When we got off the train in New York, my breath caught in my throat and my heart began to race. I was in awe of the massive expanse of Grand Central Terminal, its vaulted ceilings painted with constellations. The main room looked as big as a football field and was crowded with people moving one way or another and somehow managing not to collide. Mrs. Scanlon led us past a row of shops, including a bookstore, a coffee shop, and a chocolate store packed with customers. A brightly lit display of breads and cakes caught my eye, and a delicious smell stopped me in my tracks. Ivy ran into me with an “Oomph!” She looked at the storefront.
“Eli’s,” she said, grinning as I stared wide-eyed at an enormous stack of cupcakes. “Best bakery in the world.”
I could believe that. The smell was intoxicating, and I felt like I could stand there all morning just sniffing.
Mrs. Scanlon ushered us quickly through the crowds, and before taking us out the door and into the city for real, she gathered us around her.
“Okay, girls. The hotel is just a few blocks away from Grand Central, so we’ll walk there,” she said. “Everybody stay close to me. We’ll go check in and drop our bags in our suite, then we’ll go over to City Nation. Everybody ready?”
Tally gave a whoop and grabbed my arm. “I’m about to step foot in New York City for the first time!” she cried.
“Tal, you’re already here. This is New York City,” Ivy said, motioning all around us.
Tally shook her head. “I’m not there until we go through that door,” she said.
“Well, let’s not keep New York City waiting then,” Mrs. Scanlon said, pushing the door open.
My senses were on overload the second I stepped outside. The sounds of cars and buses and horns and people’s voices made me want to turn in every direction at once. There were a million smells—hot dogs and car exhaust and, as a beautifully dressed woman walked by, a whiff of perfume. The buildings around us were so tall, I felt like I’d shrunk down to two feet in size. There were streams of people on the sidewalk, all of them moving quickly, in a hurry to get somewhere or see something. If we weren’t sticking close to Ivy’s mom, I could imagine running up and down every street. I wanted to see it all.
“Everybody keep an eye on Tally,” Ivy said. She had already stopped to kneel on the sidewalk, saying she wanted to get as close to New York as she could, and we had almost walked off without her.
We walked single file on the sidewalk, making sure Tally stayed between Mrs. Scanlon and Ivy.
“Is it always this crowded?” I asked Ivy, amazed.
“Depends on the time of day,” she told me. “This isn’t even rush hour. But Thanksgiving week is a huge tourist time. You should see Rockefeller Center at Christmas when they’ve got the tree up. Now that’s crowded!”
“Two more blocks,” Mrs. Scanlon called over her shoulder.
“Where exactly are we going?” I asked Ivy.
“Well, this is Forty-Second Street,” she said. “Our hotel is on the same street, but two blocks that way, just past Fifth Avenue. The city is divided into east and west by Fifth Avenue. So Grand Central is on East Forty-Second Street, and our hotel is on West Forty-Second.”
I nodded, though I still didn’t really understand. New York City was complicated.
We crossed a busy intersection when the walk sign flashed. “Watch out for the bike messengers,” Ivy cautioned. “Sometimes they don’t stop.”
“Oh look!” Tally said, pointing excitedly.
“Tal, get across the street first, then gawk,” Miko said sternly.
“But look at the lions!” Tally cried.
A huge, beautiful building that took up the entire block was on our left. A large staircase led up to the front doors, and it was flanked by massive stone lions.
“That’s the main branch of the New York Public Library,” Ivy explained. “And all the space behind it is Bryant Park. Our hotel is right at the end of this block.”
“So we’ll be near the Fashion District, right?” Miko asked. “This is amazing. I feel like I’m dreaming!”
“Me too,” Tally agreed, trotting to keep up. Mrs. Scanlon was walking really fast. We followed her the length of the block to the next intersection, where Ivy pointed at a sign that said 6 AVENUE.
“If for some reason you ever get lost, just get yourself to Forty-Second and Sixth. That building with the red awning is our hotel,” Mrs. Scanlon told us.
I could not imagine being able to find my way to the hotel if I got lost. The city seemed to stretch on forever in every direction. Each building seemed taller than the last, and every sidewalk more crammed with people.
Miko nudged me as we crossed the street. “Can you believe how casually she said that? ‘If for some reason you get lost.’ I would flip out!”
