Mallory and Mary Ann Take New York

by Laurie Friedman

  Mary Ann and I have work to do, and not much time to do it.

  I tap Holiday on the arm. “I have to go to the bathroom again,” I tell her. I hold my stomach and make a face like this time, it’s going to be a real problem if I don’t.

  Mary Ann loops her arm around me like it’s her job to hold me up and if she weren’t doing it, I’d be on the floor.

  Holiday looks at her watch and shakes her head. “You better make it quick.”

  Mary Ann keeps her arm around me as we walk into the bathroom. When we get inside, Mary Ann and I nod at each other.

  It is time to put the most important part of our plan into action.

  I put on Mary Ann’s black shirt, jeans, baseball cap, and sunglasses.

  Mary Ann puts on my skinny jeans, tunic top, vest, bracelets, necklace, boots, hat, glasses, and wig.

  We change clothes faster than my brother can change the TV channel to a game he wants to watch.

  I straighten Mary Ann’s necklace.

  She tucks some stray hair into my baseball cap.

  “I can’t tell who’s who,” she says

  Holiday bangs on the door. “Mallory, you’re on.”

  I push my glasses back on my nose. With the baseball cap and glasses, it really is hard to tell Mary Ann and me apart.

  Mary Ann fluffs up her wig. “How do I look?” she asks.

  I stand back and inspect her. She looks just like I did two minutes ago. I nod like I approve. “Showtime,” I whisper.

  Mary Ann and I squeeze our hands together for luck.

  Then I open the door.

  I cross my toes that Holiday won’t notice anything different, but Holiday is not in a noticing mood.

  She grabs Mary Ann’s arm and marches her to the side of the stage faster than Princess Jasmine crosses the sky on her magic carpet.

  The red light backstage starts blinking again.

  I look at Mary Ann. She looks just like I looked in my dream outfit. I just hope she can model like me too.

  I can tell she’s excited and nervous, just like I was. She turns around and looks at me. I give her a you-can-do-it look.

  I can see the lights on the stage twinkling.

  Fran starts talking to the audience and the cameras. “Welcome back to our very special Design Your Dream Outfit episode.”

  I listen as Fran talks about how many people entered the contest and how many good designs she looked at before she chose this one. “I’m going to ask our winner, Miss Mallory McDonald, to walk the stage one more time and model her creation.”

  Music starts playing again. It’s Mary Ann’s cue to start walking.

  Holiday pushes Mary Ann up the stairs.

  I cross my toes and my fingers as tightly as I’ve ever crossed them before. I hope we can pull this off. “GO!” I say silently. And she does.

  I watch from backstage as Mary Ann walks across the stage. When she gets to the far end, she turns and pauses, just like I did.

  She puts one hand on her hip and waves to the audience, just like I did.

  The audience claps. She smiles at the camera and waves again. Then she walks back across the stage. Just like I did.

  When she gets back to where Fran is standing, Fran wraps an arm around her. “Let’s give a big round of applause to Miss Mallory McDonald.”

  I listen while the audience claps and the music keeps playing.

  We did it! I let out a deep breath.

  I can’t believe I was on the Fashion Fran show and so was Mary Ann. Our dream came true. All our wishing and planning and pinky swearing worked.

  “Isn’t her outfit dreamy?” I hear Fran ask the audience.

  There’s more clapping, and then Fran talks some more about fashion and design. When she’s done she waves good-bye to the audience and says what she says at the end of every episode.

  “That’s it for today. See you tomorrow with more of the latest, greatest finds in the world of fashion.” She blows a kiss.

  Somewhere I hear a man yell, “Cut!”

  The next thing I know, Mary Ann is walking down the steps back toward me.

  As happy as I am and as much as I want to jump for joy with her that we were both on the Fashion Fran show, now is definitely not the time for that. There’s one more part of my plan that needs to happen. And it’s an important part, too: we need to change back before anyone notices we changed in the first place.

