by Lexi Ryals
The girls ran from area to area, picking up swag bags and trying out new jewelry.
But it wasn’t long before Will really did have to go. Guy came to collect him for another obligation. “We’re late for the Jets-Giants game. You need to flip the ceremonial coin. They’re both New York teams, so heads or tails, you need to be equally happy and sad.”
“Go ahead. I’ll take them back,” Grace assured him. Then she smiled. “This was kind of fun.”
“Yeah,” Will said, looking over at Annie playing a video game. This had been fun. He turned to go but Annie ran after him.
“Mr. Stacks!” she called. “You forgot your goody bag.” She handed him a sparkly bag filled with movie merchandise. He put it over his shoulder and left, smiling.
A few hours later, Grace and Annie dropped the girls back off at Miss Hannigan’s apartment. As she watched her friends shimmy up the fire escape, Annie turned to Grace and asked, “Can we make one stop?”
The girls snuck back up to their room, shut the door, turned their music on low, and then danced around playing with their swag and talking about the premiere. They tried to be quiet, but they were just too excited, and they woke up Miss Hannigan.
“Why are you still up?” she shouted, throwing their door open. “Where’d you get all this stuff?!”
The girls went silent. But Miss Hannigan knew just how to get them to talk. She went down the line, glaring at each girl until finally Tessie broke. “We went with Annie to a movie and then got candy and soda and went ice-skating and Mr. Stacks is so cool and I got fish earrings,” she said breathlessly.
“Nice, Tessie,” Pepper hissed.
“I can’t keep a secret!” Tessie wailed.
“Annie got you all this?” Miss Hannigan said coldly. An icy glare came to her eyes. “Well, you don’t have to keep this a secret: Pack it up. It’s going back.”
“Why?” Isabella asked in disbelief.
“Because you don’t deserve it. And neither does Annie. She’s not your friend. And neither is Mister Stacks. They’re all just parasites who suck the life out of you, then move on when you’re not the shiny object anymore. No one cares about you. You rats need to start realizing that,” Miss Hannigan said cruelly.
“You’re being mean!” Mia cried, tears already streaming down her face.
“I’m being educational. I used to be a dopey little girl like you. Now, pack up this stuff,” Miss Hannigan bellowed and then marched out, slamming the door behind her.
She stomped down the hall and plopped on the sofa, only to hear Annie’s name on the radio. She reached over and turned it up.
“The city’s most-famous girl, Annie, was spotted today at a movie premiere, and we got to talk to her,” the DJ said. “So, Annie, did you like the movie?”
“It was so good! And the song was great!” Annie exclaimed, then she sang, “All over the world we’re singing, na na na na na na na na!”
“Not only is she smart and cute, sounds like she can really sing. Not long before she gets a record contract,” the DJ finished.
Miss Hannigan screamed into a pillow and then threw it at the radio, knocking it to the floor.
It just wasn’t fair! That little brat was out living the life Miss Hannigan had always wanted and she definitely didn’t deserve it. There had to be a way for Miss Hannigan to get a piece of Annie’s newfound fame.
She just had to figure out how.
Later that evening, Annie and Grace sat outside of Domani on the curb, both of them writing their names in sidewalk chalk as they talked.
“You come here every Friday?” Grace asked.
Annie nodded. “It’s the only day they serve cannoli.”
“That’s all you have to go on? Do you remember what they look like?” Grace asked.
“I think I’ll just know,” Annie said quietly, grasping her locket.
A few minutes later the restaurant closed for the night. Annie’s favorite waiter came out with two takeout boxes. “Cannoli,” he told them as he handed them the boxes. “And one for your pretty friend.”
Annie sighed. It had been another wasted night. When she looked up, Grace was watching her closely, looking concerned.
“Don’t worry,” Annie said. “I’ll be okay. But can you not tell Mr. Stacks? I don’t want to bother him with it.”
“Sure,” Grace said. Then she pulled Annie into a hug and took her home to Will’s apartment.
