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

“It’s the Hard-Knock Life” from the musical Annie , which he didn’t even need to know for the open house. The kindergartners were just singing a song about rainbows. Kevin sings so loud you can hear him all over the house. His main regret in life, besides not having velvet pants, is that he can’t be in Annie because he’s a boy and there are no boy orphans in Annie ).
    “What’s going on in there?” Kevin wanted to know.
    “Nothing,” I yelled, and slammed the door closed. Not in his face, exactly. But almost.
    “Hey,” Kevin yelled from behind the closed door. “I’m gonna tell. You aren’t supposed to slam your door in people’s faces! That’s a rule!”
    “Well, I’m gonna tell on these guys,” I yelled back. “They aren’t supposed to play sports up here!”
    “No one is going to tell on anyone,” Uncle Jay said, handing the ball to Mark and getting up. “Because your parents aren’t home. They went to that movie your mom has to review. So I’m in charge.”
    Uncle Jay opened my door and revealed Kevin on the other side, looking upset because he wasn’t in on the action.
    “Now, Allie,” Uncle Jay said, turning around to face me, “what’s really wrong?”
    “Nothing,” I yelled. “I just want some privacy, like I said!”
    Instead of giving me some privacy, Uncle Jay walked over to the window seat, where I’d left Mrs. Hunter’s script lying facedown. He picked it up and started to read it.
    “Oh, sweet,” he said. “A play. Are you in this, Allie?”
    “Not yet,” Kevin said, coming into my room to look over Uncle Jay’s shoulder at the script even though (a) I hadn’t given him permission to, and (b) he can barely read, being a kindergartner.
    “She has to audition,” Kevin explained. “It’s the play her class is putting on for the open house. I heard Allie and her friends talking about it as they walked me home from school.”
    Seriously. I have no privacy whatsoever.
    Whenever possible, try to be born into a family with no little brothers. That’s a new rule I just made up.
    “This is great,” Uncle Jay said, flipping through the pages of the script. “What part are you going to audition for, Allie?”
    I sank down onto the window seat beside him. I had pretty much given up on the idea of ever getting any privacy.
    “Well,” I said, “I want to audition for the part of Princess Penelope. But the problem is, one of my best friends is going out for that part. And I’m afraid if I try for it, too, she’ll be mad at me. And so will all my other friends.”
    Uncle Jay kept flipping through the script. “Why would they be mad at you?” he wanted to know. “When I was a drama major, we all lived by the rule that everyone could try for the part he or she wanted, and may the best man—or woman—win.”
    I had never thought of it that way. It sounded so…simple. And like a really great rule.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I still think if I did that they might be mad at me. Because Sophie…Well, she really wants the part. And besides, she just looks like a princess. And I don’t.”
    “You can say that again,” Mark said. I leaned over to punch him in the arm, but Mark ducked just in time, so my fist hit air. Mark laughed.
    “Who among us can say how a princess is supposed to look?” Uncle Jay asked, ignoring our fighting. “There’ve been many princesses from all over the world—Africa, Japan, Thailand, Hawaii—and I’m sure they haven’t all looked the way we in the West think traditional princesses should look. But does that make them any less royal? And besides, I’m sure your teacher, whom I’m assuming is directing this fine dramatic piece, has her own vision for how her characters should look. How do we know she wasn’t picturing you when she wrote the character of Penelope?”
    I stared at him, feeling slightly less depressed about the whole thing. “Do you really think she might have been?” That would be incredible. The truth is,