Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Stage Fright by Meg Cabot Page B

you’ll have plenty to say about that one.”
    “Are we going to get to be on TV, too?” my little brother Kevin wanted to know.
    “Why would we get to be on Mom’s show?” My other little brother, Mark, was chewing with his mouth open, as was his custom. Also speaking with his mouth full of food, violating two of my rules, Don’t chew with your mouth open and Swallow what’s in your mouth before speaking. Having two little brothers who won’t follow the rules of common courtesy at mealtimes makes my life a constant trial.
    “Lots of times the kids of movie stars get to be on TV,” Kevin said. “Like when they go to movie premieres.”
    I hadn’t even thought about movie premieres! But obviously, we were going to get to go to lots of those. Movie critics always get to see movies before anyone else does. They have to. How else are they going to warn people not to see the bad ones?
    And naturally, the only way they can do this is if they go to movie premieres. We were probably going to be meeting tons of stars. Such as Miley Cyrus.
    “I’m not going to be invited to movie premieres, honey,” Mom said. “ Good News! is not that big a TV show. It’s just on a local station. And besides, most movie premieres are held in Hollywood, and we live very far from there.”
    This was really disappointing to hear. Because the truth was, I was totally thinking, just like Kevin was, that I might get to be on Mom’s TV show, too. Or that at the very least, my whole life would change now that I was the daughter of a famous TV film critic, and not simply the daughter of a college adviser and a college professor.
    Not that there is anything wrong with those two jobs. It’s just that they are sort of boring compared to being a TV star.
    When I went to bed that night, I told my kitten, Mewsie, who is actually growing really fast and weighs six pounds now, which is exceptional for his age according to our vet, Dr. DeLorenzo, that it looked like our chances of hitting the big time were pretty much zero.
    “Guess you’re just going to be plain old Mewsie,” I told him as he lay purring on my chest, his nightly routine. It’s very hard to sleep that way, but it’s still nice. “Instead of Mewsie, Celebrity Kitten.”
    But when I told my best friends, Erica, Sophie, and Caroline, my mom’s news on the way to school the next day, they all had a different opinion about it.
    “I bet she’ll have you on as a guest,” Sophie said. “Like when she reviews kids’ movies.”
    “Wow,” I said. I had never thought of this. “Do you really think so?”
    “Oh, of course,” Sophie said. “If she’s any good at her job, she’ll want to get the opinion of the target audience. Obviously.” We knew all about target audiences from Erica’s big sister Missy’s teen magazines, which Missy never exactly lets us borrow, but we sneak them from her room whenever she’s away at a band competition or in the bathroom experimenting with a new pimple medication.
    Sophie made me feel excited again about my mom’s new job. Even more excited than I would have been about finding out I was actually queen of an alien race. Because, Sophie said when I told her about it—and Caroline and Erica agreed—having a mom who reviews movies on TV is more interesting than being queen of an alien race. Because it’s more realistic.
    “You’re so lucky,” Erica said with a sigh. “I wish my mom had her own TV show. But she doesn’t do anything except run her own store of fine collectibles.”
    “What about my mom?” Caroline said with a sigh. “She’s only dean of a women’s college. In Maine. ”
    We all agreed this was a terrible occupation compared to my mom’s new job.
    “Maybe my mom will have all of us on her show,” I said. I was just saying this to be nice. I didn’t really believe Mom would have me and all of my friends on her TV show someday. It’s important to try to make your friends feel good about themselves as often as