Will and Guy had been working since the moment they arrived at the penthouse, strategizing on how to get Will further up in the polls. They’d watched interview after interview of his opponent, Harold Gray, and they were running out of ideas.
“Uh-oh,” Guy said, pointing to the television, “this looks bad.”
A commercial for Will’s opponent had just come on, featuring a famous actor.
“He’s worked selflessly his entire life for New York. From his first job teaching in inner-city schools to his twenty-five-year stint on the city council, all the while working as a volunteer EMT, Harold Gray is the only honest choice for mayor,” the actor said.
Harold, Will Stacks’s opponent in the race for mayor, came on the screen. “As mayor I will do everything that’s right for the people of New York, not the business of New York.”
Guy grimaced. “You’ve plateaued.” He held up his tablet to show Will the data. Will was three points behind Harold and had been for a week. “Annie’s gotten you here, but I think this is as far as she’ll take you. But it’s not over yet. How bad do you want this? How far are you willing to go? Or should I say, how far do you want me to go?”
“I pay you a lot of money not to ask questions like that,” Will replied.
“Got it.” Guy nodded just as Annie and Grace arrived.
“We’re back,” Grace called.
Annie ran over to Will and handed him her takeout box. “I brought you a cannoli.”
“Because you’re an Italian grandmother.” Will laughed. “Makes perfect sense.”
Annie laughed, too.
“We have a charity event tomorrow,” Guy reminded Will. “You should go to bed.”
“Okay, G-Money. Keep your shirt on,” Annie joked. Then she called Sandy over and went on to bed.
“Did she just sass me?” Guy asked. “What kind of kid are you raising here?”
“A smart one,” Grace quipped.
Will headed to his room an hour later. He peeked in to check on Annie, but she wasn’t in her bed. He walked into her room and looked around, starting to panic until he heard snoring. It was coming from the closet.
“Annie?” he called. He pushed the closet door open and found Annie asleep on the floor with Sandy curled up next to her.
He sighed. No kid should have to deal with all the things Annie had been through in her ten short years.
The next morning, Will decided to take Annie on an adventure. He found her eating breakfast at the counter. “Morning.” He grinned at her.
“Made you breakfast,” Annie said, smiling. Then she pointed to a plate of slightly greenish eggs.
“What are you doing today?” Will asked, picking up the plate. “Thought it might be fun to come to work with me.”
“Cool!” Annie exclaimed. “I’ll go change. Don’t let your food get cold.”
“No, ma’am. Looks great,” he assured her, but as soon as she went to her room, Will put the plate down on the floor for Sandy to eat. There was no way he was touching that food! Sandy came over, sniffed the eggs, and then turned around and sat on them.
“Do you get airsick?” Will asked as he helped Annie climb up into his private helicopter.
“Don’t know. I’ve never been in the air,” Annie said cheerfully, then added, “I threw up on the swings once.”
Will handed her a throw-up bag — just in case. Then he said, “We’re doing a cell tower check. To make sure they’re all working.”
“You do that yourself?” Annie asked as they rose up into the air and headed out over Manhattan.
“I told you work is fun.” Will smiled. “You want to know the secret to Never Drop A Call?”
“Sure,” Annie said eagerly.
“We have five times as many cell towers as the other guys. But we hide them in plain sight. Like right there.” Will pointed at the Statue of Liberty right in front of them. “Do you see it? It’s on her crown.”
Annie craned her neck, but she couldn’t spot the tower. “No.”
“Exactly,” Will said with a smile and held up his hand. Annie gave him a high five.
Next they flew over the Brooklyn Bridge.
“See them? They’re on every wire.” Will pointed out the cell towers.
“That’s so cool. How’d you do this? How’d you become king of the world?” Annie asked in awe.
“Worked my butt off,” Will said. “The harder I worked, the more opportunities I got. You’ve got to play with the cards you’ve been dealt. Even if they’re bad.”
“What if you haven’t got any cards?” Annie asked.
