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  Fantasy Summer

  Perfect Image, Book One

  Susan Beth Pfeffer

  1

  Why wouldn’t they leave already?

  Robin had been impatient for this day to come ever since the envelope arrived informing her that she’d been selected to be the photography intern at Image, the magazine for teenagers. Over seven thousand girls had applied, and Robin still couldn’t believe she’d been one of the four girls who’d been picked. Now the biggest day in her life was finally here, and she wanted to meet the other girls without her parents around.

  Robin Schyler genuinely loved her parents, and enjoyed spending time with them. She’d probably miss them the minute they left, but now she couldn’t stop wishing they’d disappear on the spot.

  “We can’t possibly leave until we see Annie,” Robin’s mother said, as though she’d been reading Robin’s mind. Robin reflected sadly that she probably had. One of those maternal gifts her mother claimed to have.

  “This is a nice room,” Robin’s father said, checking out the closet. “Lots of storage space.”

  “It seems clean too,” Robin’s mother said. “I’ll just check the bathroom to see if there are any cockroaches.”

  “Mom, you don’t have to,” Robin pleaded. “I can kill my own cockroaches, honest.” What if one of the other girls came in and found her mother on the bathroom floor?

  “You’d better be able to,” Robin’s father said, advancing to the air conditioner. “New York in the summer is the roach capital of the world.”

  He played with some switches, and the soft whir of air conditioning began. “This is a good unit,” he continued. “You can use it as white noise, to cover the street sounds.”

  “All right, Dad,” Robin said. “If my roommate doesn’t mind.”

  “She won’t mind,” Robin’s mother said, emerging from the bathroom. “New York City nights practically demand air conditioning in the summer. It can get really brutal here.”

  Ever since Robin had heard from Image magazine, her mother had been giving her advice on life in New York City. Robin thought that her mother was actually more excited about the internship than she was.

  Not that Robin hadn’t been thrilled when the letter came telling her she’d been accepted. She thought of it more as winning, as though she’d bought just the right lottery ticket, and no amount of being told that she’d been selected because of her talent as a photographer really convinced her that it was anything more than luck that allowed her to be spending two months in New York working for the art director of Image magazine. Image was the magazine she’d aspired to subscribing to when she officially became a teenager. Image was the magazine her older sister, Caro, had read religiously and hoarded in her bedroom closet, where Robin wasn’t allowed to search. Image was the one true sign you were a real American teenage girl, the sort you had always dreamed of being. The sort they showed on their pages, wearing fabulous clothes, doing marvelous things. Even the problems Image analyzed had a glamour to them. How to get the right boy to ask you out. Should you be a cheerleader? How to pick among all the colleges that were bound to desire your presence. There were no failures in Image. At worst, you needed a makeover, and if you couldn’t go to the magazine to have it done for you, they’d show you just what to do to look like an Image model. As far as Robin was concerned, it was the magazine to read, and she suspected she was just one of millions of American teenage girls who felt exactly the same way.

  Robin knew about the summer internships. You couldn’t read Image and not know about them. Every year they had an issue practically devoted to them. Four girls picked from all over the United States to spend a summer working at Image and enjoying the exciting life of New York City. The girls all got made over, although in Robin’s opinion she supposed they were always close to perfect eyen before the hair and makeup people started doing their magic. One intern even got to be on the cover of the magazine. Caro had thought of applying for an internship, but had decided instead to spend the summer between her junior and senior years working at the local newspaper as their summer teen editor. No one could have imagined she’d never have the chance again.

  Knowing that Caro had considered applying made the idea of the summer internship a little more believable, but still Robin wouldn’t have applied except that her mother practically forced her to. And that was because Annie’s mother had called to say Annie was applying for the editorial internship.