“Seriously,” I agreed.
“This is it, everyone!” Mrs. Scanlon said, gesturing toward the building with the red awning. A white-haired man with bright blue eyes held the door open for us. His uniform made him look very elegant, and his name tag said “Mel.”
“Hi, Mel. I’m Tally!” Tally announced as we walked through the door. “This is my first time in New York City!”
Mel smiled and tipped his hat. “Welcome to Manhattan, Tally,” he said.
“Everybody with me?” Mrs. Scanlon said as we gathered in the lobby. “I’m just going to check us in and get our key. Ivy, have everyone wait together by the elevators, okay?”
The lobby was small but elegant. The walls were covered with black-and-white photographs of movie stars and other famous people. One end of the room had a long, shiny desk, and the other side had sleek red chairs and couches. The floors were a gleaming reddish marble and from the ceiling hung a crystal chandelier.
“Oh, it’s like a little palace!” Tally exclaimed.
“Hey, look at that picture!” Miko exclaimed, pointing to a framed photo of an elegant, dark-haired woman wearing strings of pearls. “That’s Coco Chanel. She was, like, the most famous designer in the world. Do you think that her picture hanging here means she might have stayed here once?”
“Oh, you should ask!” Tally said, admiring the picture. “Isn’t she gorgeous? Maybe someone here even met her.”
But before we could ask, Mrs. Scanlon was back. “Here we go,” she said. “Suite 501. Let’s get settled in quickly because we’re going to have to head right back out again. Tally, the hotel is going to send up a courtesy bag for you with things like a toothbrush and a comb. I’m afraid they can’t help you with clothes, though. You’ll have to borrow from whomever is closest to your size. Miko, maybe?”
Tally nodded agreeably, but I noticed Miko looked less than thrilled.
“I can’t believe we’re actually here,” I whispered to Ivy as we got into the elevator. “Your mom seems so calm.”
“You should see her at the office,” Ivy said. “It can get kind of crazy there, and the more it does, the calmer she gets. I wish I could learn to do that.”
“Oh please. You’re the calmest person I know,” I told her.
To my left, Tally was singing “New York, New York,” and Miko was trying to get her to stop.
“Yeah, not such a huge accomplishment to look like the calmest person in this group,” Ivy said good-naturedly as our elevator reached the fifth floor with a ping.
“We’re here!” Tally squealed.
“Tally, you cannot do this when we get to City Nation,” Miko said as we followed Mrs. Scanlon out of the elevator. “You have to be quiet in an office.” She gave me and Ivy a look that seemed to say, “Can Tally possibly be quiet anywhere?”
Suite 501 was right next to the elevator. Mrs. Scanlon slid the key through the slot and opened the door.
Tally burst into the room ahead of us, since she was the only one not weighed down by a suitcase. There was a very small central room with a television, couch, and a tiny kitchen area with a minifridge and microwave beneath two small windows.
“There are three bedrooms in the suite with two double beds each,” Mrs. Scanlon told us. “You’ll share two rooms between you, and I’ll take the third.”
“Want to share with me, Paulie?” Ivy asked me quickly.
“Yes!” I exclaimed. Then I saw Miko make a little face. She was superneat, and Tally was notoriously messy. But Tally threw her arms around Miko and squealed, “Roomie!” and Miko smiled.
“But seriously, you have to stop squealing,” Miko said while hugging Tally back.
“Take fifteen minutes to put your things away and freshen up, but then we should really get going,” Ivy’s mom said, already texting someone on her phone in one hand and pulling her suitcase into her room with the other.
“Your mom can totally multitask,” Miko said, looking impressed.
Ivy nodded. “We really better get moving if she wants us ready in fifteen minutes,” she said.
Tally shot into the door closest to us, then shot out again.
“Oops! Bathroom!” she cried, darting into the next room. “Dibs on this one!” she yelled.
Miko made a face at me. “Do I really have to share with Tally?” she murmured. “She’ll turn the place into a wreck.”
“No, she won’t,” I told Miko cheerfully. “She forgot her suitcase, remember? What can she make a mess with?”
“She’ll find a way,” Miko mumbled, pulling her enormous suitcase into the room.
“Guess that room is ours then,” Ivy said, and I followed her inside.
