Olivia Bennett: The Allegra Biscotti Collection

Now, she rerouted through the halls with the primary mission of avoiding her mother. Sure, Joan Rose taught in the high school, which was attached to the middle school, but that was really just a technicality. Any way she looked at it, Emma went to school with her mother. Way too much family-togetherness time.

But this morning, the excitement of meeting Paige Young was still so fresh in her mind that the minute Emma opened her eyes, she jumped out of bed. What happened yesterday at Laceland was too mind-blowing for words. She didn’t even care if anything ever came of it. Emma switched on her laptop. She hoped Holly was online so she could tell her all about Paige. Holly had been missing in action all night.

As the computer started up, Emma went back to her closet. What can I wear with the scarf? she wondered. Maybe those narrow khaki riding pants with the brown suede patches on the inner knees she’d bought on a whim last spring. She reached for the pants and held them up with the scarf, considering the combo. Good, but she’d have to find a top and shoes that were the complete opposite of horsey. She definitely didn’t want to look like she was dressing for Halloween.

Emma glanced at the computer screen. Neither Holly nor Charlie was logged on. Figured. She clicked open her favorite bookmarks and rolled the cursor over the link to StylePaige.com, Paige Young’s own blog. Emma had just looked at it last night, but she felt like reading it again. It made yesterday more real. She needed to spend a few more minutes reliving it all before the reality of school crashed down around her.

The home page featured the usual stuff—reviews of fashion shows, the latest “it” bag for fall, and some young, starved model who was the hot, new runway sensation. Emma stared at the artfully photographed picture of Paige Young at the top of the right column. She clicked “Refresh” and then scrolled down the page for another few seconds. The clock at the bottom of the screen said 7:02…oops, 7:03. She had to get moving. Just as she turned away, something caught her eye. She whirled back around. A new posting.

Emma gasped. Leaning closer, nose almost touching the screen, she read the latest headline out loud, “Smokin’ Hot New Design Talent Discovered Yesterday: Exclusive First Peek at Allegra Biscotti!”

Emma blinked really hard and looked at the page again. There it was: Allegra Biscotti.

That’s me! Emma thought. I’m on StylePaige!

There were photos—photos of her dresses! She couldn’t stop staring. They looked so good. So professional. So real .

Emma noticed a short paragraph under the headline. She sank into her desk chair and began to read:

Deep in the heart of the Garment District, Allegra Biscotti has been quietly working away on three of the freshest designs I’ve seen in eons . (See my exclusive pix below!) Helped by the yummy sorbet colors, these playful and imaginative dresses hit just the right note, like the first truly warm day of the season. One thing’s for sure: this style spotter is going to have her eyes peeled for more from Allegra Biscotti!

Emma leaped up and whirled around her room. She didn’t know what to do first. She wanted to cheer, to dance, to celebrate with someone! She swung open her door and ran out into the hallway. Her mother’s angry voice from the kitchen stopped Emma in her tracks.

“William! Are you kidding me with this? You are not wearing basketball shorts to school!” her mother yelled. “Go change. Now. ”

Emma tiptoed backward into her room and quietly closed the door. Nope, she wasn’t about to get in the middle of whatever was going on out there. Charlie! She had to tell Charlie the good news. She grabbed her cell phone out of her school bag and hit the speed-dial.

“Whaaat?” Charlie whined after the second ring.

“Did I wake you?”

“Obviously,” Charlie grumbled. “This better be good.”

“It is, I promise!” The words tumbled out as she told him about the blog post on StylePaige. “And she even says at the end that she’s ‘going to have her eyes peeled for more from Allegra Biscotti!’ How cool is that?”

“That so rocks!” Despite the remnants of sleep in his voice, Charlie sounded truly excited. “You’re famous. Or Allegra is.”

Emma couldn’t stop grinning. “You know what’s kind of weird, but in a good way? I’m reading about myself but not, you know? Right now, you and I are only two people on the planet who know that Allegra Biscotti is really me! I can’t wait to tell Holly.” She clicked on “Print” so she could take a copy of the posting with her to school.

Charlie yawned. “Can I go back to sleep now?”

“Sure, but don’t you have to get up in like five minutes anyway?”

“Every minute counts.”

Emma tapped her fingers against the metal door of her locker, her eyes trained on the end of the hall. She felt like she’d been waiting forever for Holly. She flipped open her phone to check the time—again. Less than ten minutes before the last bell. She was literally going to explode if she didn’t get to tell Holly about Allegra.

The corridor became more crowded by the minute. Now she couldn’t see the top of the stairs. Standing on tiptoe, she craned her neck to peer above her classmates’ heads. Where could Holly be?

Suddenly, her eyes locked with Jackson Creedon’s.

For a split second, the chaos of the students filling the hall dropped away. His eyes were so blue, his gaze so steady. What am I doing? Emma thought. He’s going to think I’m staring at him! She ducked for cover behind Coco and pretended to organize her books. Had Jackson asked about her? Holly better show up soon!

Leaning back ever so slightly, Emma snuck another look at Jackson. She couldn’t help it. After three weeks of being in the same few classes with him, she still didn’t know much about him other than what she could observe from brief glances—okay, fine, when she stared— at him:

1. He was super-cute (obvious).

2. He was quiet (or at least not as loud as the guys he hung out with).

3. He spent a lot of time writing or drawing or doodling in his notebook, which made him seem like he was not paying attention in class, kind of like Emma, now that she thought about it. She so wished she could get her hands on that notebook… Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.

4. When he did look up at the teacher or the board, he had the cutest way of squinting and biting the right corner of his bottom lip. She couldn’t let herself look at the whole lip-biting thing for too long because it made her stomach spin…but in a good way.

The only other thing she knew about Jackson was that he played on Downtown Day’s soccer team—not that she had ever been to a school soccer game before. Maybe I should go one of these days, Emma suddenly thought. Then I can stare at him freely. In fact, she reasoned, if I went to a soccer game and didn’t watch, it would be rude.

In Emma’s mind, Fantasy Jackson was deep and super-thoughtful. She imagined that he sometimes felt like he didn’t fit in, even though he so clearly did. And after seeing him put a few pieces of scrap paper in the paper-recycling bin before leaving the classroom once during the first week of school, she imagined that he was super-caring about the planet.

In the Real World, a massively huge ocean separated them socially. He was in the cool crowd, and Emma was… not. Even though she had been going to school with most of these kids since the fourth grade, Jackson had been able to walk into school and immediately fit into the most popular crowd.