  Robin sighed, just thinking about Annie and her mother. It wasn’t that Annie wasn’t a perfectly okay cousin, and Aunt Gail was really okay one on one. But Aunt Gail was so competitive with Robin’s mother, her twin sister. Maybe it had to do with their being fraternal twins. Maybe they were both just competitive people. Whatever the reason, Robin couldn’t remember a time when Aunt Gail wasn’t on the phone telling Robin’s mother the extraordinary things Annie was accomplishing at that very moment. And naturally Robin’s mother had to have stuff to throw back at Aunt Gail. So when Annie applied, it was only natural, at least to Robin’s mother’s way of thinking, that Robin apply too. The odds were that neither one of them would make it past the first cut, but why should Annie have the privilege of being the only one to be rejected?

  When Robin’s mother got into one of those moods, Robin had learned long before just to give in and do what she asked for. Usually it wasn’t too painful. Besides, she just might have entered on her own, although she doubted it. Robin wasn’t that thrilled with the idea of rejection. She filled out the form they had printed in the magazine, and sent in a picture of herself, as well as two prints of photographs she’d taken that the magazine informed her she was never to expect to see again. Robin had the negatives, so that didn’t disturb her.

  A month later, much to her shock, Robin received a letter from Image asking her to fill out a much longer form, write a two-hundred-word essay about what she hoped to gain from a summer spent at Image, and shoot three photographs of different people, preferably not family members. Robin agonized over the long form, which asked her all kinds of questions she knew were nobody’s business but her own, whipped off the two hundred words with hardly a thought, because she knew if she started thinking she’d never be able to write anything, and took pictures of the three best-looking girls in her high-school class. Who knows? she told them. Maybe Image would hire them as models.

  Six weeks later, just when Robin had decided she had absolutely definitely not been selected, she got a letter from the editor-in-chief of Image welcoming her to the exciting world of Image magazine. There were more forms to fill out, releases for her parents to sign, information about the salary she’d be paid, the schedule for the summer, and a brochure about the Abigail Adams Hotel, where Robin would be staying under strict supervision all summer long.

  Robin spent the rest of that afternoon going through the contents of the envelope over and over again. She checked at least three times to make sure they had her name and address down absolutely correctly. They sure seemed to, and to the best of her knowledge, there weren’t any other Robin Louise Schylers in Elmsford, Ohio. At least not any other sixteen-year-old ones.

  Whenever Robin looked up from the magic envelope, she saw her mother staring at the clock first, and then the telephone. Robin’s father had been called at his office already, and Kevin, her younger brother, had been told the minute he came in from soccer practice, but there was still Aunt Gail to be informed. Robin was thoroughly ashamed of herself, but she couldn’t help enjoying the image of Aunt Gail’s face, hearing of Robin’s triumph.r />
  “I’ll just give her five minutes,” Robin’s mother said when the clock finally reached five P.M. But before the five minutes were over, the phone rang.

  “Why, hello, Gail,” Robin could hear her mother saying. “I was just about to call you. What? But that’s amazing. No, listen to me for a moment. Robin won too. Yes, isn’t that something?”

  Robin stopped listening. If she could have, she would have left the house immediately, but her mother called out to her to pick up the extension before she had the chance to escape. So she picked up the phone, and Annie did at her end, and the four of them were all on the phone at once marveling that out of seven thousand girls, two cousins had been picked for Image internships.

  Robin hadn’t see all that much of Annie in the past couple of years, but she could see the expression on her face just from looking at her own face in the mirror. Shock and horror were definitely the expressions for the day.

  If there had been any way of convincing her parents that she no longer wanted the internship, Robin might have even tried. Who wanted to spend the summer with Annie? Who wanted to have her mother and her Aunt Gail on the phone constantly swapping their daughters’ latest triumphs? It just wasn’t worth it. But there was no way her parents would have fallen for it, and Robin’s only hope was that Annie would drop out instead.

  Which, of course, Annie didn’t. Robin didn’t blame her, but life would have been so much nicer if she had. Of course Annie was bound to feel the same way about her.

