to do is to forget everything you know about horses right now."
Paige looked confused. "Excuse me?"
"What I mean is, don't try to sit on this horse as though you're actually horseback riding," Will explained. "We want you to look relaxed. Don't worry, there's no way this horse is going to get out of control.
Lean forward a bit if you can."