QUIZ TIME!
Write down your answers and tally up the points at the end.
You are walking past a group of mean girls at school and right after you pass, they burst out laughing. What do you think they found so funny? A. They are obviously laughing at you. You probably have TP stuck to your shoe, or maybe they’re laughing at the skirt you’re wearing. You knew you should have gone with the tights and ballerina flats. Maybe you can find a locker to hide out in for the rest of the day.…
B. They might be laughing at you, but they could be laughing at any of the dozens of kids pacing the halls too. You aren’t the only one on their geek radar.
C. Who knows? If they are laughing at you, you’ll take it as a compliment that they’re trying so hard to make you feel self-conscious. They only do that to girls they consider threats.
D. Who cares? You have way more important things to focus on than a group of mean-girl wannabes. You actually have a life.
You notice that a lot of your favorite stars are going under the knife and getting plastic surgery. Is that something you would consider when you get older? A. In a heartbeat! You have a laundry list of things you would fix if you could. A ton of surgeries might do the trick.
B. Well, maybe you would have a few things done. You wouldn’t go overboard, but you’d be lying if you said there weren’t at least three things you’d love to change.
C. Only if you had a real medical problem, like a broken nose or webbed feet, or if one of your legs was shorter than the other. Anything else would be a little too sci-fi for your taste.
D. Not a chance! You’re happy with the way you look, flaws and all. Why anyone would go to such extremes to end up looking like a plastic doll is beyond you.
As a homework assignment, your English teacher had you each write a poem about your life, and now she’s asking for volunteers to stand up and share what they wrote. You: A. will yourself to become a chameleon and blend in with your chair. What you wrote is personal and you don’t want your classmates judging you while you read. What if they think it’s lame?
B. don’t volunteer, but resign yourself to reading your poem to the class if your teacher picks you. You just hope someone else wrote a really long poem that’ll take up the whole class period.
C. wait until a few other people volunteer so that you can see the kind of stuff the other kids wrote. If they bare their souls first, maybe you’ll feel secure enough to bare yours.
D. are the first to volunteer. Your life is an open book and you don’t mind letting your classmates in on it. Plus, you don’t think your poem is half bad.
A new girl, Chloe, just transferred into your class and everyone seems to think she’s really smart, super-nice, and pretty. You react by: A. starting some crazy rumor about her to tarnish her perfect rep. Anyone that perfect makes you all look bad. You’re doing everyone else a favor, as far as you’re concerned.
B. making sure you’re assigned to the same team for the group projects. That way you can get to know her in a neutral setting and find out what her secret flaw is. Nobody can be that perfect!
C. giving her a chance. You aren’t immediately on Team Chloe, but if she really is as nice and smart as everyone says, maybe she’ll be worth getting to know.
D. becoming her friend immediately! She sounds like a cool person (actually, she sounds a lot like you!) and you know you’ll get along really well.
A guy you’ve started spending time with has finally added you as a friend on Facebook. When you start checking out his page, you see that he has hundreds of friends—and a lot of them are pretty girls. You feel: A. like defriending him right away. Obviously he is interested in these other girls, and adding you to his Facebook page was just his way of telling you.
B. a little insecure. With all these cool people in his life, could he really be interested in you?
C. flattered that he has included you in his world. It’s clearly a popular place to be, so you must have made the grade.
D. that he’s pretty lucky to know you. He may have a ton of cool-looking Facebook friends, but you know there’s no one quite like you, who can keep up with him in the classroom and make him laugh so hard that milk spurts out of his nose. You definitely bring something special to the table.
Give yourself 1 point for every time you answered A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every D.
—If you scored between 5 and 12, go to this page.
—If you scored between 13 and 20, go to this page.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. You love to have fun and are sometimes considered the life of the party. But you aren’t the most responsible girl in the world. Without realizing it, you could be building a reputation as someone who can’t be depended upon, so you are likely to get passed over for some great opportunities (like summer jobs), and it might take you longer to earn freedoms from your parents that they think you would abuse. Show that you can be responsible when you need to be, and you will end up getting more freedom as a result.
You know you should probably stay right where you are, but what if that really is Nick Jonas walking down the sidewalk? If Jessie has Jonas fever, you must have caught it, because you find yourself yelling “Let’s go!” and taking off after Jessie down the block.
“Guys, no! What are you doing?” Lena shouts behind you. But you hear her footsteps take off after yours.
“He … went … this way!” Jessie yells over her shoulder, panting but never dropping her pace. As you run, a woman walking a tiny Chihuahua wanders into your path, and you have to hurdle the dog as if it were one of those road cones in gym class. Then Might-Be-Nick crosses the next huge avenue just before the light changes for Jessie. The three of you watch helplessly as he gets to the other side of the huge intersection and sticks one arm into the air.
