Famous for Thirty Seconds by P.G. Kain

Author:P.G. Kain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER 21

After figuring out a plan to get back on top, I am in such a good mood that I decide not to sit on the couch and sulk for the rest of the afternoon. Instead, I sit on the front steps of the house and do some drawing. I figure I deserve to treat myself a bit, and drawing always has a way of taking my mind on vacation. It’s late in the afternoon and the heat of the day is finally cooling. The long shadows make interesting shapes that I might be able to recreate with a smoky charcoal or pastel.

I open up my sketchbook and sit down, when I notice Christine behind my dad’s SUV bouncing her soccer ball on her knees while listening to something through her headphones. I leave the shadows for another time and decide to do a quick sketch of my older sister in thick, gray pencil.

My pencil moves quickly around the paper as I try to capture the essence of her movement. People always think we are twins because we look so much alike. But when I see Christine, I don’t see myself at all—I see this totally different person.

I erase some of the marks around her head on my sketchpad and think about the time when I was six and Christine was seven and we went on an audition together. Up until that point Christine had had absolutely no interest in commercials. We were still at the age when we wanted to do everything together all the time, so I used to beg her to come on auditions with me. “C’mon,” I would whine. “They take your picture, tell you to smile, and you get to pretend to be someone totally different.” Of course, Christine never had any interest in pretending to be anyone other than who she was and why would she? Even at seven, Christine was the girl all the other girls wanted to be friends with. At the go-see Christine walked in, read the lines, walked out, and said, “Can I go to ballet class now?”

Christine was the one who excelled in anything athletic or social, from team sports to ballet recitals. I was always the girl on the box of this or in a commercial for that. It’s strange because, even though we look so much alike, no one ever stopped Christine on the street thinking they knew her. They almost always recognized me. That has always been something that is mine. Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if it was Christine who was in the car when Judith discovered me. Would I be the captain of the dance team and MVP of the soccer league? Would I be the happy-go-lucky one with a steady stream of friends on two continents, while she struggled to make her dreams come true at casting offices all over the city?

“Ni hao ma?” Christine asks how I’m doing.

“Wo hen hao,” I say back in Chinese. I’m fine.

“What are you drawing?” Christine asks, popping her earbuds out of her ears and walking over to me.

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