Star Power by Zoey Dean Page A

that he’d know to back off. She waved him away, but he kept coming. Then, just when he leaned in to kiss her, Emily did the only thing more heinous than unleashing her fish breath on him: She sprayed him with a mouthful of half-chewed breath mints.
    â€œOw,” Davey said, wiping a chunk of Lifesaver off his nose.
    Emily felt sick to her stomach and she ran behind a tree.
    â€œUm, I think I need to go clean up?” Emily could hear Davey’s voice calling to Shane. “Maybe Emily needs to get well?”
    Shane sighed. “THAT’S A WRAP, EVERYONE,” he announced.
    Emily wiped her brow, and emerged from behind the fake tree. She wanted to call out, I’m not actually sick! But the crew began silently packing their gear, and Tina and Robyn were wiping Davey’s face, talking in hushed whispers. Kimmie Tachman was looking at her sadly and the DVD crew was hoisting cameras at her. Mac was staring at her like she’d seen the apocalypse.
    Emily’s tongue felt like sandpaper and she stood alone in the grass. Shane flashed Emily a fake smile. “We’ll get it next time, dollface!” he yelled. But he was about as believable an actor as Paul Walker.
    Emily smiled weakly. It was her first day of shooting, and so far she had disappointed Mac and—to put it mildly—made a bad impression on Davey. And then, seeing the glares on people’s faces as they left the set, Emily’s shoulders sank. She hadn’t just made a bad impression on Davey. She’d made a bad impression on everyone.
    The Breathalyzer had done its worst.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    becks
    Monday September 28
    â€œo La Table!” Becks cheered as she and Coco sidled up to their favorite table at Bel-Air Middle School. Mac had picked it out, due to its perfect balance of privacy and voyeuristic opps. Even though she and Emily were on set, Becks and Coco had to uphold tradition.
    Last night, Becks had had a quickie conference iChat with Mac, Coco, and Emily, where the girls had promised to accompany her on her first international Dixie trip. Mac and Emily had had to hop off before they could say how shooting was going, but knowing those two, Emily was probably on her way to an Oscar. Then, Becks and her dad had gone to California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate, and they’d each ordered two barbecue chicken pizzas. After dinner, she’d Skyped with her friends in Hawaii. Everyone in her world who needed to know was in the loop. Well, everyone except her crush and next-door neighbor, Austin Holloway, but now that he was crushing on Ellie Parker, he was no longer in her world. Maybe on a nearby moon, but Becks was reserving her planet for the people who actually cared.
    â€œHow’s your singing going?” Becks asked Coco, resisting the urge to discuss the latest Dixie Girls development uh-gain. She was still buzzing from her good news, but popped two sushi rolls in her mouth so she could actually listen to Coco’s response.
    Coco shrugged and took a bite of her baby zucchini and soy vegan wrap. “You should come over and tell me which new songs you like.”
    Becks smiled and offered an encouraging my mouth is full but that sounds great smile.
    Before Becks could ask Coco if she was still upset about Finny, or whatever his name was, she spotted Ruby Goldman closing in on them like a hyena preparing to pounce on its prey. She wore a white tunic with sparkly embroidery over J Brand jeans with Mystique sandals, and was flanked by two other girls wearing the exact same outfit: Ellie Parker and Haylie Fowler. Ruby and Ellie were bouncy blondes, while Haylie Fowler was a bigger brunette, the token B-level cute girl. In any other city, she might have been A-level cute, but in L.A. the bar was just too high. Becks had dubbed them the Rubybots because they talked, thought, and dressed the same.
    â€œHere’s a flyer for you, Becksie,” Ruby said, dropping a hot pink paper on Becks’s tray