“It’s Spider-Man! Epic!” Kevin yelled, waving his plastic lightsaber wildly in the air, narrowly missing the coffee table, as the sight of a massive, airborne Spider-Man filled the television screen.
I ducked, and Ivy made a protective grab for her mug of steaming cocoa.
“Please excuse my demented brother,” I said to Ivy. “He gets crazy around the holidays.”
“You don’t have to tell me that—I was here on Halloween, remember?” Ivy said, laughing. “Oh look—there’s a shot of Times Square!”
I had watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television every year since I could remember. But seeing it now, when just the day before I’d been in New York City myself, was more exciting than ever. Times Square was jam-packed with parade-goers, and the sky was filled with massive, brightly colored balloons, but on television the sheer enormity of the place didn’t fully come through. Now that I had been there, I felt like I was seeing the parade in a whole new way. I felt like part of it all now. I felt excited, and even a little more grown-up.
“Kevin, we were right in that exact place yesterday,” I said, pointing to the television.
“Did you see Spider-Man? Did you see Sonic? Did you see Buzz Lightyear?” Kevin asked, issuing each question in rapid-fire succession.
“They weren’t there yet,” I told my little brother. “They inflated the balloons last night in Central Park. We did see Central Park itself, though.”
“Why would anyone go all the way to New York City and not stay to see Spider-Man?” Kevin asked, shaking his head. “You’re nuts.”
“Maybe,” I replied. “But I’m happy to be home and watching the parade on TV, instead of standing there with all those zillions of people.”
My mother walked in from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Do you guys need anything?” she asked.
“It smells incredible in there,” Ivy said. “I’m starting to wish I was having Thanksgiving at your house. My mom used to buy Thanksgiving dinner in the city—getting the turkey all cooked from Fairway Market and her pies already baked from Zabar’s. Doing it all by herself is a little more challenging than she thought. I was kind of glad to get out of the house this morning!”
“Hey, there she is—there’s your famous friend!” Kevin shouted, pointing at the TV. “And check out the Dr. Wow float! Wow!”
We stopped talking to watch, and Ivy exclaimed excitedly, “Oh my gosh, yes! There she is—there’s Quincy!”
The Dr. Wow float was a quirky reproduction of the little house that was actually a spaceship, where the characters on the show spent most of their time. It was a bright red, wooden structure that leaned slightly to one side and had a sharply peaked roof under which was one tiny window.
Quincy and the actor who played Dr. Wow were on a platform outside the house, both wearing their costumes. The float was escorted by a perky group of baton-twirling majorettes in bright green uniforms and knee-high white boots.
My cell phone began to ring. I glanced at the screen, and hit ANSWER and SPEAKER at the same time.
“Oh my gosh, are y’all watching this?” a voice shrieked from my phone. “Are y’all seeing the same thing I’m seeing?”
“Yes, it’s Quincy on the Dr. Wow float!” I said. “Ivy’s here, too.”
“Hey, everybody—can y’all believe it? We were in a limo with her one day ago!”
“We can believe it,” Ivy said. “Because it really happened. And we have the pictures to prove it.”
As the Dr. Wow float drove by the media stand, there was a close-up shot of Quincy standing and waving, her brilliant smile never wavering. As she came even with the camera she turned and looked at it, giving a half wave, with four fingers spread wide and her thumb tucked underneath. Still looking right into the camera, Quincy winked.
Tally’s shriek came through my phone speaker loud and clear.
“Did you see that? She held up four fingers and winked. That was for us!” Tally yelled.
“Tal, I think she was just waving,” I said as Ivy’s phone began to buzz.
“Got a text from Miko,” Ivy said. “It says, ‘OMG, Quincy totes just gave us a shout-out.’”
“See?” squealed the tiny Tally voice. “Miko agrees!”
“It did sort of look like a message for you guys,” my mom agreed. “Quincy’s just beautiful, isn’t she? I’m so glad to know she’s a nice person in real life. What a story—you girls will be telling it for the rest of your lives!”
A buzzer went off in the kitchen, and my mother quickly headed back in that direction.
On the television, the Dr. Wow float had already passed by the cameras, and the crowd was now focusing on a giant SpongeBob gliding down the street.
“Has Miko said anything else about her parents?” I asked Ivy.
“Not much,” Ivy said. “I pretty much heard the same thing she told you—she got home, told her parents about the design internship, and they went ballistic and told her she’s going to the Music Conservatory for the summer and that’s that.”
I sighed. “Poor Miko,” I said.
