Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy by Wendelin Van Draanen

Author:Wendelin Van Draanen [Van Draanen, Wendelin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-54517-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2001-10-06T04:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Getting Marissa to the car was like dragging a bloodhound from the chase. She'd seen a star. And even though it wasn't anyone I'd ever heard of, Hali sat at the counter drinking her latte and confirmed it was true.

Neither of them seemed to believe that getting back to the mansion was a matter of life and death. Hali just shook latte foam into her mouth while Marissa talked right over me, saying, “Do you think I should ask him? Do you think it would be rude?”

Hali says, “Oh, go on. He's about done.”

Marissa grabs a Java Joint napkin and asks Hali, “Do you have a pen?”

Hali digs one out of her purse and nods across the room with her nose. “Better hop to it. He's beatin' a path.”

So there I am, trying to talk about life and death while my best friend deserts me for a tube twinkler's autograph and Hali laps up coffee foam from the depths of a cardboard cup.

“Hali,” I beg her, “we've got to go back. Now.”

She checks the inside of her cup and shakes it out one last time. “I hear you, I hear you.” She dumps the cup in the trash and says, “So let's go.”

Marissa joins us back at the Bug, looking all disgruntled. She plops down in the front seat and says, “He doesn't sign napkins.”

Hali fires up the Bug with a grin. “Give him a couple of years. He'll be falling all over himself to sign your trash.”

I sat in the backseat, quiet. And hurt. I mean, I knew that I'd dragged them all around town on a wild-peacock chase, but still, they didn't have to ignore me like that. But sitting there in the back of Hali's Bug, scrunched in on all sides, I couldn't really blame them for not listening. At least not Marissa. I mean, it was true—I'd been a maniac. All day. A raving, panicked maniac.

Sure I'd been upset, dealing with my mother and the thought of her snagging me a dinosaur dad. And having all that on my mind, well, it's no wonder I'd just been sucked in. But still, if I'd had the brains to stop and take a deep breath early in the day, I'd have thought of it right off, and I wouldn't have had to take the Tinsel Town Taxi to Cosmo's or the Peppermint Peacock. I'd have stayed right at Max's.

Right next to my mother.

All that caffeine Hali'd had seemed to be having the reverse effect on her. Here I wanted to be moving, and what was she doing?

Coming to a complete stop at a red light.

And what I couldn't figure out was why. Why now? I mean, there were at least three different illegal maneuvers she could be making to get through the light—and then one sort of iffy one that involved the ramp of a delivery truck—but she was just sitting there.

Finally she looks at me in the rearview mirror and says, “Quit squirming, I'll get you there.”

“Hali, you don't understand….

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