At home, Kate went straight up to her bathroom, took two aspirin, and changed into her sweats. Ignoring her headache, she got the boys settled at the kitchen table with their sticker books and started dinner.
Before she knew it, it was six o'clock and Johnny opened the door. "Hey," he said, ushering Tully into the house. "Look who came home with me for the big meeting."
Kate looked up from the tacos she was making. "Hey, you two." She covered the saucepan and turned the stove's heat down to low, then went out to meet them. "You don't know what's going on, do you?"
"Me? I hardly know anything," Tully said.
After that, the evening seemed alternately to drag and to fly. Kate watched her daughter all through dinner, trying to glean a hint about what was to come, but by the end of the meal she was no closer to an answer than she'd been this afternoon.
"Okay," Marah finally said at almost exactly seven o'clock when the dishes were done and the boys were upstairs watching a movie. She stood by the fireplace, looking both nervous and young. "Aunt Tully thought I should be—"
"Tully knows what this is about?" Kate asked.
"Uh. No," Marah said quickly. "Just in general, she thinks I shouldn't throw stuff at you. I should be respectful and let you know how much something matters to me."
Kate glanced at Johnny, who rolled his eyes in response.
"So, here it is," Marah said, wringing her hands together. "There's a conference in New York in November that I just have to go to. It's where a bunch of agents and photographers come looking for models. Tully thinks Eileen Ford could definitely pick me. And my modeling class teacher invited me personally."
Kate sat there, too stunned to speak right away.New York.Tully thinks. . .Invited me personally. Which arrow should she pull out first?
"I assume this costs money," Johnny said.
"Oh. Right." Marah nodded. "Three thousand dollars, but it's a bargain at that price. Everyone who is anyone will be there."
"And the dates?"
"November fourteenth through the twenty-first."
"During school?" Kate said sharply.
"It's just a week—" Marah began, but Kate cut her off.
"Just a week? Are you kidding?"
Marah glanced nervously at Tully. "I can take my homework and do it at night and on the plane, but if I get discovered, I wouldn't need to finish high school anyway. I'd have tutors."
"How many of the kids in your modeling class were invited to attend?" Johnny asked, sounding calm and reasonable.
"Everyone," Marah answered.
"Everyone?" Kate got to her feet. "Everyone? That's not anything special, then, it's some racket to wring money out of us. You actually think—"
"Kate," Johnny said, giving her The Look.
She yanked hard on her temper, took a deep breath. "I didn't mean that, Marah. I just . . . you can't miss a week of school, and three thousand dollars is a lot of money."
"I'll pay it," Tully said.
Kate had never wanted to hit her best friend more. "She can't miss school."
"I could—"
Kate held up a hand for silence. "Don't say more," she said to Tully.
Marah burst into tears. "See?" she yelled at Tully. "She thinks I'm a baby and she won't let me do anything."
Johnny got to his feet. "Marah, come on, you're thirteen years old."