Our room was tiny but beautiful. Everything was supermodern, from the gleaming metal lamps to the sleek armchairs and the elegant little desk.
“We should just hang up the stuff that might get wrinkled,” Ivy said. “And I need to fix my hair.”
“I’m going to change into my black pants,” I said, unzipping my suitcase and pulling the pants out.
“Oh, should I change, too? I don’t think I like what I have on. And I should have brought my straightening iron. This piece by my ear keeps sticking out. I look ridiculous!”
I looked at Ivy, surprised. She rarely worried about her appearance. She had great taste in clothes and her sleek cranberry bob was always perfectly styled, never a hair out of place.
“Ivy, you look amazing, as usual,” I reassured her. “You’re the only one that’s lived here and actually been to City Nation. You aren’t nervous about being back, are you?”
Ivy was staring at her unopened suitcase. She suddenly seemed to hear my question and looked at me. “Why? Am I acting funny? And don’t give me the nice answer. Give me the best friend answer.”
“You’re not acting funny at all,” I said. “And you DO look amazing. But I am your best friend so…you just seem like something might be bugging you.”
Ivy sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“No, you’re right,” she said. “Here’s the thing. There’s this girl we’re probably going to see. Her name’s Dakota. Her dad works at City Nation, too—he’s the head of business operations. I’ve known her, like, forever, basically. And my mom told me that she’s an intern this year, meaning she works there after school and during vacations.”
“Oh,” I said. “So we’ll definitely see her. That’s okay, right? It always helps to have a friend around.”
But Ivy shook her head. “I said I’ve known her forever, but I wouldn’t exactly call us friends. Ever since kindergarten, we’ve been ending up in the same stuff—karate class, skating camp, gymnastics. Dakota is insanely competitive, and everything was a race with her. Who got their black belt first, who could skate backward better, who could do the best vault. I know it sounds stupid, but it used to really upset me. Like there was nothing I couldn’t do that she wasn’t right there trying to do better. We both used to talk about interning at City Nation when we were old enough. But then we ended up moving, and now Dakota’s an intern. And I never got to be one. I’m afraid she is going to gloat or something. Not that it really matters. I just kind of dread seeing her.”
I sat next to Ivy and put my arm around her. “I’d feel the same way,” I said. “It’s only for a few days, though, and you’ve got your own magazine to boast about! Maybe she’ll be really intimidated by you now.”
“And maybe she won’t be,” Ivy said. “But you’re right. It’s only a few days, and besides, we have totally different lives now.” She jumped up and checked her reflection in the mirror, smoothing her hair and turning slightly to the side. “You really think I should wear this?” she asked.
I pulled on my black pants and stood next to Ivy in the mirror. “I do. Really,” I told her.
A smile spread across Ivy’s face as she turned to face me. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
The offices of City Nation were about six blocks from our hotel, in a part of New York Mrs. Scanlon kept calling Midtown. We walked down Sixth Avenue to get there, trying to stay together as a group while also avoiding bumping into the crowds of people, many of them carrying shopping bags, texting, or stopping to take pictures.
When we reached one street corner, Tally let out a huge scream. “Y’all! It’s the Empire State Building!” she shouted, pointing up into the sky.
“The one and only,” Mrs. Scanlon said, pausing to take a head count. “We should have some time later in the week to see some of the city. We can go up to the top of the Empire State Building if you’d like. But for now, here it is, guys. City Nation.”
I stared up at the narrow, seemingly all-glass building. There was no sign outside, nothing to indicate what was inside. “I always imagined there’d be a huge sign over the door,” I said to Ivy as we walked into the lobby.
“City Nation is big, but not that big,” Ivy explained. “This is a forty-story building. The magazine has maybe three floors, but the rest are other companies. You have to sign in and get a pass to go anywhere.”
Mrs. Scanlon was already talking to a woman at the security desk in front of the bank of elevators. We each had to be photographed and were given a badge with our name and picture to wear.
“Oh, one of my eyes is closed,” Tally complained, examining her picture. “Will they let me have a do-over? It doesn’t look like me.”
“Tally, you’re right here,” Miko said. “It doesn’t matter if the picture looks like you or not because it’s stuck to the real you.”
“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Tally admitted.
