What's Your Status? (48 page)

Dave Gold → the crew
Seriously, guys. Stop this.

Schuyler → the crew
So, um, is there a party? Or not? I can’t tell.

Dave Gold → the crew
FINE. But someone better bring chips this time.

N8 → Madly
So if you’re not busy, I was thinking about stopping by at lunch today….

Madly → N8
I could not be less busy. Can’t wait! See you soon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to Finn’s Ten:
Amalia Ellison, Jane Finn, Aimee Friedman, Abby McAden,
Laura Martin, Jason Matson, Sarah Milligan, Steve Scott,
Rosemary Stimola, and Siobhan Vivian.

CHECK IN TO…

Suite Scarlett

BY MAUREEN JOHNSON

Perhaps it sounds like a wonderful thing to be born and raised in a small hotel in New York City. Lots of things sound fun until they are subjected to closer inspection. If you lived on a cruise ship, for example, you would have to do the Macarena every night of your life. Think about that.

There are always tourists in New York. They come in droves in the fall and winter, cruising in through the tunnels in massive out-of-town coaches. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the city’s population seems to double. There are no tables in restaurants, no seats on the subway, no room on the sidewalks, no beds in the hotels.

But by summer, most of them have gone. The city boils. The subways swelter. Epic thunderstorms break out. Stores have sales to get rid of unwanted goods. Theaters close. Even many of the inhabitants leave. Certainly, most of Scarlett’s friends had. Dakota was at a language immersion program in France. Tabitha was doing
volunteer work for the environment in Brazil. Chloe was teaching tennis at a camp in Vermont. Hunter was with his father, helping him run a film festival in San Diego. Mira had gone to India with her grandparents to sweep temples. Josh was doing some kind of unspecified “summer session” in England.

Every single one of them was off doing something to beef up their college applications—and set them apart from everyone else. Even Rachel, who was the only other person she knew who had to work, was doing it at a gourmet beachside delivery shop in the Hamptons. They were off being developed, molded into perfect applicants.

Only Scarlett was in the city for the summer, not doing any thing to improve herself. It wasn’t laziness or lack of ability. She was more than willing and able. The question was entirely one of funding. Hotels make money—but they also bleed it. Especially hotels with fragile decorations and plumbing from 1929 that sit empty much of the time.

This was all part of the reason that Scarlett knew that this “little talk” probably wasn’t going to end up being a discussion about going to Paris or bringing a live koala into the lobby to give hugs to all the guests.

“Scarlett,” her father said, sitting back down, “you’re old enough now to be included in these discussions. I’m really sorry we had to do this today—now—but there’s no other time.”

Scarlett looked at Spencer nervously, and he tapped his foot against hers reassuringly. His expression, however, was anything but relaxed. He shifted his jaw back and forth, and kept puffing air into and hollowing out his taut cheeks.

“As you may have guessed,” her mother began, looking to Scarlett first, “things have gotten a little tight recently. I’m afraid Belinda didn’t call out today. We had to let her go.”

Scarlett was too shocked to speak, but Spencer let out a low groan. Belinda was the last regular staff member. The others had gone over the course of the last two years. Marco, who handled all the facilities and repairs. Debbie and Monique, the cleaners. Angelica, the part-time front desk person. And now Belinda…the last remaining draw to the hotel. She of the spicy hot chocolate and cherry bread that people raved about.

“We’ll get by,” her father said, “just like we always have. But we have to get serious about a few things. We’re going to be counting on all of you. Lola, as you two probably know, is taking a year off to work at Bendel’s and to help us out here, especially with Marlene. And we’re really grateful for that.”

Lola looked down modestly.

“Scarlett,” he said, looking a bit nervous now, “we have a big favor to ask of you. We know you plan on looking for a summer job…”

It wasn’t just a plan—it was a desperate need. A job meant money for clothes, for movies, for basically anything above and beyond eating lunch and getting her Metrocard for the subway. It was the money everyone else in her school just got handed to them in the form of a credit card.

“…but we’re going to need some of your time. Possibly a lot of your time…looking after the front desk, answering the phone, cleaning up. Things like that. We’ll try to up your allowance a little when you go back to school to make up for it.”

It didn’t seem like something that could really be argued. The reality of life without Belinda, with no staff at all, was simply too stark.

“It doesn’t sound like I have much of a choice,” she said.

AND DON’T MISS THE SEQUEL…

Scarlett Fever

Scarlett Martin is in a frenzy. Faced with her family’s new financial woes, she has taken on the job of assistant/indentured servant to a newly minted theatrical agent, professional eccentric Mrs. Amy Amberson. Scarlett ends up at the beck and call of a Broadway star (her own age!), dealing with territorial doormen, and walking a small dog with insecurity issues—all while starting her sophomore year at one of New York’s most rigorous high schools.

It doesn’t help that Scarlett’s brain is clouded with thoughts of Eric, her former sort-of boyfriend. She has thousands of things to say to him, if only he would call. And then there’s the new lab partner, the impossible Max, who’s on a quest to destroy what little mind she has left.

But somehow Scarlett will prevail…right?

To Do List:
Read all the Point books!

Airhead

Being Nikki

Runaway

By
Meg Cabot

Wish

By
Alexandra Bullen

Top 8

By
Katie Finn

Sea Change

The Year My Sister Got Lucky

South Beach

French Kiss

Hollywood Hills

By
Aimee Friedman

Ruined

By
Paula Morris

Possessed

By
Kate Cann

Suite Scarlett

Scarlett Fever

By
Maureen Johnson

The Lonely Hearts Club

By
Elizabeth Eulberg

Wherever Nina Lies

By
Lynn Weingarten

Girls in Love

Summer Girls

Summer Boys

Next Summer

After Summer

Last Summer

By
Hailey Abbott

And Then Everything Unraveled

And Then I Found Out the Truth

By
Jennifer Sturman

This Book Isn’t Fat, It’s Fabulous

This Girl Isn’t Shy, She’s Spectacular

By
Nina Beck

The Heartbreakers

The Crushes

By
Pamela Wells

Hotlanta

By Denene Millner
and Mitzi Miller

Hotlanta

If Only You Knew

What Goes Around

In or Out

By Claudia Gabel

In or Out