  I give Mary Ann a follow-me look.

  I walk toward the bathroom and so does she. When we get inside, I close the door and lock it.

  Mary Ann’s skin is sparkly from the heat of the lights. “Your plan went off without a hitch!” she whispers. “I don’t know what made you add the wig, hat, and glasses to your dream outfit, but if you hadn’t, this plan never would have worked.”

  I don’t know what made me add them either, but I’m glad I did!

  Mary Ann hugs me. “We did it!” she says just loudly enough for me to hear.

  “We’re still doing it,” I say.

  She nods like she gets exactly what I mean.

  I peel off my clothes and Mary Ann peels off hers. We change clothes even faster than we changed the first time, and I didn’t think that was possible.

  When we finish changing, Mary Ann and I inspect each other. “Everything is just like it was before we changed,” she whispers.

  I nod that I agree.

  Mary Ann and I both take deep breaths.

  I have a feeling when we open this door, Holiday will be right there on the other side, waiting to take us to our mothers.

  But I’m surprised when I open the door, and so is Mary Ann. Holiday is not the one who is waiting for us.

  It’s Fran. She looks at us with her hands on her hips.

  “Girls,” says Fran, “you are in double trouble!”

  Fran walks us to her dressing room. She closes the door. It’s just the three of us.

  Fran’s face is blank. It’s hard to tell what she’s thinking. I give Mary Ann a worried look, and she gives me the same look back.

  “Girls, that was some switchup,” says Fran.

  I try to swallow, but it feels like there is a wad of gum stuck in my throat. “Are you mad at us?” I ask Fran.

  Sometimes, when you ask a question, waiting to hear the answer is even scarier than asking the question. This is one of those times. She makes a hmmm sound. Then she taps her foot.

  I feel like her hmmm and her foot tap mean she wants an explanation, so I give her one. I explain how Mary Ann and I are best friends and how we do everything together. I explain how one of the things we wanted to do together was to be on her show.

  I pause. Then I look at Mary Ann like I need her help.

  She picks up where I left off.

  She explains to Fran how her show is our favorite. “We have watched it every day together our whole lives,” Mary Ann tells Fran.

  She keeps talking. “It has always been our dream to be on your show. Together.” She looks down at her feet and shrugs like what she’s about to say next might not make sense, but she hopes Fran understands. “When Mallory won the contest, we made a pinky swear that somehow, some way, we would figure out how to both be on your show.”

  I look at Mary Ann. Then she looks at me like she’s not sure what else we can say.

  “We didn’t mean to break the rules,” I say.

  Mary Ann and I look at each other again. “We’re really sorry,” we say at the same time.

  Fran looks from me to Mary Ann. She studies us for a moment like she’s trying to figure out a complicated problem.

  It feels like forever before she says anything.

  Finally, she does. “Apology accepted,” says Fran.

  She puts one arm around me and the other one around Mary Ann. “In fashion, creativity is the name of the game. You two certainly found a creative solution to your problem, and the show went off without a hitch.”

  Fran smiles. “I’m sure the two of you will make excellent fashion design
ers one day. Actresses too. That was an almost flawless performance.”

  I scratch my head. Something doesn’t make sense to me. I can tell Mary Ann is confused too.

  “If it was an almost flawless performance, how did you know we switched places?” I ask Fran.

  Fran smiles. “You can fool some of the people some of the time. But never Fashion Fran.”

  She looks at me. “When you turned, you waved with your right hand. Always a good indication that someone is a righty.”

  Then she looks at Mary Ann. “When you waved, you did it with your left hand.” She pauses. “Sure sign of a lefty,” she says.

  Mary Ann and I look at each other and shrug. We thought of almost everything, but we never thought of that.

  “You caught us,” says Mary Ann.

  Fran looks pleased with herself, like she’s a detective who just figured out a mystery. “Even though we’re best friends and a lot alike, we have one big difference. I’m right-handed and Mary Ann is left-handed,” I say to Fran.

