Split Decision (13 page)

Zoey walked over to the kitchen table without taking her eyes off the magazine cover for a second. She sat down on a chair and then gently let the magazine's uncracked spine fall open to a random page. It landed on a perfume sample. It was the newest in a popular line of scents by a young fashion designer. Zoey closed her eyes and took a whiff, inhaling the amber and tuberose, and letting her mind wander. . . .

What if I were a fashion designer someday?
she imagined.
I'd get to look at pretty clothes and read magazines all day long! Maybe I'd make my own perfume too, and it would smell like . . . um . . . gardenias? Yeah. And
maybe one day I'd be in
Trés Chic
's “Day in the Life of a Designer” section! How cool would that be if it really happened?

It might have just been a daydream, but it sounded pretty amazing to Zoey. She sighed, put the magazine down on the table, and began to flip through the pages, scanning each spread to make sure she saw every square inch of it.

Beep-beep.

Zoey quickly lifted her head. Did she hear a beeping sound?

Yep, that was definitely her phone saying a text had just come in!

“Coming!” she yelled toward the muffled ringtone. She stood up and looked around the kitchen.

Beep-beep.

She twirled in place. Where exactly
was
her phone? She was sure she'd left it on the table . . . but it wasn't there.

Maybe on the kitchen counter? Nope. She even checked inside the fridge.

She crawled around under the table in case it had dropped on the floor. Still no luck!

“Excuse me, Draper,” she said as she gently slid her hand under his belly. Maybe he fell asleep on top of her phone? His ear twitched and his leg kicked, but
his snoring never stopped. She groaned and started to get up.

Beep-beep.

Okay . . . her phone had to be somewhere . . . somewhere very close. She had spent most of the morning planted at the kitchen table drawing imaginary outfits in her newest sketchbook. It was her favorite thing to do at Camp Lulu by far.

At the beginning of summer, Aunt Lulu noticed all the fashion drawings Zoey was doing on the back of used printer paper and started hanging them on the fridge.

When there was no space left in the “art gallery,” as Aunt Lulu started to call it, she surprised Zoey with a beautiful sketchbook tied with a big raffia bow. “I'm glad you're saving the Earth, but drawings like yours deserve to be on something better than scrap paper, don't you think?” she had asked. “Plus, I don't want you to lose any of them!”

And the rest, as they say, was history—soon Zoey had filled a few sketchbooks with original clothing designs. Well, some were inspired by her favorite designers, like Blake and Bauer and the amazing Daphne Shaw, especially in the beginning. But most of them were unique, and her aunt loved them all.

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SIMON SPOTLIGHT

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

This Simon Spotlight edition June 2016

Text by Heather Alexander

© 2016 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or
[email protected]
.

Designed by Ciara Gay

The text of this book was set in Garamond.

ISBN 978-1-4814-5267-0 (hc)

ISBN 978-1-4814-5266-3 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-4814-5268-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2015938114