“Then you bluff.” Will gestured out the window. “That’s why I love this city. It doesn’t care who or what you are. Just if you want it bad enough. And what you do with what you’ve got.”
“I see a cell tower!” Annie exclaimed.
“Where?” Will asked, craning his neck to see.
“On that building. See it? Right there.” Annie pointed to an office building.
“There it is.” Will nodded. He watched as Annie continued looking out at the view and he smiled to himself. “Sometimes what you’re looking for is right in front of your face.”
That evening, Annie was going with Will to a gala at the Guggenheim Museum. Will had been getting ready for an hour, but Annie was waiting for Grace to arrive. Annie walked past the bathroom where Will was washing his face and caught a glimpse of something that made her gasp.
Will was completely bald! A wig of his normal, perfectly cut hair was resting on a mannequin head next to the sink.
Annie hurried away before he could see her, but she couldn’t stop smiling. Who would have ever imagined that billionaire Will Stacks was bald?
A few minutes later, Will came out wearing his tuxedo, his hair styled as usual.
“Hey, Annie,” he said slowly. “Did you just see …?”
“I didn’t see anything.” Annie pretended to be playing with Sandy and didn’t look up.
“Because I thought I saw you in the …” Will continued, rubbing his neck.
“Nope. Here the whole time,” Annie said.
Just then the elevator doors slid open and Grace walked in, dressed to the nines in a gown and heels.
“Wow.” Will whistled as soon as he saw her, almost at a loss for words. “You look …”
Grace blushed. “So do you,” she said shyly.
Annie glanced back and forth between Will and Grace. A huge grin crossed her face. It was totally obvious that Will and Grace liked each other! Well, maybe obvious to everyone except Will and Grace.
Finally Grace broke Will’s gaze and turned to Annie. “Let’s go get you dressed.”
A short while later, Grace waited while Annie changed into her charity event outfit.
“Ready?” Annie called from the closet.
“Very excited,” Grace called back.
Annie opened the closet door and emerged wearing an adorable red dress. She walked over to the mirror and smiled at her reflection.
“It’s gorgeous,” Grace said. “You’re gorgeous.”
“I can’t believe it,” Annie said in awe. She slid her locket around her neck, playing with it.
Will knocked on the door and walked in. “Let’s go! We’re going to be late.” Then he stopped mid-step when he caught sight of Annie. “Wow. Annie.”
“I know, right?” Annie said happily.
“Get out of here; we’re not done,” Grace said, shooing him out.
“When did this stop being my house?” Will asked, shaking his head at the two girls before heading out to wait in the living room.
Annie sat down in front of Grace so that Grace could do her hair. “Why aren’t you and Mr. Stacks together?” Annie asked innocently.
Grace paused, surprised. “Well, that’s a complicated question.”
“Not really,” Annie said matter-of-factly. “Do you like him?”
“I work for him,” Grace pointed out. “Liking him doesn’t come into play. I’m too busy working to bother with anything else.”
“That sounds like something Mr. Stacks would say,” Annie told her. “When my friend Pepper liked this boy at school, she punched him in the face. She got suspended, but they play in the park together now. Maybe you should try that with Mr. Stacks.”
Grace couldn’t help smiling. Annie certainly had a unique way of looking at the world. She doubted punching Mr. Stacks was the right way to go about things. Still, perhaps Annie did have a point. “He is very good-looking,” Grace mused. “Great chiseled face. Good hair.”
Annie giggled. “I wouldn’t bank on the hair, sister.”
An hour later, Will, Annie, and Grace walked the red carpet at the Guggenheim gala with Nash and Guy trailing behind them. They did short interviews and posed for pictures until they reached the museum president.
“Thanks for doing this, Will,” the president said, shaking Will’s hand. “Your name’s going to look great up there.”
“Are you sure the Guggenheims are okay with this?” Will asked in a low voice.
“You gave me a hundred million reasons not to care,” the president assured him.