  Fran laughs. “Even best friends have their differences.”

  Fran is right. Mary Ann and I might have our differences, but I know one thing we both feel the same way about is being sorry that we tried to fool Fashion Fran. We apologize again.

  Fran holds up her hand like we can stop apologizing. “I don’t like being fooled,” says Fran. “But I understand the situation, and I applaud you both for finding such a creative solution. In show business, the bottom line is a good show. You girls put on a very good show.”

  She gives us both a kiss on the cheek. “It will be our secret.”

  I look at Mary Ann and she looks at me. We both put our hands on our cheeks at the same time.

  I know Mary Ann and I have another thing in common now. Neither one of us is ever going to wash our cheeks again.

  Ever!

  “Good-bye girls!” Fran waves and blows a kiss as we leave the studio.

  Mary Ann and I wave and blow kisses back.

  My mom and Colleen smile at each other. They’re happy now, but they weren’t so happy right after the show.

  When they came backstage, they were very upset that we switched places.

  When we asked them how they knew, they just said mothers know everything.

  I don’t know if that is true, but I do know that Mary Ann and I had to have a very long talk with them about “deception.” And that was even after Fran told them that she wasn’t too upset with us, as the show went just fine. She says in show business, the only thing that matters is what the audience sees.

  The good news is that we finished that talk. And we still have a few hours left in New York before we go back home.

  Mary Ann and I walk behind our moms as we leave the studio.

  “I still can’t believe you figured out a way to get us both on Fashion Fran!” Mary Ann says to me.

  She smiles and puts her arm around my shoulder. “Thanks again for what you did for me.” Then she gets a serious look on her face. “I’m sorry we got in trouble with our moms, but it was like a dream coming true.”

  “No big deal,” I say. “You would have done the same thing for me.”

  Mary Ann grins. “If we ever enter another contest, I will do exactly the same thing for you.” She holds up her pinky. “Pinky swear.”

  But I shake my head. “No more pinky swears for a while,” I say.

  Mary Ann laughs and nods like she agrees.

  Our moms stop walking and turn around. “We still have one more thing on the agenda before we head home,” says my mom.

  “The Empire State Building!” Mary Ann and I say at the same time.

  I don’t know how we could have forgotten! I point up in the sky. It’s easy to see the Empire State Building from where we a re. “ Ca n we walk?”

  Mom takes the city map out of her purse and studies it for a moment. “It’s not too far. I don’t see why not,” she says.

  As we walk, Mary Ann and I talk and point to things in store windows. Computers. Shoes. Clothes. Suitcases. Even air conditioners. No wish ponds, but anything else you might ever want is in New York.

  There are so many things to see. “I don’t think I could ever get bored of window shopping here,” I say to Mary Ann.

  “You might get bored of waiting in line,” she says.

  She points to a long line of people waiting outside the Empire State Building. “Do you think they’re all waiting to go to the top?” asks Mary Ann.

  “I’m afraid so,” says Mary Ann’s mom. She opens her New York City guidebook and starts reading. “Between ten and twenty thousand people visit the Empire State Building every day.”

  We get in line behind a family with six kids who all have on matching red T-shirts and baseball caps. There are all kinds of families and groups of schoolkids. There are two old people holding hands. I wonder if they have been waiting their whole lives to visit this place. I look at the crowd. There are so many different kinds of people waiting to see the Empire State Building.

  My teacher, Mr. Knight, taught us that the United States is often referred to as the Great Melting Pot because so many people from different places came to live in this country, and when they did, their cultures all blended together a little. He said another term for having lots of different kinds of people is cultural diversity. I think I’ve seen more cultural diversity in New York than anywhere else I’ve ever been.

  “I don’t think we’ll get too bored in line,” I say to Mary Ann. “Looking at all the people in New York is even more interesting than looking in the store windows.”