  There was the sound of a key opening the lock to Robin’s door. Robin and her parents looked toward the door to see who would be making an entrance. To Robin’s undisguised horror, it was Annie.

  “Oh,” Annie said. She stood in the doorway flanked by two large suitcases. “Aunt Polly. Uncle Paul. Hi.”

  “Annie darling,” Robin’s mother said, and ran over to give her a big hug. Robin’s father joined her, first in the hug and then to help carry Annie’s bags into the room.

  “I don’t believe this,” Robin’s mother said. “You two girls will be roommates this summer. Wait until Gail hears. She’ll be thrilled.”

  “Hi, Annie,” Robin said.

  “Robin,” Annie said. “Did you have a good trip?”

  “We certainly did,” Robin’s mother said. “And how was the train trip down?”

  “Fine,” Annie said. “Long.”

  “We’re taking the shuttle flight up,” Robin’s father said. “Your parents said they’d pick us up at the airport.”

  “I know,” Annie said. “They’re really looking forward to a visit from you.”

  “It’s just for the weekend,” Robin’s mother said. “But I’m looking forward to it too. I haven’t been in Boston in years.”

  “This is a nice room,” Annie said, looking around. “Boy, that air conditioner sure feels good.”

  “See, I told you your roommate wouldn’t mind being cool in the summer,” Robin’s mother said, a little too triumphantly for Robin’s taste. “It’s a nice clean room too, Annie. Tell your mother I checked for cockroaches and didn’t find a single one.”

  “They were all married roaches,” Robin said, but only her father laughed. There were times when Robin just knew the only person who really understood her in the world was her father.

  “It’s been wonderful seeing you, Annie,” Robin’s father declared. “But Polly and I had better get going. We still have to go to the airport, and that isn’t always easy from midtown Manhattan.”

  “Tell my parents I got here safely,” Annie said.

  “We certainly will,” Robin’s mother said.

  Robin licked her lips nervously. “Don’t forget what you promised, Mom,” she said.

  “What’s that, honey?” her mother asked.

  “About not calling,” Robin said. “You said I could call you collect instead of your calling here all the time.”

  “Yes, dear,” Robin’s mother said with a sigh. “Did you give your mother such strict instructions, Annie? Or is she allowed to make contact with you every now and again?”

  “Actually we arranged that I’d call home Sunday mornings,” Annie said. “It seemed more convenient that way.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Robin’s mother said. “All right, Robin, we’ll expect a phone call from you every Sunday morning.”

  It was better than having them call her, Robin realized with a sigh. Besides, a quick agreement meant they’d leave before the other girls came and realized Robin’s parents thought she was such a baby she couldn’t be trusted to make it from Ohio to New York by herself. “Sure,” she said. “That’s a great idea, Mom. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to tell you each week.”

  “Okay, that’s settled,” Robin’s father said, glancing at his watch. “Come on, Polly. We really do have to get going.”

  Robin’s mother hugged both girls and said good-bye. Robin’s father hugged them too. Robin thought she caught a glimpse of tears in his eyes. She felt a little like crying herself at that point, although she wasn’t sure just why.

  The girls watched Robin’s parents in the hallway until the elevator arrived, and then they closed the door. “Well,” Annie said. “You really want to be roommates?”

  “No,” Robin said, a little too swiftly. “I mean, not unless you do.”

  “I think it’s a lousy idea,” Annie said. “As a matter of fact, I’ve been giving all this a lot of thought, and I think the fewer people who know we’re cousins, the better.”

  “Nobody sounds good,” Robin said. “It’s nobody else’s business anyway.”

  “Exactly,” Annie said. “I know I don’t want to be judged because of you. And I’m sure you don’t want to be judged based on me either.”

  “Absolutely not,” Robin said. “It can be our secret.”

  “It’s too inhibiting otherwise,” Annie said. “You want to stay in this room, or should I?”

  “I’ll swap,” Robin said. “They said at the desk the other girls are in Room 774, right next door. I’ll go over there right now and see if they’re in there already.”

