The Royal Treatment by Lindsey Leavitt

Author:Lindsey Leavitt
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction - Middle Grade
Publisher: Disney Publishing Worldwide

Chapter

13

Danny Dakota puffed out his chest. “Ladies and gentlemen, before you stand eight beautiful, talented, and intelligent young women. These poised princesses are the future!”

The crowd applauded.

“Now let’s find out who our finalists are. Will the following five contestants please step forward.

“Willow Callaway, Celeste Juniper, McKenzie Lighthouse, Claire Thuet, and Kimi Clow.”

The fourth runner-up, Claire, was announced first. Cripes. Whoever Fake McKenzie was, she should go into the pageant world. Her future in the subbing world looked dim.

“The third runner-up, and winner of a five hundred dollar scholarship, is…McKenzie Lighthouse.”

Fake McKenzie’s eyes watered as she took her roses. Her mother, or her fake mother, glanced around the stage, probably wondering when the pigs were going to start flying.

Yes! She didn’t place in the top three! Real McKenzie would have no duties to attend to. In fact, she’d come home with decent scholarship money and a happy mother. Sure, things would be changed and Fake McKenzie had gone too far, what with it being a trial gig, but MP is a very special commodity. Not only had Genevieve brought up MP’s rarity during lunch, but I remembered hearing about it during Level One training: the agency sometimes went months without picking up anything on their MP radar. So they couldn’t be too choosy, right? Fake McKenzie could straighten out during training. Façade had given me a second chance, after all.

“The second runner-up is…Celeste Juniper.”

Celeste accepted her flowers, her smile staying in the exact position the whole time, just as my mother had taught her. Admittedly, I was relieved. If Celeste had won the whole thing, we would have never heard the end of it.

“And your next Teen Dream Idaho is…Willow Callaway!”

Willow wiped at nonexistent tears and took her victory walk. After the music ended, the audience trickled onto the stage. Celeste spotted me and waved before turning to smile at someone else. I didn’t have time to think about what it meant—I had to find McKenzie.

Someone grabbed my arm when I stepped backstage. “Hurry. These girls scare me.”

“Too positive and poised for you, Meredith?”

Meredith braced herself against a beam. “Don’t start.”

“So is it over already? I didn’t get a text or phone call.”

“You probably didn’t hear it with all these girls crying. Ugh, all this…emotion makes me ill.”

“Let me say good-bye to our girl.”

“Come outside for a moment. We need to talk.”

The October air blasted my bare arms as soon as I cracked the back door. We sat down on the stairs, the one lightbulb illuminating the angles in Meredith’s expressionless face. “McKenzie is gone.”

“You mean Fake McKenzie?”

“Yes. The sub.”

“Oh.” The icy wind licked my skin. Meredith didn’t so much as shudder in her chic sleeveless turtleneck.

“Is she going to the agency now?”

“She’ll have a quick stop at the agency, yes.”

I sighed. “You don’t know how relieved that makes me. Watching is so hard, like you can’t do anything. It’s the opposite of subbing.”

“Well, the opposite of your subbing style, Miss Impact,” Meredith said.

“I’m glad she did enough to make it through.

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