  Mary Ann nods like she agrees.

  As we get closer to the front of the line, Mary Ann starts hopping up and down. “It’s almost our turn,” she squeals.

  I’m just as excited as she is. We go through the security line and wait until, finally, it’s our turn to get into the elevator. I can feel my ears pop as the elevator moves upward. It takes us to the eightieth floor.

  When we get out, there’s an exhibit on the history of the Empire State Building.

  “It’s like a museum in here,” says Mary Ann.

  It really is. There are Empire State Building facts and photos everywhere. Best of all, there’s a gift shop. Mary Ann and I buy small models of the Empire State Building to take home to Max and Joey and Winnie.

  “Ready to go to the observation deck?” Mom asks when we’re done shopping.

  “We’re ready!” Mary Ann and I say at the same time.

  We follow our moms on to another elevator that takes us to the eighty-sixth floor. When we get out, we are looking over what seems like the entire world.

  “Wow! Wow! Wow!” screams Mary Ann. “This is cool!”

  It really is. I don’t even know where to look first. There’s a tall glass wall that wraps around the whole deck. You can walk along each side of the deck and see New York from all four directions. There are people everywhere, but I don’t care and neither does Mary Ann.

  “You can walk around all four sides of the deck,” says Mom.

  We start walking and looking. We squeeze ourselves in between groups of people to get a look at all the different views of the city.

  You can see everything from up here. Buildings, bridges, parks, rivers, cars, and people. Even other states! There are big binoculars so that you can look more closely at things that are far away.

  “I can’t believe what I’m seeing!” I say to Mary Ann.

  “I know,” says Mary Ann. “It’s so different from Fern Falls.”

  I laugh. “I think the highest building in Fern Falls is five floors. I can’t believe we’re eighty-six stories up in the air.”

  Mary Ann wraps her arms around her chest. “It’s windy up here.”

  “Very windy!” I say as I try to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. It keeps blowing in my face.

  “We should take pictures,” says Mary Ann.

  She gets out her camera and gives it to her mom. We pose in different spots as Colleen snaps photos
of us on top of the Empire State Building.

  When we’re done taking pictures, Mary Ann stretches out her arms. “I feel like I’m on top of the world,” she smiles into the wind.

  I know exactly how she feels. Last year, Mrs. Daily taught us the expression on top of the world. She said it means a feeling of complete happiness. Right now, I feel like I’m on top of the world in more ways than one.

  I met my favorite TV star. Mary Ann and I both got to be on her show. We’re in New York City. And now, I’m standing on top of the Empire State Building.

  I really do feel like I’m on top of the world.

  I close my eyes and try to take a mental picture of all this that I can keep in my brain forever.

  A few minutes later, Mom taps me on the shoulder. “Time to go,” she says.

  I think she can tell I’m disappointed that we are leaving today. She wraps an arm around my shoulder. “One more stop before we go to the airport,” she says.

  “Where are we going?” I ask. But Mom won’t say.

  “One last little treat for you and Mary Ann,” Colleen says as our taxi stops in front of Johnny’s Famous Pizza.

  “No one was in the mood for pizza the last time we came here.” She winks at us. “Hopefully, this time it will be better.”

  Mary Ann and I race into Johnny’s. We order a pizza.

  “Pepperoni,” I say.

  “Mushroom,” says Mary Ann.

  “Pepperoni AND mushroom,” we both say together and laugh.

  When our pizza comes, we both take a bite. It is crispy, hot, and delicious.

  “This is the best pizza I’ve ever had,” says Mary Ann with her mouth stuffed full.

  I agree completely. Mary Ann and I both eat a second slice.

  “Why do you think pizza in New York is so good?” asks Mary Ann.

  I look out the window at the cars and the people and the bikers and all the activity on the busy street. Some people say the pizza in New York is so good because of the water they use to make the dough. Personally, I think pizza tastes so good in New York because you are eating it in New York.