Bored with the financial talk, Annie turned to Nash. “Did they find anything on my parents?”
“Not yet,” he told her. “And they dug pretty deep. Sorry.”
Annie’s face fell. “Thanks for trying,” she said sincerely. But she looked disappointed.
“You’re going to find your family, Annie. I promise,” Nash assured her.
As they were talking, neither Annie nor Nash noticed Guy listening in on their conversation.
Will gave a rousing speech to the crowd at the gala while Annie enjoyed plate after plate of delicious grilled shrimp. “These are ridiculous!” she told Grace happily, stuffing an oversized shrimp into her mouth.
“… New Yorkers face many challenges every day, challenges that seem insurmountable,” Will was saying. “We all tell ourselves no a lot. ‘No, I won’t get that job.’ ‘No, I can’t afford college.’ ‘No, no, no.’ Well, it’s time to turn the nos into yeses. Because when we say no, we’re really just scared of the yes. So say yes to yourselves and say yes to a brighter life.” Will paused for applause and then continued, “Many of you know I’ve had a visitor staying with me recently. She only knows the word yes.”
A spotlight came to rest on Annie, with her mouth full of shrimp. There was more applause as she smiled and waved, frantically swallowing.
“Annie, can you come up here? We all know you’re not shy.” Will gestured to Annie and she walked up to the podium amid light laughter. “I don’t want to embarrass you, I just want everyone to see what the future of this city is all about. Do you have anything to say to these good people, oozing with generous guilt?”
Everyone laughed again, even Annie. Then she took the microphone. “I can’t believe I’m here. In a dress that feels like a cloud. Standing in the middle of a giant cinnamon roll. With a band that has little violins, big violins … Ooh, a triangle! I’ve played that. That’s a real thing? One of those, another one of those. It’s such a big opportunity.”
Guy stepped forward and whispered to Annie, “Read your speech.”
“What?” she whispered back, looking startled.
“I wrote you a speech. It’s right there on the teleprompter,” Guy replied.
Annie looked at the teleprompter and shook her head. “I don’t want to.”
“Are you all right?” Will asked, realizing Annie suddenly seemed upset.
“Just read it! It’s right there,” Guy urged.
“I’ll make it bigger,” Guy offered.
Annie looked back and forth between them and then burst into tears. “No! Leave me alone!” she yelled and then ran off the stage and out of the museum.
Will, Grace, and Guy followed Annie as fast as they could, but it took them almost an entire block to catch up to her.
“Annie!” Will called out as he grabbed hold of her shoulder and pulled her to him.
“I did the interviews and took the pictures and came up on stage — wasn’t that enough?” Annie said through sobs.
Will crouched down so he was at Annie’s eye level. “Are we asking you to do too much?”
Annie just shook her head, tears falling fast.
“What’s wrong?” Will asked kindly. But that just made Annie cry harder. “Tell me right now, Annie. You’ve got to tell me.”
“No, I don’t.” Annie sniffed. “You’re not my dad.”
Will pulled back a little. That stung. But still, he couldn’t leave Annie. Not when she really needed him. “Didn’t say I was,” he said softly. “Now what’s wrong? I’m not leaving here until you tell me.”
Annie shook her head. But finally she said quietly, “I can’t read.”
“What?” Will was confused. “I’ve seen you read.”
Annie shook her head again. “Sorry I ruined your shrimp event.”
A flash went off as the photographers from the gala found them and started taking pictures.
“No pictures!” Will said forcefully, holding his hand in front of Annie’s face. “She’s a little girl! And she’s upset!”
Will used his jacket to shield Annie and hurried her and Grace into the SUV. As Guy and Nash followed, Guy asked, “What was she talking to you about earlier, Nash?”
“Asked us to find her parents. But it’s a dead end. I even called my old buddies on the force. There’s nothing on that kid,” Nash said, looking sad. “Poor Annie.”
Guy’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s genius,” he said to himself. Then he took off in the other direction with his phone out.