“I—” My brain stalled as I processed what was happening. BamBam had mentioned that she’d made an appointment with an admissions officer to talk about the school. I’d assumed she meant USC generally or maybe the economics department or something. “How?
“I filled out the form like everyone else. I may be internet famous, but I’m not famous enough to get you special treatment.”She laughed and reached over to smooth a hand over my hair, tucking it behind my ear as she gave me a once-over—likely searching for ways to make my rush job palatable to the adults I’d be speaking to shortly.
“Why?” I blinked at her, trying to understand why she would risk upsetting my parents.
“Honey.” BamBam arched an eyebrow at me. “You’ve been moping all trip about having to spend another summer working in an office and avoiding that SISU application. I’d have to be the most oblivious human on the face of the planet not to figure out you’re creative like your grandma.”
Excitement and nerves twined themselves together and began racing their way through my bloodstream as I got out of the car. I was here at possibly the best film school. And I was going to talk to someone about attending. “Mom and Dad missed my creativity.”
“Parents are a different thing. They think their kids are excellent at everything. Mostly.” BamBam frowned a little as she pushed herself out of the driver side. Brushing the thought away, she added, “Plus, I wanted to give you a special surprise to thank you for all your hard work. You’ve done so much for me. I wouldn’t be traveling, making a little pocket money, and being fabulous without you.”
I shut the car door and tried to swallow the lump in my throat as the memory of me and Ethan together last night threatened to drown me in guilt. While I’d been out sneaking around, she’d been working on making my dreams come true. “I very much doubt that you wouldn’t have been fabulous.”
“Well, yes. But only locally fabulous. Now I’m globally fabulous, and haters like Buzzy can stay mad.” BamBam cackled and came to stand beside me. “Now let’s go. You and me aren’t gonna miss this one.”
With that, BamBam took off, leaving me to catch up as I tried to contend with the fact that I really didn’t deserve my grandma’s trust and effort right now. Worse, I’d never been more grateful to have her by my side.
“So, here’s the thing.” BamBam paused to take a sip of her cocktail and adjusted her sunglasses. “Sterling suggested, and I’m inclined to agree with him, that we had such great chemistry during the master class that we should do a series of videos together. As luck would have it, he used to do a regular segment similar to Cookies and Tea with someone y’all’s age, but that’s not working out right now.”
“Oh. Really?” I tried to keep my voice neutral even as images of Emmie swam to the front of my mind. Apparently, both BamBam and I were benefiting from her bad judgment now.
“It’s that little blond girl that had that eyeshadow palette in Beauty BB’s last year. What’s her name…?” BamBam snapped her fingers, trying to force a name I knew all too well to come to her. My heart sank. If Ethan was right, Emmie’s business was about to take a serious hit after Beauty BB’s stopped carrying her palette. That meant people would be watching her downfall for longer than I’d anticipated, with Ethan as collateral damage,making it much harder for us to sneak around once we got back to Chicago. Not that we’d talked about what to do about dating when the convention ended yet.
“Gosh, what is her name? You know, she has that book thing—”
“Emmie Kristoff.”
“That’s her!” BamBam shouted, and pointed at me.
I looked around to make sure no one overheard us talking. We were on the rooftop patio of a restaurant in Santa Monica that, according to BamBam, was known for its celebrity sightings. While I was too desperately underdressed and uncool to ever be considered a celebrity, BamBam was absolutely not. We kept getting looks as people tried to place her from somewhere while doing the time-honored LA ritual of wondering if they’d seen a person famous enough to tell their friends about later. It made me nervous, but BamBam was loving it.
In another life, she easily would have fit in at any one of the content houses in LA. In fact, part of me wondered why she hadn’t moved here already.
Maybe she didn’t want to move away from our family…
Or maybe she knew we weren’t ready for her to leave us.
The thought that the reason she hadn’t left Chicago might be, at least in part, me, gnawed at my already guilt-ridden insides. The constant school pickups, the rides to debate team competitions, not to mention the cookie baking and homework help she’d given me and my siblings. Wasn’t retirement supposed to be fun? I always imagined watchingDatelinewith my parents was fun for her. But from this angle, I was starting to think it was the other way around.
“Anyway, then I’m thinking, if people like our videos, you and I can approach some of his sponsors for a lipstick series or something.” BamBam grinned with satisfaction as she got to the root of her plan.
“Hmm.” I nodded along as the memory of me and Ethan at the museum came back to me. The way it felt to be wrapped in his arms. Snuggled against him. I really didn’t want to let him go. However, if I wanted to keep him, I’d have to be super careful around BamBam. The balancing act today alone was stressing me out. Just to be safe, I’d changed his name to Go Kart in my phone and was literally waiting until she was in the bathroom to answer his texts. One wrong move and the woman who was giving up so much for me would find out how I was repaying her kindness.
“It’d be a good way to tag onto his work without cutting into his glitter empire. That way everyone continues to play nice.”
“It sounds like you’ve really thought this out.” I swallowed my betrayal and forced a smile onto my face.
“Well, you know how much your grandma loves a goal and a plan.” BamBam squeezed my hand. “We came here with a plan to reach a younger audience, and look at us getting it done. Maybe you and Sterling will want to work together, too? He is moving to LA soon, and it might be time for you to learn how to work with someone other than me.”
BamBam laughed, and my heart sank further into my chest. I was already learning that skill, and I couldn’t even tell her. Keeping this secret from BamBam was getting less fun even as spending time with Ethan was becoming more wonderful.
“Speaking of a goal.” BamBam checked her watch. “We’ve got options. I know you liked USC and UCLA, but we could try and drive by those other schools like I promised your parents. Or we could blow it off, go to Venice Beach and dip our toes in the Pacific. What do you want to do?”
“I’ve never been to the Pacific before.” I pushed my intrusive thoughts away as visions of muscle-packed people lifting weights on a beach as others Rollerbladed by in spandex like inBarbie,Roller Dreams, and every other movie about California scrolled through my mind.
“Well, in that case, let me get the check.” BamBam waved at a waiter, then added, “If your mama and daddy ask, we couldn’t get to those campuses in time with all this LA traffic.”
BamBam winked at me, then I reassured myself that just because I couldn’t tell her about Ethan yet didn’t mean I wouldn’t ever mention him.