Miko noticed me looking at her and rolled her eyes, but at the same time she reached up and tucked the tag of Tally’s jacket back inside her coat at the neck, then smoothed her scarf down.
It was funny. The more Miko complained about Tally, the more it became obvious to me that she was getting to really like her. When school had started in September, Miko, Tally, and I didn’t know each other all that well, and Ivy had been the new girl at school. We’d been thrown into working together on 4 Girls and had found a way to keep it friendly during the school-wide competition to determine who would win a year of funding for their project. But after we won the competition and got to keep publishing 4 Girls together, we really became friends.
The elevator took us to the thirty-second floor, where we went through big glass doors to yet another lobby. This one did have a sign—a massive black rectangle with huge white letters saying CITY NATION. The young woman sitting behind the desk looked like a movie star—she had glossy, long hair that hung old-Hollywood style over one eye and bright red lipstick perfectly applied. She was dressed all in black, sitting up completely straight behind the desk. I got the feeling nobody got past her unannounced.
Mrs. Scanlon said something I couldn’t hear, and the receptionist dialed the phone and said something even more quietly. That’s when I noticed that the whole lobby felt as hushed as a library. I felt loud just standing there breathing.
But the silence was interrupted by the clackety-clack of someone walking in high heels. The woman walking down the hallway seemed to project a force field of severity around her. She had jet-black hair that was cut bluntly near her jawline, one side hanging lower than the other, and a single stripe of silver hair. She was dressed entirely in light purple, from her elegantly tailored jacket to her lethal-looking stilettos. She wore a tiny telephone headset and was talking into it as she walked. It looked like she was talking to herself.
“Get it done,” I heard her say. Then she reached up and touched a button on the headset as she reached the lobby.
“Karen, so glad you’re here. We’re behind on ten things that I need done before the advertising meeting next week, and you’re the only one who’s going to be able to get them all done right.” Then she turned to us as though she were just realizing we were there. A wide smile spread across her face, and it terrified me a little to be under this woman’s intense gaze. “Welcome, girls! I am Helvetica Grenier, the editor in chief of City Nation magazine.”
Tally made a quiet little “hello” sound without actually speaking, and Miko looked like she was holding her breath. I smiled politely, trying not to look as nervous as I felt.
Even I had heard of Helvetica Grenier. You could not read magazines, watch awards shows like the Oscars, or check out a TV show like Hollywood Happening without eventually seeing Helvetica interviewed or weighing in with an expert opinion. Her friends were all famous or rich, and most often both. As the editor in chief of City Nation magazine, she had the world at her feet, and her employees and people in the entertainment industry seemed to live in fear of disappointing her. I had heard she could be a tough boss and was extremely demanding, and that her opinion was the only thing that really mattered in the entertainment world. I had also heard one other thing about Helvetica Grenier: She always dressed all in one color, but the color was never the same from one day to the next.
“And these must be the famous four girls I’ve been hearing about,” she said, looking us up and down. I was very glad I’d changed into my black dress pants instead of standing in front of Helvetica in blue jeans with frayed hems.
“Paulina Barbosa, Tally Janeway, Miko Suzuki, and you’ve met my daughter, Ivy Scanlon,” Mrs. Scanlon said, giving each of us an encouraging smile as she introduced us.
“Welcome to all of you,” Helvetica said again. “I had hoped to give you a tour myself, but I’ve just been told that my three o’clock has been moved to now, and I really need to jet. Karen, I have a few last-minute things I need to run by you,” she added, drawing Ivy’s mom slightly aside.
“I’ve never seen anyone wear all purple before,” Tally whispered, looking awestruck.
“That’s supposed to be her trademark look,” I responded. “Always all one color. I read a whole article about it.”
The receptionist cleared her throat, and all four of us turned to look at her. “Don’t call it purple,” she murmured. “Today’s color is Caledonia Thistle.”
“Caledonia Thistle,” Tally murmured. “How absolutely dreamy.”
“I’ll have Constantia make the calls,” Helvetica was saying. “Girls, I have to dash, but welcome to City Nation. Perhaps I’ll see you shortly. We’re very pleased to have such young and accomplished publishers here.”
With that, she turned on her heel and began striding back up the hall, her heels echoing on the floor long after she’d disappeared. How can anyone walk so fast in shoes like that? I wondered.