Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls: Stage Fright Read Online Free PDF Page A

it over and find a role for me. I’ll know which one I want by tryouts tomorrow.”
    Except that of course I knew that by tryouts tomorrow, nothing was going to change. I was still going to want to play Princess Penelope, the part Sophie wanted and the part everyone thought she was so perfect for.
    And if I auditioned for that role, too, everyone was going to be mad at me for trying to steal Sophie’s part.
    What was I going to do?

RULE #4
Whenever Possible, Try to Be Born into a Family with No Little Brothers
    Even though I read through the entire script of Princess Penelope in the Realm of Recycling when I got home from school that day (after ballet lessons), I couldn’t find a single character in it that I liked better than Princess Penelope.
    Oh, there were other parts for girls. There was a fairy queen (she was the leader of the fairies who lived in the Realm of Recycling. The fairy queen teaches Penelope how much better it is to use compact fluorescent bulbs over regular bulbs, because they last longer and use less energy. Then she helps Penelope find her way to her godmother’s house).
    And there were a couple of mermaids who teach Penelope the importance of water conservation, like taking shorter showers and turning off the water while you brush your teeth.
    And then there were some girl elves who teach Penelope how she should always walk, bike, carpool, or take public transportation instead of using a car, since that will lessen her carbon footprint. And a unicorn who advises Penelope to unplug appliances when they aren’t in use, as this will save energy as well.
    And then of course there was Penelope’s fairy godmother, and her horrible evil stepmother, the queen, who lives in a plastic castle and doesn’t believe in recycling, and just wastes valuable resources and litters every chance she gets, because she believes the scientists are wrong about global warming and that we don’t need to save our environment for the next generation (and since she’s going to kill Penelope, anyway, I guess her reasoning kind of makes sense).
    But why would I want to play a fairy or an elf when I could be Penelope, who was so important that her name was in the title of the play ?
    On the other hand, I didn’t want to make everyone angry with me. I had said I was going to audition for some other part. So I couldn’t just go try out for the part Sophie wanted.
    Could I? I mean, wouldn’t that be wrong?
    I was sitting in my favorite reading spot after dinner—on my window seat, with Mewsie curled up next to me—trying to decide what to do, when the door to my room suddenly burst open.
    At first I thought it was the aliens, who’d come to tell me my ride to planet Voltron was ready.
    But it turned out it was just my uncle Jay playing tackle football in the hallway with my brother Mark (even though Mom said not to play tackle football in the hallway outside the kids’ rooms anymore. That’s a rule). He had dived for a pass and crashed into my door, causing it to fly open.
    The loud noise made Mewsie spring to his feet, all his long fur rising up to stand on end, so that he looked like a little gray-and-black-striped ball of hair with legs as he stalked around, hissing angrily.
    He didn’t mean it, though. He calmed down right away as soon as he saw who it was.
    I didn’t calm down right away. I was really mad.
    “Stop it,” I yelled when Uncle Jay went rolling all over my floor, with Mark chasing after him, trying to grab the ball away. “You know you two aren’t supposed to be doing that up here!”
    “Well, well, well,” Uncle Jay said. He lay collapsed beneath Mark, who had both hands on the ball, trying to pry it out from Uncle Jay’s fingers. “What’s eating you?”
    “What’s eating me is that I would like to have some privacy once in a while,” I said, stepping over them just as Kevin appeared in the doorway to see what all the commotion was about (he’d been in his room practicing the song