“Well, it’s not the worst problem to have in the world,” Ivy pointed out. “She’s got two amazing summer opportunities, both for things she’s really good at and could probably do professionally. The only hard thing is she has to choose one over the other. At least I’m guessing she’d have to choose. I don’t know—maybe there’s a way for her to do both—Garamond might be willing to be flexible.”
“But how do you pick between two things like that?” Tally asked, startling me slightly. I’d forgotten she was still there on the phone.
“I don’t know,” Ivy replied. “We’ll just have to watch and see how she handles it. And learn, hopefully. ’Cause sooner or later, we’re all going to have to start making choices like that. Like, do we want to go to college? Maybe get a job to help pay for it? Do we want to try getting an internship over the summer, too? Or a summer overseas—maybe the Peace Corps? Or stay at home doing absolutely nothing every summer while we still can? There’s a lot of choices, and high school isn’t as far away as we’d like to think it is.”
“I heard some girls near my locker say that exact same thing right before Thanksgiving break,” I said. “Hey, maybe Miko would let us sort of follow her story for 4 Girls—I mean not the part about arguing with her parents, obviously, but the other part. How she has these two great opportunities and pursuing one over the other would mean really different things for her life. What is she going to end up choosing? What will it be like?”
“Oh, it’s so dramatic!” Tally breathed.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Ivy told me. “Let’s wait until after break when things have had a chance to settle down for Miko a little, then ask her. I wonder which one she will end up doing.”
“How important a decision is it, I wonder?” I asked. “I mean, if she picks the internship, does that mean she’ll probably end up working as a designer? And if she picks the Music Conservatory, she’ll end up a violinist? It could affect the outcome of her entire life. That’s so much pressure.”
“Miko can handle the pressure,” Ivy said. “But you’re right—the story of it—how it all unfolds and how it ends up—that would be an amazing article for the magazine.”
A small scream came from my phone.
“What was that?” Ivy asked.
“My sister’s beagle has got one of the pumpkin pies,” Tally cried. “I was supposed to be watching him. I gotta go! Buddy, drop it. Drop it!”
“What?” Kevin asked, the sound of Tally’s shriek temporarily diverting him from the sight of the parade.
“I think Tally’s dog might have just eaten their dessert,” I said, laughing.
“Bummer!” Kevin yelled. “We’re having two pies, pumpkin and apple, and I’m having both!”
“Speaking of Thanksgiving meals, I should probably get going,” Ivy said.
“Oh, okay,” I said, standing up with Ivy. “I’m so glad we got to watch the parade together. Do you think Quincy was really winking at the four of us?”
“I think nobody can prove she wasn’t,” Ivy replied with a smile. “And it makes a great story. So are you still on with Benny tonight?”
I felt a slight flush come over my face.
“Yep,” I said. “We’re going to meet down at Strange Brew for some hot spiced cider.”
“That is very romantic,” Ivy said.
Kevin immediately began staggering around making throwing-up noises. I led Ivy out of the room and down the hallway toward the front door.
“So?” I asked my friend as we reached the door.
“So what?” she asked.
I nudged her. “So what about you? Have you heard from Whit?”
“You mean other than since we spoke on the phone last night and after he sent a good-night text, both of which I told you about?”
I nodded. “Yeah, other than that.”
Ivy gave me a slow smile. “He did send a really short text this morning asking if I might be able to Skype after dinner.”
I clapped my hands. “I knew it!” I exclaimed.
“You don’t know anything, and neither do I,” Ivy said. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I mean, it could go either way. Like with Miko.”
“So you’re leaving me with this cliff-hanger?” I teased. I mustered my best Dramatic Movie Announcer voice. “Will Miko Suzuki be the city’s next design wizard or will she take the music world by storm? Will Ivy Scanlon and Whit Clayton finally start dating after meeting in kindergarten seven years ago, or will she leave him to Dakota’s evil devices?”
“Will Paulina Barbosa be found locked in her own bedroom with a piece of duct tape over her mouth?” Ivy finished. “Coming to a theater near you soon: In a world where anything can happen, and usually does, travel to the crazy and the comic, the triumphant and the tragic, with a group of four girls thrown together in an innocent bid to publish a magazine. Little did they know they would end up…Forever Four! Cue sound track!”
“Perfect,” I said, laughing. “Our own movie. I’d go see it.”
“So would I,” Ivy said. “I’m dying to find out how it’s all going to turn out.”
“Me too,” I agreed. “Me too.”
But for that, we were just going to have to be patient and wait for things to unfold.
And if the last few months were any indication, things would happen at lightning speed and bring a load of surprises along the way.
I couldn’t wait to see what they were.