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  Avery bowed.

  Charlotte was examining the trapdoor. There was a little metal loop on the latch. “Be careful not to trip over the latch,” Charlotte warned.

  They closed and relatched the trapdoor, then dragged the magic box on top of it.

  “Okay, Kelley, are you ready for the real trick?” Avery asked.

  Kelley clapped her hands together in delight.

  Charlotte looped scarves around Avery.

  “Remember to put your fists together like this.” Charlotte clenched her fists to demonstrate, and Avery did the same. “It makes them bigger and then the scarf is looser when you relax your hands again.”

  Charlotte turned Avery around full circle and put her in the box.

  “Now you have to be able to scooch down really little and open the latch. Like this.” Charlotte tried to demonstrate, and fell on top of Avery. “All right, maybe not like that.”

  Kelley was laughing hard. “Good one, Charlotte!”

  Charlotte giggled and closed the lid on the box, waved her wand and opened the lid. Avery had disappeared completely.

  “Yay!” Kelley jumped to her feet. Then when Avery didn’t come back, she started to worry. “Where did Avery go?” Kelley’s eyes went wide.

  Everybody waited…and waited.

  Finally, Kelley ran to the stage and looked down the hole.

  “Where did she go?” Kelley said urgently. “Avery, you better come back here right now!”

  “She’s all right,” Katani whispered. “It’s just a magic trick.”

  There was a long silence, then some crashing around backstage. Finally, a very dusty Avery made her way through the curtains to the front of the stage and took a bow!

  “Magic!” Kelley clapped. “Magic!”

  “What happened?” Charlotte said.

  “We need to remember to clean the pit, and to put on a light or something backstage,” Avery coughed. “It’s awfully dark back there.”

  Katani made a note on her clipboard.

  Except for the dust and lack of lighting, Avery had performed the trick perfectly.

  “You really are like a mini Houdini,” Maeve said.

  Avery bowed again.

  “Let’s run through it again,” Katani suggested.

  Maeve went backstage and turned on a lamp.

  This time Charlotte talked as she helped Avery into the box. She talked about Houdini and how he was a great escape artist. She talked about how Avery was a long-lost relative of Houdini, with all the same talents. Charlotte talked for almost a minute. Then she waved her magic wand and said the magic word: “Abracadabra!” When she opened the box, Avery was gone.

  Charlotte feigned surprise as she looked into the box. She waved her wand and took a bow, as Maeve gasped and looked around dramatically.

  A minute later, Avery broke through the curtains and took a deep bow.

  “Perfect!” Isabel said, clapping.

  Kelley was clapping and laughing as if she was just seeing the trick for the first time.

  Everyone applauded.

  “And they said we didn’t have a trick!” Avery said. “We have a trick they’re going to talk about for years to come!”

  Avery didn’t know how right she was about that prediction.

  To: Sophie

  From: Charlotte

  Subject: Magic!

  Dear Sophie,

  Ma cherie, I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written! I miss you lots and lots. Things are busy at school because the talent show is coming up. Katani, Avery, Maeve, Isabel, Marty, and I are doing a magic show…and I’m the magician! Remember when Philippe stole my fake coins and tried to buy his lunch with them?

  How are Philippe and Alain and everyone else? I hope you like the pink Red Sox shirt, all the girls and I bought the same ones when we went to a game at Fenway Park (except for Avery, she says you’re not a true fan unless you wear an old blue Red Sox shirt). I CAN’T WAIT for you to meet the Beacon Street Girls and Marty and Miss Pierce and see the Tower and all of my favorite places in Brookline and Boston. Any sign of Orangina? I can’t help hoping he’ll find his way back someday…he’s a pretty smart cat! Lots of hugs! Write back soon and tell me everything!

  Au revoir,

  Charlotte

  CHAPTER 18

  Boundaries

  The next morning, Charlotte and her father decided to have breakfast together at a small French sidewalk café they’d discovered in Brookline. Although it was getting cool again, the owner hadn’t yet taken the tables in for the winter, so they sat outside, pretending they were on the Left Bank, eating crepes and almond croissants with marzipan inside.