Seconds later, a yellow cab swoops into place in front of him and he climbs in. When the traffic light changes, the taxi comes barreling past you and your friends. You can see the figure you’ve been chasing sitting in the backseat without his sunglasses on, and …
It isn’t Nick Jonas. It’s just a regular guy—who actually doesn’t even look like Nick once you see his face. You can’t say you’re surprised. What in the world would make you think a Jonas brother would be walking around with zero security following him, anyway?
Jessie’s shoulders slump in disappointment. “I could’ve sworn …” She doesn’t have the heart to finish.
You pat her shoulder comfortingly. “I thought so too, Jess. But hey, if you want, we can tell Amy what happened, and by the time she spreads the word, the story will be that we chased the real Nick Jonas down the street!”
Jessie smiles at the thought.
“Or I could tell her that the two of you spent the whole day trying to get us killed,” Lena says. “What were you guys thinking? I almost got flattened by a bike messenger back there!”
You wince. “Sorry, Lena. I guess we weren’t thinking. But this will be the last time we go chasing after a celeb, cross my heart.” You make an X over your heart with your index finger.
“Unless it really is him next time,” Jessie adds. “In which case, all bets are off.”
Lena fights the smile creeping onto her face. She can never stay mad at you and Jessie for long. “What am I gonna do with you two?”
“Well, the smart thing would be to stay far, far away from us so that you don’t catch Jonas fever too. It seems to be contagious. But for now, let’s just go back to where we were, and try to meet up with your cousin.”
Lena nods, adjusting the strap on her purse. “Good idea. Let’s go.”
As the three of you round the corner, heading back to the train station exit where you first called Amanda, you are all smiles … until you spot the flashing red and yellow lights. Uh-oh.
As you get closer, you see a frantic-looking Amanda standing with her back to you as she talks to a police officer. “They’re all thirteen years old, Officer, and Lena—that’s my cousin—is wearing a
black puffy coat and white scarf, jeans, and white sneakers.…”
“Kind of like the girl behind you is wearing?” the officer asks politely.
Amanda whirls around and spots the three of you approaching. Her eyes go from wide with panic to awash with relief. “Oh, thank God!” She runs to Lena, squeezes her in a tight hug, and then touches your head and Jessie’s, inspecting you as if she’s looking for war wounds. “Are you girls all right? I was worried sick! When you weren’t here when I got here, I figured something serious must have happened for you to leave this spot, so I flagged down this police car. Did someone bother you? What happened?”
You and Jessie exchange nervous glances. In the face of the police car lights—and Amanda’s frantic eyes—chasing down a Nick Jonas look-alike now seems downright crazy. But if you tell Amanda the truth, she may just have the officer toss you into the back of his squad car and haul you off to jail anyway. Decisions, decisions …
You are your own worst enemy. You could have had a pleasant day touring New York with your class (including your crush, Jimmy), but nooo.… You wanted to have an adventure in the city. Unfortunately, that started off with you getting lost on the subway and losing Amanda. Luckily you got back in touch with Lena’s cousin, and that could have been the end of it. But nooo.… You had to go running off to chase down what turned out to not even be Nick Jonas. And because you did that, Amanda panicked and brought in the police, and they want the truth. You could deliver that … or maybe you could dream up something better? Only the quiz can predict what you’ll do now.
QUIZ TIME!
Write down your answers and tally up the points at the end.
Your favorite kind of movies are ones that: A. take place in entirely different worlds, like Alice in Wonderland and Avatar. It’s cool to see the most far-out things a person can imagine.
B. take place in the real world but have some kind of supernatural element, like the Twilight movies. You like imagining that something like that could actually happen to you.
C. have a science fiction theme, like Iron Man 2. With the right technology, anything’s possible!
D. are set in average neighborhoods and are about typical kids. To you it’s way more interesting to see how people deal with the real world.
If you had to choose what you’re going to be when you get older, you’d choose to be: A. something creative, like an artist, fiction writer, or choreographer—anything where you’d get to let your imagination run wild.
B. a kindergarten teacher. You’d like to be the one to spark the imagination of little kids and see what they come up with.
C. a historian. The true stories of the past are so much stranger and more entertaining than anything you could make up!
D. an accountant. You love dealing with numbers and facts. The totals are either right or they’re wrong.
When you go to school each day, your friends know they can count on you to: A. look completely different every time. New hairdo, new outfit, whole new vibe. You like challenging yourself to see how many different looks you can create using your wardrobe.
B. look a little different whenever they see you. You have some basic looks you rely on, but you like throwing something different into the mix too—like combining a couple of your old lip glosses to make a brand-new color, or changing up your hairstyle.
C. look the same almost every day, but on your birthday or picture day you like to wear something special. (Finally, a chance to wear that sequined top!)