  “I think they are,” Annie said. “I think I heard the sound of girls talking there when I came in.”

  “I’ll check,” Robin said, happy for the excuse to leave the room. She walked the few feet to 774 and knocked.

  “Coming,” she heard a girl drawl, and in a few seconds someone opened the door. She was about Robin’s height, Robin noticed automatically, but she probably weighed twenty pounds less. The girl was thinner than Robin ever dreamed of being. She had shoulder-length blond hair, hazel-green eyes, and was wearing a short purple dress that showed off endless miles of legs. Robin felt like a hick just looking at her.

  “Hi,” she managed to blurt out. “I’m Robin Schyler. One of the Image interns.”

  The girl smiled. “So are we,” she said. “Is your roommate here yet? We’ve been dying of curiosity.”

  “She is,” Robin said, and noticed that in the back of the room, standing by the window, was another girl. “Annie’s here too, and this might sound a little weird, but we’d like to make a swap. Would one of you be willing to move in with Annie and let me use this room instead?”

  “Why?” the first girl asked. “Is Annie a vampire or something?”

  “I don’t care,” the second girl said. “I’ll swap, Ashley. It’ll be easier for me to move because I haven’t unpacked yet.”

  “Thanks,” Robin said. “I’ll just go over to next door and get my stuff.”

  “Bring over Annie too,” Ashley said. “We might as well all meet now and get it over with.”

  The other girl took two suitcases off one of the beds and followed Robin to the room next door.

  “It’s all okay,” Robin told Annie. “They agreed to the switch.”

  “Great,” Annie said, with the first sincere smile Robin had seen on her that day. “Hi, I’m Annie Powell.”

  “Torey Jones,” the girl said. “Where should I put my bags?”

  �
�This bed,” Robin said, and walked over to it to take her own things off. “We’re invited back next door,” she told Annie. “See you there?”

  “Sure,” Annie said. “Need help with your bags?”

  “That would be nice,” Robin said, and Annie took one of the suitcases and followed Robin back to 774. Ashley was standing by the door waiting for them.

  “Annie Powell,” Annie said as she saw Ashley.

  “Ashley Boone,” Ashley said. “Come on in. Robin, I already took that bed, I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all,” Robin said, plopping down on the other bed. Annie followed her with the second suitcase.

  “I can’t get over all of you,” Ashley said. “You all brought so much. I hardly brought anything, so I’d have an excuse to buy all new clothes.”

  “My parents would kill me if I bought all new clothes,” Annie said. “My mother and I have been shopping for weeks for this summer.”

  “I can’t afford New York City clothes,” Torey said.

  “It just never occurred to me,” Robin moaned. “I could have gotten a whole new New York wardrobe if I’d just thought of it.”

  “Stick with me, kid,” Ashley said. “I’ll teach you all kinds of things you never thought of before.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Robin said, and almost to her surprise she meant it. A summer in New York, away from her family, almost away from Annie. A summer to herself, to grow up and learn. A summer to become a whole new person. She couldn’t imagine anything better in the entire universe just then.

  2

  “Who wants to go first?” Annie asked as the girls settled awkwardly into silence. Robin decided to do something useful by unpacking her bags, but Annie, Ashley, and Torey were all sitting around looking like they should know what to be doing but didn’t.

  “I will,” Ashley said. “My name is Ashley Boone and I’m from Ashley, Missouri. I live with my mother and her father, Mr. Ashley himself. I can’t stand either one of them. My parents are divorced, and I don’t care for my father either. My grandfather owns the town pretty much. It’s the Ashley National Bank, and the Ashley Gazette, and KASH Radio. I’m not the only person in town to hate his guts, but I’m the one stuck with living with him. Someday he’s going to die and then eventually my mother will too, and I’ll inherit everything and sell it all and take the money and move as far away from Ashley, Missouri, as is humanly possible. That’s all I live for, getting away from that dumb town. Next?”