  “Dad, these croissants are really good. They taste as good as the ones we used to get at Madame Bette’s.”

  “Good thing she can’t hear you say that. Remember how she used to complain about the way Americans eat,” said her dad.

  “I know, she called anyone who wanted ketchup with their oeufs (eggs) McIdiots.”

  “Madame could be quite rude,” Mr. Ramsey laughed.

  “Yes, but she also gave me extra of her homemade jam,” Charlotte said. “I miss Paris,” she went on, then immediately wished she hadn’t. “I mean to visit, not to live.” Charlotte loved living in Brookline. Before he took the teaching job, Mr. Ramsey’s job as a travel writer had father and daughter living in many different places. Charlotte had wonderful memories, but now she wouldn’t leave Brookline for anything. But that was not to say that she didn’t love a great vacation somewhere. As long as you knew you had somewhere to come home to, traveling was so exciting. Like the time in Africa when an angry rhino chased the jeep she and her father were riding in, and they had to zigzag across the Serengeti to escape. Charlotte reminded her father of the story, and they both chuckled at the memory of the nervous Dutch lady, who kept wringing her hands, whispering, “goot got.” Neither Charlotte nor her father knew what it meant, but whenever things got difficult, one of them would joke, “goot got.”

  “You’ve caught the travel bug,” her father smiled. “It must be genetic.” He considered for a minute.

  “What?” Charlotte asked.

  “How about Christmas in Fiji?” Charlotte’s father asked. “We’ll stay on one of the smaller islands in the Yasawas and sleep in a bure.”

  “Is that anything like a hotel?” Charlotte asked. She was smiling because she already knew it wasn’t.

  “It’s a traditional hut with a thatched roof,” he said. “Picture it. Cassava root and mud crab for Christmas dinner.”

  “Sounds exotic,” she said.

  “Plus, it’s full summer there—no snow, no ice.” He knew this one would get her.

  The minute he said Fiji, Charlotte had wanted to go. She was only holding out so that he would tell her more of the details. She loved how animated her father got when he talked about travel. “Are you going to write a travel book about Fiji?” Charlotte asked.

  “Just an article. Christmas in Fiji,” he gestured as if the printed title hung in the air right in front of him.

  “I’m in,” she said.

  “Good,” he said, “I already made the reservations.”

  Charlotte laughed. It didn’t surprise her a bit.

  Mr. Ramsey ordered another café au lait.

  “How’s the talent show coming?” he asked. Charlotte hadn’t told him much about it lately.

  “It’s coming along,” she said. “Avery makes a perfect Harry Houdini.”

  “What about the hedgehogs? Are they in the show?”

  “They’re not hedgehogs, they’re guinea pigs. They didn’t make the cut,” Charlotte said. “But Marty did.”

  “Our little Marty?” Mr. Ramsey asked.

  “Our little Marty is about to become a gigantic star,” Charlotte said.

  Her father laughed.

  “I’m serious. Wait ‘til you see him. Avery’s pulling him out of a hat. Plus, he’s doing another trick that is just so cute! I really think Marty may s
teal the show.”

  Mr. Ramsey laughed. Then he got serious for a minute. “I’m glad you’re doing so well here, Charlotte.”

  “I am too, Dad.”

  “How is your new friend Isabel adjusting?” he asked.

  “Pretty well. Oh, that reminds me. Isabel’s dad is coming out for the show. Her sister wants to host a breakfast for us the morning after the talent show. Can we go?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” he declared.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” Charlotte smiled.

  “By the way,” Mr. Ramsey said, “I’ve sold a few tickets for you at the college. I’ve got a couple of students who do magic for kids’ parties, and they loved the idea of the talent show. Of course, I did brag about my daughter, the amazing, multitalented magician.”

  “Dad, thanks, but what if I am terrible?” Charlotte pondered. “We could both be really embarrassed.”

  “Not me, kiddo, you never embarrass me,” he assured her, and he smiled.