D. look exactly the same week in and week out. You’re kind of like one of those cartoon characters that rocks the same outfit every day, or close to it. What else is there besides jeans and T-shirts?
Your parents have taken you and your little sis on what was supposed to be a luxury vacation, but when you get to the hotel, you find out that the website completely misrepresented the place. Not only is it not luxurious, it’s kind of a dump. How do you handle the unfortunate turn of events? A. You take it in stride. Where other kids might see a dump, you see a chance to stretch your imagination. You picture the pitiful fountain out front as an Olympic-size pool. And that cold breakfast of stale muffins and warm OJ? A feast for a king with all your favorite foods! Pretty soon your sis is playing along and you all make the best of it.
B. You are kind of disappointed, but for your parents’ sake you convince yourself it’s way better than it is.
C. You’re bummed, but you’ll spend most of your time reading anyway. If you can’t be somewhere fabulous, you can at least read about somewhere fabulous.
D. You complain loudly and beg to go home. You can’t picture having a good time here at all.
When you dream, you tend to dream: A. in full, vivid color! And your dreams tend to be about far-off places you’ve never been and feature people and creatures you’ve never met. Most of your dreams are like crazy little movies!
B. pretty weird things. (Like that time you dreamed you had toothbrushes for hands? Weird!) But usually, even the weird things are taking place in your regular school or in your house.
C. kind of boring dreams that aren’t much different from your real life. You have lots of dreams about your friends or schoolwork. (Your dreams might make other people sleepy!)
D. … who knows? You never remember your dreams, if you have any at all.
Give yourself 1 point for every time you answered A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every D.
—If you scored between 5 and 12, go to this page.
—If you scored between 13 and 20, go to this page.
You are the poster child for responsibility. Parents trust you to babysit, teachers seek you out as an assistant, and friends know they can depend on you to bring them their homework assignments when they’re sick. You never blow off things you’ve committed to and you’re just all-around dependable. If only you could rub off on everyone around you!
“Hold it right there, missy,” you say to Jessie, sounding a little like Lena when she’s trying to rein you in. You grip the back of her jacket and stop her from moving even an inch farther. “We’re not going anywhere until Amanda gets here.”
“But—but …,” Jessie stammers. “What if that really is Nick Jonas?”
“So what if it is? Did you notice how fast he was moving? Looks like he doesn’t want to be bothered right now anyway. Plus, if Amanda comes and we’re not here, she might call our parents and then we’ll all be grounded for life. Is an autograph worth it?” Lena nods approvingly at you. Her common sense was bound to rub off on you eventually.
Jessie breathes out heavily, casting a wistful glance back at the figure in the black coat, who turns a corner and is gone. “No, I guess not. But if anybody asks, can we at least tell them we think we saw him?”
“Deal,” you say, grabbing her hand and swinging it up and down in an exaggerated handshake, making her giggle and temporarily forget about her near-Jonas experience.
At last Amanda sweeps out of the train station, looking even more harried than she did this morning. “Oh, thank goodness!” she exclaims as she hugs all three of you. “Thank you for being so smart and getting off at the next stop to call me. I was worried you would stay on the train and end up in Brooklyn!” She chucks Lena under the chin with one hand and winks at you. “I should have known you girls could handle yourselves in the big bad city.”
At Amanda’s words, you fill up with pride. She’s right! New York has tested you and you passed. But it’s even cooler to hear that from someone older like Amanda, who actually lives here.
“So you’re not mad?” you ask a little nervously.
“Mad? Why would I be? I did nearly have a heart attack when I saw those doors closing. But getting pushed onto the train was an accident. Could have happened to anyone. What’s important is that you guys were smart and you followed directions. If I were on The Amazing Race, I’d choose any one of you as a teammate in a heartbeat.”
You instantly picture you and Amanda racing through Manha
ttan with huge backpacks on, searching for a clue together in front of the Empire State Building. You suddenly wish Amanda were your cousin too.
“And since we’re here now, that kind of decides where we’re going next.”
“Where to?” you ask enthusiastically.
“You’ll see,” she answers in a singsong voice, grinning happily.
Even the outside of F.A.O. Schwarz looks like something out of a picture book. A guard dressed as a toy soldier stands at attention outside the store, his patent leather hat and boots polished to a shine. You think in passing that he’d be pretty cute if not for the giant red circles painted on his cheeks.
As you follow Amanda one at a time through the revolving doors, you are greeted by a huge clock that reaches the ceiling and happy music welcoming you to their world of toys. Everywhere you look are rows and rows of realistic-looking stuffed animals, some tiny enough to fit in your pocket, others too big to even fit in your bedroom.
“What is this place?” Jessie asks, staring around in wonder.
“Only the best toy store in the world,” Amanda gushes. “I know it was before your time, but have any of you seen the movie Big starring Tom Hanks?”
Your Life, but Sweeter Page 6