Chapter 19

“Let’s practice your monologue¹, Dan,” Vanessa said sharply. “I want to shoot that first.” “Which subway are you taking?” Marjorie asked Serena, as they walked out of the park. “Um,” Serena said. She never took the subway, but it wouldn’t kill her to ride with Marjorie. “The 6, I guess,” she said. “Hey, me too,” Marjorie said happily. “We can ride together.” It was rush hour, and the subway was packed. Serena found herself jammed between a woman with a huge Daffy’s bag and a fat little boy with nothing to hold onto but Serena’s coat, which he kept grabbing every time the train lurched forward. Marjorie was holding onto the rail above their heads, but only her fingertips could reach it, and she kept staggering backwards², stepping on people’s feet. “Don’t you think Dan is majorly cute?” Marjorie asked Serena. “I can’t wait until we start filming. I’ll get to hang out with him every day!” Serena smiled. Obviously Marjorie thought she’d gotten the part, which was a little sad, because Serena was absolutely sure that she had the part. She had totally nailed it. Serena imagined getting to know Dan. She wondered which school he went to. He had dark, haunting eyes, and he said his lines like he meant them. She liked that. They’d have to practice quite a bit together after school. She wondered if he liked to go out, and what he liked to drink. The train came to a sudden stop at Fifty-ninth Street and Lexington —Bloomingdale’s. Serena fell forward onto the little boy. “Ouch,” he said, glaring up at her. “This is my stop,” Marjorie said, pushing her way to the door. “Sorry if you didn’t get the part. I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” “Good luck!” Serena called. The subway car emptied out and she slid into a seat, her mind still on Dan. She imagined drinking Irish coffees with him in dark cafés and discussing Russian literature. Dan looked like he read a lot. He could give her books to read and help her with her acting³. Maybe they’d even become friends. She could use some new ones. Disclaimer: All the real names of places, people, and events havebeen altered or abbreviated⁴ to protect the innocent. Namely, me.
hey people! I was in an interschool play once. I had one great line: “Iceberg!” Guess which play I was in and what I was dressed as? The one hundredth person to get it right will win a free Remi brothers poster. But enough about me.
S’S MODELING DEBUT⁵! Be on the lookout⁶ this weekend for the cool new poster decorating the sides of buses, the insides of subways, the tops of taxis, and available online through yours truly (I’m telling you, I’m connected). It’s a great big picture of S—not her face, but it has her name on it so you’ll know it’s her. Congratulations to S on her modeling debut! SightingsB , K , and I all in 3 Guys eating fries and hot chocolates with big fat Intermix bags under the table. Don’t those girls have anywhere else to go? And we thought they were always out boozing it up and partying down. So disappointing. I did see B slip a few splashes of brandy into her hot chocolate, though. Good girl. Also saw that same wigged⁷ girl going into the STD clinic downtown. If that is S , she’s definitely got a bad case of the nasties. Oh, and in case you’re wondering why I frequent the neighborhood of the STD clinic—I get my hair cut at a very trendy salon⁸ across the street.
Your E-mail dear gossip girl, are u really even a girl? u seem like the type 2 pretend to be a girl when u’r really a 50-yrs-old bored journalist with nothing better 2 do than to harsh on kids like me. loser. —jdwack Dearest Jdwack, I’m the girliest girl you’d ever want to meet. And I’m pre-college, pre-voting age, too. How do I know you’re not some fifty-year-old bitter dude with boils on your face taking his inner angst out on innocent girls like me?—GG Dear GG, I loooove your column so much I showed it to my Dad, who totally loved it!! He has friends who work at Paper and the Village Voice and other magazines. Don’t be surprised if your column gets much, much bigger!! I hope you don’t mind!!! Love always!!! —JNYHY Mind? No way. I’m all about being big. I’m going to be huge. No more crappy one-line parts in interschool plays for me. You might even see me on the side of a bus sometime soon. Bring it on! You know you love me, “Yum,” Serena said, eyeing the cookies laid out on a table in the Constance lunchroom. Peanut butter cream, chocolate chip, oatmeal. Next to the cookies were plastic cups full of orange juice or milk. A lunch lady was monitoring the cookies, making sure each girl took only two. This was recess⁹, the daily twenty-minute break Constance gave its girls after second period, no matter what grade they were in. When the lunch lady’s head was turned, Serena grabbed six peanut butter creams and glided¹⁰ away to stuff her face. It wasn’t exactly a healthy breakfast, but it would have to do. She’d stayed up late the night before trying to read her father’s leather-bound edition of War and Peace so she’d be better prepared for Vanessa’s film. Whoa, War and Peace is like, two million pages long. Ever heard of CliffsNotes? Serena saw Vanessa, wearing her usual black turtleneck and bored expression, coming out of the cafeteria kitchen with a cup of tea in her hand. Serena waved a cookie at her, and Vanessa came over. “Hi,” Serena said cheerfully. “Made up your mind yet?” Vanessa sipped¹¹ her tea. She’d been up half the night trying to decide between Serena and Marjorie for the part. But she couldn’t get the look on Dan’s face when he read with Serena out of her head. And no matter how good Serena was, she never wanted to see that look on Dan’s face again. She certainly didn’t want to capture it on film. “Actually, yes. I haven’t told Marjorie yet,” Vanessa said calmly, “but I’m giving her the part.” Serena dropped the cookie she was eating on the floor, stunned¹². “Oh,” she said.

1 monologue   

n.长篇大论，（戏剧等中的）独白

参考例句：

• The comedian gave a long monologue of jokes.喜剧演员讲了一长段由笑话组成的独白。
• He went into a long monologue.他一个人滔滔不绝地讲话。

2 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 abbreviated   

adj. 简短的，省略的 动词abbreviate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He abbreviated so much that it was hard to understand his article. 他的文章缩写词使用太多，令人费解。
• The United States of America is commonly abbreviated to U.S.A.. 美利坚合众国常被缩略为U.S.A.。

5 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

6 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

7 wigged   

adj.戴假发的

参考例句：

• I have wigged him well. 我已给他装好了假发。 来自辞典例句
• He wigged me for being late. 他因我来迟而责骂我。 来自辞典例句

8 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

9 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

10 glided   

v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔

参考例句：

• The President's motorcade glided by. 总统的车队一溜烟开了过去。
• They glided along the wall until they were out of sight. 他们沿着墙壁溜得无影无踪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 sipped   

v.小口喝，呷，抿( sip的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sipped his coffee pleasurably. 他怡然地品味着咖啡。
• I sipped the hot chocolate she had made. 我小口喝着她调制的巧克力热饮。 来自辞典例句

12 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。