  “Dad, I want to give a ticket to Miss Pierce. Not sell her one, give it to her. Since she helped with the Houdini trick and everything. Do you think she’d come?”

  “I doubt it,” Mr. Ramsey said. “I’m not trying to be negative, but she doesn’t really leave the house, Charlotte.”

  “Ever?” Even though Charlotte knew this, she was still having trouble believing it.

  “Well, I’ve not seen her go out since we’ve been here,” her father said.

  “How is that even possible?” Charlotte asked.

  Mr. Ramsey shrugged. “That’s just the way it is with some people,” he said.

  Aren’t people strange? Charlotte thought. And so very different and interesting all at the same time.

  Isabel went shopping after school with Anna and Joline, looking for costumes. After trying four different stores, they ended up at Filene’s Basement in the fancy dress department, where they found three dresses that matched. They were a nice shade of green, flared out at the bottom, but they had a super dorky red bow around the neck. They even had sequins like Kiki’s.

  “They’re not so bad,” Joline said.

  “Not so bad? Are you kidding me? We’re going to look like a bunch of stupid Christmas trees,” fumed Anna.

  It was probably true, Isabel thought. She almost suggested that they change the name of their act from the Hip-Hop Honeys to Kiki and the Dancing Christmas Trees, but she stopped short of saying it out loud. These were not the Beacon Street Girls. Somehow she had a feeling that Anna and Joline would not find the suggestion humorous.

  “I think the dresses are fine,” Isabel said. She wasn’t being totally truthful. She was trying to break the tie. They had looked everywhere with no luck. In most of the places they’d shopped, even if they had found a dress they liked, the store would only have one per size. Since Anna and Joline were close in size, it made things even more difficult than they already were. What made things worse was that Anna and Joline didn’t agree on anything, not anymore.

  “I’m not so sure,” Joline said, looking at her reflection in the mirror. “They are really kind of ugly.”

  “What do you expect? Who wears these kinds of dresses to dance in anyway?” Anna huffed.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Joline asked defensively. She thought Anna might have been insulting her mother’s suggestion to come to the basement store.

  Finally, the girls settled on the green sequined dresses. They were short enough to dance in, the skirts would flare, and maybe they could cut the dorky bows off. They went to the cashier to pay.

  “I still think it would have been better if you had made the dresses the way you promised,” Joline said as she pulled out her money.

  “I didn’t promise anything. I told you, I can’t sew,” Isabel said. “Don’t you ever listen?”

  “Don’t you listen?” mimicked Anna.

  Isabel was tired and mad and really annoyed with herself. If she had been with Avery, Katani, Maeve, and Charlotte, they all would have been laughing and making jokes by now. Instead, she was with the two cranky, spoiled Queens of Mean. How had she allowed herself to get into this mess?

  Joline’s mother, the chauffeur of the shopping expedition, hadn’t been able to find a parking space anywhere near Filene’s. So she just kept circling the block, which was getting more and more difficult as rush hour approached. The streets were crowded and tempers were short on all sides.

  “Where is she?” Anna asked Joline as they watched for the car. “I have to get home by five thirty or I’ll be grounded for life.”

  “She’s circling,” Joline said defensively. Isabel thought almost fondly of the time, not so long ago, when Anna and Joline had been best friends. They had been annoying then, and mean, too, but they were much worse now. Or maybe they were always like this. Who could tell? It was clear that Kiki and the show were taking their toll on everyone.

  Joline called her mother on her cell phone. “Hi Mom,” she said. “We’re waiting outside. Where are you?” She listened, then turned to relay the message. “She’s just a couple of blocks away.”

  When Joline’s mother still wasn’t there ten minutes later, Anna thrust her dress at Isabel. “You take this,” she said. “I can’t wait any longer, I’m taking the T.”

  “She’s right around the corner,” Joline said, but Anna just gave her a look.

  “What’s up with her?” Isabel asked when Anna was safely out of sight.

  “What isn’t?” Joline said.

