Read Online The Steps by Rachel Cohn - Free Book Online Page B

eyeliner, and eye shadow.
    â€œJust trust me,” she said. “We’re teenagers going to a New Year’s party. Play the part.”
    We climbed out her bedroom window and walked toward the ferryboat station. “My feet hurt, I can’t walk anymore,” I said. Lucy had also made me wear a pair of play high heels. “Can’t we take a cab to the train station instead of the ferryboat?”
    â€œGenius, we’re twelve years old. We don’t have loads of money.” Lucy’s hair was moussed up into a blond skyscraper.
    â€œI do,” I said. Bubbe had given me a wad of emergency money at the airport in New York. She said it was for an “emergency,” but we both knew it was for shopping. And in Australia, because of the currency exchange rate, I actually had almost a third more money than Bubbe had given me. I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled like I was in New York again. Ten minutes later a cab came by after dropping some passengers off up the street.
    â€œBubbe always says to put your money where your mouth is,” I told Lucy.
    She rolled her eyes and got in the cab.
    Lucy directed the driver to the train station. He looked into the rearview mirror twice, trying to decide whether or not we were old enough to be in a cab going to the train station on New Year’s Eve.
    Lucy pushed out her new bosom and said to me, for the cab driver to hear, “Like, I am so totally excited about James’s party! like, I am going to get so totally wasted and totally make out with him all night when the clock strikes midnight. Like everyone is going to be at this party!” She pulled—get this!—a cigarette out of her purse and leaned toward the front seat. She asked the driver, “Mind if I smoke in here?”
    My eyes almost burst out of their sockets. I remembered that Lucy had said she wanted to be an actress, but I had no idea she could be this good.
    â€œYeah, I do mind,” the driver said. But he drove on.
    I decided to play the game with Lucy. “Like, I am totally having the most major sweet sixteen party for my birthday this year!” I tried to talk in an Australian accent too. I wasn’t half bad.
    Lucy said, “I had one for mine. Sixteen was such a great birthday. Now that I’m almost seventeen, my mum goes, she goes, ‘So, like, how do you want to celebrate?’ and I go, ‘Like, with my friends, okay?’ because I am so tired of having birthday parties with my parents around.”
    The driver stopped looking at us in the rearview mirror.
    We had to run from the cab to catch the overnight train to Melbourne. We might not have gotten past the train conductor at the platform, who was directing people to their seats, if it had not been for the middle-aged couple who were totally drunk, standing ahead of us in line to board the train. “Dad’s totally trashed,” Lucy whispered to the train conductor as she showed him our tickets, the tickets she and Angus were supposed to use before it was decided I was coming to visit Australia instead. “Please excuse him.” She blushed as if on cue. Impressive!
    â€œI’m your father now, eh?” the drunk man slobbered.
    â€œShut yer trap!” the woman yelled at him.
    Lucy and I both put on our most embarrassed looks. “They do this every New Year’s Eve,” Lucy mumbled to the conductor.
    The train conductor shook his head with contempt for our “parents” and concern for us. “I’ve got two seats open in first class if you two good girls want to get a good night’s sleep and let those two sleep it off in economy.”
    â€œOh, yes please!” Lucy said.
    â€œDo you think they’ll be okay if we leave them alone?” I asked her. I scrunched my face into a worried look.
    â€œMum and Pop can take care of themselves! I’ve had enough of this!” Lucy said. She stomped toward first class as the