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

"Mmmm," I said, taking a bite. Pizza in New York is really the best pizza. I try not to eat it too often, though, because it can be kind of greasy. Greasy food isn't good for your skin, but it makes a great treat to have occasionally. Right now it really hit the spot. In fact, I could feel my headache fading a bit.
"So, Naira, where did you go to school before this?" asked Chris, taking a seat on one of the tables and biting his pizza.
I took a sip of my sparkling water. "In Chicago," I said. "That's where I'm from. My family still lives there."
Chris raised his eyebrows. "You mean you came out here to New York by yourself?"
"Actually, Ford Models brought me out," I explained. "They set me up in an apartment with a chaperon and five other Ford models."
"Hey, there's a girl in my voice training class who's a model," said Chris. "Maybe you know her. Her name's Cassandra."
"Yeah, I know her," I said. "She's one of my roommates."
Chris laughed. "That girl's really unbelievableЧ" He stopped a moment. "Oh, I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't talk about your friend like that."
"It's okay," I said. "I mean, we live together, and I guess we get along all right. But we're not best friends or anything. Sometimes she surprises me by doing something really sweet. But most of the time she's a bit self-centered."
"Yeah, I can see what you mean," said Chris. "She obviously thinks she has a really
good voice, because she's always singing about twice as loud as everyone else."
"That's Cassandra," I said, laughing. "Actually, it's probably not just because she thinks she has a great voice. Cassandra also really loves doing things with groups of people. She knows how to enjoy herself no matter what she's doing."
"Well, that makes her sound a little better," Chris said.
Then I realized something about Cassandra. Maybe Paige had been trying to tell me before. "You know, Chris, I bet Cassandra's always looking for attention because her parents never gave her any. She's always talking about how she doesn't think they noticed when she moved out."
Chris looked thoughtful. "You may have something there, Naira. Or should I say Dr. Taylor?"
I laughed. "Still, I tried to get Cassandra to join REACH, but she's not tuned in to the idea of taking extra time to help someone else."
"Yeah," said Chris quietly. "There are a lot of people like that."
Somehow, I got a strong feeling that he was
thinking of Sabrina. Things didn't seem too good between them. But I didn't want to ask him about it. I felt that Chris and I were getting to be pretty good friends, so I didn't want to push him. My mother always used to say: "You can't make a flower bloom before its time."
"Come on," I said, popping the last bit of pizza crust into my mouth. "Let's get back to work on these posters. Maybe we can come up with one that'll make even the most apathetic person in this school remember to bring a donation."
"Naira, you're late!" chided Will Nichols as I jumped out of a taxi in front of the Empire State Building later that evening. Sauce had decided to use the same photographer, stylist, and makeup artist for all three shoots, so Francine and Carl were there, too, along with my five roommates.
"I know, I know, and I'm really sorry," I said, hurrying over to where he and the others were standing by the side of the building.
"Wow," said Kerri to me under her breath. "Was he ever fuming, Ni."
"Yeah," said Cassandra. "It's a good thing
you got here. I thought he was about to explode."
"I came as fast as I could, but there was traffic on the way," I said, feeling my headache start to come back.
"All right, everyone, let's go inside," said Will, leading us in through the entrance of the building.
To get to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where the shoot was going to take place, we had to ride up two different elevators to the 86th floor. The elevators went really fast, and going up that high made my ears pop, just as they do in an airplane. As we climbed higher and higher I could feel the pressure building up in my head. I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to my temples.
"What's the matter, Naira?" asked Paige quietly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I think so," I answered. "It's just that my head kind of hurts."
We went outside on the observation deck, and everyone took a second to look around. Even with my head hurting, I had to admire the incredible view. The sun was low in the
sky, and the entire city was laid out below us. Central Park, where we had been the other day for the carousel shoot, looked like nothing more than a green doormat.
The next thing I noticed was the weather. It must have been at least ten degrees cooler up there than it had been downstairs. And the wind was pretty strong, too. I guess it was because we were so high up. I shivered a little and felt goose bumps pop out on my arms.
"Ah, che fantastico, this is wonderful!" said Pia, leaning up against the fence and looking at the view.
"Totally awful!" said Katerina, gazing around breathlessly.
I looked at her.
"Oh," she said, a little sheepishly. "Perhaps I meanЧtotally awesome?"
I smiled. It was a funny way for her to have said it, but now that I knew what Katerina meant, I had to agree. From up here, the buildings and cars were almost like toys. The sun was getting lower in the sky, the lights of the city were just starting to twinkle, and everything looked amazing. If only it weren't so chilly, I thought, wrapping my arms
around myself. My lavender sweat shirt didn't seem to be doing anything at all to keep me warm.
"Hey," said Kerri, pointing to a tall white apartment building nearby. "Isn't that where we live?"
"Actually, our building is north and east of here," I told her. "That way's south."
"Oh," said Kerri, looking a little embarrassed.
"It's funny to think that Nebraska's somewhere way out there," said Paige, gazing out to the west.
"Oooh, look!" said Cassandra, hurrying over to a row of coin-operated binoculars mounted near the fence. "I bet we can see right into people's apartments with these!"
"All right, everyone, let's get started right away," said Will Nichols. "There's a place back behind the gift shop that we're going to use as a makeup and dressing room. Let's see if we can do this before we lose all of our light."
I felt a pang of guilt. I knew how important it is to photographers to have just the right light, and I also knew that I was the one who'd kept everyone else waiting. Being late
for a shoot is a very unprofessional thing for a model to do.
We all followed Carl, the stylist, who was carrying several garment bags, and Francine, the makeup artist, to the area behind the gift shop. The room we were using looked like some sort of storage room for souvenirs for the gift shop. There were several boxes stacked against the walls labeled KEY CHAINS, PAPERWEIGHTS, and POSTCARDS. I made a mental note to try to remember to stop in the shop at some point and see if there were any interesting postcards to send to Kyra, Jameel, and Yusef.
After Francine had done everyone's hair and makeup, Carl unpacked the clothes we were supposed to wear. This time, we were all going to be dressed in suits made up of miniskirts and matching cropped jackets with black trim and gold buttons. They were plaids, each one made up of two intense colors. Carl called the colors "jewel tones," which made me think of my father's nickname for me. Apparently Will thought colors like that would look good against the sky at sunset. As Carl unpacked the suits, I noticed
one that was deep purple and turquoise. That was the one I really wanted to wear, but Carl ended up giving it to Pia.