  They didn’t get home until almost six o’clock. Isabel resisted the urge to call one of her friends and tell them that there was trouble in the ranks of the Queens of Mean. She knew they’d be interested. But it was gossip, and Isabel didn’t really feel comfortable gossiping about anyone, not even about Anna and Joline.

  To: Charlotte

  From: Sophie

  Re: Magic!

  Charlotte, ma cherie,

  You are so busy, busy, busy! You know me, Charlotte, I like to sit and sip hot chocolate at Madame Bette’s, that is magic to me. No sign of Orangina yet, I’m sorry, but I promise I will keep checking for him. Thanks for the Boston Red Sox shirt, I’m glad you sent the pink! I miss you very much, please send me a tape of your talent show-good luck, I know you’ll be a fantastique magician!

  Love,

  Sophie

  CHAPTER 19

  Video Divas

  So much for a full camera crew and entourage. Instead, Kiki’s father arrived on Tuesday as promised with one small hand-held video camera, and he planned to do the taping himself. Mr. Taylor showed him where he could set up.

  “You should be happy to have my father at all,” Kiki said when Anna questioned the setup. “Do you have any idea who he is?”

  Anna knew exactly who Kiki’s father was; Kiki had only told them a hundred times. And Kiki’s dad, who produced music videos for a living and won awards for them, was the closest she’d ever come to a professional. Anna had dreamed of becoming a model for so long she didn’t want to ruin her chances by making Kiki mad. Even though she thought Kiki was the meanest girl she had ever met.

  Maeve’s father had allowed them to set up their equipment on the stage. But they had to be out by six so he could get ready for a seven o’clock movie screening. That was the deal.

  Kiki was full of complaints. The set just wasn’t right. The problem was that there was a lot of black and white in it, and black and white did not play well on video.

  “It strobes,” Kiki said. “You’re a visual artist, I’m surprised you don’t know that.”

  But Isabel hadn’t known that. She’d never been involved in making videos. Kiki should have told her that before.

  Isabel was having a bad day. She’d just discovered that her dress had a huge hole in it. How had she missed it when she’d tried it on? And how had no one else seen it?

  Kiki’s father saw the look on Isabel’s face. “Don’t worry about the black and white. I can shoot around it.”

  Isa
bel tried her best to smile. If Kiki were mean, which Isabel was coming to realize might be true, the meanness didn’t come from her father. He was very nice and patient as the girls got ready. In fact, he told Isabel that he was going to volunteer his services to tape the entire show, and if the class wanted to sell copies of the video as part of the fund-raiser, he’d be happy to donate the tapes. Isabel knew that Mrs. Fields would be thrilled with that news.

  “It’s a very nice set, Isabel,” he said to her. “You are quite talented.”

  “Thanks,” Isabel said.

  Dillon agreed with him. “It’s really cool, Isabel,” he said.

  Maeve took Isabel upstairs to try to fix her dress. They were able to find matching green thread in the sewing box, but they both had to admit that they had no idea how to fix the hole. And even if they could figure it out, the dress was layered with sequins, and the hole had taken out a whole patch of them.

  Both girls were really relieved when Katani arrived.

  “Let me see it,” Katani said. She looked at the dress and then at the hem. “I think I can take some sequins from there,” she said. “This is a bad hole, though.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see it when we bought the dresses,” Isabel said. “Or that no one else did.” Suddenly, she wondered if there was more to “the hole.”

  Maeve and Katani exchanged looks.

  Katani patched the hole, then started sewing the sequins on by hand. It was detailed work, and so it took quite some time. Even for Katani it was a hard job. She had been nervous that she wouldn’t get it right and that the hole would show, or the sequins would unravel. Isabel and Maeve practically held their breath until she was finished.

  Then Kiki began yelling up the stairs for Isabel. “Two minutes!” Kiki yelled. “Come on! If you want to be a Hip-Hop Honey, Isabel, you’d better get down here.”

  “Hip-Hop Meanies, if you ask me,” Maeve said under her breath, as she started toward the stairs to give Kiki a piece of her mind.